Fascist Side Trips: Tucker Carlson Edition
Unreality and sexual anxiety on display.
This started as a post simply about the weird homophobic nonsense I saw from Tucker Carlson on Twitter last night, but then I realized it (and something he said at MSG over the weekend) fit snugly into the broader conversation over fascism.
The main posts:
The supporting examples:
And here is the proximate inspiration:
The clip is from The Tucker Carlson Show from about a week ago. It also spanned this gross, unpleasant, and utterly juvenile “editorial” at The Daily Caller (which Carlson founded), Tucker: ‘Tim Walz Is Very Obviously Gay’. This was not the first time he floated this “theory” (see, also, Tucker Carlson Resorts to Insinuating Tim Walz Is Gay on The Megyn Kelly Show).
Several thoughts occur.
First and foremost, it shouldn’t be considered an insult or some detrimental condition for someone to be gay. I know we haven’t hit that level socially yet, although progress has clearly been made in my lifetime. This should be an obvious position to take, but I felt it needed to be said.
Second, this all sounds like school-yard taunts from my childhood in the 1970s.
Third, this appears to be part of the overall “bro” culture that has propagated especially on podcasts, and that Tucker clearly sees as his audience. From an election POV, I guess he thinks if some of the listeners think Walz is an icky gay person, that would persuade some white males concerned about such things to vote for the oh-so-manly Trump?
Fourth, I would note that two of Stanley’s seven indicators of fascism (that I discussed here) include unreality and sexual anxiety. Both are on display here.
In terms of unreality, Tucker admits he has no evidence, and really doesn’t care. Walz just “looks super, super gay” (which, again, sounds like a childish taunt). Tucker is willing to just assert his own version of reality, the real reality be damned.
In terms of sexual anxiety, Stanley writes: “The politics of sexual anxiety is particularly effective when traditional male roles, such as that of family provider, are already under threat by economic forces” (127). He notes as well, “Transgender individuals and homosexuals are used to heighten anxiety and panic about the three to traditional male gender roles” (127-128).
Also worth sharing: “In times of extreme economic anxiety, men, already made anxious by a perceived loss of status resulting from increasing gender equality, can easily be thrust into panic by demagoguery directed against sexual minorities” (135).
Now, I would note that we are not in times of “extreme economic anxiety” but we are still living in a world shaped by the downsides of neoliberal trade policies over a multi-decade period that have hit smaller communities and the working class hard in specific sectors. We additionally had the Great Recession and then the effects of Covid I(including some very real inflation). We also have a lot of people on social media making the plight of the younger generation seem more dire than it actually is (for example, see this story from 2023: Is the U.S. in a ‘silent depression?’ Economists weigh in on the viral TikTok theory). On top of all that Trump, and by extension the Republican Party, keeps telling us how terrible everything is.
To be clear: I am not blaming “economic anxiety” as much as I am pointing to both real and perceived losses of relative power. There is also just the degree to which life is simply hard and seems especially so in our youths. It becomes easier to blame some “other” than to simply deal with reality. Unreality is much more satisfying for many people.
And, side note, if you watched any of the World Series you saw Trump commercials doing exactly what Stanley detailed: there were at least two commercials aimed at scaring people about trans people.
Along similar lines would be his racist smear of Harris at the MSG rally.
So, two things on that one.
First, this fits, again, with Stanley’s analysis. “Fascist propaganda promotes fear of interbreeding and race mixing, of corrupting the pure nation with, in the words of Charles Lindberg, speaking for the America First movement, “inferior blood” (127). In the clip above, Tucker is clearly playing on racist tropes and is mocking Harris’ own multiracial background.
Second, as Anne Applebaum notes in The Atlantic (Trump Wants You to Accept All of This as Normal):
And how, Carlson suggested, could there be such a “groundswell of popular support” for a person he demeaned as a mongrel, an incompetent, an idiot? The answer was clear: There can’t be, and if anyone says it happened, then we will contest it.
Indeed, she notes the rather frightening ways in which Trump and his allies are setting the stage to challenge the election results if they lose. Which is, I would note, another stab at unreality.
