Implausible deniability and the “just an act” defense

The does he or doesn’t he? debate about whether the loudest right wing bilge spewer du jour really believes the right wing bilge they spew was obnoxious and frankly creepy when people were having it about Rush Limbaugh.

It has not improved with age.

Amanda Marcotte on two recent examples (thanks to commentarion pianomover for bringing this to my attention):

Ever since he took the coveted primetime hosting slot at Fox News, Tucker Carlson has enjoyed a common wisdom belief that his grotesque bigotry is, on some level, just an act.

Exactly. But I wish people who hold this common belief would spend a moment or two asking why they hold it. And then smack themselves until they stop.

Pundits who remembered Carlson from before, in his bow tie-wearing smartass phase, would often remark on how he remolded himself into a more white nationalist form to meet the Donald Trump era.

That would be his bow tie-wearing, bragged about getting a buddy to help him beat up a gay man smartass phase. And I seem to recall he was fairly atrocious human before the DT era. (But I’m also aware that the “DT era” is a free-floating period of time that stretches back to the Reagan years. Also, my values don’t match those of pundits who hung around with Tucker, thank goodness.)

While some allowed this version of Tucker might be the “real” one, mostly he was afforded the assumption that his bigotry was a costume worn for profit and political gain.

True, and part of the problem is the people who think profit and political gain are acceptable reasons for being a bigoted piece of shit don’t seem to realize that they also sound like bigoted pieces of shit.

When someone earnestly says “Yeah but there are sooo many fabulous prizes” in response to yet another white pustule who urges his violent fans to hate everyone who is different, it is impossible to escape the conclusion that that person would hop on the hate train if the price was right.

At any rate, one thing that’s missing from these defenses is any evidence that the Limbaughs and the Jones and the Carlsons and the whatevers don’t mean it.

Where’s the side of these people that isn’t hateful? When do they drop the alleged act, tip the wink to the fans they are supposedly “just entertaining”? When do they give it a fucking rest?

When the answer is never – and it always is – I suppose it could half-wittily be written off as being committed to the bit. However, as a matter of survival I find it makes more sense to assume that the puce faced goon spouting seven flavors of bigotry really is what he appears to be and act accordingly.

Another thing that appears to be missing is any memory of five seconds ago when the last asshole who was supposedly just acting turned out to be just an asshole. But endless credulity is essential to starting the nonsense over again for the next right wing creep to ooze out of the pipeline.

A similar drama is playing out now over the right-wing “comedian” Steven Crowder. For years, Crowder has been raking in cash with an online talk show built in large part around his over-the-top misogyny. It’s predictable stuff that gets a lot of traffic from people who imagine they’re “triggering the liberals”: Complaints about “undue influence from women” in public schools. Claims that only men can be geniuses. Arguing that only “whores” need abortion access. It’s “comedy” for men who have no sense of sense of humor, but do have fragile egos that can only be propped up with soothing myths that their gender means they are inherently superior. Since there are a lot of such men, Crowder has done very well for himself financially.

But it’s just an act ha ha, right? Don’t let him get a rise out of you ladiez. If you do, he wins.

Last week, however, a video was leaked of Crowder berating his wife, who is now divorcing him, in a way that can safely be described as “abusive.” In it, one can hear Crowder shaming the heavily pregnant woman for not doing enough “wifely things,” even as he’s denying her access to the car so she can accomplish basic chores like grocery shopping. When she understandably complains about being put in an impossible situation, he snaps, and can be heard saying, “I will f*ck you up.”

This too is bound for the memory holes of every person who claimed he was just a troll.

The larger question is why these monsters keep getting the benefit of the doubt that they can’t “really” mean it, but are just playing it up for the cameras. .

The answer is: They’re white men and I have a hunch that the benefit of doubt givers tend to fall into at least one of those categories.

It’s a narrative deeply rooted in classism. The assumption is there’s a large, uneducated audience that is being expertly manipulated by wealthy propagandists.

That’s part of it. But also, we live in a white supremacist society where there are enough white supremacists that some of their number can be and frequently are lavishly rewarded for saying exactly what they think and will be defended as “just acting” by people who would much, much rather we engage in endless and fruitless speculation on the mental states of white supremacists than focus on the people who are the victims of their hate.

People who post off-topic comments are grubby little cockroach fondlers.