Tucker Carlson showed up on Twitter at 8:00 PM ET (heh heh) with an unannounced monologue last night that already had more views than his show on Fox ever got (averaged 3.2 million viewers) an hour after he posted it.
His topic was the “unbelievably stupid debates” we see on television, which are irrelevant and forgettable. Yet, he says, almost none of them concern really big topics like war, emerging science, demographic changes, civil liberties and corporate power, among them. His accusation: both political parties and their donors collude to shut down any discussion about those big topics because they aren’t in their best interests.
His conclusion: the United States is a one-party system.
His hope: our current moment is too ridiculous to last.
When honest people say what’s true, calmly and without embarrassment, they become powerful. At the same time the liars, who’ve been trying to silence them, shrink, and they become weaker. That’s the iron law of the universe: true things prevail.
This is a theme that he offered at the Heritage Foundation on Friday, the last night of his show (unbeknownst to him at the time).
The second you decide to tell the truth about something, you are filled with this — I don’t want to get supernatural on you — but you are filled with this power from somewhere else. Try it! Tell the truth about something. You feel it every day. The more you tell the truth, the stronger you become. That’s completely real. It’s measurable in the way that you feel.
You can watch his entire speech here.
I understand what he’s describing. I think it’s that sense of relief once you stop pretending that something is true that isn’t. If you hold a lie as the truth, it creates a tension within you. Once you admit the truth, that tension is released. That “power” you feel is the freedom the truth brings.
As Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32). That’s admittedly a bit of misapplication, but the principle, “the truth will set you free,” remains.
Carlson’s speech is interesting for another reason — it may be why he was fired from Fox. Here’s Matt Walsh’s take.
You can find the Vanity Fair article Walsh refers to here.
Of course, Carlson’s 8:00 PM slot at Fox News has already grown cold and thousands of viewers have canceled their Fox Nation subscriptions.
Fox must’ve thought their audience was so loyal to their brand that they could survive firing the most powerful conservative voice in cable news — in all of journalism, really. As I said on Tuesday, I’m guessing it will be a Bud Light moment, and a real head-scratcher at that.
But Carlson will be back and I hope he’ll hammer home the truth even more powerfully.