Tucker Carlson’s Dark Turn

National Review ^ | 7/24/2025 | JAMES KIRCHICK

[marcusmaximus]

He can’t stop talking about the Jews.

-snip-

A survey of Carlson’s programming and rhetoric over the past several years, however, makes abundantly clear that he is indeed very much “obsessed” with Israel and the Jews. Carlson has devoted more time and attention to the Jewish state, which he portrays in a uniformly negative light, than to any other country in the world. He has suggested that Israel and its agents have been behind everything from the assassination of President John F. Kennedy to the promotion of “white genocide” to the deceased financier Jeffrey Epstein’s supposed entrapment of the world’s most powerful men via the trafficking of underage girls. To listen to Carlson’s show is to come away with the impression that Adolf Hitler was misunderstood, that Israel is a country systematically murdering Christians, and that American Jews compose a bloodthirsty fifth column bent on conscripting their Gentile countrymen to fight Israel’s wars.

-snip-

Since Israel’s attack on Iran’s nuclear sites, Carlson has become even more brazen in questioning the ethics and loyalty of American Jews. “How did Bill Ackman get so rich?” he asked attendees during an hour-long harangue at a Turning Point USA conference in July, before invoking one of the hoariest of antisemitic defamations. “If you’re getting rich by loaning money to people at incredibly high interest rates, that’s something you’re going to have to talk to God about.” (Ackman is an investor, not a banker.) In an agitated appearance on Steve Bannon’s podcast five days before Trump bombed Iran, Carlson rhetorically asked a Jewish-American commentator, “Are you even from here?,” described two Jewish-American media personalities as Israel’s “proxies in the United States,” and raged that Israel “blew up a church in Gaza with my money,” adding, “I’m a Christian, like, no, how about no?”

[dforest]

I bet you think dark turns are kinky, mucous. Tucker Tucker Tucker.

[Angelino97]

United States spends most of their time telling Israel how to fight a war.

Considering that the United States subsidizes Israel's military, intercepts Iranian drones bound for Israel, and takes out Iran's nukes with our Air Force, I think the U.S. has a right to some say.

I wish the U.S. would wash its hands of Israel, and let Israel fight its own wars.

But I don't think Israel would like being on its own, do you?

[Angelino97]

And if the antisemites on this board talk about Jews being pedophiles, I shall have to remind them of the Catholic Church and hits history of pederasty.

You don't have to. The media does that 24/7.

While largely ignoring pederasty among both Jews and Muslims (although there are plenty of links regarding the former in the Israeli media).

[af_vet_1981]

"I should think it's obvious that I'm responding to an obsession -- an obsession of contemporary culture, politics, the media, the arts. We have been getting 24/7 coverage of Jews, the Holocaust, and Israel for years now.

A non sequitur is a statement that doesn't logically follow the previous statement or question. It's a type of fallacy where the conclusion or response doesn't connect to the premise or prior conversation. Essentially, it's a random or irrelevant remark or conclusion.

[Angelino97]

Yes, I know what a non sequitur is. I don't see any here.

Tucker was accused of being obsessed with Jews and Israel. Joe Sobran was accused of the same thing.

Sobran addresses this accusation in his article (hence, not a "non sequitur"). He notes that one is only accused of being obsessed when one write critically on the subject.

[FLT-bird]

LOL. NR are just the same ole establishment neocons.

Tucker doesn’t go on about “the Jews”. He is a supporter of Israel actually. But he doesn’t think we should be fighting wars for them. Most Americans don’t think so either.

[af_vet_1981]

Yes, I know what a non sequitur is. I don't see any here.

"I should think it's obvious that I'm responding to an obsession -- an obsession of contemporary culture, politics, the media, the arts. We have been getting 24/7 coverage of Jews, the Holocaust, and Israel for years now.

Sobran was an antisemite, as well as a religious hypocrite, but it was not because the New York Times was favorable to Israel or the Jews. Neither was it true, or because, "24/7 coverage of Jews, the Holocaust, and Israel for years now" which is an obviously hyperbolic falsehood. It was because Sobran was a rabid antisemite. He was also a religious Catholic revert/zealot (Sobran said once, "I won't be satisfied until the Church resumes burning for heresy" who married and divorced twice. One would think he should have guarded his tongue and pen in repentance. Learn from his errors before it is too late.

