UPDATED: Tucker Carlson Is One Vile Human Being

Tucker Carlson released a statement regarding recently unearthed radio recordings of him calling women “primitive beings”, justifying statutory rape, and arguing feminists “need to be quiet” and do wh

by Ben Cohen

UPDATE: It turns out I was completely right - Tucker Carlson refused to apologize on his show last night and portrayed himself as the victim. "We will never bow to the mob. Ever. No matter what," he said, after claiming his words were taken out of context. Unfortunately for him, while Carlson was refusing to apologize on his show , Media Matters president Angelo Carusone was on MSNBC's "All In with Chris Hayes" playing additional clips of Carlson engaging in what can only be described as overtly racist, deeply xenophobic “banter” with radio show host Bubba the Love Sponge".

Carlson claimed that Iraq “is a crappy place filled with a bunch of, you know, semiliterate primitive monkeys — that's why it wasn't worth invading."

In another clip he said that he had "zero sympathy for them or their culture" in Iraq, and claimed it was "a culture where people just don't use toilet paper or forks."

When speaking about the US removing troops from Iraq, Carlson says, “The second we, I mean they, can just shut the fuck up and obey, is my view.”

“The second we leave, they’re going to be calling for us to return because they can’t govern themselves,” he claimed.

Carlson also complained that that “everyone’s embarrassed to be a white man,” before claiming that white men deserve credit for “creating civilization and stuff.” He said the Congressional Black Caucus "exists to blame the white man for everything"

No White Supremacy here. None at all.

More of Carlson’s disgusting racism can be heard here.

Thankfully, advertisers are fleeing his show like rats on a sinking ship. Last night, Carlson had only four ad breaks with almost no major brands. More are likely to follow after this.

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On Sunday night, Tucker Carlson released a statement regarding recently unearthed radio recordings of him calling women “primitive beings”, justifying statutory rape, and arguing feminists “need to be quiet” and do what they are told.

“Media Matters caught me saying something naughty on a radio show more than a decade ago,” said Carlson via Twitter. “Rather than express the usual ritual contrition, how about this: I’m on television every weeknight live for an hour. If you want to know what I think, you can watch. Anyone who disagrees with my views is welcome to come on and explain why.”

The power of the non-apology

It is important to parse Carlson’s non-apology here, because it is as significant in today’s political climate as his disgusting comments are. Carlson, who regularly called in to a radio show hosted by Bubba the Love Sponge between 2006 and 2011, displayed truly astonishing levels of misogyny and callousness towards women. On top of defending statutory rape because “the rapist, in this case, has made a lifelong commitment to live and take care of the person,” Carlson described TV host Alexis Stewart (Martha Stewart’s daughter), as “cunty,” and joked that wanted to “give her the spanking she so desperately needs.” He called Paris Hilton and Britney Spears the “biggest white whores in America,” labeled Arianna Huffington a “pig”, and claimed that women in general are “extremely primitive”, “basic”, and “not that hard to understand.”

“One of the things they hate more than anything is weakness in a man,” he went on.

If Carlson had an ounce of shame or decency, he would have offered an immediate apology. But in the era of Donald Trump, Carlson knows he doesn’t need to — in fact not apologizing will likely make him more popular with his audience. Being a revolting sexist and unabashed asshole is a badge of honor in the Alt Right communities Carlson caters his White Supremacy themed shows to, and he knows that offending liberal sensibilities is more important than anything else. Donald Trump proved you could say or do literally anything and get away with it if you didn’t apologize, and Carlson is using this new paradigm to shield himself from professional disaster. It is unlikely Fox News will do anything having staked its entire business model on propping up an accused sexual predator in the White House, so Carlson will likely escape from this largely unscathed.

Carlson’s pledge to not “express the usual ritual contrition,” was a direct message to conservative white men who feel they are being victimized in the wake of the #MeToo movement. He wants them to know that he won’t be apologizing for his “locker room banter” (as president Trump called his pussy grabbing comments), and will instead be focusing on the real issues of the day (lots of brown people coming into America). It was, in his mind, a display of manliness that will put women and effete liberals engaging in feminist virtue signaling in their place. Apologizing is for the weak, being a dick is for the strong. And in Trump’s America, being a dick gives you almost limitless power in conservative circles.

Tucker’s strategy

It isn’t hard to predict what Carlson will say about the audio clips circulating the internet on his show tonight — it’s a distraction, it was ten years ago, it's another attempt by liberals to silence him etc, stop serious debate in America etc, etc. Carlson is an expert in deflecting attention away from himself and the sickening behavior of Donald Trump, and he is basically completely unaccountable in the Fox News created bubble he lives in.

When the Trump administration was forcibly separating babies and children from their mothers at the border, Carlson turned the issue into a screed against liberals not caring about American children. When Trump trashes the constitution, commits clearly treasonous crimes and engages in obvious criminality, Carlson brings on unknown liberal professors to expose the scourge of social justice warriors ruining higher education. To Carlson, liberalism is always the worse crime. Promoting White Supremacy, calling immigrants dirty, normalizing sexual assault, separating newborns from their mothers, and justifying statutory rape isn’t really a big deal if liberals are pledging to teach gender equality in high schools.

The real Tucker Carlson

It is a good thing that these audio clips have resurfaced and America can hear Carlson revealing who he really is. On his Fox News show, he hides behind a façade of civility and decency. He pretends to be a moral conservative concerned about the coarsening of civil discourse in America. He claims he is deeply worried about the struggles of every day people, and preaches the virtues of Judeo-Christian morality as the basis for a decent society.

In actuality, Tucker Carlson is a misogynistic, racist bully who gets off on exerting his power over those least able to defend themselves. He is an unfathomably wealthy product of elite schooling and WASP culture, and he has dedicated himself to protecting the status of other wealthy white men just like him. The audio clips are not him engaging in “locker room banter”. They are clips of the real Tucker Carlson revealing the basis of his world view. There is no respect for civility, no respect for Judeo-Christian values, and no respect for women he claims to “love”. There is only the rotting stench of his ego and the grossly warped sense of masculinity he has built his persona on.

While Republicans won’t punish him for it, at least the rest of us know what kind of dirtbag we are dealing with.

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