Why I Declined To Be Tucker Carlson’s Liberal Feminist Punching Bag – The National Memo (blog)

When I saw the email in my inbox with the header Tucker Carlson Tonight Request on Monday, I immediatelyhad a strong feeling what itwas about. Earlier that day,Rush Limbaugh had been rantingon his show aboutmy Salonpiece lambastingconservatives for playing dumb about the unsubtle white nationalism of President Donald Trumpsspeech last week in Poland.

Sureenough, the producer was asking me to speak about the Presidents speech in Poland last week, and his trip abroad overall, which she [meaning me] has shared some thoughts on.

Oh god, I thought, Carlson wants me on his show to play the part of the liberal ditz,to be dished up as a hate object foran elderly audience ready to believe my brain has been addled by my gender and my liberal arts education. Worse, he wanted me to do so in service of mainstreamingan argument that was once the province ofwhite supremacist websites, but hasridden the Trump train straight into more respectable discourse: The idea that Western people and their civilization should be, by rights, treated as superior to all other people on earth.

That Trump was engaging in white nationalist rhetoric is an observation that hardly needs to be relitigated here, as writers likeJamelle Bouie of SlateandPeter Beinartof the Atlantichave laid out the case.Suffice it to say that the idea that Western civilization isunder threat from dark-skinned people from former coloniesis a popular obsession on white nationalist blogs and withTrumps close adviser Steve Bannon. Plus theresthe unpleasantness that erupted less than a century ago when Germans got it in their head that Aryan people and European culture faced a similar threat.

These associations make it difficult for Trumps supporters in the media to make a direct case for his argumentswithout sounding like a bunch of ignorant racists.Instead, pro-Trump pundits use the bank shot strategy: Rather than defending Trumpsideas directly, theyfocus on demonizinghis critics by invokingright-wing caricatures of liberals.

The message to the audience is simple: You hate those smug liberals, and those liberals disagreewith Trumps message so you must agree with Trump!

As Tobin Smith, who was a Fox News pundit for 14 years,recently wroteabout the channel, Just like pro-wrestling, the panel opinion programs are carefully staged and choreographed by Fox producers so the viewers home team (in WWE language the Baby Face) always wins over the Heel aka the poor pathetic libtard.

So I understood right away that on Carlsons show I would be slotted forthe libtard role, a hate object presentedto Fox viewers so they dont even realize that theyre nodding along to argumentsthat used to be the province of neo-Nazis and other hate groups.

The pre-existing stereotype I was likely to be slotted into wasnt hard to guess at, either: The liberal bimbo. Fox viewerslovethe idea that the main result of feminism was that a bunch of dumbgirls were awarded educations and jobs that they simply arent smart enough to handle, being female, and that liberal politics induces in women anunfortunate navet.

If that seems like an exaggeration, I welcome readers to look intoCarlsons obsession with Teen Vogue columnist Lauren Duca, whose sharp political writing he routinely tries to dismiss by arguing that she should stick towriting about clothes and makeup. Also, Limbaughs earlier segment about me was all about painting me as a liberal bimbo, by claiming Im younger than I actually am and insisting that kids these days dont get a proper education.

It is tempting, of course, to believe that Im savvy enough to somehow break through all this cultural baggage and communicate my message effectively to Fox viewers. But Im not actually dumb, no matter how much conservative pundits portray me that way. I know thatIm no match for the Fox News machine and anyone who thinks they are is deluded.

TV is a visual medium and Fox openly encourages its viewers to make snap judgments about the liberal guests before theyve even had a chance to open their mouths. Even if I did cover up my tattoos and wear conservative makeup, I would read, onscreen, more as Brooklyn hipster than as the beauty queen-turned-housewife that is the Fox News ideal. Even if I was an unparalleled genius at verbal communication, my message has no way of cracking through that hardened shell of hate built up against women who look and act like me.

All of which means the only purpose that could be served by my appearance on Carlsons show was to become a conduit for a truly repulsive mission, that being the mainstreaming of white nationalist politics with the message, The best way to put this bitch in her place is to uncritically accept everything Trump says.

I dont want to be party to that. Carlson, unsurprisingly,ran with the segment anyway hey, its not like he was going to cover the revelations about Donald Trump Jr.s apparent collusion with a Russian agents but without a disobedient woman for his audience to hate, the segment was less effective than it could have been.

I would also encourage other liberal pundits to boycott Fox News in just this way. Yes, appearing in that arena of hate can help raise your brand profile, and of course that matters in this competitive media environment. But youre not getting your message out. Youre just being used as a convenient mechanism to deliver ever more extreme right-wing messages. Depriving Fox News of its punching bags is a small step toward restoring some sanity to our deranged media landscape, but one that could reduce the networks propagandistic power.

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Why I Declined To Be Tucker Carlson's Liberal Feminist Punching Bag - The National Memo (blog)