Air Date 4/21/2021
JAY TOMLINSON - HOST, BEST OF THE LEFT: [00:00:00] Welcome to this episode of the award-winning Best of the Left podcast in which we shall learn about the insurrection and police violence through the lens of White supremacy and the rise of the likes of Tucker Carlson who has become the leading spokesman for laundering White supremacist talking points through a marginally respectable facade. Clips today are from All In with Chris Hayes, a progressive faith sermon from Dr. Roger Ray, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, The Thom Hartmann Program, The Medhi Hassan Show andThe Muckrake Political podcast.
And stay tuned at the end of the show for a big announcement about our first ever live event that you will be able to join and participate in for free from the comfort of your own home. That's coming up on May 10th, and there's a link to detail's in the show notes. You can register just to be reminded there, but again, it's free. And as I said, I'll tell you all about it at the end of the show. But for now, enjoy.
Jan. 6 would have been a massacre if police had reacted like it were a BLM protest - All In with Chris Hayes - Air Date 4-14-21
CHRIS HAYES - HOST, ALL IN WITH CHRIS HAYES: [00:01:02] Today was a wrenching day in the Minneapolis area where the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin continued as his lawyers put forward their defense for the killing of George Floyd, all the while, in the streets, people are out mourning, angry, protesting, chanting, traumatized about the police shooting and killing of Daunte Wright just a few miles away. And all of this happening as we approach the one year anniversary of George Floyd's death. The inescapable context of this is not just Floyd's death, it is the aftermath of that death and the protest and the police response to those protests. And it is also inescapably what happened on January sixth at the US Capitol.
And taking all this together it is very hard not to see some fundamental contradictions and how our country, the state, wields force against its citizens. In terms of who has authority and who defers to whom in a police encounter, and who in the end fears whom. The case of George Floyd, Derrick Chauvin's defense is centered around Floyd being a threat, a figure so fearsome, so terrifying and unruly that he had to be subdued and knelt on for more than nine minutes, long after he took his last breaths. In their case, that is how dangerous he was, it's how terrifying he was, and you hear that a lot. Police officers, and they shoot civilian, that they were scared.
In the case of Daunte Wright we have a 20 year old man was pulled over for an expired registration before officers discovered he had a warrant out for his arrest. And Daunte Wright was treated roughly, manhandled a bit. He was handcuffed. He was ordered around like a supplicant in a way that is fundamentally invasive to his dignity.
It's not enjoyable if you've ever been at the other end of that kind of interaction. When he attempted to get out of that situation, he was shot, killed at point blank range by an officer who says she mistook her gun for a taser.
Everything about that interaction, everything about the George Floyd interaction, the police are the ones with the authority, the control. They have the weapons on their side. They have the authority of the government. And in both cases, they let both, those men know they are in charge.
The same dynamic plays out in so many of the protests we see right after these killings, with these enormous shows of police force. You remember Elijah McClain, the 23 year old black man who died in 2019 after police restrained him with a chokehold, who begged that he was an introvert, that he hadn't done anything wrong.
His death got new attention last summer following George Floyd's killing. And when people congregated to hold a peaceful violin vigil in his memory -- he played that instrument -- this is how the police in Aurora, Colorado responded: they stormed right into a peaceful vigil and ended up pepper spraying unarmed mourners at an event commemorating the life of someone killed by police.
Now, this is an example, it's a bad one, but we sort of almost took it at random. I mean, this happened last summer in the middle of the largest civil rights protest against police brutality in modern history, literally millions of people participating in every state in the nation.
And it is true, we should be clear, that there are examples, they're documented, you can find video, right, of violence by those and other protesters, examples of lawlessness and property damage throughout the country in the context of tens of thousands of protests. But in the context of tens of thousands of protests and millions and millions of protestors, only a very small percentage of people were violent.
And yet the police prepare, prepared and prepare for those protests like they were going to war. I mean, pick the city: Buffalo; New York City; Denver, Colorado; Portland, Oregon; Atlanta, Georgia; wherever. They look like that. They look like they're going to war. They have shields, they have big equipment. And they do that because they want to let people protesting know who is in charge, who holds the authority, who will bend the knee to whom. That's the point, explicitly. It's a psychological performance.
That's what we saw on the streets of Minneapolis and Brooklyn Center over the last few nights, the show of force with curfews and tear gas and flash bangs.
And now just take all of that, all of that footage we've seen before last summer, during last summer, and since, and now. Take all of that and just look for a moment at the utter inversion of what happened on the steps of the Capitol in January.
There was hardly any police presence at all. I mean, there were officers there, right? And I've covered multiple protests in Washington,. There tends to be a lot of cops around when people are protesting, particularly on the mall or the Capitol. But on January 6th, there was relatively speaking almost no one there.
And they don't have the big MRAPs and the huge bits of equipment brought in, they had these little stanchions in front of them. Like they look like bike racks. But it's not just the actual fortifying, the presence, it's also notable in the interactions of the police with the people. Again, who's doing the intimidating, who is ordering who around in those interactions.
During the insurrection, it is the overwhelmingly white mob telling the cops what to do. Barking orders at them. It is the mob with the authority. It is the mob that has the cops trying to cajole and negotiate with the rioters. I mean, you could hardly blame them. They're outnumbered, they're in physical danger. Right? But the fact that it got to that point, the fact that it got to that point, is what's so shocking.
ARCHIVE FOOTAGE : [00:06:54] Any chance I can get you guys to leave the Senate wing?
We will I just wanna make sure they ain't disrespecting the place.
I just want to let you guys know. This is like the sacredest place.
CHRIS HAYES - HOST, ALL IN WITH CHRIS HAYES: [00:07:07] "Any chance I can get you guys to leave the Capitol?" I mean, how many black folks in this country that are pulled over for a tail light, air freshener. How many get that as the opening line of the officer at the window? That police officer gently asking insurrectionists to leave the Senate chamber.
This was the attitude despite the fact, there are hundreds of people at that moment violently invading the center of American democracy in an explicit attempt to subvert the peaceful transfer of power. Despite the fact that nearly 150 police officers were injured. Cops have their eyes gouged out and were beaten and tased and crushed and concussed and threatened to be shot with their own guns.
And despite all that, there was one, one discharge of a weapon, as far as we know. And fair warning, it is disturbing a watch, the tragic shooting and killing of rioter Ashli Babbitt, at the moment when she was about to bust through a broken window. With hundreds, upon hundreds of screaming, angry people behind her, beating down the window, steps from the chamber that contained at that moment actual members of Congress. And in that moment, as a last resort, that officer there, fired a gun, fired one shot and he killed her.
Today, the Justice Department said it will not file charges against the officer who shot Babbitt. And it is awful that she is dead.
But think about the standard of the use of force here. Think about the use of that weapon. Think about the conceptions of fear and if those conceptions of fear and authority, of domination and subservience, if those that applied to Daunte Wright and George Floyd and millions of people of color who've dealt with police encounters, imagine if that had been brought to bear on that crowd in the Capitol. It would of been a massacre.
Of course, if you brought that to bear, it never would have happened, because the police would have been armed and ready for a riot. Like they were at the vigil for Elijah McClain. And in fact, that is precisely what we are learning from this devastating new report about the January 6th insurrection by the Capitol Police inspector general. The report finds the Capitol Police were warned three days before the riot of the threat. Quote: "Unlike previous post-election protests, the targets of the pro-Trump supporters are not necessarily the counter protestors, as they were previously, but rather Congress itself as a target on the sixth." The inspector general quoted the intelligence warning as saying, "Stop the Steal's propensity to attract white supremacists, militia members and others who actively promote violence may lead to a significantly dangerous situation for law enforcement and the general public alike."
They were specifically warned and they did not prepare. They did not prepare the way they prepare for just about every protest we've seen police at. And that is because of the racialized suspicion that's at the heart of this whole thing. The conception of who is a criminal and the conception of who is a threat, that conception of who will transgress the order, who has to be managed and controlled is so deeply embedded in both American society and law enforcement you cannot separate race from that in the context of American law and order and policing.
And we've just seen the starkest example we've ever seen. We all sat back and we walked. We watched people break in lawlessly, violently, recklessly. Stroll through the Capitol, and then walk away with no arrests, no handcuffs. Single shot fired, a woman killed among hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people. Everyone in this country has now watched these two standards in front of our own eyes.
