‘Patriot Purge’ Is The Worst Thing Tucker Carlson Has Done — So Far
Pseudo-documentary is a call to arms for the far-right
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Journalists sometimes go into dangerous places to gather information. You won’t catch me in a war zone, but I do venture into the darker spheres of the Internet. That’s why I spent this weekend looking at Tucker Carlson’s abominable pseudo-documentary “Patriot Purge.” I realize you can’t critique something unless you’ve actually seen it. I watched “Patriot Purge,” so you don’t have to.
Firstly, this series is as bad as you’ve heard. It’s so bad that it can’t be considered journalism. It’s just far-right conspiratorial propaganda. It sounds much like something that would be produced by Alex Jones, the conspiracy king who makes millions by selling people ridiculous stories and disaster supplies to survive the end of the world.
The series is co-produced by Scooter Downey, who also directed “Hoaxed,” a movie sympathetic to the ridiculous Pizzagate conspiracy theory. Pizzagate spawned the even more insane QAnon mass delusion.
This series is full of dark, ominous music and features jump cuts of footage from the Iraq war and the infamous Abu Ghraib prison where hundreds of prisoners were tortured. This is for a reason. Carlson implies Jan. 6 terrorists are being tortured in American jails.
“Patriot Purge” also suggests that after the U.S. government destroyed Iraq, it’s now turned its guns on Americans. However, Carlson fails to mention that he was one of the cheerleaders of the Iraq war. Also, the personal liberties-crushing Patriot Act was signed by President George W. Bush, a Republican, who Carlson also supported.
In an infamous clip with shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge, Carlson revealed his white supremacism. He justified the Iraq war because Iraqis were “primitive monkeys.” He also said they should “just shut the f**k up and obey” the U.S. because “they can’t govern themselves.”
