What Happened to Tucker Carlson?

From a voice of reason to a conspiracy-brained wine aunt

Tucker Carlson has become one of the strangest people in American politics. Half the time he sounds like the only sane person in the room, and the other half he sounds like he was bitten by a feral raccoon.

I never had much respect for Tucker until 2020. I always saw him as a pompous neocon dork who wore a bowtie. But during the peak of COVID insanity, his viral monologues made him an authoritative and level-headed voice on the right.

However, after Tucker was fired from Fox News and launched the Tucker Carlson Network on YouTube, he started to change. His personality has become difficult to bare. He’s one-dimensional, predictable, and annoyingly agreeable with his guests regardless of how vapid they can be. Tucker has always been a bit sassy, but over the last few years — he’s become a meme of himself.

“Like, what IS that?!”

Tucker also makes bold claims about topics that are completely unprovable. He’ll frantically claim UFOs are demons that live all around us, then finish the sentence with a passive-aggressive “obviously.”

I often find myself thinking: “No, Tucker. None of what you just said is remotely obvious to anyone.”

It’s becoming harder to take Tucker Carlson seriously.

As my subscribers know, I find all of this nonsense about demons to be incoherent. People who blame human behavior they dislike on “demons” tend to embarrass themselves. For example, Tucker claimed he was physically attacked by a demon in his sleep and has the scars to prove it — while in the same breath admitted he lets four big dogs sleep in his bed. In his recent interview with The New York Times, he said Donald Trump casts spells on people.

I’m also skeptical of his sudden religious fervor; not because I don’t think Tucker is genuinely a Christian (who am I to say), but I strongly dislike how he uses Christianity as a cover to avoid saying things with his full chest. For example:

It’s understandable to be cynical about talking heads on the internet. Most of them just pander to their audience for YouTube revenue. But it’s unhealthy to assume nobody has genuine beliefs. That’s too nihilistic, even for me.

I agree with Tucker on the issues he sticks his neck out for. He speaks out against Trump and Israel’s war on Iran. He even confronted Trump privately before criticizing him publicly. He’s also been consistently anti-war since he visited Iraq, a war he was a fervent propagandist for. Since then he frequently confesses he did a terrible thing and apologizes for it on a regular basis. At times I find him to be courageous and admirable.

Tucker is on the right side of some very important issues. He’s strongly against mass immigration, rampant crime in American cities, and Israel’s stronghold over American politicians.

Tucker also criticizes “the deep state.” While it isn’t clear exactly who he’s talking about, I interpret it to mean the people who want to give violent black people a free pass and push for endless wars. In that sense, I’m just as against the same people as he is.

But Tucker isn’t afraid to delve into conspiracy theory crazy-land. His YouTube audience can’t gobble up enough of that content (just look at Candace Owens’ views per video), so perhaps he is just pandering to them. But he also lives a very secluded life. He might just be a guy who moved to rural Maine and went off the deep end.

I believe Tucker is straddling the line between being authentic and intentionally shoring up a cult of conspiracy-brained internet addicts as he plans to run for President in 2032.

Tucker Carlson is a very important political figure. His podcast is often #1 in the country and the President reacts to his opinions. Whether or not he has political ambitions long-term, he’s extremely influential. It’s important to keep an eye on him. While Tucker might be well-intentioned, it isn’t clear exactly who he is or what he’s up to. That gives me reason to be wary of him.