Elie, I mean, I guess the different standards, the different conceptions of who is to be feared and suspicious and criminal and who the police force should be deployed against it's not new, but I just cannot watch any of this right now and not think about the sixth, how about you?
ELIE MYSTAL: [00:11:04] I mean, Chris, welcome to my life for 42 years, right? I mean, the sad reality is that this is the country that white people want, that a majority of white people want. These are the people that a majority of white people vote for. These are the standards that a majority of white people are comfortable with. These are the judges that a majority of white people support. And we know that this is happening because of a majority of white people want it, because whenever there is a movement, a moment, an opportunity, a law, a legislation, a case, a chance to change it, a majority of white people resist it. That's how we know that this is what a majority of white people want.
Now we might find here and there a couple of individuals that white people are willing to throw overboard and abandon. Derek Chauvin might be one such individual that people are willing to be done with and pretend like he's a bad apple or rogue agent. But when it comes to the systemic issues, and when it comes to the systemic change that we need in this society, a majority of white people resist that change.
I can therefore only infer that a majority of white people like it this way. They want the permissiveness of white violence and they want the over-the-top crackdown on black bodies.
Black, White, and Blue - Progressive Faith Sermons - Air Date 4-18-21
DR. ROGER RAY- PASTOR, PROGRESSIVE FAITH SERMONS: [00:12:37] Many of us were very encouraged last November when one of the leaders of the Black Lives Matter protests in Ferguson, Cori Bush, who's a single mother from St. Louis, was elected to Congress. She's the first Black woman elected to Congress from Missouri. It seems almost unbelievable to say that out loud, but she was the first, and she brings with her not only her training as a registered nurse and as a UCC minister, but she's also experienced homelessness. She lost her job after a difficult pregnancy. She was a nurse and she and her then-husband and baby ended up living in their car for quite a while. So, she's bringing a tremendous amount of experience with what it's like to be a Black woman in Missouri to Congress. Then a couple of weeks ago when the news was really not paying much attention, St. Louis broke another glass ceiling by electing Tishaura Jones as mayor. And she came into office promising that race would no longer be an afterthought in St. Louis government and policing. And as I was reading a news story about this, it was almost a throwaway line that the journalist offered to just acknowledge that in the 1,500-member police force in St. Louis, that there are two police unions, one for White police officers and one for Black police officers. This is so implausible in 2021 that I feel like I need to say it again. In St. Louis, there are two unions representing the police force: one for Black officers and one for White officers.
Now this is not the 1960s, when I started school in a segregated, all-White school in rural Kentucky. This is not a museum piece of photographs of "Coloreds only" and "Whites only" signs outside of restrooms or by water fountains. This is right now in St. Louis, Missouri. One of our country's major cities. Of course it would be impossible to maintain this segregation if Black members of the St. Louis police force now wanted to join the White police union. It started out as a matter of necessity. It's just never gone away because Black members of the police force are painfully aware of the deep racism that exists among the White members of the police. A perfect illustration of their very rational distrust can be seen in the case of detective Luther Hall seen here working undercover during the demonstration in 2017.
Three White officers, mistaking Detective Hall for a demonstrator, knocked him to the ground and beat him so severely that he was hospitalized, where he underwent several surgeries to recover from the incident. And last month, after three years of political wrangling, the people who beat him, the three White officers who beat him so severely, were acquitted of all charges by an all-White jury. You don't have to know a lot about St. Louis to wonder how do you get an all-White jury in St. Louis? Folks, this is no longer something that we can wave off as being either media hype or exaggerated claims of police abuse by the Black community.
It's just true. Black people don't farewell in encounters with the police whether they're guilty or innocent, whether they fully cooperate when they're being arrested or whether they resist arrest. Even when they're asleep in their bed in their own home, they don't fare well. And as in Detective Hall's case, even when you are a member of the police force at work, you don't fare well.
Thursday, the police in Chicago shot and killed 13-year-old Adam Toledo as he surrendered to the police. They told him to drop the gun he was carrying, to stop and raise his hands, which he did. And with his empty hands raised, they shot him right in the chest and killed him. Thirteen! Thirteen! He didn't even get to go to high school. He didn't go to prom. He never had a girlfriend, nothing. Thirteen! And, obeying police orders, was shot anyway. And after these egregious events, the judicial system makes it all that much worse when they immediately began to try to say that they were following police procedures.
Allegations of racism in the Minneapolis Police Department, where some estimates say that a Black man is seven times more likely to be shot by the police than a White person is. These have been stories that are regularly appearing in the news from the shooting of Philando Castile in 2016 to the choking death of George Floyd last year, and now this week, in the shooting of Daunte Wright in yet another traffic stop gone bad.
At this moment, we're still awaiting the verdict in the trial of former Minneapolis officer Derek Charvin in the choking death of George Floyd. But while demonstrations have been going on every night of the two-week trial demanding justice for George Floyd, police officers were so unaware that they added to this tension by pulling over this 20-year-old driver Daunte, and ended up shooting him to death. Now, Kim Potter, who has been on the police force longer than Daunte Wright has been alive, Potter resigned, but now she's been charged with involuntary manslaughter, she claims because she thought she was holding her taser when in fact she was holding her police revolver. Maybe you could be that confused when you're that excited. She insists that the fatal shooting of Daunte Wright was an accident, but something which -- and folks, I can't even believe that I am saying this in public, but -- televangelist Pat Robertson finds Kim's story to be unbelievable. Folks, Pat Robertson has shown us for 40 years that he will believe almost anything, he'll say almost anything, but he literally went on TV as you see here, holding a yellow plastic taser and a police revolver and saying this is too much for even him to believe that she could have confused these two.
Now, I don't know Kim Potter. I don't know if she's a racist, and for our purposes today, it doesn't really matter. I don't want us to think about this problem anecdotally. It's not a matter of psychoanalyzing Derek Chauvin or Kim Potter because the real issue we've got to be able to draw back the wide-angle lens and just look at how racism is an institutional part of our police force in the United States. It's an institutional part of our judicial system. And unfortunately, it is a big part of our military, and many members of the military retire and go back home and join the police force.
And I want to think about why our judicial system seems to so blatantly favor the police, even when there is so much video evidence and multiple witnesses of inexcusable and lethal crimes being committed by the police. As arrests have mounted -- it's now a hundred days since the insurrection at the Capitol -- and we're discovering, as they've arrested now between 450 and 500 people, that a large number of the people they are arresting for the worst parts of that insurrection were active members of police forces or active members of military. There were thousands of people involved, and they've only arrested fewer than 500, but 20% of them have a background in police or military. And that would seem like that would just be impossible. You just couldn't even consider it, except for the fact that insurrection was primarily motivated by racism.
And racism runs deep in the police force and in the military. I don't want to tar the whole of the United States armed forces and all of America's police forces with a single brush because it's obviously not all of them. And it's even obviously not the majority of them. But it is obvious that it's too many of them, and we've been ignoring it for generations, and that's what I'm saying has to stop.
Tucker Carlson - Last Week Tonight with John Oliver - Air Date 3-15-21
JOHN OLIVER - HOST, LAST WEEK TONIGHT: [00:22:37] So often he positions himself as someone just asking the hard questions, the ones that they don't want you asking. Questions like, is affirmative action racist? and should America be selective with immigrants? and has the Democratic party become anti-white and anti-male? Just asking questions, while heavily implying that the answer to those questions is yes. But when in turn anyone questions him, they are not just censoring free speech. They are launching an attack on the foundations of our democracy and the vast working class who this humble TV dinner princeling somehow represents.
And the most telling thing about Tucker's framing of himself as the scourge of the elites, of the hero of the common man, is that for Tucker, who constitutes the common man, is very selective. Take Ilhan Omar, just watch him lose his shit over a clip that he's about to play of something she said.
TUCKER CARLSON: [00:23:28] If anyone should love America, it's Ilhan Omar. This country rescued her from a squalid Kenyan refugee camp and made her a national figure, quite an ascent. But Ilana Omar is not grateful. She hates us for it. Watch Omar tell us it is time to dismantle our country.
REPRESENTATIVE ILHAN OMAR: [00:23:44] As long as our economy and political systems prioritize profit without considering who is profiting, who is being shut out, we will perpetuate this inequality. So we could not stop at criminal justice system. We must begin the work of dismantling the whole system of oppression, wherever we find it.
