White supremacists come out of hiding as they’re welcomed into the GOP and at Fox News: columnist
White supremacists have hidden under their white hoods for decades. Now, that mostly anonymous group is coming out from hiding to practice their far-right beliefs publicly, wrote columnist Wajahat Ali in the Daily Beast.
Last week, they were even recognized by Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who eagerly prompted the racist "great replacement" theory that immigrants somehow nullify the existence of white people. As Casey Michael pointed out, the theory "has propelled fascistic massacres from New Zealand to San Diego to El Paso, Texas."
Ali congratulated racist America as they're allowed to come out from their shadows.
"This week firmly established that you no longer need to hate from the margins and fringes," he wrote. "You have found Valhalla, a thriving, lucrative, and loving kingdom within the conservative establishment where your racism and hateful conspiracy theories are embraced by the modern GOP. Just look upon Fox News host, multimillionaire, and privileged frozen food heir Tucker Carlson using his influential platform to literally parrot all of your white supremacist talking points."
He noted that those defending Carlson are part of the white supremacist movement. VDARE, an extremist white nationalist group, in particular, was among those who cheered Carlson's "great replacement" segment. It was "one of the best things Fox News has ever aired," he said. He even encouraged VDARE members to watch it because it "was filled with ideas and talking points" from their group.
"Walking mediocrity and habitually wrong conspiracy theorist, Charlie Kirk of Turning Points USA—the 'alt light' platform for young conservatives—also praised Carlson and his inaccurate and racist rant as 'factual and true,'" wrote Ali. "Even before this segment, Andrew Anglin, one of America's most prominent white supremacists, has referred to Carlson as 'literally our greatest ally.'"
It's a surprising new world among Fox hosts, who previously would shield their racist tendencies with vague comments and forced apologies. Ali remembered two years ago, after the El Paso shooting, Carlson was put on a forced vacation after he called while supremacy "a hoax" and claimed it isn't "a real problem." But times have changed and Carlson's comments last week wasn't a problem for the new Fox overlords.
Fox Corporation chief executive Lachlan Murdoch told the Anti-Defamation League that while it doesn't support white supremacy or anti-Semitism, it doesn't believe Carlson supported "white replacement" theory, CNN reported.
"As Mr. Carlson himself stated during the guest interview: 'White replacement theory? No, no, this is a voting rights question,'" he quoted Carlson. The ADL didn't buy it, saying that Carlson's comments went from denouncing the theory to embracing it in the sentences that followed.
Carlson's "attempt to at first dismiss" the replacement theory "while in the very next breath endorsing it under cover of 'a voting rights question' does not give him free license to invoke a white supremacist trope," said ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt.
As Ali explained, these ideologies are the minority of the minority. And it is long past "time for the majority to call out this hate explicitly, name it, condemn it, and mobilize all of our resources to preserve and protect this fragile democracy and our communities' security."
He closed by hoping that "the GOP and right-wing establishment will join us in these efforts instead of sharing common purpose, conspiracy theories, and talking points with white supremacist extremists."
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