It’s been a year since Fox News host Tucker Carlson lashed out at M

Tucker Carlson alludes to the excesses of American progressivism, such as the glorification of all bodies, even obese (body positivity) or gender ideology. But when he wearily admits that “that’s what he does,” he is accurately describing his activity. Carlson, 52, is a culture war professional. After his debut on CNN (where he embodied right-wing thinking), then MSNBC, he moved to Fox News, Rupert Murdoch’s channel, in 2009. It was after 2016, with his own show, that he became paved the way to glory.

More than three million viewers watch Tucker Carlson Tonight, five nights a week, at 9 p.m. In 2021, Time named him “America’s Most Powerful Conservative”. His long monologues, facing the camera, have allowed him to assert himself as the most influential voice of Trumpism, of which he espouses all the lines. Climatosceptic, he opposes abortion, immigration, vaccines, military interventions and any law limiting the possession of weapons. Carlson has consistently denounced the “ruling class”, which dumbs down citizens by legalizing cannabis, while taking away their guns. It relays the theory of the Great Replacement, ensuring that immigrants are welcomed to become docile voters. In its extreme form, this theory, developed by Renaud Camus, has been claimed by terrorists, like the one who killed 10 black people in Buffalo, New York, in May 2022.

In June 2020, Tucker Carlson Tonight became the most-watched cable show in the United States, with 4 million viewers. In October 2020, it hit 5.3 million, an all-time high, before losing viewers after the 2020 election (it remains second, behind another Fox News show). In 2019, a far-right media research institute unearthed comments by Carlson on the radio. He denigrated immigrants and compared women, “very primitive”, to “dogs”. That week, his viewership jumped 8%. It does not matter, therefore, that the show lost twenty-six advertisers in the year. Cable channels live on subscription and, therefore, on the anger of viewers. Tucker Carlson exploits it cleverly, aided by the press that accompanies every scandal he stirs up – like this article. It is enough, for example, to direct the attention of his fans to the color changes of the M

Tucker Carlson doesn’t just comment on the news: he creates it. Not only through scandals, but also, since his influence is so broad, by influencing the thinking of Republicans. In foreign policy, he elevated Hungarian autocrat Viktor Orban to hero status. In the summer of 2021, he spent a week in Hungary and released a documentary, Hungary Against Soros: The Fight for Civilization (Soros is a bogeyman of Republicans). He describes Hungary (which he placed next to Slovakia and not Serbia) as a paradise and praises the protection of its borders. Carlson interviewed Orban in Budapest, dined at his house, and praised Hungarians for being “hated by the right people”. A week later, Republican senators, most of whom had never heard of Orban before, told the online publication Insider that the reports gave them a great picture of the Hungarian autocrat. “All I know about it is through this show. I saw enough to think he was a rational person,” commented Chuck Grassley, senator from Iowa. Carlson only formalized a logical opinion in the current Republican Party. The only one who knew Hungary well, Ron Johnson, from Iowa, saw it as a model for the United States. Mike Pence, former vice president of Trump, then traveled to Budapest for a conference on the decline of the family and demographics. The CPAC (pro-Trump Republican convention) was held in Budapest in May 2022 and in August, Orban participated in that of Dallas, where he warned of the dangers of miscegenation and the “culture war” to be waged.

Again, Carlson only preceded or amplified the opinion of the Trump camp. The MAGA faction, very influential among Republicans who won a majority in the House of Representatives in November, is now openly expressing its opposition to aid to Ukraine. A commission will investigate how it was used and several elected officials refused to stand up during President Volodymyr Zelensky’s speech during his whirlwind visit to Washington.

In such a polarized environment, the excesses of the progressive left are godsend for Tucker Carlson. With brands, the business of indignation is a tango that is danced for two. Even though Mars claimed it didn’t want to “blow up the Internet”, it couldn’t ignore the reaction of ultra-conservative communicators like him, who had already exploited this vein. He is not the only one. Nick Adams (“AlphaMale” on Twitter, where he calls himself “Donald Trump’s favorite author”) reacted more strongly, in a series of tweets denouncing “a nuclear bomb in the war against men”. The M brand