Tucker Carlson has failed to assimilate

[TitanTiger 20,472]

 

Quote

 

Tucker Carlson Has Failed to Assimilate
The Fox News host betrayed core American values in his attack on Representative Ilhan Omar.

Conor Friedersdorf
Staff writer at The Atlantic

Richard Drew / AP

While I favor granting citizenship automatically to children born in the United States, I was reminded of birthright citizenship’s biggest downside Tuesday while listening to Tucker Carlson on his Fox News show.

Unlike immigrants, natural-born citizens such as Carlson are neither screened nor forced to pass a citizenship test nor made to swear an oath. And when they stray from the American way, no one thinks to tell them that they’re failing to assimilate.  

But isn’t “failure to assimilate” an accurate way to characterize Carlson’s angry identitarianism? Carlson, who broadcasts to millions of viewers on national television, keeps fueling xenophobia and needless social strife by singling out people who weren’t born in America for special ire, then attributing negative qualities to whole groups. He just can’t get with the program of the American experiment.

A case in point was his monologue last night about Ilhan Omar, a Somali-born woman who came to the U.S. as a 12-year-old refugee and is now, at 36, a member of Congress. *

Carlson purported to characterize her views. “Omar isn’t disappointed in America,” he said. “She’s enraged by it. Virtually every public statement she makes accuses Americans of bigotry and racism. This is an immoral country, she says. She has undisguised contempt for the United States and for its people.”

A review of Omar’s public statements shows that isn’t true. Although Omar is frequently critical of the United States, she tends to attack what she regards as the country’s failure to live up to its lofty values. “She was almost like a cliché of a civic-minded new American,” one of her college professors told The New York Times. “She would quote the Declaration of Independence asking, ‘Why have we come up short?’”

The same article quotes Ilhan saying: “I think back to the orientations I went through a little over 20 years ago in the process of coming to this country, and in those orientations they did not have people who were homeless. There was an America that extended liberty and justice to everyone. There was an America where prosperity was guaranteed regardless of where you were born and what you looked like and who you prayed to. I wasn’t comfortable with that hypocrisy.”

I don’t always agree with Omar. And I don’t expect Carlson to, either. If Carlson had simply quoted Omar’s views and dissented on the merits, even harshly, I would not be writing on the subject.

But Carlson suggested that because Omar came here as a child, she doesn’t have the right to voice critical opinions about America—that her gratitude for citizenship should result in silence. And then he cited her views as if they bear on the attitudes of immigrants generally, before engaging in sweeping, negative generalizations about them.

“Ilhan Omar is living proof that the way we practice immigration has become dangerous to this country,” he said. “A system designed to strengthen America is instead undermining it … She’s a living fire alarm, a warning to the rest of us that we ought to change our immigration system immediately, or else.”

What an odd conclusion to draw from Omar’s example. Isn’t getting elected to Congress a great achievement, and proof of assimilation? There is no more establishment, Founding Father–approved way of seeking change than winning elected office and proposing new laws. Whether or not Omar overestimates the relative degree of injustice in America, seeking to remedy its ills through official channels is the opposite of dangerous.

The notion that Omar alone proves anything about America’s immigration system, for better or worse, is absurd. If Carlson wants to make the case that the immigration system is broken, he should find evidence, not an avatar to rile up his audience. What’s a term to describe someone who insists that whole groups of people are bad in the same way, and ceases to treat members of that group as individuals?

Tucker Carlson is that term.

“Maybe we’re importing people from places whose values are simply antithetical to ours,” Carlson continued. But isn’t it Carlson who holds views antithetical to American harmony? Perhaps Carlson provides “living proof” that it is dangerous to grant citizenship to San Francisco–born, La Jolla–raised white men.

If that sounds like a parody of what a “grievance studies” professor would believe, Carlson is the real-life, nativist analogue of that parody, fit for a tenured chair at Trump University. For other examples of his generalizations about foreign-born people, I refer you to his fear-mongering monologue concerning Roma refugees in America and his appearances on a morning radio show, where he called the citizens of Iraq “semiliterate primitive monkeys” for whom he has “zero sympathy.” He has also suggested that immigration “makes our own country poorer and dirtier and more divided.”