All of this sums to some highly concerning politics. There is a clear attempt to appeal to a certain class of white male voters by appealing to their own anxieties about power and lying to them about reality. And there is, further, an utter lack of care for reality and fair play. Instead, the goal is to scare enough people to create post-election chaos. This isn’t hyperbole or speculation. We already saw is happen on January 6, 2021. And who do you think is inspiring people to burn ballot drop boxes?
Here is just one example from August of 2020.
There is no responsibility here. Worse, there is a conscious understanding that they are mobilizing angry people.
And speaking of weird sexual politics, there was Tucker’s Authoritarian Rant from the other day, in case you missed it.
They display so many inferiority complexes in one sitting. It’s like a Gish Gallop of inadequacy when you gossip about somebody, admit you have no evidence, and then whine about how you’re going to be attacked, all in 15 seconds.
People love gossip, but from winners and not incel-like losers. Remove this from the media and this is how someone acts who intends to meltdown and lose their friends.
Chinless wonder Tucker Carlson is asserting his latent attraction to men. Carlson finds Tim Walz sexually attractive. To wit:
Homophobia: An Impulsive Attraction to the Same Sex? Evidence From Eye-Tracking Data in a Picture-Viewing Task (Abstract from The Journal of Sexual Medicine, Science Direct)
The results of studies like these have never been consistent enough to conclude all homophobia is downstream of latent homosexual attraction. But at least some, if not most, is.
Part of this so-called masculinity crisis on the right is that a not insignificant number of males should be coming out as some degree of bi, pansexual, gay, or queer — but can’t or won’t.
Frankly, the daily regularity with which “straight” men hit on me from behind blank profiles in my gay hookup/dating apps prompts worry for their wives and girlfriends.
The regularity with which rightwing men randomly bring queer stuff into conversations that have nothing to do with sex is sus. They have gay on the brain all the time. They’re telling on themselves.
I’m sure Gov. Walz is flattered, but he’s straight and married. Carlson should find a) another object for his affections and desires, and b) the nearest LGBT center, for resources on coming out.
These people may be all rowing together to deconstruct our democracy, but they are hardly on the same page about what that means and what to do if they consolidate power. The overthrow of the Russian Czar exposed the different expectations of the radical vanguard in Russia, and it took decades of violence, and an iron fist of infamous cruelty to sort it out. The final outcome was hardly what was expected by the masses for their support of the iconoclast bloodletting.
@DK:
There’s a great essay by Alexander Chee about his days in the 1980s as a waiter at William F Buckley’s parties. Chee is gay, and this was when WFB made his quote about having HIV status tattooed on gay men. At the same time, his parties were filled with closeted gay men. The final part of the piece goes to a party at a house in Darien, where WFB went on a late-night nude swim with a young male staffer and a very drunk Pat Buckley came onto to Chee.
@Rob1: The final outcome still hasn’t come out. Over a hundred years later, and the country is nearly as bad a craphole as when they started.
Also, Tucker Carlson giggles like a man having a nervous breakdown.
@Rob1:
Mike Duncan defines this as first the popular front, disparate factions banding together to overthrow the existing order. And second as the entropy of victory, disparate factions fighting each other for dominance of the new order.
BTW, you’d think someone childish like Ftucker would look for crypto-gays in the guy with the orange pancake makeup, and his close friend with the eyeliner.
A couple months ago it struck me that most white people in America never knew anyone who stood up against actual state injustice. If you weren’t Jewish or a liberal Protestant or Catholic or were living in Berkeley or some place, you would not have known anyone who did a thing against segregation, north or south.
This isn’t about people being good and bad or judging white people. It’s just a raw and inescapable fact. What’s odd is that white America as a whole decided that conformity is not a problem. MLK taught us were all good. It’s not like drug use or having sex as a teenager. What can go wrong with mass conformity? History really shows it’s great.
@TheRyGuy:
Do you ever get tired of just complaining about “bothsides” versus actually addressing the substance of posts.
I mean, it’s getting boring and predictable to read–so predictable that I can do you the favor of writing out your response ahead of time and building it into my articles so you don’t even have to bother.
Plus, you never really engage in any back and forth–you just show up yell “BOTHSIDES,” occasionally throw in a personal attack on James and then peace out.
Seriously beyond supporting Trump, what do you get out of posting?
