Tucker Carlson Isn’t Wrong About White Supremacy
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Fox News Primetime host Tucker Carlson has come under considerable fire this week for comments in which he referred to white supremacy in the United States as a “hoax.” The comments came just days after a shooter in El Paso, Texas killed 22 people after publishing a white supremacist manifesto.
There can be no doubt that Carlson knew he would be kicking a hornets nest with these remarks, and indeed the reaction was swift and horrified. Some resumed the call for advertisers to abandon his show.
But Carlson had a point here, and it’s an important one. The key line in his monologue is when he asks whether the total number of people in the United States affiliated with white supremacist organizations could fit inside a single football stadium. The answer is almost certainly yes. And in a country of 330 million people, those couple of tens of thousands really are a drop in the bucket.
The hoax, as Carlson put it, is not the claim that white supremacists exist — they clearly do — but the claim that they represent some important threat to the country — they don’t. In a conversation with National Review’s Victor David Hanson on Carlson’s show, Hanson tells Carlson that in almost every measurable way the United States is one of the most diverse and well functioning societies on earth.
Although domestic terrorist incidents in our country are on the rise, in part because of new efforts to police them, they are still a very tiny fraction of crime. According to FBI Director Christopher Wray’s testimony before Congress, these accounted for something like 100 arrests in the past year or so. Compare that to a Cato Institute study that found in 2017 there were 106,000 illegal immigrants incarcerated in the United States.
While it’s true that illegal immigrants have lower incarceration rates by percentage than native-born Americans, it’s also much higher than that of legal immigrants. However you slice the numbers, the problem of crime committed by those here illegally is vastly larger than that committed by white supremacists.
Two things skew this misperception of the scale of white supremacy and violence associated with it. First is the nature of the violent acts; second is the broadening of the term white supremacist to be a mile wide and an inch deep.
There is no doubt that the most notable recent acts of white supremacist violence were shocking. Whether the church shooting Charleston, S.C., the killing of Heather Heyer in Charlottesville, Va., or the most recent shooting at a Walmart in Texas, each was chilling. This is, after all, the purpose of terrorism: for a small group of people to exert outsized influence on a society by creating fear of heinous acts. It’s why we should be careful of giving into that fear. Like a fear of flying, fear of being killed by a white supremacist terrorist is not particularly rational.
So if white supremacist terrorists — in fact white supremacists in general — are so rare, why do they and their acts get so much attention? Here we get to the smaller, everyday acts of supposed white supremacy that some on the left argue permeate our country, encouraged by rhetoric from politicians, particularly President Trump. Both claims are dubious.
As far as acts of white supremacy permeating the country, these seem to be backed up loosely by occasional videos of white people acting badly. Again, we are talking about a tiny percentage of people. Perhaps more seriously, good outcomes for some racial groups in our country seem stuck at low levels, but this is not true for all minority groups. This being the case, it is far more likely that legitimate policy disagreements are the catalyst behind disparate outcomes, not some explosion in white supremacy.
As to the president, and what responsibility he may bear, this too tends to go way too far. It requires those making the claim to imbue the president’s words with a malicious intent they can’t prove. Sometimes these efforts reach a level of absurdity.
This happened this week when a former assistant director of the FBI appeared on MSNBC and claimed that by lowering flags to half-mast until August 8, the White House was engaged in white supremacy. How? Well, apparently 88 is a symbolic number in many Nazi subcultures, and August 8th is 8/8, so…you get the picture. Anytime anyone has to appeal to such a bizarre piece of non-evidence to support a claim, it’s very likely the claim is not supportable.
Ultimately, Carlson was pushing back against the idea that the United States is plunging into some dark future where white supremacist violence is everywhere and becomes a staple of most Americans’ lives. He’s absolutely correct to point out that this is not happening, no matter how much play the idea gets in the media.
Was “hoax” the right word to use? Maybe not. Does Carlson’s signature incredulous smirk annoy many on left? Almost certainly. But in this case he wasn’t wrong. We are treating a legitimate, but very small, problem as if it is an existential threat to the country. It just isn’t.
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Iv'e lived in America for 67 years and I have yet to meet a "white supremacist".
I live in a State that ranks just behind California for "Number of WHITE Hate Groups", and I've never seen one myself either.
Amazing isn't it? As a matter of fact, I never even head the term until a few years ago, courtesy of the liberal msm.
There must be a max. of 7 folks per group to not ever see one.
Do you know anyone who won't go to a certain restaurant or shopping mall because there will be a lot of blacks or hispanics there?