I think Carlson divides America. And I’d rather hear the views of the first 100 immigrants listed in the Boston phone book than those of Carlson and his Fox producers. Many call Carlson’s show “racist,” which I would resist—strictly speaking, it is more accurate to call it xenophobic, animus-filled, prejudicial, poorly reasoned, and bigoted.

As a natural-born American like Carlson, I hope no one groups us together and makes assumptions about me based on his views. I ask not to be judged for his words.

 

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/tucker-carlson-ilhan-omar/593602/

 

For the record, this M.O. of selectively quoting someone to extract contextless, scary, 'outrage' soundbites, then using them as an avatar for an entire group of those people to illicit fear and suspicion of the "other" is not limited to Carlson.  It's been a staple of the Fox News primetime talking head shows for several years.  But I love how the author here exposes that tactic for what it is.

[aubiefifty 16,737]

i consider him a bomb thrower. he and people like him are the reason her and aoc and some of the others get death threats pretty much daily unless it ha slowed down some how. one day someone will be murdered over the garbage he mostly spews and then they will pretend to be saddened for a day or two and then go right back doing the same crap over and over again. remember when the softball practice shooter dropped some folks? pretty much all of them included ted the ped nugent all backed off for a while. that did not last long. and not all but many on the right on this board could care less. i have seen someone claim to be a christian on here and almost openly weep over the loss of rod and his wife but have not batted an eye about the young man and his son that drowned for the sole reason of hoping to give his son a better life. and is that not what most folks with children want? or show no remorse over children stripped from their parents? or call out the shooters on the right that go to churches and other places and kill everyone they can? then you find out they are trump  supporters who have been emboldened by trumps rhetoric. seriously, what other opinion can you come to with this kind of horrible stuff happens and people deflect or outright lie about why something really happened. it should be about law and order but i see very few on here denounce it. have i missed something? where is the outrage or common decency for our fellow man? i dislike trump with a passion but i do not want to see him murdered. i just want him to move to a third world country.

[alexava 6,973]

I don’t care for Carlson,,,,, or Omar. 

[AUDub 11,137]

Brilliant op-ed. Thanks for posting that. 

[Grumps 3,704]

Tucker Carlson has by far the worst Fox News nighttime show. He would much rather get people upset than to tell even a partial truth.

[NolaAuTiger 3,295]

26 minutes ago, AUDub said:

Brilliant op-ed. Thanks for posting that. 

You should totally tweet it bro!

[AUDub 11,137]

7 minutes ago, NolaAuTiger said:

You should totally tweet it bro!

 

[autigeremt 6,589]

I don't trust nor conform to Omar or AOC's vision of the US...but Tucker is a blow hard. 

[TitanTiger 20,472]

9 minutes ago, autigeremt said:

I don't trust nor conform to Omar or AOC's vision of the US...but Tucker is a blow hard. 

Yeah.  I like some stuff AOC says, I disagree with others or thing other things are wholly unrealistic.  I don't follow Omar as much, but I'm sure I can say the same for her.  Like the author said, if Tucker stuck to rebutting Omar's positions and views on the merits, we wouldn't be having this conversation.  No one is saying you can't debate or disagree with her.  

[channonc 466]

Thanks for posting this article. It really does point out the problem around how the debate has formed around immigration. It's obvious to me that the people most outraged about immigration and assimilation, are the least travelled around the world (generally). It's crazy how hard it is for some people to even travel here for tourism, let alone all of the steps required to get here on a work visa, etc. Not to mention all the steps (and money) it takes to actually become a citizen. 

However, I feel like our politics has become so polarized that people can't have a discussion about these serious topics without jumping to the absolute extreme. This country is filled with people who don't fit into defined boxes, therefore, solutions will also need to be more center-focused and in the "grey" so to speak. Racial dog whistles do nothing but divide and do not encourage people to try to find common ground, particularly with those who come from diverse backgrounds and with very different experiences. Diversity enriches America and makes us unique, in the greatest of ways. We should continue to embrace those sentiments and work toward common ground with our fellow neighbors-- whether they are citizens or not.

[aubiefifty 16,737]

10 minutes ago, channonc said:

Thanks for posting this article. It really does point out the problem around how the debate has formed around immigration. It's obvious to me that the people most outraged about immigration and assimilation, are the least travelled around the world (generally). It's crazy how hard it is for some people to even travel here for tourism, let alone all of the steps required to get here on a work visa, etc. Not to mention all the steps (and money) it takes to actually become a citizen. 

