https://www.essence.com/op-ed/tucker-carlson-is-the-worst/ Brent Stirton By Ashlee Banks ·March 9, 2021March 9, 2021
Fox News Host Tucker Carlson is back at it again, doing what he does best: spewing emptiness, sharing his idiotic thoughts, and feeding a community that is already far removed from reality.
On Friday, which marked the eve of the two-month mark since insurrectionists attacked the U.S. Capitol and left five people dead, Tucker stated on his show, “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” that followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory are “gentle people waving American flags.”
“Do you ever notice how all the scary internet conspiracy theorists—the radical QAnon people—when you actually see them on camera or in jail cells, as a lot of them now are, are maybe kind of confused with the wrong ideas, but they’re all kind of gentle people now waving American flags?” Tucker asked. “They like this country.”
The QAnon conspiracy theory basically states that Trump is America’s true leader, and the only one who can fight against a network of satanic, liberal child-killers and pedophiles. Sane people know that this is completely false and that these claims are entirely unfounded. This, however, has not stopped leaders like Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) from supporting the conspiracy. It also hasn’t stopped people like Carlson from sympathizing with the conspiracy theorists.
Aside from ignoring the facts, Carlson is also ignoring the threat these individuals pose to the security of our nation. According to the FBI and Capitol police, these “gentle people” who “like this country” not only attempted a coup d’état while members of Congress were verifying Joe Biden’s presidential win, but they also plotted to abduct and kill the vice president and members of Congress. These terrorists are anything but gentle. They are responsible for killing a Capitol police officer and threatening the lives of every man and woman working in and around the U.S Capitol on January 6. If they like this country and are proud Americans, why did they resort to hurting other Americans and threatening the nation’s democracy? These people are simply cult followers who decided to follow Trump’s orders. They are dangerous people who committed a heinous crime that resulted in the deaths of several people.
QAnon followers were “not torching Wendy’s. They’re not looting retail stores. They’re not shooting cops. No, that’s not them, it’s the other people doing that,” Carlson said on his show.
Huh? Did he really defend a domestic terrorist attack on the U.S. Capitol by comparing it to isolated incidents during protests over the deaths of unarmed African Americans? No, the insurrectionists did not loot retail stores, they did something much worse. They looted the U.S. Capitol, a federal building! One insurrectionist even stole mail from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office. Tucker’s right when he says the terrorists did not shoot cops on Jan. 6. However, he forgot to mention that the insurrectionists didn’t think twice before crushing an officer to death.
Carlson and anyone who agrees with him is a threat to the nation because they refuse to acknowledge the ugly truth about what these insurrectionists really represent, what it really means for a president to gain too much power, and what role Fox News plays in perpetuating all of this terror.
“Liking this country,” was not the motivation behind insurrectionists taking over the U.S. Capitol. They wanted to honor their leader (Trump) and prove their allegiance to the MAGA movement. These weren’t “gentle people.” They were terrorists on a mission to exercise their white privilege to the fullest extent.
TOPICS:
QAnon Racism tucker carlsonThe post Tucker Carlson is the Worst appeared first on Essence.