TUCKER CARLSON: [00:24:10] Dismantle the American economy and the American system of government, institutions that generations of Americans built over hundreds of years.
JOHN OLIVER - HOST, LAST WEEK TONIGHT: [00:24:21] All right. There is already enough there in the sneering condescension that Ilhan Omar should be quietly grateful her entire life because she was granted asylum when she was a child.
But let's just consider the vast distance between what you just heard her say and what he seemed to hear. Because according to Tucker, dismantling the system of oppression means dismantling the entire American economy and system of government. Now, did he inadvertently make a nuanced point about how systemic oppression is definitionally baked into every level and facet of that very same system? Yeah. Yes he did. Am I going to give him credit for doing that? Fuck no, especially not when this is what he said next:
TUCKER CARLSON: [00:24:59] The problem is there are many of us here who do like this country. We live here. We don't want to destroy it. We have every right to fight to preserve our nation and our heritage and our culture.
JOHN OLIVER - HOST, LAST WEEK TONIGHT: [00:25:11] Wow. Preserve our heritage and culture. That is direct. In fact, his pre-written caption there, we have to fight to preserve our nation and heritage drew a lot of comparisons to the 14 words, the famous white supremacy slogan that says "we must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children."
And when you put the two together, there is, you know, a slight similarity there. I'm just saying, if you type Tucker's quote into a blank word document, nine times out of 10 Clippy is going to ask, "Are you trying to recite the 14 words?" Now of course, Clippy has been asking that a lot more ever since he started spending so much time on YouTube. Careful how much time you spend on there, Clippy! It's turning you into an asshole.
And if you think of, well, come on, that seems like a bit of a stretch. You can't know what Tucker means by our heritage and culture. You should know that he hasn't always been that disciplined about his messaging. In the late two thousands, he used to call into a radio show hosted by shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge. And in those calls, the thin veil covering his racism would occasionally get thrown off in moments like this:
TUCKER CARLSON: [00:26:15] Iraq is a crappy place filled with a bunch of, you know, semi-literate primitive monkeys, but I just have zero sympathy for them or their culture, a culture where people just don't use toilet paper or forks.
JOHN OLIVER - HOST, LAST WEEK TONIGHT: [00:26:26] OK. That isn't just incredibly offensive. It's also the kind of fact-free cultural hot take that is the essential Tucker Carlson experience because one, it is clearly by no means the most important thing there, for the record, table forks were apparently first used in the middle East and Byzantine empire and were still conspicuously absent in Europe until centuries later. In fact, when the niece of a Byzantine emperor brought a case of forks to Venice for her wedding feast in the 11th century, she was roundly condemned by the local clergy for her decadence, with one saying, "God in his wisdom has provided man with natural forks, his fingers. Therefore it is an insult to him to substitute artificial metal forks for them when eating," which is absolutely fascinating because it's not just a full refutation of Tucker's lazy racism, it's also a very fun fork fact. Fork facts are fun!
The point is, when you know how Tucker speaks when he speaks freely, the filter through which he processes the world for his audience becomes painfully apparent because he is smart enough not to openly say into the camera that certain races are more deserving of scorn or less worthy of respect. He will just heavily imply that depending on who he's talking about. Take the capital riots. Tucker said that he deplores the violence, but repeatedly compelled his viewers to try and understand where the demonstrators were coming from.
TUCKER CARLSON: [00:27:46] On January 6th, we had a riot at the US Capitol. Why did that happen? It happened because millions of American voters were convinced that the last election was not fair. Where did they get that idea? Well, it wasn't simply because the last president told them so. You're hearing that now as if they're animals who take commands and do what they're told, but they're not animals. There are people, there are American citizens. You can see what's happening and come to their own conclusions about it. They saw the radical increase in mail-in voting, millions did, and it corroded their faith and the public's faith in our systems of election.
JOHN OLIVER - HOST, LAST WEEK TONIGHT: [00:28:21] Okay. Hold on. People didn't think the election was rigged because they saw an increase in mail-in voting. They thought that because people like you repeatedly told them the election was rigged. And that plea for understanding there is especially hard to take when you contrast it with how he reacted to last summer's Black Lives Matter protests.
TUCKER CARLSON: [00:28:41] People like this don't bother to work. They don't volunteer or pay taxes to help other people. They live for themselves. They do exactly what they feel like doing. They say exactly what they feel like saying. They spray paint their opinions on buildings. On television hour by hour, watch these people, criminal mobs, destroy what the rest of us have built. They have no right to do that. They don't contribute to the common good. They never have. Suddenly they seem to have all the power.
JOHN OLIVER - HOST, LAST WEEK TONIGHT: [00:29:13] Well, that's quite a different tone. And it is interesting to see who gets to be American citizens who came to their own conclusions and who gets to be criminal mobs who destroy what the rest of us have built. And it does seem like the dividing line for Tucker on that question is how easily can you sunburn?
And look, my point here isn't that Tucker is inconsistent in addressing two violent protests in vastly different ways. It's that he's actually incredibly consistent. Because in both instances, his clear takeaway is that white people should be terrified at the idea of any situation where they aren't in power.
The main narrative of Tucker's show is that power is being taken away from you, his viewer, and this needs to be resisted. He's run segments just asking questions, remember, like how exactly is diversity our strength, and has argued, not just that it isn't, but it's a threat to our existence as a cohesive country.
In fact, he'll often call to resist that threat with an interesting choice of phrase.
TUCKER CARLSON: [00:30:11] Western civilization is our birthright. It makes all good things possible. Undefended, it collapses. And so we've got to fight to preserve it. It's a war with one side trying to erase all remnants of its opponent, in this case, Western civilization is the culture into which they're coming.
The Western civilization we're talking about superior to the culture that these immigrants are bringing.
Do you think it's possible to move a large Muslim population into the West and successfully integrate them into Western culture? Have you seen that anywhere?
JOHN OLIVER - HOST, LAST WEEK TONIGHT: [00:30:44] Yeah, for Tucker, it seems Western civilization is somehow both the mighty and a central bedrock upon which all modern human existence is built, and also a delicate house of cards that will collapse if you so much as look at it wrong.
And again, he will be careful not to verbally link race and civilization. Like he's calling into a Love Sponge's radio show in 2006, but he will occasionally dance incredibly close to it.
TUCKER CARLSON: [00:31:08] Let me stipulate. I'm for getting along. I'm for colorblindness. I'm for tolerance a hundred percent.
But I also think that if things radically changed in your country, it's okay for you to say, what is this? And maybe I don't want to live in a country that looks nothing like the country I grew up in. Is that bigoted?
JOHN OLIVER - HOST, LAST WEEK TONIGHT: [00:31:23] Uh, yeah. Yeah, it is. That's like saying I've got 10 fingers and toes, a pointy face with the little pink rosebud mouth, a cat's long body, a long tail and I eat garbage. Does that make me a possum? Yes. Yes, it does. That's the literal definition of the thing you just described.
And that's the whole thing with Tucker. He might not say black or white. He'll insist that he's for colorblindness. He'll build in deniability by phrasing things as a question, like, what does racism look like? while kind of embodying the answer. But when you put all of this together, the pattern is clear. He is scared of a country that looks nothing like the one he grew up in because diversity isn't our strength, immigrants make our country poorer, dirtier, and more divided, and any attempt to change that culture is an attack on Western civilization. All of which is really just a long way of saying that when Tucker asks, what is white supremacy, the answer is basically that. It's a belief that in a country where white people are dominant, that's all down to their natural and innate abilities, and any effort to change that is an affront of the natural order of things.
So it's frankly no wonder that that guy's family watches Tucker twice a night. Of course, Tucker has been endorsed by white supremacists. James Allsup, a far-right activist who marched in Charlottesville, once said this to a conference room full of fellow white supremacists.
JAMES ALLSUP: [00:32:43] An example of someone engaging in very effective rhetoric is of course, Tucker Carlson. Tucker is helping mainstream conservatives change the way they think about politics and causing a massive swath of Trump voters to look deeper into many of the issues that we already talk about. The Left is aware of what he's doing and he's aware of what he's doing. So it works phenomenally.
