I won’t lie, I’m an Andrea Widburg fan. We agree to disagree about Tucker Carlson, and especially his passionate warnings of March 7 published under the title, “We Are at War With Russia.” Tucker argues for restraint and caution both in a military response and economic punishment of Russia for attacking Ukraine. He evidences courage in calling for a disciplined response rather than joining the war face-painters. But the intellectual structure of his warning – we must remain calm because the barbaric attack on Ukraine has merely instigated “the third moral panic” – betrays an obliviousness to the true recent history of foundational and catastrophic moral manipulation of the “Trump is Hitler” insanity, and a heartlessness to this moment which is a true moral challenge to all Americans. At the pinnacle of permanent Washington punditry, Tucker Carlson is blind to his own enablement of the destruction of the Constitutional presidency; he doesn’t know it may be too late to be speaking out against moral manipulation after having accommodated and ignored it for so long.
Regarding the attack on Ukraine, Carlson says:
“For the record, this is the third moral panic we have had in the United States of America in less than two years. You don’t want to live in a country in which moral panics break out regularly, by the way. Moral panics diminish the people engaged in them, and hurt the people who don’t. They’re degrading, they’re crazy, they’re the opposite of what you want. You want to live in a country where wisdom and restraint and rational behavior and decency determine the outcomes, not screaming. But we live in a country of moral panics. The first one began in May of 2020 with the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. That changed America completely. The second moral panic was COVID. You’ve lived through that. So for nearly two years the shouting has not ended. Hysteria is now the official language of public discourse in the United States.”
Can Tucker Carlson be so blind he thinks hysteria and moral outrage started in 2020? He is. Doesn’t he see that the BLM and COVID panics grew directly from the mother of all moral hysteria, “Trump is Hitler”? He goes on to explain the murderous attack on Ukraine by Russia has instigated moral panic #3. He is particularly concerned about economic consequences, breathlessly squeaking: “Their latest idea that a lot of people seem to be buying is that we have a moral obligation somehow to stop buying Russian oil, it’s tainted...” Carlson goes on ear-splitting, “… but then if that boycott spread and moral boycotts tend to, and Europe joined it, buckle your seat belt.” He thinks the price of gas is more important to me than my vote.
Tucker Carlson thinks “moral panic” started in 2020 because, like most of Fox News, he couldn’t stand President Trump and knew he would be better off without him. When the multi-state, site-specific rigging of the election was actualized, a very incurious Tucker Carlson could only shriek against “irresponsible fraud reporting.” Tucker Carlson rails against “permanent Washington.” He personifies permanent Washington punditry. He is more powerful, richer, and even safer after unobstrusively helping to get rid of Trump.
The first massive relentless moral brainwashing hoax perpetrated by the government-private megalith against truth and common sense, with an attendant governmental crime wave, began in 2015 even before Donald Trump was elected. It was a sledgehammer swinging against every head, “Trump is Hitler, Trump is a Putin stooge, Trump supporters are stupid, racist, evil whites.” That’s what changed America forever, years before Tucker Carlson noticed anything was amiss. The grifters on the long con called Black Lives Matter stood upon that vast and sturdy foundation of Trump is Hitler and America is evil white people. Four years of Trump is Hitler poisoned the American mind such that it was a short step to brainwashing that the unvaccinated are vermin.
In the March 7 talk Tucker unknowingly betrays his accommodation for the moral brainwashing of America against Trump. He says that in 2017 Eric Swalwell came on his show, “… to let us know how Vladimir Putin had gotten Trump elected president.” Carlson dismisses the psychotic slander as stupid. Carlson really didn’t care about it. Then he says Swalwell said something “interesting” about Ukraine joining NATO. Tucker’s ears perked up. Tucker likes to embroider his punditry with passing references to the election not being “perfectly fair” or to the 1/6 political prisoners, but he doesn’t seem to really care. He seems to care more about currency than the Constitution.
Carlson says, “If the war in Ukraine ended tomorrow, we would live with the consequences of that, loss of the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency for the rest of our lives.” We are already living with consequences far more serious than the loss of currency status. Currencies spin on a dime, the losses caused by Moral Panic #1, the loss of confidence in our government, in our courts, in lawful elections, is more devastating than any currency perturbation. Carlson says:
“The companies love it, the woke companies Apple, Mastercard, lots of other American companies are taking victory laps for their role in punishing Russia…. You’ve just seen a handful of woke corporations crash a country and impoverish its citizens indiscriminantly. Now that country is Russia so most of us aren’t thinking about the precedent it sets -- it’s Russia, who cares? But is it possible these same techniques might be used someday against some place or somebody that you care about? What if one morning you woke up and they decided that you are Vladimir Putin and you must be erased?”
What is Carlson babbling about? Does he not know the woke corporations punished us before they punished Russia? Does he think we have to wait to be erased by leftwing corporations? My essays have already been erased and I am nobody. Being Vladimir Putin would be a step up for Donald Trump. Trump is banned from Twitter, Putin is not. Tucker Carlson doesn’t want to see the inconvenient truth everywhere. Matthew Perna’s life mattered but Tucker Carlson doesn’t seem to care.
The cruel, anachronistic attack by Russia against Ukraine presents all humane people with a sense of moral urgency. First, for me there’s disbelief. It’s like watching 11th century murdering and pillaging. Why? Russia is eternal. All the world rejoiced when this ancient, Christian civilization joined us in freedom again. Can President Putin have believed that wealthy, old, flatulent NATO was going to mount a preemptive attack on Russia? With what? Bags of laptops and rainbow flags? Why did this monstrous tragedy have to occur? President Putin, step into this world. Behold the possibility of the New Humanity. These ancient wars of territorial conquest are utterly useless.
Tucker Carlson says it is all part of a long-term plot by the masters to foment war. He may be right. (So Biden, did selling out America get you that extra-tasty applesauce?) But Tucker Carlson refuses to recognize that the power of those masters to install whichever shuffling stained-bathrobe puppet they want took its greatest leap forward with what they did to the 45th US Presidency.
Tucker Carlson Conveniently Oblivious to the First, Worst Moral Panic
Thanks Doc, I agree. I read Putin's war in Ukraine as a diversion from the "end of Covid", in service of Team Davos ("Vladimir, you have the green light") and more than paid for with higher commodity prices. Anything he gains there is gravy, and he has nothing to lose but rusty equipment and mouths to feed. That never stopped a Commie before, why should it now?
Loved your essay in AT "Eckhart Tolle and the Fallacies of Borrowed Buddhism." That led me to AT essays from 2009-2016, in which it is said "this author has plans to conduct a mindfulness psychotherapy program (in the form of an American Thinker essay) for the left-wing lost ones." Was this ever written? How can I get a copy, or reference to it? I, too, see the fallacies of "borrowed Buddhism" or the liberal version of "designer Buddhism." In my view, the left has corrupted Buddhism into something like "Boomer Buddhism"--re-designed for leftist purpose. Yet, I am a meditator, a life-long conservative, and believer in God-given rights as the foundation for our Constitution. I have great respect for mindfulness practices, properly understood and practiced. I see no conflict between contemplative insights from mindfulness practices and Constitutional principles. Would love to know your thoughts on the matter. Jeff at: jpbaker8@roadrunner.com