@Matt Bernius:
I think he wants to demonstrate to us, repeatedly, how dumb we all are.
ETA: It’s not working.
Except nobody called Trump’s supporters garbage. Somebody did stumble over their words, as they are wont to do. (And some of Trump’s supporters are actual Nazis, so I’m not going to complain about some unnamed person speaking the truth.)
As DK has soundly destroyed your misinformation about the Russians in 2016, I’ll ignore that since you repeat it more often than a windup doll.
@TheRyGuy: Biden has recovered from the cold or COVID illness he was suffering from at the debate. In the midst of that, he was mentally strong enough able to negotiate the high stakes multi-country Russian hostage deal, releasing Americans Trump neglected and left behind.
Here’s video of a spry, fit, trim Biden jogging last week vs a deteriorating, wobbly, obese Trump nearly falling yesterday — as heaved his poundage into aptly-branded Trump garbage truck.
Again, what’s the deal with Senile Don’s weird orange pancake makeup here? What is wrong with his face?
@Matt Bernius: I, for one, am done with him derailing threads.
This makes sense. I’ve been trying to figure out why women seem to be less susceptible to these fascist manipulations, despite women generally having less earning power than men.
To wit:
Dems see signs for optimism in gender gap in early vote (Politico)
RyGuy, why are you so sensitive? If you are having these thoughts, you need to keep them to yourself while you’re in your safe space and away from normal people. It’s really long past time for you to get over it.
Of course, this has always been the dynamic with political correctness / cancel culture / free speech / whatever’s next in 2026…. WEEEEE The Republican White Snowflake Identity Politics Party choose what’s disgusting and what’s not.. and every time Republicans are shown with the clue-by-four that they are definitively not in control, they’re toddlers.
@DK: Damn, Trump looks drunk in that video. He misses the door handle at least twice and then almost trips over his own feet.
But we know Trump is a teetotaler, so what is wrong with him here?
@Franklin:
Someone who has had, from childhood, a stutter, but has overcome it to be a highly successful politician. Seems an achievement to be admired, not scrutinized for any flaw that can be labeled a gaffe.
Boy, Unreality does a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to installing fascism. Loss of relative power is a perception. Economic “hard times” are >75% spin by the opposition party. The press is fake news. (Except when they cover a gaffe to be taken advantage of.)
Unreality is also a big part of the solutions being offered as well. Won’t the masses supporting Trump (that @Rob1 refers to) be surprised when even greater oil production doesn’t lower groceries prices and mass deportation doesn’t make housing more affordable?
Trump’s closing message is now literally, “Harris broke it; I will fix it.” Has a greater Unreality statement ever been uttered?
There used to be a thing about politics being like middle school, childish games to get to sit at the cool kids table.
‘I’m not the fascist, you’re the fascist.’ ‘Mommy, he called me garbage.’ (Referring to Trump pretending Biden called them all garbage. Actually and explicitly calling a whole island of U. S. citizens garbage is a different category.) It does seem like it’s descended to grade school playground, or lower.
The big question: Is the accelerating frenzy of “over-top-top” we are witnessing from MAGA (at MSG, Tucker’s hysterical display’s etc.) an expression of their own sense of despair in growing signs of defeat, or giddiness over assurance that their “weisenheimer brainstorm” to abscond with this election is indeed on track.
@Mikey:
Trump has been dragging one of his legs for a while. It has been noticed. We the people deserve an explanation.
But the liberal media spent more time pushing fake outrage about a non-candidate accurately describing MAGA as garbage (inadvertently or purposefully) than they ever have hammering Trump’s refusal to release his financial and medical records.
@Gavin:
Because Biden said it like it is, whether he meant to or not, and rightwing bullies can’t take what they dish.
“Waaaa I can’t believe our garbage can country’s marxist communist dog-and-cat-eating enemy-within Demoncrat baby-killing Lock Her Up feminazi offended-snowflake F–k Joe Biden libtards just called us fascist waaaaaa.”
Aside from Biden no longer being a candidate, the other reason the right isn’t getting much mileage out of Biden’s gaffe is because everybody knows Trumpers are the bullies who cried wolf. They don’t get to make Donald “She Was Bleeding Out of Her Whatever” Trump their standard bearer, then play victim. Dumb pundits may fall for it, nobody else is.
