Tucker Carlson is receiving a bunch of criticism right now for endorsing the white supremacist “great replacement” theory, but in general, this is something Fox News has been doing for decades. They dog whistle white supremacy, and their viewers respond to it. Then, when someone calls them out on it, they accuse the critic of jumping to conclusions and engaging in “cancel culture”. The only question at this point is whether Fox News are they, themselves white supremacists, or whether they are using white supremacist dog whistles as a strategy to affect politics and retain viewers. My gut instinct is that it is both — they are white supremacists but also manipulating white racists for the purpose of conserving the current multi-layered political hierarchy — and that includes the supremacy of wealthy conservatives, specifically.
Below is a piece by John Oliver about Tucker Carlson. Oliver plays a clip of Derek Black, a former white supremacist whose family are still white supremacists, and Derek explains that his racist family, “watches the show once and then watches it on the replay because they feel that he is making the white nationalist talking points better than they have…” And the thing is, most conservatives who would claim that Tucker Carlson is not racist know that he is pushing racism and are just pretending that they can’t see it as a strategy.
Tucker Carlson grew up rich — he doesn’t need his Fox News paycheck. He’s an elite so elitist that he wants to be there in person pushing that propaganda — and he’s willing to say anything to maintain the power of people like him.