JOHN OLIVER - HOST, LAST WEEK TONIGHT: [00:33:03] Oh! That might be the single worst laugh I've ever heard. And I say that as someone who was almost forgotten what human laughter sounds like. I've been stuck inside Casper's asshole for 12 long months now. I'm so desperate to hear the response of a live audience. But if it is a Neo Nazi chuckle, ping ponging off the walls of a hotel ballroom, I think I might be out.
And look, if everything I've shown you tonight somehow still isn't enough, let's hear it from a literal former Grand Wizard of white supremacists, David Duke. He's not only tweeted approvingly about Tucker in the past, saying Tucker is right, and can't cuck the Tuck, which as all Tucker viewers know, refers to when a humiliated man watches his wife having an affair. Duke even has a podcast where he sometimes just recaps Tucker's segments from the night before. Last year, when endorsing Trump for president, Duke even suggested that Tucker Carlson should be his VP, explaining Tucker's value to the white supremacist cause, like this:
DAVID DUKE: [00:34:00] And he doesn't use the word "white" very often, but that's the underlying message that he's showing. And he shows that there is massive racism in America, it's white people. While at the same time saying there's no systematic racism. But people get the message.
JOHN OLIVER - HOST, LAST WEEK TONIGHT: [00:34:14] Yeah. People do get the message. Well though, to be fair, it's not like it's written in a complex code. It's a walking yacht club, scrunching his face up for an hour every night and saying to a conservative audience, "they are coming for you" in modulating tones. We're not exactly in Riddle of the Sphinx territory here.
And all of this is why, as tempting as it is to dismiss the controversy that follows Tucker every week as one more artifact of our outrage culture, it's important to remember that what Tucker is saying is fucking outrageous. Because no one in their right mind would sit down, pop in their headphones, fire up David Duke's podcast and think, Hey, I'm not a white supremacist. But millions of people watch Tucker on TV every night, spouting well-laundered versions of pretty much the same talking points. And there is real harm in that. Because white supremacy is clearly dangerous when promoted by self-avowed white supremacists, it can actually be even more dangerous when it isn't. And what Tucker Carlson's show sells, in addition to utterly terrible pillows, is very seductive. It's the idea of that this country is fundamentally colorblind, that anyone who mentions race is just trying to start trouble. That historic oppression is no longer relevant. And that in fact, you, his viewers, are the ones currently being oppressed. And if he can sell his audience on his white identity politics, if he can persuade them that the big existential threat to America right now is diversity, it sorta doesn't matter if he says aloud what his preferred solutions to that might be.
I want it bad enough to hear that white supremacist families gather around to watch Tucker twice. The fact is, millions of viewers a night watch him once, and once is already more than enough.
Where Are the Good Apples Among America's Police? - The Daily Show with Trevor Noah - Air Date 4-16-21
TREVOR NOAH - HOST, THE DAILY SHOW: [00:35:56] What's going on, everybody? I've been watching these police encounters that have been all over the news over the past few days. The question I kept finding myself asking when I was watching the video of the Lieutenant who gets pulled over by the cops -- he is in the military fatigues, one of the troops -- he's being treated trash by the cops, and not like just as a troop, as a human being, he's being treated like trash. They claim they were afraid but there's only one person exhibiting fear in that video and it's him. And I found myself watching the video over and over again, and I realized it's because I had one question that kept on nagging in my brain, and the question was where are the good apples?
Because we're told time and time again that these incidents that Black Americans are experiencing are because of bad apples, right? There are bad apples in these police departments who are doing these things. They use choke holds that are not allowed. They use excessive force. They're violent in their words and their actions to the people they're meant to be protecting and serving. These are bad apples. We've got to root them out of the force. My question though is, where are the good apples? If we're meant to believe that the police system in America, the system of policing itself is not fundamentally broken, then we would need to see good apples.
And by the way, I'm not saying that there are no good policemen, don't get me wrong, I'm asking where the good apples are. And what I mean by that is where are the cops who are stopping the cop from putting their knee on George Floyd's neck? Because there's not one cop at that scene. There's one cop who was on trial, but there's not one cop at that scene.
Where are the other cops when Philando Castille is losing his life? Where are the cops? Where are the good apples? Because it's funny how we live in a society where people who defend these cops at all costs will say, "Oh, Black on Black crime," and "you see these people in their communities, they don't care...", but go to any Black community, any disenfranchised community in America, and you will find people marching against that same crime. You'll find community leaders, you'll find parents, you'll find siblings, you find people constantly saying, please, we need to stop this crime, we need to stop the gangs. You see the community doing something.
The fact that they call 911 when something happens, so that tells you something. But I don't seem to see that with the cops. We don't a mass uprising of police saying let's root out these people. We don't see videos of police officers stopping the other cop from pushing an old man at a Black Lives Matter protest, or from beating up a kid in the street with a baton, we don't see that. So my question is, what are the good apples? And honestly, I believe we don't see them, not because there are no good people on the police force, I think there are many people who are good on the police force, that's why they joined because they want to do good, but I think it's because they themselves know that if they do something they're going against the system.
The system is more powerful than any individual. The system in policing is doing exactly what it's meant to do in America, and that is to keep poor people in their place. Who happens to be the most poor in America? Black people. You monetize them, you imprison them, which monetizes them again, it's a system. It's not broken, it's working the way it's designed to work. And once you realize that, I feel like you get to a place where you go, oh, we're not dealing with bad apples, we're dealing with a rotten tree that happens to grow good apples. But for the most part, the tree that was planted is bearing the fruits that it was intended to.
Did Tucker Carlson Order Insurrection - The Thom Hartmann Program - Air Date 3-26-21
THOM HARTMANN - HOST, THE THOM HARTMANN PROGRAM: [00:40:01] Tucker Carlson goes full insurrectionist, promotes AR-15s to use against the government. Again, let's just clearly establish another one of these Republican talking points, because they've been bought and paid for by the gun industry. Make no mistake about it. This is a multi-billion dollar, multi-hundred billion dollar industry that pays its shills very well.
And prior to the 1970s, nobody in America, all the way back to the founding of our Republic, nobody in America was ever trying to make the serious case that the reason the founders wrote the Second Amendment the way they did at the time they did was because they wanted Americans to have weapons that they could use against our own government. Nobody ever made that case. That case on its face is seditious, on its face is treason. Yes! Let's take down the government with guns. That's called a coup. That's not democracy. The founders not only never imagined that. I'm sure that they did; in some point, George Washington put down an armed rebellion as President. He put down an armed rebellion, the Whiskey Rebellion. They did not in their wildest dreams think this would be a good thing.
And it wasn't until the 1970s when the National Rifle Association's magazine The Rifleman published this article by this 17-year-old kid, this high school kid, who just made up this fantasy that the Second Amendment was there so we could prevent tyranny. And back in 70's, it was in the frame of if the communists ever really succeeded in taking over America, we need our guns to fight back because there was this big fear about the communists. Richard Nixon had been going on about that. Keep in mind, this was just a couple of years after the end of the Nixon presidency and Nixon had been going on at some length about the communists in Vietnam and the communists in the Soviet Union. And he had been part of the whole McCarthy thing, the communists in the State Department and the communists in the army -- McCarthy hearings. And so it was, yeah, we got to have our guns to protect us from the damn communists.
And every time a Democrat came along and said maybe we should make education free, college for free, oh, you're a communist! How about healthcare? Shouldn't everybody have healthcare? Oh, you're a communist! And it worked for years. But the NRA published this article, and it struck a chord with the White nationalists, with the people who . . .. I mean, keep in mind. This was the same timethat Brown v. Board of Education was starting to be enforced in a real way. It happened Brown v. Board was in 1954. There was a subsequent decision a year or two later. and forgive me. I can't recall the name of it. It's been a lot of years, but there was a subsequent decision that said that yes, Brown should be put into place. Basically, the argument from the states was we need more time if we're going to desegregate our schools, or if we're going to integrate our schools, we need more time. And so the Supreme Court in the second decision following Brown said with all due whatever the word was, yes but, essentially. And they gave them this there's no urgency kind of message. And so it took two decades for Brown to even, and the whole busing thing, it happened in the70's. And the blow back to that was Oh my God, there's Black people moving into my neighborhood. I need to have a gun. And that's when this thing really went full nuts. And White people didn't want to say we have to have a gun because Black people were rioting in Detroit in response to police violence They didn't want to say that We got to fight back against the commies. And it became like an article of faith.
