“It’s not how white men fight” wasn’t too racist for the racists thanks to the magical mobile goalposts of racism

A few people mentioned that Vox had a take on why Tucker’s Text was beyond the pale for the Bigot Network.

Against my better judgement I hunted it down and … meh. To summarize:

Tucker Carlson’s one weird trick was to be just racist enough that whites who claim they aren’t racists can be racist while still getting mad when they’re called racists. However, when those same people learned that the New York Times had reported that their hero described three Republican thugs attacking a kid three to one as “not how white men fight,” they would have fled or fainted or farted nervously (rather than simultaneously agreeing with him and getting mad at the liberal lamestream media for spreading lies about Carlson) because the draft script text burst their little not-racist-just-hate-people-who-aren’t-white bubble.

The norm against explicit racism is so powerful in polite American society

The author does not define explicit racism or adequately explain how it is different from the average Fox broadcast.

that someone like Carlson, who is obviously mainstreaming racist ideas, needs to give permission to his viewers to believe racist things while thinking of themselves as not racist.

The portrayal of whites in the U.S. as being mentally and morally pliable as Silly Putty pumps an amazing amount of energy into racism. I would find it odd that white Americans don’t universally condemn the stereotype if I didn’t know the less responsible members of the race take full advantage of this misconception. Why their more responsible peers don’t speak up remains a mystery.

At any rate, a person who is open to being given permission to be racist is already a racist and whether they ever acknowledge their racism is both unknowable and irrelevant. What they might object to is being called racist. However, I assume racists don’t like that because they see the people who do it as their inferiors. But maybe they do like it because it gives them one more thing to be outraged about. Remember, these are the sort of people who claim that playing an unedited recording of their own words is a vicious attack.

A core part of Tucker Carlson’s message is that he, and his viewers, are colorblind: that they are standing up for the ideals of Martin Luther King Jr. against liberals who want to polarize America along racial lines for their own nefarious purposes.

In other words, core part of Carlson’s message is lying. Granted. But the assumption that his viewers aren’t very much in on the gag is ridiculous. Intentionally perverting King’s message to suit their agenda – with bonus aggravation of Black people and their allies – is a racist hobby that dates back decades.

“You can’t attack people, whole groups of people on the basis of their race and ethnicity. Not in the media, especially,” he said in a representative February broadcast.

One link in the Vox article takes the reader to a Media Matters article about one of the times Carlson claimed MSNBC promoted white genocide. Screaming “Look out, white genocide!” is something Fox allows because it is a racist organization that caters to racists.

Just for grins, here’s the long version of that excerpt.

So, bottom line — and we used to know this — you can’t attack people, whole groups of people on the basis of their race and ethnicity. Not in the media, especially because of its reach. That’s completely irresponsible and immoral and ultimately can have very bad effects.

Wink! adds the man with more than 3 million viewers.

But back to Vox.

But Carlson’s maneuver was to sever the theory of white victimhood from its explicit white supremacist roots. Fox viewers should stand up for white interests not because whites are the superior race, in this narrative, but because they’re being victimized by the dastardly Democrats and race-mongers who are standing in the way of racial harmony.

The proposition that whites don’t think they’re superior, they just think the baddies are all Black/brown or race traitors isn’t a severance from white supremacism. It’s barely a twitch in the opposite direction.

It’s also worth repeating that white supremacists continually use their imaginary white victimhood to justify very real, very violent, extremely racist “defenses” against very real people who happen to fit the profile of whatever menace the racist has dreamed up. And then they stand over the body of their victim and wail that they was a-scared.

At any rate, the Vox article focused on one of Carlson’s many bits that promoted white replacement theory. Perhaps the article would have taken a different slant if it had dug into his views on the Black Lives Matters movement. From Salon, an example:

“This may be a lot of things, this moment we are living through, but it is definitely not about black lives,” he fumed.

Black people and allies protesting injustice against black people aren’t really supporting black people is a form of racism that predates Carlson’s time on the planet.

As is screaming “Look out, they’re comin’ right at us!”

“And remember that when they come for you, and at this rate, they will. Anyone who has ever been subjected to the rage of the mob knows the feeling. It’s like being swarmed by hornets. You cannot think clearly.”

The only way this is not “explicit racism” or the thinking of “avowed racists” is if you think you looked deep into the eyes of Carlson and his fans and saw their souls. Or you let them move the goal posts whenever they’re accused of being outright racists.

Here’s some long-haired radical type from Northeastern U explaining how things worked at Fox (until they didn’t):

Not too long ago, Tucker Carlson would go on vacation — always long-planned, of course — whenever one of his rancid descents into racism and white supremacy made life momentarily uncomfortable for his overlords at Fox News. He’d disappear for a few days, come back once the heat had died down and resume his hate-mongering ways.
[…]
Thus we should have known that an uncontrite Carlson would be back at his perch Monday evening after enthusiastically endorsing “white replacement theory” the previous week. After all, Lachlan Murdoch, the heir to the throne, had defended Carlson earlier in the day in response to a letter from the Anti-Defamation League calling on Fox to fire its top-rated talk-show host.

“A full review of the guest interview indicates that Mr. Carlson decried and rejected replacement theory,” Murdoch said in his letter to ADL chief executive Jonathan Greenblatt. “As Mr. Carlson himself stated during the guest interview: ‘White replacement theory? No, no, this is a voting rights question.’”

This is how it works if you’re Tucker Carlson: You can express vile, unadorned racist views. And as long as you say the equivalent of “I’m not being racist,” you’re good to go. Or, rather, good to stay.

Right. So are we really supposed to believe that Murdoch (fils ou pere) read the draft script text message and thought “No way we can mealy-mouthed clarification, fauxpologize or just plain lie our way out of this one”? Of course not. To the racist, the definition of “too racist” is whatever they want it to be. And Fox’s post-Carlson ratings indicate that “it’s not how white men fight” wasn’t too racist for them.

People who post off-topic comments are boycotting Fox because it fired Tucker.