However, I feel like our politics has become so polarized that people can't have a discussion about these serious topics without jumping to the absolute extreme. This country is filled with people who don't fit into defined boxes, therefore, solutions will also need to be more center-focused and in the "grey" so to speak. Racial dog whistles do nothing but divide and do not encourage people to try to find common ground, particularly with those who come from diverse backgrounds and with very different experiences. Diversity enriches America and makes us unique, in the greatest of ways. We should continue to embrace those sentiments and work toward common ground with our fellow neighbors-- whether they are citizens or not.

i will discuss it. i am not big on open borders that let just anyone in. and for those that come i want them to love america and bring something to the table. i am all for the dreamers. my problem is the way we are addressing it. we are america and if we choose to we can do better. we should want to help others when we can because we are a nation of immigrants. personally i love the statue of liberty and her sayings. there was a time that we were fiercely loved as a country but after decades of screwed up policies we have become the bad guys in the eyes of many. and i just do not believe our american soldiers fought and died in massive world wars to let us fall this low.

[Auburnfan91 1,407]

While the author makes fair points about Carlson, him not calling out Omar and focusing on Carlson makes me question his objectivity. Omar is a member of Congress while Carlson is an opinion TV host........ How is Omar not dividing people also?

What has Omar done to help the situation at the border? If you're going to decry conditions at the border but then vote no on funding for the border, then you're not doing anything to help other than say "it's my way or the highway".  This isn't the same immigration problem from even 12 years ago back in 2007. There's more women and children being brought to the border. It used to be mostly men coming here 12 years ago and being apprehended. But now families are being detained and you're seeing a much more overcrowding problem with the facilities. Bottomline, there needs to be more border funding.......

As much as Omar gets offended at people's comments(Carlson's) she's had no problem not thinking before she speaks and making insensitive remarks like "some people did something". Her anti-Semitic tropes that she's apologized for like:  "It's all about the Benjamin's"

Omar isn't just attacking people like Carlson, she's went after Pelosi for voting for the funding bill in the House. This is how she characterized people who voted for the House's border funding bill:

"a vote to keep kids in cages and terrorize immigrant communities". 

 

I noticed the author only relied on "public statements" of Omar's but that doesn't include Twitter. That's deceiving imo. Trump gets bashed for his tweets in countless articles but this author doesn't seem to want to include tweets as part of her defense. It can't be fair game to critique Trump tweets but ignore Omar's tweets and only look at "public statements" like he's doing in the article.

[SaltyTiger 7,774]

On 7/10/2019 at 1:40 PM, TitanTiger said:

 It's been a staple of the Fox News primetime talking head shows for several years.  But I love how the author here exposes that tactic for what it is.

Agree, sick of  Hannity years ago and if I am correct Carlson took his PT spot on Fox. Been months since I have watched Fox. In part due to my primary home being without cable due to the hurricane. Could get the local NBC, ABC, CBS channels with an antenna strategical placed.  With that said feel that Fox does do a great job of simply reporting the news.

Remember when CNN came out in the 80's. Thought the 24/7 news broadcast was the greatest thing ever. Spent an entire rainy weekend on a trip to the coast one weekend watching a hijack drama unfold. 

 

[NolaAuTiger 3,295]

Tucker is cool in person. 

Granted, not that any of y’all give a s***.

[DKW 86 7,419]

1) One thing I have learned over the years is that selective quoting and responding, like Carlson is so guilty of, are staples of the American Media. The media members are here to serve their employers and drive the narrative by driving faux outrage by utilizing selective quoting and selective editing of videos and pictures. Example...

 

2) This is not used just by the Left nor just by the Right but by people that are MANIPULATING THE IDIOTS IN AMERICA. 

3) My good friend, Mr MSNBC uses a fake name when appearing on MSNBC. He is playing a character, PERIOD. Those of us that know him and talk with him off camera have a very very very very  aware and jaded view of how Real American Media works. Off camera, he will flat tell you that "Washington DC has One Party, The Party of Money." He will add great detail to fill in the gaps. I have come to the conclusion that Washington DC is just there for the collecting of money to be distributed to the "Friends of the Party of Money." The movie "Vice" was closer to my friend's version of THE TRUTH than many would ever care to acknowledge. 