But Biden maybe saying Trump’s supporters are “garbage” is the problem. GOT IT!
And, no, I don’t think folks here believe that. And yet, we had immediate posts on Biden’s comments and this didn’t emerge until a week afterwards. So, on some level, Biden’s resonated more with the folks here. Go figure…
Deleted for being off topic
@Rob1:
It raised eyebrows last night when Trump campaign affiliates Charlie Kirk and Mike Cernovich both ran to social media scolding the incels for lackluster turnout.
Kirk, an unimpressive misogynist twink, runs one of the outside groups to whom the Dementia Donald riskily outsourced his GOTV. A desperate Kirk tweeted, “Early vote has been disproportionately female. If men stay at home, Kamala is president…imagine Kamala’s voice cackling, forever. Men need to GO VOTE NOW.”
What’s in their internal polls that’s prompting MAGA panic and Trump’s premature false claims of fraud? Could it be worse for Republicans than this:
Swing state early vote polling (CNN/SSRS)
Arizona — Women 52%, Men 46%
Nevada — Women 50%, Men 48%
Pennsylvania — Women 56%, Men 44%
Georgia — Women 56%, Men 44%
N Carolina — Women 55%, Men 45%
Michigan — Women 55%, Men 45%
Wisconsin — Women 55%, Men 44%
Senile Don’s latest weird soundbite, “I’m gonna do it whether women like it or not,” won’t help him here either.
Wow, Tim Wallz hits your gaydar? This is nonsense intended to undermine just how down-to-earth and normal Tim Wallz is. How relatable he is.
Hear me now. I’ve sat down for lunch or dinner or tabletop RP with gay guys. Quite a few of them. I have had at least one housemate – for a couple of years – that is gay. They have *cough* regaled me with stories, but not sexually explicit ones. I’ve seen a lot of them, I know a lot of them, I like a lot of them. I have been called a “Fag Stag” by some. I have a pretty well developed gaydar.
No. Just no. Tim Wallz is not secretly gay. Or openly gay. Not that you can’t be a football coach and a master sergeant and also be gay because you can.
I’m not saying absolutely not with Tucker’s closet thing. But I think this particular line of rhetoric is intended to undermine Wallz’ appeal to a demographic. And, as it turns out, Wallz was a faculty adviser for the Gay-Straight Alliance at the school he taught at. So, yeah, he’s gay-positive. Everyone knows that’s the same thing as gay, amirite?
@Mikey:
Tim Walz today: “This dude is nearly 80 years old. He damn near killed himself getting in a garbage truck.”
Anti-Trumpers have to make hay of it of course, but it looks like Trump just slipped on the wet ground. His bum leg maybe didn’t help matters.
It really sounds like you’re describing a situation where there would be a lot of economic anxiety, particularly among groups that are moving rightward, and then concluding that there is no (major) economic anxiety.
Smaller communities and the working class are shifting rightward. And enough rapid changes (inflation and uneven wage growth) that there are a lot of winners and losers. Toss in a housing crisis, for good measure, and a crapload of layoffs in tech.
(My economic anxiety is that Republicans will either get in power and do what they’ve told us they will do, or that they will spitefully blow up the economy by defaulting on the national debt if they hold either chamber of the legislature.)
Has there ever been a happy, economically prosperous people who voted in fascism? Genuine question for Dr. T, as he knows way more about political science than I do, and might be able to offer counterexamples to things that I “know.”
To the extent that I have any functional gaydar, Tucker has been ringing mine for years. For instance, the special on manliness, with testicle tanning and taint sunning. Small subtle things like that which I pick up on.
It’s a very rare straight man who thinks about their taint, and whether it has seen the sun lately.
ETA: I had to google the testicle tanning to make sure it wasn’t some bizarre fever dream that somehow stuck.
@DK:
DK, I think that’s unlikely what is happening here. I haven’t ever noticed any difference in women vs men being drawn to a strongman. Rather, Republicans are directly attacking women’s body rights, their earning capacity and their ability to make their own choices in other areas, and so the women are responding to that.
