A very dark place
Cranks, conspiracy theory and the paranoid delusion of Jewish power
This is an expanded version of my column in today’s Times (£).
An interview last week with America’s most influential podcaster, Tucker Carlson, was as illuminating as it was chilling.
Carlson represents an extremist, conspiracist faction in MAGA world. He has platformed innumerable antisemites, Holocaust deniers and people who want the destruction of Israel.
He’s not often held to account for what he himself believes. The editor of the Economist, Zanny Minton Beddoes, set out to do just that. In an interview with Carlson, she asked him if he agreed with Israel’s right to exist.
This led to an interminable circular back and forth in which he repeatedly said he didn’t understand the question.
Beddoes tried several ways of making it clearer. Carlson burrowed more deeply into his rabbit hole. The phrase “right to exist’’ he said, “was decided by the Israeli government”.
Gosh, the Israelis now control language itself! Who knew?
“I don’t want Israel to be destroyed” he said. So was he a Zionist, asked Beddoes, on the narrow grounds that Israel has a right to exist. No way, said Carlson, and returned to claiming he didn’t even know what “right to exist” even meant.
Well, it was clear what he meant: the semantic chaff he was throwing up to deflect the question meant he doesn’t believe Israel has a right to exist.
He didn’t want it to be destroyed, he said, because he didn’t want any country to be destroyed. He didn’t approve of the loss of innocent life, he declared.
Well, that was nice of him. But if Israel doesn’t have a right to exist, it has no right to defend itself by force against those who very much want to destroy it.
Carlson is no mere crank. He has enormous influence over millions of Americans — mainly men under the age of about 40 — who treat his poisonous opinions as near holy writ.
This faction forms a very significant chunk of Donald Trump’s core MAGA constituency. Carlson’s enormous following propelled Trump into power. Carlson’s son works for Vice-President JD Vance.
Trump recently spoke out against this faction — very late in the day, but at least he did it. JD Vance, however, has explicitly refused to denounce his old friend Carlson, on the grounds that there should be a big tent on the right for disagreement and conflicting views.
But people who think Israel shouldn’t exist and who relentlessly platform eye-watering antisemites should be given no house-room in a tent of any size.