FOLKS, GET A GRIP. ANY CONGRESS PERSON IN WASHINGTON DC FOR 20-40 YEARS IS NOT THERE TO CHANGE ANYTHING. THEY ARE THERE BECAUSE THEY ARE GETTING WEALTHY AND MAKING THEIR SUPPORTERS WEALTHY.

4) Media People are in the business of clicks, ratings, bull****, AND MAKING MONEY. 

Fox is like an assembly line of bull****. Roger Ailes is the Henry Ford of bull**** Media.
They are #1 on Cable because:
      1) They do it better than everyone else.
      2) Or maybe they have dumber viewers than everyone else.
You choose your answer here. I know people that I love that are DIEHARD Fox viewers. They are for the most part good folks. But they have parked their discernment at the curb. They like the "Pedophilic Pizza Parlor" Stories.  They want to know that their perceptions of the world, and especially race, are validated. So they follow the RusHannity Validation Model. They watch shows that validate their opinions and views, often with seemingly robotically cloned soft porn bimbos as hosts. When they are scooping out propaganda, it is apparently better to have you also slightly aroused and therefore less focused on the real content.  

These people often go to churches where their perceptions are again validated. They dont follow Christ. They wouldnt recognize Jesus if he showed up at work and told them to love their enemies, not unless he drove a 1 Ton 4X4 with a 6 inch lift kit, monster tires, a gunrack loaded with assault rifles, and the Penis Compensator installed in full view.  Murica!

No, they follow ole brother so and so that may have read the bible 3 decades ago but now watches/listens/reads the same 4-5 Talking Points Mediums that regurgitate ad infinitum the same self validating bull**** that RusHannity does. Lets face facts, the business model works and has made many many folks very popular and extremely wealthy. 

The Extreme Left, well they are now doing pretty much the same things. No Reason-Logic-Science filters for them either. Until recently I was a pretty big fan of TYT and Cenk Uygur. I have quit following Uygur. Some of the stuff on his twitter feed and FB walls has just gone 100 miles off the rails. Crazy Stuff. If you want to discuss it, PM me. But get ready for an avalanche. 

Corporate America gets wealthier by the day. The 1% get wealthier by the day. Whats left of the Middle Class is too busy arguing over bull**** to notice, and i fear that is by design. 

Want proof? 
1) For the last 40 years we have been arguing over Abortion. What has changed? Has one side prevailed? I would argue that Abortion is just a hot button, money making issue for both parties. You may think or be convinced that ABORTION POLICY has been changed etc. For the most part, until THIS YEAR, there was no real change in Abortion. No real seismic shifts came from either side yet we all have heard ad nauseum every election cycle that "Abortion Rights or Pro-Life Rights are under Attack!." Nope, it was mostly just a money raising issue that most of Washington DC just gave lip service to during the campaigns and totally ignored until the next campaign. 

2) Climate Change: going back again, about 40 years we have heard the propaganda from the American Hyperbole Masters on BOTH SIDES. In the 70s, it was the "Looming Ice Age." How did that work out? Actor Ted Danson came out and predicted that the oceans would all be dead (literally ZERO LIFE) by 1995. How did that one work out? AOC et al now say that we are all essentially on the way to extinction in 12 years.  On the Right they deny almost everything and pick and choose the details (the exceptions) they want to see. My view is this: the only reason we arent in real trouble is that the sun is going through a very very surprising dormant period and yet we still see temps rise. If the level of sun-spotting gets back to normal, which it should and will at some point, we are going to see record temps like we have never thought of before. The sun's calm is the only thing not making this issue #1 across the globe. 

I have spent some time writing all this just to point out the lunacy of some of my fellow Americans. Some will likely LIKE or LOVE this post. I will undoubtedly get 2-3 facepalms/thumbsdowns because there are just some on here that dont want to hear anything I have to say. See I DONT FIT TTTHHHEEEIIIRRR VALIDATION MODEL. Thus proving that even when you are factually correct, reasoned, and non-threatening your points will still be rejected because as the OP pointed out, VALIDATION MODELING is THE THING in America Today. Carlson is just the latest IT BOY for Validation Modeling Crowd.

