u/arightgoodworkman

I don’t have it in me to rehash and recycle the many different angles of “Tucker Carlson is a grifter” or “Tucker Carlson has turned a new leaf” or anything else. Those are less important to me, as I’m verrryy familiar with Carlson’s full career and have listened to MANY a good analysis (A Little Bit Fruity with Matt Bernstein always does a good job) of his recent interviews.

But. BUT. Whatever the exact reason he’s doing this may be, his results are his results bc he can back his debate opponents into a corner where they sound insane bc they won’t criticize Israel. They can’t be honest. So it’s very easy (and impressive bc despite everything else about him, Tucker can TALK) for him to get them to stay silent to such questions as “which is worse: a kid with no real power saying ugly things on the internet OR an ethnostate with the financial, military, and executive support of the United States murdering innocent people en masse and saying it’s for the greater good??”

And they don’t answer. They never answer. They can’t answer.

For that and that alone, Tucker is doing a single good thing. I absolutely wish someone else with a large platform was doing this, but alas. Here he’s exposing the allegiance one must have in order to keep their job.

https://forward.com/opinion/822244/mamdani-buffer-bill-schools-hunter-college/

Great little take. I think free speech is extremely important in a rather absolutionist way. I think Jews have thrived most under pluralistic governments with maximum civil liberties. I’ve always been proud of Jewish lawyers in the ACLU for defending speech that they certainly don’t agree with, but is important to defend regardless.

When I was sixteen I worked in a movie theater that had a work program for adults in a night school nearby. One of those guys (Roger) once used the k slur towards my coworker and then apologized the next day for “getting too heated.” Management asked if we felt unsafe around Roger or wanted him dismissed. We said no. Roger had lived a life. Roger was angry during closing that we weren’t helping enough. Roger once bought us cupcakes for taking his concessions shift so he could watch a basketball game on TV. It was totally fine. We knew we weren’t unsafe and we knew a second of discomfort is exactly what growing up is about. Life is filled with moments of discomfort that help us grow. Roger apologized, we told him to call us better insults if he was mad, and he pretty much stuck to that.

We live in a time where the group in power wants to punish anyone who disagrees with them. They want to decide what is or isn’t “cause” to have you expelled, fired, harassed, arrested, or shot in the street. And the range of that cause is wider and wider and wider.