There is an implicit violence in the theory, says Drugan, particularly when it is filtered through an American perspective. The American mainstream media, and Fox in particular, gives platforms to people who use conspiracy terminology—including references to “elites,” “globalization,” and nods to the “big reset,” like the one offered by Vladingerbrock—in a way that rarely happens in broadcasting. TV in Europe or Australia.
“Terms like ‘race war,’ concepts like accelerating — to go out there and create societal crises or exaggerate them to intensify them to create a kind of culminating and purifying violence against all these threats to white identity — these really come from the American psyche and popular culture,” says Drugan.
It is impossible to draw a direct line between content Tucker Carlson tonight and political events inside or outside the United States. But his place in the information ecosystem meant he was, at the very least, a passive participant in some startling coincidences.
In June 2022, Carlson interviewed Jair Bolsonaro, the then-right-wing president of Brazil, who had spent the months leading up to the country’s October elections trying to sow doubt about the validity of the vote.
“During the interview, he (Carlson) was speaking the same language as Brazil’s alt-right,” says Bruna Santos, a researcher and activist at Colezão Deretos na Rede in Brazil. Santos says Carlson’s focus on anti-communism, skepticism about the Covid pandemic, and concern about “anti-white racism” have deeply resonated with Brazil’s far-right. “The foreign approval coming from the United States,” says Santos, “reinforces and validates the country’s far-right views.”
Jair Bolsonaro’s son, Eduardo Bolsonaro, has often aired clips from Carlson’s show on his popular YouTube channel, which has more than a million subscribers, with subtitles and subtitles in Portuguese. These clips, along with others from Carlson’s show, will then be circulated among far-right groups in the country, appearing in Telegram channels and WhatsApp groups.
Santos says that in the run-up to the Brazilian elections, short clips from Carlson’s show were shared in these groups. “A lot of Carlson’s criticism of (US President Joe) Biden, or what Biden stands for, will be redirected to something that can help Bolsonaro,” says Santos. “And a lot of this comes from YouTube and social media, and that’s generally where the conversation starts.”
Then, on January 8, 2023, Bolsonaro supporters attempted to storm the presidential palace in Brasília, after the right-wing populist lost in a run-off to his left-wing opponent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Bolsonaro is not the only authoritarian Carlson has fostered. He has been an outspoken defender of Viktor Orbán, the president of Hungary, who has criticized LGBT rights and immigration, and routinely accuses American financier and far-right, George Soros, of meddling in the country’s politics.
“(Carlson) is a popular figure in the authoritarian countries he has championed on his show,” says Matt Gertz, senior researcher at Media Matters for America, a media watchdog group. “He received a great reception from Orbán, and his coverage of Ukraine was hyped by Russian propaganda.”
Carlson echoed Russia’s talking points on Ukraine and criticized the US government for supporting the government in Kiev. Several researchers told WIRED that Fox, and especially Carlson, have been useful tools for Russia, swelling narratives about the dangers of liberalism and the imminent collapse of Western civilization. When news of his dismissal broke, Vladimir Solovyov, the Kremlin propaganda publisher, offered Carlson a job.
Yesterday, Vladingerbrook Post a photo on Twitter to herself with an arm around Carlson. “Tucker is the best in the industry. He tells the truth like no one else does, in a way no one else can. I stand with him 100%,” she wrote, before retweeting right-wing conspiracy theorist Mike Cernovich, who claimed Carlson’s firing To shoot would mean that “the bad guys will try to triumph and remove him from history, and start another Armenian-style genocide against all of us.”