Fox News host Tucker Carlson isn’t an outstanding white man. He can’t do anything extraordinary. He can’t sing or dance or jump really high, but he does possess one trait that stands out above most all white men: He’s the loudest whiny white-guy voice in a sea of whiny white guy voices. He’s made a living by being a conservative voice that perpetually sounds and looks like an intern who wondered on set and somehow taped a show.
It’s his schtick.
So he’s not apologizing for recently unearthed tapes of derogatory comments he made about women, underaged girls and rape because it was years ago and Carlson thinks what he did was “naughty” and worthy of debate.
The short version of what Carlson calls “ naughty” consists of several comments made on shock jock “Bubba the Love Sponge” radio program between 2006 and 2011 that includes such hot takes as, calling television personality Alexis Stewart “cunty,” journalist Arianna Huffington a “pig,” and noting that Britney Spears and Paris Hilton are “the biggest white whores in America.”
And if you ever wanted dating advice from a 49-year-old man who looks 16 and wears bowties, Carlson offered that women love to be told to “be quiet and kind of do what you’re told” and that they are “extremely primitive.”
Carlson also noted that underage marriage isn’t the same as child rape. “The rapist in this case has made a lifelong commitment to live and take care of the person, so it is a little different.”
Oh, and if you haven’t vomited yet, during a bizarre scenario about boarding schools turning school-age girls into lesbians, Carlson’s daughter, who attends a boarding school, had this to say: “If it weren’t my daughter I would love that scenario.”
It isn’t just that Carlson’s thinking is sexist, misogynistic, rape-y, or pedophilloic. It isn’t just that Carlson has one of the most punchable faces in American television. It isn’t that he whines or that he makes those goofy-ass faces when he really thinks he’s nailed his guest with some wild and usually racist assertion.
It’s that Carlson knows that he doesn’t have to apologize because he won’t be held accountable for his actions. And that my friends is white privilege. It’s the freedom to share your darkest, deep-seeded thoughts with impunity. Fox News doesn’t give a shit about anything Carlson says. They pay him to be an outlandish boat shoe. That’s his job. He’s basically an on-air conservative shock jock who trades in racist, misogynistic troupes.
That’s his schtick.
And he’s allowed this....because....he’s a white guy.
He can claim that his position isn’t deplorable, it’s debatable, and therefore he can ask that those who find his position to be vomit-inducing can come on his show, because he still has a show, and debate him about it.
That’s the freedom that is allowed white men. That’s the audacity of the undyed. It isn’t just that Carlson can call for an end to rape shield laws, which were set up to protect the victims of sexual assault, it’s that he can do so without ever being reprimanded for his beliefs.
Last year, during Tucker Carlson Tonight, Carlson claimed that immigration makes the United States “poorer and dirtier and more divided.”
“Fox News stood by Carlson at the time, saying it would not allow voices like his to ‘be censored by agenda-driven intimidation efforts’ from organizations such as Media Matters,” The Hill reports.
So far, Fox News has said nothing about the latest claims and don’t expect them to. They don’t just support Carlson, they encourage his behavior. They embolden his antics and allow for his divisive speech.
It helped get the president elected.
It’s their schtick.