[johnnyAU 3,630]

The political spectrum is definitely moving outward towards more craziness, on both sides.

We are in the lowest solar activity in the last 200  years. The next cycle may be similar, or possibly lower. The Earth's magnetic field has been weakening and its magnetic poles have been moving rapidly over the past few decades.  There are more effects from than simply TSI as the sun-Earth connection is very complex, as are the dynamics within the sun itself. 

It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the next few decades. 

[NolaAuTiger 3,295]

Alright guys, I gave the first facepalm to DKW. Let’s make his prophecy come true....GIVE HIM ANOTHER

[McLoofus 35,182]

2 hours ago, johnnyAU said:

The political spectrum is definitely moving outward towards more craziness, on both sides.

We are in the lowest solar activity in the last 200  years. The next cycle may be similar, or possibly lower. The Earth's magnetic field has been weakening and its magnetic poles have been moving rapidly over the past few decades.  There are more effects from than simply TSI as the sun-Earth connection is very complex, as are the dynamics within the sun itself. 

It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the next few decades. 

Wait a second. So we might just float away before the atmosphere burns up? 

I'm actually okay with this. Should improve my 40 time and bench press max. 

(Yes, I am being sarcastic. No, I am not discounting your information. It's just pretty much a laugh-or-cry thing.) 

[johnnyAU 3,630]

No kidding, I am hoping for some weight loss and extra hops to go with it.  A few folks I'd like to dunk on.  😁 

I know you get that I was referring to magnetic fields and poles and not geographic poles or gravitational fields,  but I'll state it just in case others might have not.  

[homersapien 11,357]

18 hours ago, NolaAuTiger said:

Tucker is cool in person. 

Granted, not that any of y’all give a s***.

So was Ted Bundy.

[NolaAuTiger 3,295]

2 hours ago, homersapien said:

So was Ted Bundy.

Wrong. You have no personal knowledge of that. Save the hearsay for someone else. 

[TitanTiger 20,472]

On 7/12/2019 at 12:34 AM, NolaAuTiger said:

Tucker is cool in person. 

Granted, not that any of y’all give a s***.

Which is wonderful. But no one is questioning what he’s like in person. We re questioning the way he does his job. 

[AU64 10,122]

10 minutes ago, TitanTiger said:

Which is wonderful. But no one is questioning what he’s like in person. We re questioning the way he does his job. 

Not sure why anyone singled him out.....there must be 50  talking heads on cable TV and I can't stand more than about 10 minutes of any of them before wondering...."didn't he/ she say that last night...or maybe last week?

It's opinion and entertainment.....and I don't put much confidence in what he or Maddow or any in between have to say as being "factual" or even being based on fact.   My view is that they are mostly  serving an audience of "like thinkers"....and of course giving opponents fodder for their tweet followers.  Products of the social media era....and best to be ignored....

PS...as for how he does his job....only matters to him if his boss is happy with the way he does his job.....via ratings.

[TitanTiger 20,472]

1 hour ago, AU64 said:

Not sure why anyone singled him out.....there must be 50  talking heads on cable TV and I can't stand more than about 10 minutes of any of them before wondering...."didn't he/ she say that last night...or maybe last week?

Why does anyone do a story on anyone in particular then?  No one is so unique that you couldn't find multiple examples of others of their kind or career field to lump into a ginormous story, right?

There have been stories on other people in media before.  It's not unusual or bothersome that this time they happened to choose Carlson.

 

1 hour ago, AU64 said:

PS...as for how he does his job....only matters to him if his boss is happy with the way he does his job.....via ratings.

You don't even believe that.  For illustrative purposes, if Tucker got on the air and went full on white supremacist, calling for death to Jews, blacks, Hispanics and so on, but got great ratings, would that mean how he does his job only matters if his boss is happy because "ratings?"  You know the answer to that as well as I do.  

It's completely reasonable to critique the way someone does their job, regardless of whether their boss is currently happy and the ratings are great.

[homersapien 11,357]

11 hours ago, NolaAuTiger said:

Wrong. You have no personal knowledge of that. Save the hearsay for someone else. 

No, I'm right. Personal knowledge has nothing to do with it. Many sources have established it. There are books on him.