Sobran frequently used his columns to criticize Israel, the Holocaust and Zionism. In one column, Sobran wrote that The New York Times "really ought to change its name to Holocaust Update".[21] In a 1992 column, he complained of "a more or less official national obsession with a tiny, faraway socialist ethnocracy", meaning Israel. Sobran argued that the 9/11 attacks were a result of the United States government's policies in the Middle East. He claimed those policies are formed by the Jewish lobby.[2] In 2002, Sobran wrote, "My chief offense, it appears, has been to insist that the state of Israel has been a costly and treacherous ‘ally’ to the United States. As of last Sept. 11, I should think that is undeniable. But I have yet to receive a single apology for having been correct."[2] Sobran said he lacked the "scholarly competence" to be a Holocaust denier. He also claimed that the official number of Holocaust victims was inaccurate and that Nazi Germany was not intent on racial extermination.[22][independent source needed] He said his attitude was not anti-Semitism but "more like counter-Semitism".[23]

[af_vet_1981]

But he doesn’t think we should be fighting wars for them.

What wars has the United States actually fought for other countries ?
Do you know enough American History to list them ?

[FLT-bird]

Getting involved in wars in the middle east - even the most recent military action against Iran, are not in American national interest. These countries are no threat to us. Given we are an energy exporter, we don’t need to be concerned about Middle Eastern oil. Let others secure their own oil supplies.

[Angelino97]

Sobran said once, "I won't be satisfied until the Church resumes burning for heresy"

I doubt he meant that literally. From Oscar Wilde, to H.L. Mencken, to Ann Coulter, pundits have long used hyperbole in a humorously provocative fashion.

[sgt_lau]

I wish Krauthammer was still with us. Always enjoyed hearing his take on political news.

[Wallace T.]

Buckley style conservatism is struggling to hold onto the hearts and minds of the conservative public. There is no one as eloquent as William Buckley or as entertaining as Rush Limbaugh to sway the right side of the political spectrum. The attack on Tucker Carlson comes from the magazine Buckley founded. Carlson and similar podcasters and bloggers get more views than National Review and the older talk radio era people.

A combination of leftist overreach in trying to suppress conservative and alt-right speech through Big Tech censorship, the pushback against the Federal and state overreaction to COVID, and the whole cultural revolution has led to mass alienation among men, particularly young white men. What had been fringe talk about secret machinations of the elite has become more widely accepted.

[McGruff]

NeoCon Review

[TiGuy22]

Superficial observation of Tucker Carlson’s recent works, interviews and speeches suggest that he has undergone some sort of personal epiphany. An epiphany in the traditional sense of the word, a religious experience leading to a renewed and very compelling Christian faith.

You may be right, but I’ll go a step more nuanced. I believe that for he and Candace it may be about dispensational vs non-dispensational doctrine.

[af_vet_1981]

Getting involved in wars in the middle east - even the most recent military action against Iran, are not in American national interest. These countries are no threat to us. Given we are an energy exporter, we don’t need to be concerned about Middle Eastern oil. Let others secure their own oil supplies.

You seem to have conceded your earlier post (https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/4331148/posts?page=26#26) but just in case you needed more time to research the answers ...

1. What wars has the United States actually fought for other countries ?
   
2. Do you know enough American History to list them ?
   
3. Do you know when the history of the United States involvement in the Middle East ?

[BobL]

“White genocide is occurring. I dont think Epstein had anytning to do with it so thats kinda out there.but whites have been under attack for decades in many number of ways.”

Personally, I’m more interested in whether the Epstein files finally get exposed than if the White race is wiped out while we’re not paying attention. But then, that’s just me (it seems).

[Alberta's Child]

Israel is still a welfare client state of the U.S. — more than 75 years after it was established. If it wants to wage war without the heavy hand of the U.S. telling them what to do, then they should do it alone.

[Prince of Space]

He quit drinking around the time his youngest child was born about 20 yrs ago. He’s mentioned it on his old show on Fox.

[af_vet_1981]

The U.S. is still a welfare state.

It helps when one uses the term as defined.

wel·fare state
/ˈwelfer ˌstāt/
noun
a system whereby the government undertakes to protect the health and well-being of its citizens, 
especially those in financial or social need, by means of grants, pensions, and other benefits. 
The foundations for the modern welfare state in the US 
were laid by the New Deal programs of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

[odawg]

“It is possible that he is not so much Pro Russian and anti-American...”

How do you join the concept of “anti-American” to anything Carlson has said or done?

Voltaire said notice those who you are not allowed to criticize, they are your real rulers.