@DK:
https://x.com/GichuhoMungai/status/1852018828202369222
@Jay L Gischer: I, on the other hand, have terrible gaydar. I have had long term friends that I assumed were gay, and it turned out they weren’t, and vice versa. But there is something else I can detect: when someone is projecting. Tucker Carlson is obviously projecting his own insecurities onto Walz, and since the “accusation” is that Walz is gay, that’s what he’s insecure about.
I’ve seen Carlson’s schtick with a lot of guys from all different walks of life – and it stems from an unhealthy fixation on all things male, resulting in the belittling or dismissing of women. Andrew Sullivan is a prime example of this, and he’s probably the gayest guy around. But I’ve seen it with military guys, farmers and construction workers, especially hunters, who don’t appear to be gay at all, but are so weirdly focused on guys to the exclusion of all else that it gets creepy.
@MarkedMan:
Given how many men have humor that is basically “I hate my wife, she’s a terrible person, she’s a scold, and I wish I never married her”, focusing on guys to the exclusion of all else doesn’t sound so bad.
@Rob1: A question I’ve had myself. I’ve never seen political partisans act so strange (weird?) this close to an election. You’d think they’d turn down the crazy, but no, it’s being dialed to 11.
They either think they have it in the bag and this bizarre behavior is some addled form of joy, or they are mentally imploding at coming defeat. IDK.
I find Carlson’s comments awful and juvenile, but that seems to be the audience he’s targeting so /shrugs.
I disagree — the people Trump is appealing to are living in extreme economic anxiety, as intended by the disinformation machines that feed their media. That anxiety is baseless, but that doesn’t change its ability to bolster fascist impulses.
@Gustopher:
Well, I suppose the word “extreme” matters. We are certainly not in the extreme economic circumstances of Weimar Germany.
And while there are certainly people who are in extreme circumstances, it isn’t anywhere near the number of people who will vote for Trump.
@Steven L. Taylor: Then why the push towards fascism?
I’ve always assumed the rise of authoritarianism was enabled by economic pain, and societal turmoil, not a medium rosy outlook. And that makes me assume conditions in red areas are poor.*
Is this American Exceptionalism at work? Are we pioneers in field of Fair Weather Fascism?
Or am I wrong in general?
*: And it fits with what I see happening in the small cities in Washington, where all actual growth is in one big metro area, but Washington isn’t the rest of the country…
Just want to note that now Tucker Carlson claims he was attacked by a demon in his sleep last year.
If anyone makes someone an average American, it’s the belief that not only does the occult exist but these supernatural forces are out there missing with the most average people on earth.
It’s also fascinating how upset these guys are about the supposed weirdness of woke people and then they can recommend a quality exorcist if you’re looking. I knew someone whose mom was a pet psychic, and she was deadpan hilarious about that profession’s existence. But these guys are out there freaking out about a trans kid and then it’s back to being chased by demons.
@Steven L. Taylor:
People will compare what they’ve known or experienced, not what happened elsewhere to other people before they were born.
So, compared to the Weimar Republic, we’re in heaven. The healthcare we have today would have seemed miraculous to people as recently as the first half of the 20th century. This means nothing to someone who can barely pay their bills and maybe can’t afford some necessary treatment or procedure.
@Gustopher: In simple terms, I am just saying that I don’t think economic conditions alone are a sufficient explanation and that, moreover, it really does not motivate most GOP voters.
@Kathy: Sure, there is the relative deprivation aspect of it all.
@MarkedMan: I’m tryna figure out how Tucker Carlson spends all this time in the closet and still can’t dress.
@Gustopher: I think it’s a combination of older Boomers who are mentally ill combined with a lot of younger men who have talked themselves into mental illness. There’s enough stuff on social media that loves to provide you with all sorts of stories confirming whatever worldview you may want to have.
As said, I had a male friend who got divorced and spent the first two years after the divorce getting further and further down the self-pity habit, which finally resulted in him developing what to all intents and purposes was a personality disorder. And a corresponding shift in political worldviews from progressive left to far right. Sad, really.
@DK: OK, you win the internet today
@Modulo Myself:
Just adding a cite to your post.
I found myself not wondering that Tucker thinks demons are clawing at his flesh, instead wondering why that surprised me.