So, last night on Fox News, Tucker Carlson has this guest on. NewsCorp over on DailyKos refers to him as an ammosexual Colion Noir, who once a hosted a show on the NRA TV Network, which is now out of business. So Carlson says, "why if somebody does something horrible in Boulder, does that mean you should strip from people the single most popular sporting rifle in America?" That would be the AR-15, "the one that commits relatively few crimes. More people are killed by a factor of five by knives than by rifles in this country. Why are they so intent on taking this one away?" And his guest on Fox News -- this is what your grandpa is hearing on Fox News, honest to God -- his guest says. And I quote "because honestly, if you really look at it, a lot of people like to undervalue what the Second Amendment was actually written for. It was designed to be a check against the government." See, here's this big lie. This is a complete lie. Anyway, he goes out of people don't like to talk about that aspect. Of course, it was also there to allow us to defend ourselves. But if you think about it, the AR-15 symbolically and literally is the best defense against a tyrannical government." The best defense against a tyrranical government, as the guy who wrote the Declaration of Independence said, is an educated and informed public. And what we have is a miseducated and misinformed, malinformed public, intentionally uninformed public, or an intentionally wrongly informed public.
And I would add to that the best defense against a tyrannical government is for the people to become more deeply interpenetrated with the government, for us to show up and get inside our political parties. If you're, I . . .. my opening rant was to Republican voters and I was saying, if you're a Republican voter of good conscience, you can join the Democratic Party. They'd welcome you. Let me add to that. If you're a Republican voter of good conscience, you might want to try and take over the Republican Party and turn them into something at least rational, because it is not a bad thing in a democracy for one political party that I like a lot to have a loyal opposition. It's not a bad thing. It's a good thing.
Hard-Right Republicans Form Caucus To Protect Anglo-Saxon Political Traditions - All In with Chris Hayes - Air Date 4-16-21
CHRIS HAYES - HOST, ALL IN WITH CHRIS HAYES: [00:46:09] Here's a little missive House minority leader Kevin McCarthy tweeted out today that may have had you scratching your head if you did not have the full context. Okay, I'll read it. America is built on the idea that we are all created equal, and success is earned through honest, hard work. It isn't built on identity, race, religion. The Republican Party is the party of Lincoln, the party of more opportunity for all Americans, not nativist dog whistles. Why on earth would Kevin McCarthy feel the need to declare the Republican Party is not built on race and rejects nativist dog whistles? Maybe because this morning, Punchbowl News reported that a group of House Republicans, including Georgia's Marjorie Taylor Greene and Arizona's Paul Gosar, are forming an America First caucus to protect Anglo-Saxon political traditions. If that kind of thing sounds familiar, it's probably because that's what the former leader of the KKK David Duke has been saying to anyone that would listen.
DAVID DUKE: [00:46:56] I love my people, my heritage. I want to preserve my heritage like every people does
BILL O'REILLY: [00:47:00] Preserve your heritage? What does that mean?
DAVID DUKE: [00:47:03] How about European heritage?
BILL O'REILLY: [00:47:05] What does mean!?
DAVID DUKE: [00:47:06] Look I'll tell you what. You don't know what European heritage is? You don't know what Mozart is and Bach and Beethoven?
BILL O'REILLY: [00:47:12] They're people. They come from different countries.
CHRIS HAYES - HOST, ALL IN WITH CHRIS HAYES: [00:47:18] Actually a good Bill O'Reilly there, weirdly. No, they are not White supremacists. No, they just want to protect European traditions from some non-European threat, I guess. This new Republican caucus' organizing document also contains language advocating for "weeding out those who refuse to abandon their old loyalties and plunge headfirst into mainstream American society." They literally want to weed out people who do not conform to their idea of American culture.
How concerned should we be of this new caucus? I'm joined now by Adam Serwer, a staff writer for the Atlantic. His latest piece is titled, "Restoring the Soul of the Nation Means Taking in Refugees" and Jia Lin Yang, national editor of the New York Times. Her book, which has gotten incredible reviews, One Mighty and Irresistible Tide: the Epic Struggle Over Immigration, 1925-1965. It will be out in paperback next month. And Jia, I want to start with you because your book, right ends in 1965; in 1965, there's a huge piece of immigration legislation, and that's one of the targets of this caucus. They say an important distinction between post-1965 immigrants and previous waves of settlers is that previous cohorts were more educated, earned higher wages, did not an expansive welfare state to fall back on when they could not make it in America, and thus did not stay in the country at the expense of the native-born. As someone who has studied this, what are they going on about there?
JIA LYNN YANG: [00:48:40] They weirdly really understand what they're going after, which is after 1965, that's when the laws changed in the US to allow many more immigrants from outside of Europe at a level that the country had never seen before. And this Anglo-Saxon language that they're using is so important to pay attention to. It's not a dog whistle; it's completely explicit because that language has been used to change our immigration laws to explicitly ban people who are not from Europe, it's been used before. And it's an argument that keeps recurring and recurring because if you can control where people come from, where they immigrate from, you can control the racial makeup of America.
And so, I think what they're alarmed by is what's happens since '65 when we changed our laws and said you don't have to come from Europe to be able to come here. You can come from Asia, Africa, the middle East. And since that change, we've seen all around us. How many more immigrants from around the world are here, and it really has changed the country.
But I think for this group, it's made them incredibly anxious. They have, I think, correctly assessed that the '65 law was the moment everything changed. And they're invoking very old arguments that have been around for over a century to say that Anglo-Saxon political identity is what makes America and anyone who is not isn't properly American. They used this argument against Jews, Catholics, anyone who was not White, Protestant and "Anglo-Saxon," people have argued for many years don't belong in America based on their race and their religion.
CHRIS HAYES - HOST, ALL IN WITH CHRIS HAYES: [00:50:07] Yeah. When we use the term Adam White nationalism, which has been used a lot, I think, understandably recently, this is really at the core of it was this idea articulated by this guy Nick Fuentes who has a group called America First that Paul Gosar went to his conference. If America ceases to retain the English cultural framework and the influence of European civilization, if it loses its White demographic core, it loses faith in Jesus Christ, it is not America anymore. That is what White nationalism sounds like. That is what it is, and that appears to be what's represented here.
ADAM SERWER: [00:50:38] Yeah, Fuentes, a nice, traditional Anglo-Saxon name. Look. Anglo-Saxon doesn't actually refer to the actual Germanic people who inhabited Britain in the Middle Ages. Rather, it refers to this pseudoscientific idea that Americans are descended from ancient Germanic chieftains, and that's what makes American society so great. It's an ideological belief in the superiority of a certain group of White people that has been used to justify the genocide of native Americans. It's been used to justify slavery, manifest destiny, and the like. And eventually, in the 20th century, it evolves into eugenics, and it becomes the basis of immigration laws that, as was just stated, targeted not just Africans and Asians and barred them from immigrating into the country, but also Jews and Italians, people who today are generally considered White, but who at the time were considered inferior White races who would dilute the pure Germanic blood that made America great. So, when people say Anglo-Saxon it is not a dog whistle; it is a foghorn. It is a nod to one of the most dangerous and destructive pseudo-scientific beliefs in the history of the world and one that has led to mass murder all over the planet. It's really disgusting. And that's why McCarthy, someone who was hardly friendly to immigrants, is saying yeah, I don't want to have anything to do with this.
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Tucker Carlson Doubles Down on White Supremacist 'Great Replacement' Theory - The Mehdi Hasan Show - Air Date 4-13-21
MEHDI HASAN - HOST, THE MEHDI HASAN SHOW: [00:52:19] It was just over two years ago that a heavily armed man in Christchurch, New Zealand walked into two mosques and began shooting the men, women, and children who had gathered in them to pray. When he was done, 51 people lay dead, 40 more wounded. The killer left behind an 87 page manifesto titled The Great Replacement in which he argued that the White race was dying out, being invaded and replaced by nonwhite immigrants.
A few months later that manifesto helped inspire a Texas man to walk into an El Paso Walmart with an assault weapon and begin shooting. He killed 23 people and wounded 23 more. It was, the New York Times reported, "the deadliest anti-Latino attack in modern American history." And like the Christchurch shooter, the El Paso killer too cited the white supremacist "great replacement theory", writing that he was fighting a Hispanic invasion of Texas.
