Why Tucker Carlson pretends to hate elites

Key Takeaways

Tucker Carlson likes to brand himself as a real man of the people politicians big business the media they are all on the same side taking on the liberal elites now Democrats have become the party of the elite professional class and standing up for everyday American it's not a left-right thing it's a ruling class versus everybody else think he wrote a whole book about how America's selfish ruling class is bringing the country to the brink of revolution division helps them maintain their power even he's even as it destroys our country the Atlantic even called him the bow-tied bard of popular the actual problem is the corrupt and decadent leadership of our own elites he leaves liberal elites it is sickening and we've had enough of it there's just one problem with Tucker's man-of-the-people shtick you're about the most unordinary person I know you're an elitist you're an [ __ ] for the closet elitist I don't run around pretending to be a man of the people I'm absolutely not I'm in other people at all yeah Tucker's full name is Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson his stepmom is the heiress to the Swanson frozen food Empire she went to an elite boarding school in Rhode Island got famous for wearing bowties on national television and has spent his professional career bouncing between cushy cable news jobs by all measures Tucker Carlson is a member of the American elite how do you pay your bills well I'm like extraordinarily loaded just from like money I you know inherited your trust fund baby are you not completely I've never needed to work I mean it's all just the whole cable news thing was like a phase I was going through so what is going on here why would a guy who bragged about being an out of the closet elitist host a show where he rails against the ruling class there's actually a pretty simple explanation for Tucker's new shtick and it's called false consciousness leaders I don't run around pretending to be a man of the people he leads to be the rest of us mere plebs looked on in awe and absolutely not man of the people at all both consciousness is one of those phrases that grad students use to sound smart at part but essentially it's a term in Marxist theory that describes when working-class people are tricked into accepting their exploitation so let's say you and your coworkers are feeling frustrated and start thinking of forming a union to stop you your boss might say you don't need a union real problem is all these women taking maternity leave they weren't taking so much time off we'd all be able to go home right now or they might say it's these damn privileged Millennials they're so obsessed with work-life balance that we often pick up the slack get mad at them the boss convinces the workers to accept their exploitation by pointing their anger in the wrong direction or a sucker crossing would say one thing you learn when you grow up in a castle and look out across the moat every day at the hungry peasants out in the village yeah is you don't want to stoke Envy among the proletariat thanks Tucker so how do you keep the hungry peasants in the village from storming the castle enter tucker carlson tonight's the show that is the sworn enemy of lying pomposity smugness and groupthink since it launched in 2016 Tucker's show has been a festival of both consciousness bombarding viewers with an Ellis supply of culture war [ __ ] but transracial be the neat transgender what's upsetting about ladies specific torito's if yoga is racist is hot yoga more racist to be fair this isn't unique to Tucker fox news's MO is using culture war stories to distract from right-wing economics but what makes Tucker unique is how often he uses the language of anti elitism while ignoring real exploitation take the 2017 Republican tax cuts for example it's the largest tax cut in the history of our country and reform Republicans spent months promising their tax cuts would help the middle class including during several segments on Tucker's show this is really about a middle-income tax cut okay that of course turned out to be a scam the overwhelming majority of those tax cuts went to corporate shareholders and CEOs it's a giveaway to the very rich permanent tax cuts for corporations and almost nothing for the average person so what was tucker carlson populist hero talking about the week that happened racist trees in Palm Springs California city officials are playing to clear cut a grove of tamarisk trees because they're racist ah yes racist trees I'm willing to believe you that there was racist intent in planting these trees why are we punishing the trees for that took her spent twice as long talking about this random tree story as he did about the tax cuts does that seem a little on pher if you were a tree might feel a little differently this is false consciousness in action convinced workers to focus their rage and targets that don't matter racist trees and they'll be too distracted to notice the ones that that do that they give away to the very rich don't want to stoke Envy Tucker does this all the time last May Congress roll back regulations meant to stop Wall Street from creating another financial crisis the financial institutions spent 200 million dollars in lobbying this is the kind of thing real populist hate big money rules and the needs of ordinary people gets ignored but Tucker didn't mention the rollback once instead he was dedicating multiple segments to a random dude who refused to move out of his parents house which Carlson saw as proof that Millennials were too entitled I think that probably does have something to do with the safe space movement so just to recap instead of talking about Bank deregulation we got one multi-millionaire complaining to another multi-millionaire about how Millennials are too entitled false consciousness amazing the country this is becoming we're dedicated to chronicling it for you in all detail last February Trump made it easier for lenders to give out predatory payday loans which trapped working-class people in cycles of debt they can't get out of many of these loans have interest rates of 400% the move was a huge win for predatory lenders who Democrats have been trying to regulate for years this is a lobby that's extraordinarily powerful they have members and the members want results but Tucker didn't mention the move what instead he spent the week blaming Democrats for focusing on identity politics elections in this country used to be based on issues or that was the common agreement anyway the left is too distracted by global warming or the lack of transgender seal teams to pay any attention he spent three days on the racist tree story falls consciousness okay last one in May House Republicans passed huge cuts to Medicare and Medicaid this bill cuts taxes for massively high-income people by hundreds of billions and cuts the health care of low and middle income Americans by hundreds of billions if there was ever a time to get mad at the elite this was it think this is one of the largest pure redistributions for poor to rich in one bill we've ever seen but tucker swanson carlson treated the whole thing like a big joke the left has had a full psychotic break then he turned to the stories that really matter atheists getting rid of a park bench in pennsylvania michael moore's saying something mean about trump and a random academic paper suggesting we should eat bug me when al gore start serving crickets for lunch on this private jet I'm in the largest redistribution from poor to rich we've ever seen don't want to stoke and be the goal of Tucker show isn't to challenge the elite it's to make sure you never realize who they are to get you so mad at a theists feminists immigrants Millennials trans people college students pot smokers vegans the NFL Brooklyn witches and Lena [ __ ] Dunham that you don't get mad at the people who are actually in charge if you care about America you want to oppose the exploitation of Americans for now those leaders will have to be Republicans there's no option at this point Tucker Carlson isn't a populist he's a safety a way to make sure that if the hungry peasants in the village get angry they don't take it out on the party giving tax cuts to him or his multi-billionaire boss and you're his [ __ ] I'm a hundred percent his [ __ ] whatever mr. Murdoch says I do I would be honored if he would cane me the way I came my work he's a phony and if that sounds harsh don't think it for me take it I'm Tucker Carlson in 2003 talking about Bill O'Reilly the man whose Fox News slot he would one day take over I think there's kind of a deep phone enos at the center of his shtick because it's sort of built on this perception that he is the character he plays he is everyman this kind of pie he's a right-wing he's a populist fighting for you against the powers that be and that's great as a shtick but I'm just saying the moment that it's revealed not to be true it's over right because the whole thing is predicated on the fact that he is who he says he is and just nobody is that person especially not someone to make some million dollars you know many millions a year you