In the land of sociopolitical opinions, there are smart takes, there are hot takes, there are bad takes, there are sh*t takes, and then there are Tucker Carlson’s takes, which typically fall a few places below wherever a sh*t take would find you. And his newest theory about the reason behind America’s mass shooting problem might be one of his most putrid opinions yet: Blame it on nagging women!
Sigh.
That’s right, ladies. It’s we—not guns, nor mentally unstable individuals with access to guns—who are really to blame for the more than 300 mass shootings that have taken place so far in America this year, because of all our whining about “male privilege.” That can really get to a guy!
As Mediaite reports, Tucker was as sympathetic as ever while reporting on Robert Crimo III, the suspect arrested in connection with the July 4th parade shooting in Highland Park, Illinois, which took the lives of seven people and injured dozens more. Investigations into Crimo’s past have shown that he’s not a stranger to local police—they’ve been called to his house on at least two occasions, once when he was threatening to kill himself and another when he was threatening to kill his entire family. Though police confiscated weapons from Crimo at the time, including knives and a sword, the 22-year-old was easily able to legally obtain FIVE guns in the Chicago area, including one AR-15-style rifle.
“Would you sell a gun to that guy?,” Tucker asked. “Does he seem like a nutcase? Of course he does.” But Carlson contended that the reason Crimo didn’t stand out is “maybe because there are a lot of young men in America who suddenly look and act a lot like this guy,” and that part of that is because so many young men are “numbed by the endless psychotropic drugs that are handed out at every school in the country by crackpots posing as counselors.” (Note to Tucker: School counselors are generally not licensed medical doctors, meaning they cannot prescribe—and most definitely cannot randomly “hand out”—antidepressants or any other prescription drugs.)
But this is where Carlson took a sharp right turn and went full caveman by putting an equal part of the blame for acts of violence committed by mentally unstable individuals on the “women” authority figures in their lives, who make them angry:
[T]hey’re angry. They know that their lives will not be better than their parents’. They’ll be worse. That’s all but guaranteed. They know that. They’re not that stupid. And yet the authorities in their lives—mostly women—never stop lecturing them about their so-called privilege. ‘You’re male, you’re privileged!’ Imagine that. Try to imagine an unhealthier, unhappier life than that. So, a lot of young men in America are going nuts. Are you surprised?
Well now that you put it that way, Tucker… wouldn’t the non-privileged males be angrier? And how did you calculate that most of the authority figures in these young men’s lives are women? Most importantly: Is there anyone at Fox News who’s vetting what Carlson is saying before it goes on the air?
Carlson, of course, has other questions, including: Is there a connection between antidepressants and mass shootings? While logic would dictate that a psychologically unwell person would take medication to help with their condition, and might also be more prone to violence, Carlson’s assumption is the reverse. That it’s the medications that are causing people to act out in homicidal ways. But given that approximately 13.2 percent of American adults are currently taking antidepressants, it would seem that easy access to guns might be the bigger problem. Tucker might want to check that out.
(Via Mediaite)