These murders came two years after White nationalist bearing torches gathered in Charlottesville, Virginia chanting "Jews will not replace us". And the year after another gunman, murdered 11 people in a Pittsburgh synagogue, blaming Jews for bringing in an invasion of nonwhite immigrants to America.
The great replacement -- a bigoted morally bankrupt conspiracy theory that has spurred White supremacists on multiple continents to murder nonwhite people. A dangerous conspiracy theory that is now getting a platform on prime time television in the US.
TUCKER CARLSON: [00:53:53] Now I know that the left and all the little gatekeepers on Twitter become literally hysterical if you use the term replacement, if you suggest that the Democratic party is trying to replace the current electorate, the voters now casting ballots, with new people, more obedient voters from the third world. But they become hysterical because that's what's happening, actually. Let's just say it. That's true.
I have less political power because they're importing a brand new electorate. Why should I sit back and take that?
MEHDI HASAN - HOST, THE MEHDI HASAN SHOW: [00:54:25] Sick stuff. Sickening. And I know it's Fox News and we on this show have chosen not to focus too often on the lies from Fox News, because you could do an entire episode on them every night, but this is different. This is really, really shocking and unacceptable. This is the mainstreaming of neo-Nazis hatred in America. So what can be done about it? After Fox's Tucker Carlson embraced the "great replacement theory" on his show last week, the Anti-Defamation league sent a letter to the leadership of Fox News. "Given his long record of race baiting" ADL director, Jonathan Green Blatt wrote, "we believe it is time for Carslon to go." In a response yesterday, fox CEO, Lachlan Murdoch, son of Rupert, stood fully behind Carlson. He said the Fox host wasn't really espousing the "great replacement theory" and added to the ADL had once given Murdoch's father an award. Perhaps Lachlan Murdoch just doesn't watch his own channel. Here was Carslon last night.
TUCKER CARLSON: [00:55:24] Demographic change is the key to the Democratic party's political ambitions. Let's say that again for emphasis because it is the secret to the entire immigration debate. Demographic change is the key to the Democratic party's political ambitions. In order to win and maintain power Democrats plan to change the population of the country.
MEHDI HASAN - HOST, THE MEHDI HASAN SHOW: [00:55:48] 21 minutes. That's how much of his show Tucker Carslon devoted to doubling down on the "great replacement theory" last night. To convincing his viewers that they are being replaced by immigrants, spurred on by one particular political party. He said this on the same day that a Washington Post analysis showed that domestic terrorism has reached highs not seen since the data was first collected in 1994. That rise was driven chiefly by White supremacist, anti-Muslim, and antigovernment extremists on the far right. Extremists who love Tucker Carlson.
Don't take my word for it, I'm just a Brown immigrant. Take the word of Derek Black, a former white supremacist whose father founded the neo-Nazi website Stormfront. Here he is in 2019 talking about his racist parents TV viewing habits.
DEREK BLACK: [00:56:43] My family watches Tucker Carlson's show once and then watches it on the replay because they feel that he is making the White nationalist talking points better than they have, and they're trying to get some tips on how to, how to advance it.
MEHDI HASAN - HOST, THE MEHDI HASAN SHOW: [00:56:58] Wow. Wow. Tucker Carlson is the highest rated host on one of the most watched cable channels in America. He's even been mentioned as a possible GOP presidential candidate in 2024. And he's using his huge platform to mainstream racist lies that get people murdered. Just think about how many people every night are being told by this guy, who they trust, that Black and Brown foreigners, people like me, are being brought in to replace them. And the powers at Fox News apparently have no intention of stopping him. The Murdoch's, in fact, are enabling this bigoted rhetoric. So what can be done? This is scary stuff. And how long would it take before Carslon's nightly, incitement is consigned to the dustbin of history, where it belongs with every other White supremacist theory, trope and mantra.
I'm joined now to talk about all this by Adam Serwer a politics writer at The Atlantic and author of the upcoming book, The Cruelty is the Point - essays on Trump's America. Adam, great to have you back on the show. Tucker Carslon and Lachlan Murdoch say, well, it's not "great replacement theory". It's not that at all. This is not White supremacy. Let's just be clear. This is "great replacement theory", is it not? And how shocked are you to see it on prime time US television?
ADAM SERWER: [00:58:22] Unfortunately I'm not very shocked. Tucker Carlson has been doing this for years. In 2018, I wrote a piece about how, despite the fact that the murder of Heather Heyer in Charlottesville had discredited the alt-right in its attempt to mainstream itself, what had happened is that people like Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingram had taken up this rhetoric of "replacement", where they argue that, as Tucker Carlson put it, immigrants from the third world who are obedient and will vote democratic.
And I want to say this is racist in two specific ways. One is the assumption that people from "the third world" are more obedient, or are somehow genetically incapable of being conservative. We know this isn't true. For one thing, a lot of people, a lot of immigrants from Latin America, for example, are coming from countries that have liberal left wing governments, and so they're actually more conservative than you would expect them to be. The assumption that somehow only White people can be really conservatives is itself racist. But the other part is that what they're saying is that America is fundamentally a White Christian ethno state, and so the presence of people who are not White Christians is a denial of White Americans rightful heritage, which is control over the country.
And this idea is not particularly original. It's the source of the racist immigration restrictions that were adopted by the United States at the turn of the century to exclude people from Africa, people from Asia, even Jews and Italians that were repealed in the 1960s that people like Steven Miller think of this as a great tragedy because America repealed its racial conception of citizenship. The damage that this conspiracy theory, or it's not even a [conspiracy theory], it is an ideological statement of values about White people being better than other people. And about America's fundamental essence having to do with White Christianity.
This theory has had incredibly ruinous consequences all over the world, not just in the United States. There's nothing particularly original or intellectual or clever about it, they are simply repeating the racism that we saw at the turn of the century with the nativists and the people who designed America's immigration restriction laws at that time, particularly to keep out nonwhites and Jews.
Arrest The Police - The Muckrake Political Podcast - Air Date 4-16-21
NICK HASSELMAN: [01:00:30] This is a week filled with all sorts of things that all connect in a weird way. You'll talk to these cops who've been in the force for 25 years and they're jaded and they've seen shit that'll curl your toes. They know what it's like and they'll tell you, how dare you say to defend us or whatever, we know how to take care of this stuff and we've been doing it long enough, but the bottom line is taking care of this stuff is what we keep seeing every week, every day, across the country. So it's hard because that argument is, well shit, he's got a lot of experience, he knows bad people can be, but those aren't the people that probably should be really doing the policy because they are jaded. It's been so long in the soup.
Now we've had Kristen Clarke from the Senate to be the civil rights lawyer for the administration. I was listening to Fox, I happened to stumble upon Fox news on my radio while they were talking about this and they're trying to tar and feather her as some radical who hates Jews and who hates White people and all these different things, and then out of nowhere though they start talking about the 1619 Project. I'm not even sure how that even came about in the midst of this discussion,
JARED YATES SEXTON: [01:01:31] Oh I know how, I can tell you.
NICK HASSELMAN: [01:01:32] Well you can connect that, because what they say is what if you teach a 1619 Project, you are going to teach kids to hate their country and hate the cops. Now, watching that video we just saw would teach me to hate the cops, I'm sure would teach a lot of people to hate the cops like you're talking about. Here they are saying, well, if we teach actual real history of the United States, that's going to teach you to hate the cops too. Okay, great. Let's reform this. If we both are in the same page here, then let's do something about it.
JARED YATES SEXTON: [01:02:01] Well, okay. So I'm going to take a wild right turn and I promise I'll bring it back. Just stay with me for a second. Okay. So we spend some time on this show talking about popular culture and movies and stuff, and how it's in conversation with culture and politics and it reflects it and goes back and forth. I think all of us are very familiar from the 1980s, even late 1970s, 1980s, early 1990s, we're very familiar with the gritty cop movies where the cops go outside the lines, but they need to. They need to go outside the lines. They need to rough people up. They need to not respect people's rights. They need to plant evidence. They need to break in and then come up with reasons why they did it. "Are you feeling lucky, punk?"
And all of that stuff, by the way, that's not just movies and popular culture, that is an ideology in America. Which is, they need to do that stuff, and it's a bunch of pussy liberals who want you to follow the rules. And by the way, that's the whole thing that they're doing. Is it's the idea, it's an emasculated culture that somehow or another cares about criminals rights, more than they care about the rights of the people.
