Tucker Carlson is a fan of weaving his own conspiracy theories, like claiming that Joe and Jill Biden’s 44-year marriage is some kind of long con and a publicity stunt to pull the wool over the eyes of the American people. Why? Who knows, other than him clearly favoring a First Couple that can’t stand each other. This time, he’s trying to turn a conspiracy-theory loving crowd into a nonexistent entity while claiming that Democrats are actually the ones who invented the conspiracy.
Tucker’s not making much sense here, but he’s talking about the QAnon conspiracy that’s embraced by politicians including Marjorie Taylor Greene (who believes that Jewish space lasers created California wildfires, which not even Sean Hannity can stomach). He’s talking about the QAnon conspiracy that guided the famed QAnon Shaman. And Tucker’s now trying to convince that no one actually follows QAnon, and that it was actually dreamed up by Democrats and CNN, and that everyone’s been imagining everything that they’ve seen with the far-right embracing QAnon and thousands of believers violently (and fatally) rioting at the U.S. Capitol.
Never mind that Tucker Carlson has interviewed several admitted QAnon followers on this Fox News show. Here’s how his bizarre argument begins: with him declaring that QAnon must not exist because he can’t find evidence or even a website for it.
Tucker Carlson says he couldn’t find any evidence that the Qanon conspiracy theory even exists, like theres nothing out there proving that it’s a thing pic.twitter.com/tqeYm73pAb
— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) February 24, 2021
It’s a classic case of gaslighting and claiming ignorance by misdirection.
Next step in the whitewash: “who is this ‘Q’ of which you speak? There is no website!” Deny, plead ignorance, misdirect… is there any question why people are confused? Quit lying, accept reality and use your energy to make us a better country. #Country1st #restoreourgop https://t.co/mYT4OAhmY8
— Adam Kinzinger (@RepKinzinger) February 24, 2021
Then Tucker got down to demanding to know where this QAnon business came from in the first place. Via the Daily Beast, he declared, “It’s worth finding out where the public is getting all this false information, this disinformation as we’ll call it… we checked Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Twitter feed, because we have heard she traffics in disinformation. CNN told us. But nothing there.” He kept on going with his gaslighting ways.
“Next, we called our many friends in the tight-knit intel community,” Tucker inquired. “Could Vladimir Putin be putting this stuff out there? The Proud Boys? Alex Jones? Who is lying to America in ways that are certain to make us hate each other, and certain to destroy our core institutions?” Then Tucker decided that he knew where QAnon began (from the mouths of Democratic politicians and CNN): “It was cable news. It was politicians talking on TV. They’re the ones spreading disinformation to Americans. Maybe they’re from QAnon.”
None of what Tucker is saying makes any sense, of course, but it’s enough to plant the seeds of doubt (and mistrust) in his far-right audience’s mind. And that’s the name of the game for him: erasing reality and pushing his own version of the truth.