Defending Tucker Carlson’s platforming of Nick Fuentes reveals a misunderstanding about censorship, responsibility, and the moral obligations of civil society.
As a "Jewish Conservative" I completely understand your take on the Fuentes interview. However, as a citizen of California and the United States, I felt similarly after the Charlie Kirk interview on the Gavin Newsom podcast and yet all the voices seemingly outraged now, were suspiciously silent then. Fuentes has "spoken" many outrageous statements... Gov Newsom's actions are directly responsible for the deaths of thousands during Covid and the subsequent wildfires... Which of these two more closely resembles Hitler?
I think that person that says that they love Hitler is probably more aligned with Hitler. That isn’t to say that Newsom is wonderful, but you are obscuring actual Nazi sympathies by redirecting to terrible statists.
This is one of those times we can’t point to the left to absolve the issues on the right. We need to deal with our own problems, here and now, or those problems will deal with us.
Your distinction betwen government censorship and civil society rejection is crucial and often gets muddied in these debates. The conflation of legitimate criticism with cancel culture weaponizes free speech rhetoric to shield people from accountability. Roberts' defense of Carlson completely missed the mark by treating donor concerns and public backlash as illegitmate rather than as exactly what moral leadership should look like. Conservatism used to mean having standards and drawing lines, not reflexivly defending anyone on your side regardles of what they do.
As a "Jewish Conservative" I completely understand your take on the Fuentes interview. However, as a citizen of California and the United States, I felt similarly after the Charlie Kirk interview on the Gavin Newsom podcast and yet all the voices seemingly outraged now, were suspiciously silent then. Fuentes has "spoken" many outrageous statements... Gov Newsom's actions are directly responsible for the deaths of thousands during Covid and the subsequent wildfires... Which of these two more closely resembles Hitler?
I think that person that says that they love Hitler is probably more aligned with Hitler. That isn’t to say that Newsom is wonderful, but you are obscuring actual Nazi sympathies by redirecting to terrible statists.
This is one of those times we can’t point to the left to absolve the issues on the right. We need to deal with our own problems, here and now, or those problems will deal with us.
Your distinction betwen government censorship and civil society rejection is crucial and often gets muddied in these debates. The conflation of legitimate criticism with cancel culture weaponizes free speech rhetoric to shield people from accountability. Roberts' defense of Carlson completely missed the mark by treating donor concerns and public backlash as illegitmate rather than as exactly what moral leadership should look like. Conservatism used to mean having standards and drawing lines, not reflexivly defending anyone on your side regardles of what they do.
I appreciate this important take. Megyn Kelly would be wise to read it.
Thank you John, this lays out the issue(s) so succinctly and I deeply appreciate the clarity!