It's all bullshit. That idea is what those people want, which is fascism. They just don't want our cameras around. Rodney King was a sea change moment because it was like, hey, every now and then if you're going to crack some dudes skull, you're going to get caught on camera doing it. They want it to continue to happen, they just want us to shut up about it and let them get to the dirty work of abusing people and violating their rights.
That's number one, number two, the 1619 project is reframing America through the lens of slavery and White supremacy. Guess what? The original police squads in this country we're about reigning in "dangerous" slaves. And I'm talking about fugitive slaves who ran away. I'm talking about slave uprisings. That's how you get the police. That's how you get the second amendment. All of that stuff comes from the fact that there were more of them, then there were the slave masters and slave owners. They needed a force with overwhelming force. That's not untrue. That's a hundred percent our history. They don't want to talk about that. They don't want that in the discourse.
And by the way, I've spent a lot of time on the book lately researching what we would call "cultural Marxism". And we've heard that. They'll say it every now and then on Fox News when they're not minding their P's and Q's, and it sounds like it's just Marxist philosophy or whatever. That's not what it is. It's a conspiracy theory and this actually expounds on something we've talked about a lot and what they try and do. Cultural Marxism says that movies, TV shows, books, art, culture, music that makes you feel bad about being an American, that criticizes the American experience.
By the way, we would be grouped in on that. We would be considered a culturally Marxist podcast because we criticize America. That it's a conspiracy and it's being done by surprise, surprise, Jewish people and communist in order to make people feel bad about America so they can destroy America. And it goes back to everything we keep talking about, which is it's a giant fucking conspiracy and don't you dare criticize them, or you were attacking America, which is why the police need to be a standing army.
NICK HASSELMAN: [01:05:25] Okay. Wow. You got all the way around the block and back again on that.
JARED YATES SEXTON: [01:05:29] I'm exhausted. Yeah.
NICK HASSELMAN: [01:05:31] It's funny -- it's not funny -- it's kind of amazing that we are still dealing with the same mindset and same keywords and same warnings that we've done since the 60s, the 50s, this goes all the way back the beginning of our country. It's almost like -- my 13 year old son starts talking about domino theory all of a sudden. We were talking about Afghanistan earlier today and I said if we just would have stayed for 79 and we would of helped the Mujahideen, we would of had Osama bin Laden on our side and help them build schools, yadda, yadda, and he was like, why? We helped them stop the Russians and then the Russians went away and then we have no obligation to be in there anymore. I was like, wow. The point being that we've always you had the same kind of argument, which the domino theory is included in that, of these people who think that they know better, and we keep, I guess, listening to them. We keep electing people who say this shit even though they're wrong over and over again.
And it includes the economy as well, which again goes back to why we have crime or a lot of the reasons why of crime is because people aren't put in situations where they don't have anything. And then they're radicalized and they don't like the cops and then they have to steal and rob. So the point being that like the economy creates a lot of the crime that we have. And so if you want to pick and choose which political party at least pretends to have the interests of people who are in the lower class in mind to, try and help that you'd have to say that the Democratic party, at least rhetorically is in much better shape to defend that then certainly the Republicans.
JARED YATES SEXTON: [01:07:00] Yeah. And listen, I'm going to take us on a little bit of a historical stroll because I have to tell you, the research I've been doing over the past couple of weeks came at a really good time. I was back in the 18th century looking at revolutions and counter revolutions and all of that, and I came across basically the emergence of modern policing and modern intelligence agencies, domestic and foreign. And the origins of both the policing and intelligence agencies was to stem the idea of revolution.
Okay, like in Britain at that point, in the 18th century, they are becoming the dominant empire. They've just lost America, but they're taking over India, they've got Australia, they've really taken over the slave trade, all of this stuff. Well, guess what, when you're building an empire or operating an empire, like we talked about on Tuesday's episode, it costs a lot of money Nick. You gotta pay for a lot of troops, you gotta pay for a lot of infrastructure, you gotta pay for one project after another to keep up that thing.
Guess where you get the money from, if this sounds familiar to Americans living in the 21st century. You can't spend that money on your people. Oh my God. Can you imagine if you gave them healthcare and modern infrastructure and those types of things? They need to shut the fuck up! And you know what, if they want to keep talking and they want to keep causing problems, we'll put money in the police. That's a better bet because they shouldn't have the money and look how poor and stupid they are. Give the money to police in the police will make sure that they're like that. And by the way, while we're at it, let's just pass a bunch of laws. And basically we'll go ahead and create, tell me if this sounds familiar, and this is an 18th century Britain, a mass incarceration state.
So what ends up happening with major empires is they spend all of their money on conquering and wars and all of this maneuvering that we talked about on Tuesday, there's no money left for the people back home. And when they start talking trash or they start talking about revolution, here's a term for everybody, it's called Foucault's boomerang. You ready for this? So what we're doing over in another country, like in Iraq, like in Afghanistan, those methods that we've learned how to put down insurgents, it always boomerangs back. Because the money you're spending over there means you can't spend money in your country. Which means where do you put your money? You started giving police squads tanks. You start giving them automatic weapons. You start giving them all of the accompaniments of what you'd give the military. And guess what happens when they start being armed like that Nick? They start thinking like the military. They start acting like the military. Because they are the military.
NICK HASSELMAN: [01:09:40] Well, when you're in Afghanistan for 20 years, you're bound to have a lot of people coming back who were trained in that theater who are now those cops anyway. And so that's also part of this issue. I'm not going to make a direct correlation between, well, these are all obviously former military people are killing everybody, but there is no question that the mindset exists, that they feel like they're in a military outfit.
Here's what's interesting about when you want to bring up the Britain comparison, is that they don't allow guns. The cops don't have guns, the people aren't allowed to have guns except for sport. By the way Britain has Medicare for everybody.
JARED YATES SEXTON: [01:10:12] Do you know why they don't have guns? Do you know why they're not as obsessed with guns?
NICK HASSELMAN: [01:10:17] It's not in their...
JARED YATES SEXTON: [01:10:19] The majority of their slave exploitation was happening across the ocean. The American obsession with guns comes from the fact that we had a lot more slaves than we did Americans, and as a result we needed to put them down. Britain exported it. It was over here in America. " You don't have to worry about that, they'll take care of it", which is why the American character is so obsessed with guns. They have to put down slave rebellions. Britain didn't worry about that it moved to all of its problems across the ocean.
Final comment announcing our first-ever live event with Dr. Roger Ray
JAY TOMLINSON - HOST, BEST OF THE LEFT: [01:10:48] We've just heard clips today, starting with all in with Chris Hayes directly comparing the policing of street protests with the police presence at the Capitol insurrection, Roger Ray, and one of his progressive faith sermons detailed to be deep strain of racism in our police and military. John Oliver on last week tonight took on Tucker Carlson, Trevor Noah on the daily show asked about all of the good apples among the police Thom Hartmann highlighted the absurdity of the founders, encouraging a policy to arm citizens against the government.
All in with Chris Hayes, looked at the formation of the America first caucus and the 1965 immigration reform. And. The Medhi Hassan show highlighted Tucker Carlson's embrace of the great replacement theory and the full endorsement from white supremacists that he enjoys. That's what everyone heard. But members also heard a bonus clip from the muck rake political podcast, discussing the macro dynamics.
Play in police militarization, an idea called the rebound effect that happens when empires over militarized abroad, but eventually cracked down at home as well for non-members those bonus clips are linked in the show notes and our part of the transcript for today's episode to so you can still find them if you want to make the effort.
But to hear that and all of our bonus content delivered seamlessly into your podcast feed, sign up to support the show at Best of the Left dot com slash support or request a financial hardship membership, because we don't make a lack of funds, a barrier to hearing more information. Every request is granted.
No questions asked. And now I would normally once again be saying that we'll be hearing from you, but today is entirely different. Than usual, nothing like this has happened in a decade or more. I had a guest joining me.
So joining me is none other than Dr. Roger Ray. Hello, Roger. Hi Jay. This is a special occasion. As I told the folks at the beginning of the show, we had a big announcement. And well, I didn't say you were involved, but they heard from you in the shower today. Can I say I had an announcement, but the truth is that we have an announcement that we're going to be doing a live event as a fun experiment.
