OPINION: Tucker Carlson and Modern-day Quislings

Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson is in Moscow. Rumors are swirling that he could interview Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Carlson was spotted attending a performance of Spartacus at Moscow’s Bolshoi Theater. Evidently a smart propaganda move to appeal to millions of ignorant and intellectually impaired Westerners who romanticize Russia, yet don’t speak a word of Russian. Goebbels would have been proud, Mr. Carlson. No wonder you are being wined and dined by the Russian government.

So why are pro-Russian propagandists such as Tucker Carlson extremely dangerous?

Architects of mass brainwashing

You survive the atrocities in Bucha and then some American in a red cap tells you that Bucha is fake. What do you say to them? You survive a horrific Hamas attack and some smug Westerner tells you that Hamas fighters are actually freedom fighters. What do you say to someone like that?

It’s the same deluded mentality and the same denial, only the names of the victims and perpetrators are different.

Even during World War II, a Polish diplomat called Jan Karski personally warned Franklin D. Roosevelt about the Holocaust but, apparently, the US President was more interested in the condition of Polish horses. To this day, there are those who don’t believe the Holocaust took place.

People like Carlson are the architects of mass brainwashing, propagandizing the intellectually impaired and the deluded across the world into believing that Ukrainians deserve to be wiped off the map for being Nazis.

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Putin fumes that Kyiv is hitting back and meting out the same sort of damaging punishment inside Russia as his missiles and drones continue to do in Ukraine.

Barely anyone asks the question: If people like Carlson can demonize Ukrainians so easily, who’s to say other nations and groups won’t be next?

Carlson’s cheerleaders say that he is a real journalist who is only after the truth. They tout him as the anti-establishment guy, only beholden to the people, who doesn’t shy away from asking tough questions. The myth, as usual, is rather different from the truth.

Let’s face it. If Carlson does interview Putin, that interview is likely going to be a, ‘’Yes, Sir’’ interview by a Putin fan.

Tough questions Putin is never going to hear

Can you imagine a different scenario in Russia – a world where even a rat can’t get close to Putin without his security knowing about it? Let’s suppose that, by some miracle, Carlson turns into a real journalist. These are the questions he would then be asking:

• Even a week before the invasion, your government said that you’d never attack Ukraine. We know what happened next. How can anyone seriously negotiate with Russia?

• Why do you believe atrocities carried out in towns such as Bucha are fake?

• You talk about the aggressive West, yet your media constantly threatens the West with nuclear strikes. Don’t you find it contradictory?

• Russian citizens are buying up all the apartments in Mariupol. How do you justify that?

Carlson’s arrogance is also his weakness

If Carlson’s interview with Putin actually goes ahead, Putin is going to use Carlson as a tool. The US journalist has a huge platform and Putin can’t wait to convert even more naive Westerners to the Russian cause, particularly when the US elections are just around the corner.

Carlson undoubtedly sees himself as an astute interviewer who knows how to make people drop their mask and reveal what they really think. Except, the Russian President is much more adept at deception than Carlson will ever be. Carlson likely thinks that he is in control. He isn’t. Russians seem to be playing him like a violin.

The Russian mind is a scary place

To the Russian mind, Carlson is a propaganda prop. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was told by Russians to interview a group of Ukrainian children kidnapped and russified by Moscow. There won’t be a gun pointed at the children from behind a camera, of course. Russians are just going to choose the properly propagandized children.

Speaking of the Russian mind, I’ve often wondered if Russians really do think that atrocities such as those in Bucha are fake, or if they are simply afraid of the regime? To an extent, the latter may be true. But they seem to be more afraid of the truth – that they are criminals-by-proxy. Russians have mastered the art of denial, the double think and cognitive dissonance.

What’s the alternative? Looking in the mirror and asking: “Do I really support a criminal regime? What does that make me?” Most Russians aren’t ready to face such questions. When caught in a lie, psychopaths just invent another lie. That’s what most Russians do. They invent lie after lie, only to get lost in a maze of lies.

Russians will have to face these questions one day, even if that day is when they stand before God.

Only when Russians are capable of sincerely asking such questions, can we hope for a peaceful Russia capable of co-existing with others in the world. German guilt for the crimes of the Nazi regime is well-known. Yes, part of that guilt was imposed on them by the victors. I doubt that Russians are going to accept responsibility for anything unless they are forced to.

Tucker the messiah

So, is Tucker Carlson delusional? He sure isn’t dumb. He seems to believe that he can reason with Russians and – in his grandiose mind – his journalistic prowess and platform can even help avoid World War III.

Money is important, sure, but he seems to be past that stage now. Carlson seems to have entered the messianic phase. And, with his platform shaping millions of minds across the world, his pro-Russian views are potentially dangerous for people like me who live on the eastern flank of NATO.

Is Carlson a quasi-Quisling, then? I don’t know. What I do know is that collaborators who carry water for the Kremlin don’t seem to realize that Russians don’t trust anyone and, when these collaborators are used and abused, they are discarded, sometimes eliminated.

The views expressed are the author’s and not necessarily of Kyiv Post.