From Z Man, Choosing Sides
Part of the problem with really smart people is they tend see the world through a transactional lens, in which everyone’s motivated by economic self-interest. They cannot understand or fathom how someone who is wealthy, as Tucker is, cannot also be sincere at the same time, as to become wealthy one must have compromised, or bargained with the devil, or be a hypocrite.
Tucker is one of the most unique voices in TV journalism in a long time, although admittedly that is not a particularly high bar to clear. He may not have the largest audience (conservative cable talk shows, despite the considerable attention and scorn they get from the left, attract only a few million people per night relative to the 300+ million national population), and even if he does not really mean what he says (which I don’t believe to be the case), it does to change the fact that what he is saying needs to be said, so we should support him anyway, because he is providing a major signal boost to dissident-right ideas. His message may seem too ‘civ nat’ at times, but one must read between the lines. But playing the class warfare angle of dismissing him or questioning his integrity because of his wealth or how expensive his home is, is what the left does.
We’ll have to see what Carlson has to say about it, but unless he dramatically resigns on-air, the one thing we can know for sure is that when the choice is between his friends on the Left and the people who watch his show, he will pick his friends. His man of the people act is just that, an act. Carlson is super-wealthy. If he walked away from his job, his grandchildren would never have to work a day in their life. If he gets fired, it means fly fishing in Maine and ski trips to Aspen.
He creates a false dichotomy. What if it is neither. He can just mention the firing in passing and go on with his show. He does not need to make a huge apology or resign. To assume Tucker’s wealth compromises his integrity, is a form of mind reading. Z has no way of knowing this.
In other words, his former head writer took more risk posting edgy jokes on-line than Tucker appears willing take in defense of his writer. Unless this Neff guy is from old money, he is now going to suffer real harm. He will not only lose his income, but he will suffer internal exile for as long as the revolution rolls on. Whenever he applies for a job, he will have to atone for his crimes against the one true faith. As a practical matter, he may have to change his name in order to live.
Tucker does not need to defend Neff or should feel obligated to, and him not defending him is not indicative of disloyalty. It is called ghostwriting for a reason. As the name suggests, your role is one that is invisible to the public. He failed in this regard; whether his fault or not, does not change this fact. It may be unfair, but he has become a liability to the show and the brand. It is not matter of loyalty, but that Jeff, whether his fault or not, can no longer preform his job effectively as an uncredited writer. I think Tucker would like to keep him, but if he does not resign in protest does not mean he has ‘thrown him under the bus’ or only cares about money.
In a perfect world, Neff would still have a job and this whole thing would be forgotten, but we don’t live in such a world. Fox is doing the whole CYA routine, and any multi-billion dollar corporation that finds itself having to choose between loyalty and respectability, will always choose the latter. But this does not mean Tucker should resign in protest. This would be a huge, irreplaceable loss. Who could replace him? Another hour of Hannity? Tucker is a unique voice and at the very least a liaison to dissent conservative politics.
This is the sort of stuff Tucker spends every night railing against. He has made his name condemning things like cancel culture. For him to obsequiously go along with his key writer being cancelled makes him a hypocrite and a liar. It means that in the end, his friends and neighbors in the ruling class come before the principles he claims to be fighting to advance. More important, he’s asking you to do what he lacks the testicular fortitude to do in his own domain.
More mind reading and appeals to purity. Tucker being on the air and promoting his message, even if he is a hypocrite, is better for our ’cause’ than him resigning, which won’t even help Neff anyway given that he has already been outed and fired and presumably blacklisted. And as mentioned above, this does not imply disloyalty or hypocrisy on Tucker’s part. Z is assuming Neff feels betrayed; the possibly that Neff understands that he has become a liability, does not occur to him. Tucker and Neff will probably still be friends, with the mutual understanding that there was no alternative to resolving this unfortunate situation.
He’s not alone in this. Charles Murray, the former biological realist, thinker and writer has gone down the same path as Carlson. After having got some credit for having stood against the mob, he is now throwing in with the mob. Like Tucker, Murray would rather be with his friends than defend the ideas he once claimed to champion. It will not be long before he is required to burn his own books and condemn his former collaborator Richard Herrnstein. He’ll do it with enthusiasm too.
Except Z provides no evidence of this, nor was I able to find any. As far as I know, Murray has always been consistent and stood by his writings and collaborator Richard Herrnstein, despite endless attacks by the left for the better part of the past three decades. Who really are Murray’s friends anyway? Being a biological realist is a pretty lonely career choice. Liberals and academia hate him and conservatives pretend he does not exist.
We’ll see what Carlson says on Monday. You can be sure an army of top people are crafting a speech to keep the sheep in the fold. Most of the people watching Tucker are so desperate for a champion, they will overlook just about anything. This is what Team Trump is counting on in the November election. Opinion does not alter fact. The fact here is that one of his own was dragged out by the witch hunters, put through the ritual humiliation of cancel culture and Carlson did nothing.
Z is yet again promoting this false consciousness theory that Tucker’s supporters have somehow been brainwashed by the persuasiveness of his rhetoric to overlook his wealth and purported disloyalty. Maybe rather than being brainwashed, they don’t care if he is wealthy or a hypocrite, because it is irrelevant. Tucker is saying things that need to be said, and him voicing these things to a large audience, is only beneficial. As for doing nothing, what is Tucker supposed to do? Hook himself to his friend and plunge off the cliff too, sacrificing everything he has built up over the past 4 years? Yes, that is how we beat the left, by taking the high ground, because the left has always backed down when confronted by selfless acts of contrition. As said above, maybe there is a shared understanding by Neff that despite the disloyalty by Fox, that nonetheless Tucker should not belabor the injustice of it and not quit. The problem, it Z is trying to read Neff’s mind to assume there is acrimony now between the two. We have no way of knowing this,
In the end, this revolution will end up where all revolutions end. Everyone will be forced to choose sides and give over their life to the cause they choose. The people living in mansions will find the choice easy. Every day they are reminded of how well the revolution is treating them. For everyone else, it is more difficult, but eventually, everyone will have to become a partisan for their own cause. Everyone will have to be as loyal to his side as Tucker is to his side.
Z links to a story about Tucker buying a $3.8m Washington, D.C. home. So what? This appeal to class warfare and class division is what the left does. Being poor is not a virtue nor does it confer virtuous qualities. If having money compromises one’s values, maybe Z should stop asking for donations at the bottom of every post. Does tucker not owe it to himself to splurge on a nice home with better protection, given that the left already picketed his last one.