The driving force of which is a conversation between us about community. So we think that this is going to be a different kind of live event than you might be thinking of. Roger, you've been doing. Live events now, you know, weekly for a little while in your community and just on zoom. Yeah.
DR. ROGER RAY- PASTOR, PROGRESSIVE FAITH SERMONS: [01:13:33] Yes. And we're all getting pretty tired of it, I guess.
JAY TOMLINSON - HOST, BEST OF THE LEFT: [01:13:39] And I think that that is. The instinctual response that a lot of people might have like, Oh no, another zoom event, but I think this one is different enough that it's going to peak some people's interests. So it is primarily going to feature a conversation between us and you can watch us have a conversation live.
We're going to be talking about community, the value and importance of it. The lack of it that we've been missing during the pandemic and so forth. But we wanted to. Have an event that incorporates interaction with the audience. So that is going to include both Q and A's interactions. And. Small group sort of breakout groups where people can actually communicate with each other, which we thought was fitting for a discussion about community.
DR. ROGER RAY- PASTOR, PROGRESSIVE FAITH SERMONS: [01:14:32] Yeah, I, it's a, it's a topic of big concern for me and not just community in the sense of being neighborly. I've done a lot of work over the last few years with this book that I've told you about J uh, Johann Hari's lost connections because looked at from. A psychological vantage point. I worked with a psychologist in doing some conferences on suicide prevention and treatment for depression.
And, uh, it turns out that having a vital connection to nature, to meaningful work. And to intimate relationships, friendships and family relationships. That is the best treatment by far better than serotonin drugs. Not that I'm giving pharmacological advice, but there's something to being a tree hugger, actually having a vital connection.
To nature and vital friendships that can pull us out of depression can prevent suicide. And even it has effects on the stress levels that we feel that, that cause high blood pressure and that caused diabetes and eating disorders. But then the pandemic comes along. And so, you know, like the most successful addiction treatment in the world, uh, has been the 12 step movement for all of its failings.
But what it does well is that it puts people together around the table who are all sharing the common goal of sobriety. And really that connection is what makes it work. So the pandemic comes along and we tell all these millions of people. That they should no longer attend meetings. So is it any surprise when you go to the grocery store in the, the guy behind you has a buggy full of liquor bottles that, uh, alcohol abuse, drug abuse, suicide attempts, depression, all of the opioid addictions.
They've all gone through the roof during the pandemic. So how do we create community? When we really need to not be touching each other or breathing on each other so much. Now, hopefully the vaccines are going to allow us some greater contact, but it's not, I guess what I'm trying to say, Jay, for me, the subject goes to the very heart of my work and not just about having more friends and backyard cookouts.
It's. It's about preventing addiction, suicide and depression.
JAY TOMLINSON - HOST, BEST OF THE LEFT: [01:17:07] Absolutely. And so Amanda got her hands on a thesaurus today and informed me that what we're having is a, is a colloquy. I imagine, you know what that is. Uh,
DR. ROGER RAY- PASTOR, PROGRESSIVE FAITH SERMONS: [01:17:19] at least attended a lot of them at Vanderbilt. I don't know that I ever questioned the fact that I was going to be in a room where I had to listen to other people's views.
JAY TOMLINSON - HOST, BEST OF THE LEFT: [01:17:29] There we go. Yeah. So it's the distinction between a live show. Come watch us have a conversation. This really is a conversation that we want to have with other people. And we think we have a platform that's going to allow that to happen. And. Happen. Well, so we'll be talking about it as the date nears, but the event is coming up on May 10th, 8:00 PM, Eastern, a link to register just to pre-register for free.
Just so you get reminders later are in the show notes for today's episode, you can also go to Best of the Left dot com slash live. And that will just take you right to where you need to go. But Roger, while I had you, the timing couldn't be more perfect because what I didn't have time to get into the show today was Tucker Carlson's response.
The ADL, the Anti-Defamation league, very pro Israel, a lobby group. You know, they are all in the guard against anti-Semitism, wherever it rears its head. They called out Tucker Carlson for his white supremacy. We didn't have time to get this into the show, but his response to them was telling on multiple levels.
And he basically argued that. Well, what I'm doing calling for nationalism in America is really not so different than what Israel is calling for and what the ADL themselves has touted quite strongly. And I thought I literally don't know anyone who I'd rather ask about that. Then Roger Ray.
DR. ROGER RAY- PASTOR, PROGRESSIVE FAITH SERMONS: [01:19:07] Well, thanks for that.
And as you have heard me say in the past, I'm not the asshole for, so I don't know if interpreting Tucker Carlson is something that either he or I would be comfortable with. But if what Tucker is saying is that Israel is guilty of nationalized racism. I agree. Israel is guilty of that, but in a lot of ways, England in the United States, Set them up for failure by trying to steal Palestinian land in the 1940s to create a Jewish Homeland, we solved the European sin by stealing property from people that weren't involved in the Holocaust.
So we put a Jewish minority in the middle of a huge Muslim part of the world. And now if they give Arabs. Citizenship then the Jewish state would be voted out of existence. If they form a two-state solution, then they recognize that the hostility that exists all around them, other than the Mediterranean sea Israel is completely surrounded by people that don't want them to exist.
And so I understand that Israel is doing horrible racist, nationalist stuff. And I wish that we had given them New Jersey instead of that particular piece of land, but it's an unwinnable situation, but I still would say that what Tucker Carlson said on that program was fundamentally a confession that what he is advocating for is racist.
He doesn't want to talk about race, but when you're talking about being replaced, Is he talking about Latin Americans? Is he talking about immigrants from other nations or is it really just the old Nazi trope of a fear of, uh, Brown skin people in fear of Jews?
JAY TOMLINSON - HOST, BEST OF THE LEFT: [01:21:04] Yup. Yup. Um, I think, uh, I think that sums it up well, Um, okay.
Well, I'm, I'm definitely looking forward to our conversation with each other and, and anyone else who wants to join again, we're going to be telling you about it as the date approaches, but it's, uh, May 10th, 8:00 PM Eastern time. And there's a link to all the details in the show notes. May I
DR. ROGER RAY- PASTOR, PROGRESSIVE FAITH SERMONS: [01:21:26] add one further invitation, you know, Jay and I both work in a medium, I've got a small seated congregation in Springfield, Missouri that I actually know and visit in their homes.
And what have you, but Jane and I both know that we've got tens of thousands of listeners, mostly in the United States, but also Canada and England and Ireland, Scotland, South Africa, Australia. But it's such a one-way form of communication. You occasionally get calls all in responses. You get some emails.
I get a lot of emails and I sometimes get calls and visits from people, but the overwhelming majority of people. Who would be our best friends. If we knew them and live near them, we've never met. I wish you would join us on this program and join in the conversation and give us a chance to connect with you
JAY TOMLINSON - HOST, BEST OF THE LEFT: [01:22:21] now, just one attendant to that as a pretty severe introvert myself. I'm very sensitive to how encouraging communities discussion might cause just as many people to run screaming as it would attract people. I want to emphasize that the community engagement aspect of the event is entirely optional. I hope that everyone will feel comfortable enough to engage when the time actually comes, but don't let that scare you away.
You can call them, you can watch the live show and not see. Another human being or have them see you in any sense. So don't let that be the thing that scares you off. I promise that this event will meet every single person exactly where they are at their own comfort level. And as promised more details to come for now, keep the comments coming in at (202) 999-3991.
Or by emailing me to Jay at Best of the Left dot com. That is going to be it for today. Thanks to everyone for listening. Thanks to Deon Clark and Erin Clayton for their research work for the show. Thanks to the monosyllabic, transcriptionist trio, Ben, Dan and Ken for their volunteer work, helping put our transcripts together.
Thanks to Amanda Hoffman for all of her work on our social media outlets. Yeah. Activism segments, graphic design, web mastering, and everything else. And of course, thanks to those who support the show by becoming a member or purchasing gift memberships, Best of the Left dot com slash support as that is absolutely how the program survives for details on the show itself, including links to all of the sources and music used in this and every episode, all of that information can always be found in the show notes on the blog and likely right on the device you're using to listen.
So coming to you from far outside, the conventional wisdom of Washington, DC. Yeah. My name is Jay, and this has been the Best of the Left podcast coming to you twice weekly. Thanks entirely to the members and donors to the show from Best of the Left dot com.
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