Friday, Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson led off his prime time program with a scathing critique of government as a whole for its response to the unfolding situation around the country, which included looting and burning and the destruction of a police station in Minneapolis.
Carlson called it a “rigged” game, and he urged viewers to remember that next time they paid their taxes.
Partial transcript as follows:
CARLSON: Remarkable scenes of violence and destruction from across the country tonight. We’re going to spend much of this hour telling you what’s happening. But before we start, a simple question: A police station in a major American city was occupied, looted and burned last night. Most of us assumed we’d never live to see something like that happen here. But it did happen. Has anyone been arrested for doing it? Will anyone ever be? No one in authority seems especially interested in apprehending the perpetrators. All of it happened on camera, but they just walked away. It’s possible most of them will ever be punished.
That’s striking. It’s very different from the experience most Americans have. As Minneapolis burns, the rest of us are continuing on as usual, dutifully following the rules. There are many of those. Every year, there seem to be countless new rules to follow. They multiply like insects. We do our best to keep up. We get our permits, apply for our licenses, put on our reading glasses to check the latest regulations on the internet. We wear our little masks. We keep our dogs on leashes. We drive sober. We don’t eat on the subway. We never litter. We make orderly lines and patiently wait our turn. In airports and government buildings, we remove our shoes and submit to body searches from strangers. We lose our dignity every time we do this, but they tell us we must, so we accept it without complaint. In public, we hide what we really think. We bury our natural instincts, and keep our deepest beliefs to ourselves. We know the boundaries. We understand we will be punished for telling the truth.
This is the America the rest of us live in. For the privilege of citizenship in a country like this, we work as hard as we can. We never stop sharing what we earn with others. We send money we’d rather give to our own children to politicians in faraway cities. With that money, they make new rules. We follow those rules to the letter. That’s what we were raised to do. That’s the deal we’ve struck.
At least we thought it was. Now we know that other people have somehow negotiated a far better deal. They get to ignore the rules. There don’t believe in order or fairness. They reject society itself. Reason and process mean nothing to them. They use violence to get what they want. People like this don’t bother to work. They don’t volunteer or pay taxes to help others. They live for themselves. They do exactly what they feel like doing. They say exactly what they feel like saying. They spray paint their opinions on buildings. On television, hour by hour, we watch these people — criminal mobs — destroy what the rest of us have built. They have no right to do that. They don’t contribute to the common good. They never have. Yet suddenly, they seem to have all the power.
[…]
CARLSON: The rioters in Minneapolis act as if they’re allowed to loot and burn. In fact, they are allowed. No one stops them. The authorities don’t arrest them. Instead, they pander to them, flatter them, desperately try to win their love. Why are masked lunatics setting fire to Wendy’s? Because the rest of us are sinful. That’s what our leaders tell us. The crimes of the mob are the punishment we deserve. That’s their argument. Many seem to believe it. On a White House executive staff call just this morning, key domestic policy advisors Brooke Rollins and Ja’Ron Smith argued that it would seem racist to say anything about the rioting in Minneapolis. Better just to let it happen. So they are.
We should have seen this coming. When you express an opinion our leaders don’t like, they call it violence. When criminals commit acts of actual violence, they call it speech. In other words, the game is rigged. So why are the rest of us still playing it? We have more power than we think we do. Our system only functions because dutiful normal people — people with self-control and decency, and a sense of responsibility toward others — created that system. They sustain it. They pay the bills. None of the thugs looting Target, or the well-paid nihilists on television egging them on, have added a thing. Yet all of the destroyers expect this arrangement will last forever. For them, it’s been a very good deal. But what exactly are you getting in return for your contributions to this system?
The authorities clearly don’t care about you. The police won’t show up to save your life. During election years, sweaty politicians claim to be on your side. It’s a lie. They’re not. They’ll waste your time with hollow posturing. They’ll feed you pointless symbolic victories, and expect you to celebrate, like you’ve actually won something. But when the mob comes, they’re gone. You’re on your own.
Those are the facts. We can’t change them. All we can control is our own behavior. Should you keep playing along with this? Ponder that the next time they demand you get a permit to put a deck on your own house. Think even harder about it when you write your next tax check.
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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