If you say no I would suggest you are not being honest with yourself or you live in a sheltered location with a sheltered group of friends and acquaintances.
Do you know anyone who will subtlely denigrate racial minorities in their everyday conversation? If you dont, again, you are in an isolated location or living a sheltered life. There are tens of millions of racists in the United States. Do they all proclaim they are white supremacists or white nationalists? , no, because people do not wish to be seen as extreme.
I live in a middle class neighborhood of Chicago that is racially integrated, but I do a lot of my socializing in an area that is 90% white because that is where my long time family and friends are. I personally know many people who would qualify as racist using any sensible standard. Some, I assume are good people (lol) in just about every other way. That is how ingrained racial prejudice is in our society.
White supremacist? I dont know I could call a lot of people that simply because the term denotes extremism and by definition most people are not extremist.
That equates to "white supremacy"? You say you live in Chicago...Do you remember the Cabrini-Green housing project? Would you hang out there? If not, why not?
If you can answer those questions, you'll have answered your own.
LOL. Keep going along those lines Vic and you will have people wondering about you .
A few years ago a new pizza place opened up in the neighborhood. Nice sit down (or take out) restaurant that many people were looking forward to. A few weeks after it opened I asked a friend of mine if he had been in there yet. He told me that he and his wife had gone but had to leave because there were too many 'Canadians' in there. 'Canadians' is an urban slang for blacks that is sometimes used by people in law enforcement.
I think you are pretty naive about everyday racism in America.
LOL Not people, just those like yourself. In other words you can't admit to the fact that people are afraid to venture into certain areas! And you want to call them racists!
I think we got it.
Here are crime statistics for you, John:
"According to the US Department of Justice , African Americans accounted for 52.5% of all homicide offenders from 1980 to 2008.
Black Americans constitute only 13% of the population and you don't know why people are afraid to venture into certain areas?
Barak Obama's grandmother was also one of those who was afraid!
The only thing I got from your post is that you have a lot of racist friends, I myself choose to keep better company. We don't spend everyday worrying about someone's race.
Lmfao coming from you JR this is a hoot.
Do all your racist friends make the white power hand signal to?
And as an old lawyer once told me "If they can't answer simple questions from the privacy of my office, they sure as hell can't answer them in a courtroom!
I'm worried about your state of mind Vic.
I dont think jiggety videos like that are allowed on NT. There are viewers who are epileptic that could be triggered by that crap.
90% of those who like to spout race based crime statistics have been determined to be racist.
Why? Are you afraid it's 95% ?
The document, dated April 15, 2019, shows 25 of the 46 individuals allegedly involved in 32 different domestic terrorism incidents were identified as white supremacists. It was prepared by New Jersey’s Office of Homeland Security Preparedness, one of the main arteries of information sharing, and sent throughout the DHS fusion center network as well as federal agencies, including the FBI.
“This map reflects 32 domestic terrorist attacks, disrupted plots, threats of violence, and weapons stockpiling by individuals with a radical political or social agenda who lack direction or influence from foreign terrorist organizations in 2018,” the document says.
That was you speaking at the socialist convention wasn't it?
Oh, you don't like hearing those stats!
You are skirting the Coc. You want to call me a racist in the worst way and it shows!
And? Didn't Carlson say that the number of "white supremacists" probably couldn't fill a football stadium? Are you making his case for him?
It's left wing silencing. They hate that stat!!!!!
***jazz hands***
He's so full of shit....these are only the ones that have been caught....he's is delusional
Yep, with comments like this...
What else can one believe?
Ohhhhhh....I see....There are many more we don't know about! Where are they? Help the FBI find them.
Lol....Good points Jane!
Why don't you check out 8chan (if it comes back online) and 4chan and reddit for all the white supremacist/kkk jerkoffs.
I know, you just want to ignore the problem and hope it goes away.
Why didn't you just lead with ….
"you are not honest with yourself and you live in a sheltered location with a sheltered group of friends and acquaintances."
Instead of asking the question.
How high is the sky?
As high as you need to always make it.
Did you know that there is more past the "Blue" (The Box) ?
He sure is the fuck wrong....
Tonawanda Police unsure who left flyers promoting Indiana KKK rally
The KKK yahoos have been having "rallies" at my state capitol as long as I can remember.
There are about 10 who show up and nobody pays any attention to them.
We get two here.
Now I've had words with a phsyco pro lifer protesting and my wife went off on a fem-Nazi that accosted me once, but the KKK can't even draw a counter protest up here it is so pathetic.