@Grumpy realist:
It’s Gen X men who are the most Trumpy group, if you believe polling. Voters over 65 have been less Republican than they previously were, in the Trump-Biden era.
And polls say Trump is doing really poorly with whites with college degrees. Historically bad for a modern GOP candidate.
@Kathy:
Exactly! I get that “we” are not in extreme economic circumstances, but I only have to walk out of my downtown PDX apartment to see people who are.
Fortunately, according the many on the right (and some here and there on the left the I encounter occasionally), those people are all tweekers and brought their suffering on themselves, so we don’t need to worry about them.
And right on cue…
Trump lagging in early vote with seniors in Pennsylvania, a red flag for GOP (Politico)
@DK:
I’m down to being optimistic of Harris’ chances half the time. While the other half I fervently hope Biden and/or Harris have planned a coup.
@Steven L. Taylor:
Irrelevant. The key here is how people feel about their circumstances, not the reality of them. People who aren’t happy with their lot, and firmly believe the lies they’re hearing about how bad the economy is and how good it was under the previous tangerine administration, are ripe for fascism. Grievance is psychological, not necessarily factual.
@DK: OK, but a Pennsylvania poll from Echelon Insights just showed Trump up by 5 or 6 (I think depending on if 3rd parties are included). Even if they’ve had a slight bias towards Republicans, that poll has me really worried.
That margin is probably beyond the polling error (but yes, I understand statistics – outliers can definitely happen and even something beyond two sigma is quite possible). I just don’t like it when that happens 5 days before the election, and *while* people are early voting.
People are now using the ‘Rod Dreher scale’ for sexual anxiety-laced, handkerchief clutching.
Is rate Tucker’s performance at 4 out of 5 “Drehers”
@DK:
My dad helped with that!
@Gustopher: While not an expert, I believe Fascism is a fairly recent phenomenon. And most of the “modern” fascists came just after the Great Depression. Greece also had a huge rise in fascism after their austerity programs. If you think that Russia is fascist, I am not sure if economics was a factor.
I have read that some think Sparta was proto-Fascist. Probably others through history. Don’t think there is proof one way or another that economics brought about the Spartan style government.
@DK: As a GenXer, I am not surprised. Older Trumpers died at a higher rate during Covid than non-Republicans. A lot of us GenXers have had fairly stagnant wages for a while, and are reaching retirement age. Our parents lived through the greatest modern economic era, and that is what we expected.
On the other hand, I would have hoped that they could see which party is better for them.
@BugManDan: whatever gov’t Sparta can be described as having, they were TERRIFIED about slave revolts.
Much like the antebellum South.
@BugManDan:
Sparta was weird, even by the standards of the time.
There were two kings and an assembly of men over 60. Life was highly communal, highly militarized, very austere, and there were a lot of slaves. The consensus is the actual citizens were very adept at fighting in order to keep the slaves from rebelling.
While I’m not against presentism as regards judging historical events and actors by the standards of the present, I do try not to apply modern labels to ancient societies when these do not apply. But if I were to describe Sparta’s political and social system in modern terms, I’d call them a socialist oligarchy.
Fascism, IMO, is a violent, repressive style of rule without a definite ideology. Kind of governance on testosterone poisoning.
@Kathy: I agree with you. I have just seen it suggested that they were proto-Fascists (Nationalists (City-Statist??), militaristic, Us vs them, etc.), so included it.
@MarkedMan: I don’t know whether Carlson is a closet case or not. I’m not a mind-reader. However, absolutely yes, he has masculine insecurity. One does not need to be gay to have masculine insecurities. Absolutely not.
Masculinity shaming is a big deal. One method of doing it has been, in the past, calling someone “gay”. Which, the more you know actual gay people, the more it looks stupid. And yet the masculinity shaming is real and still present. Like some people want to tell you, “you are doing Man wrong”.
My attitude for that, which I’ve had since I was sixteen or so, is “I am a man, therefore what I do is manly.” I usually don’t tell them to fsck themselves out loud. I have noticed that the people most often trying to deploy masculinity shaming are trying to get the men to do something that is bad for them. (But good for the speaker.) So they can go fsck themselves.
Nobody I know, gay or straight, thinks testicle tanning is a thing. Or not that they would talk about, any way.