Leaving Nothing to the Imagination

I have nothing new to say about Vladimir Putin’s official international media celebrity of choice, Tucker Carlson, or Carlson’s official Putin talking point mouthpiece, “Colonel” Douglas Macgregor. The truth is that after two months of explaining and analyzing their duplicity for Putin, their alternative reality optics for Putin, their historical revisionism for Putin, their overt lies for Putin, their blatant cheering for Putin’s invasion and annihilation of a neighboring country, and their direct and continual anti-American, anti-NATO, and anti-liberty rhetoric on Putin’s behalf, we have finally reached the point at which no further explanation or analysis is possible or necessary. How does one explain that the sun is bright, or analyze the appearance of darkness at night? Carlson and Macgregor have now arrived at a moment of such desperate pleading for Putin’s cause that they sound more like people praying to the gods for Putin’s will to be done than like fake commentators lip-syncing propaganda for a dictator.

Here are the highlights of their latest infomercial for totalitarian aggression:

From Macgregor:

“Actually, Tucker, Mr. Zelensky has mentioned neutrality along with some of the other conditions – autonomy for the Donbas and renouncing any claim on Crimea. I think in truth, the Russians and the Ukrainians are very close right now to a ceasefire and ultimately to some sort of agreement that ends this tragedy.”

“…along with some of the other conditions,” i.e., some of Putin’s demands as terms of Ukrainian surrender. The “tragedy,” you see, is the foolishness of Ukraine having resisted Putin’s demands in the first place.

“The war is really over for the Ukrainians. They have been grounded to bits. There’s no question about that despite what we report on our mainstream media. So the real question for us at this stage is, if there is an agreement, Tucker, are we going to live with the Russian people and their government? Or are we going to continue to pursue this sort of regime change dressed up as Ukrainian war?”

Meaning: There is no question that Putin has destroyed the enemy, and it is only a matter of time before they accept the fact that resistance is futile and surrender to Putin’s will. It is only American propaganda that is trying to maintain the lie that the Great Leader Vladimir Putin has not already won this war.

And note the phrase “…the Russian people and their government.” As usual, it is essential to foster the idea that Putin is not an illegitimate dictator, but the true and only representative of “the Russian people,” such that rejecting his legitimacy is a rejection of the Russian people, much as rejecting Kim Jong-Un’s legitimacy would, on this very same premise, be identical to rejecting the North Korean people.

“Are we going to stop trying to use Ukraine or anybody else as a battering ram against Moscow? We really, really need to live with these people as opposed to kill them. I don’t have an immediate answer, but somebody needs to deal with this because we do cohabit the planet.”

Supporting anybody against “Moscow” (read Putin) is equivalent to trying to “kill” the Russian people rather than cohabit the planet with them. In other words, any opposition to Putin’s tyrannical expansionism equals a desire to kill all Russians. The United States government’s policy toward Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is here explicitly equated with a will to annihilate the Russian population

And here is Carlson, pretending to sound a note of concern for the people of Ukraine:

But also caught in the middle of this are the Ukrainians. A lot of people who have done nothing wrong and just kind of want to live and not be killed. And yet we interviewed a Republican – one of the most warlike Republican members of Congress last night – who sounded very disappointed and disapproving of the idea that there could be a ceasefire. She wants more war. That feels like a very common reaction in Washington. ‘We want more Ukrainians to be killed.’ Why? I don’t understand that.”

Anyone who opposes a ceasefire reached on Putin’s terms — that is, an abject surrender of Ukrainian territory and political self-determination — is really saying, “We want more Ukrainians to be killed.” After all, Carlson says, the poor Ukrainians are simply caught in the middle of this American-led Western assault against Mother Russia and her Great Leader. Ukrainians “just kind of want to live and not be killed” — they have no interest whatsoever in all this nonsense about resisting an invasion and protecting themselves from a tyrant. That’s all Western media propaganda. Real, ordinary Ukrainians wanted to surrender to Putin from day one — “Better red than dead,” after all!

As to why the U.S. government and the NATO allies “want more Ukrainians to be killed,” Carlson can only throw his hands in the air and cry, “Why? I don’t understand that.” Why indeed.

If you can read those words, spoken by the most popular host on American cable news and his favorite and most like-minded guest, and not understand where the words come from, and what they imply about the speakers, I simply have nothing left to say to you. For Carlson and Macgregor are leaving nothing to the imagination anymore, no nuance to parse or decipher. They are directly telling us — in the manner of men who are beginning to feel too desperate to play the old word games, which is a pleasant sign — where they stand, whom they support, what kind of world they want, and who would be the preeminent leader of that world. To pretend, at this point, that this might simply be a little naiveté on their part, or a little intolerance of alternative views on our part, is to play the fool. I have no time for playing the fool. If you do, that is your business, and I will leave you to it.


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