Reminder that the US taxpayer expends money to broadcast this to US servicemembers around the globe https://t.co/advoHlDGXT
— Mike Black (@MikeBlack114) September 28, 2022
Back in the earlier aughts, Mark Ames wrote a piece for (IIRC) the Village Voice about ‘The Politics of Spite‘: Right-wing voters less compelled by any positive arguments than by a desire to make everybody they hated as miserable as they were. The former AllahPundit, now writing for The Dispatch, has updated the argument for the heyday of Traitor Carlson, Fishstick Fascist:
… The cardinal virtue of modern conservative populism is spite. Whatever gambit a populist is pursuing, whatever agenda he or she might be advancing, the more it offends the enemy the more likely it is to be received by the right adoringly. Ron DeSantis’ Martha’s Vineyard stunt is an efficient example. It accomplished nothing meaningful yet observers on both sides agree that he helped his 2024 chances by pulling it off. He made the right people mad. That’s more important than thoughtful policy solutions.
Spite is there, too, in Carlson’s photo op with the Angels. Establishmentarians of either party wouldn’t be caught dead at a rally of outlaw bikers. “Suckers” like me were destined to scold him for his appearance once the photos appeared online, and he knew it. There’s an element of épater la bourgeoisie, unmistakably, to him showing up there. If you’re offended by him eulogizing the head of the Hells Angels, good. Then you’re exactly the type of weak-kneed chump he was hoping to offend by doing it, by definition.
Why spite has become so important to the right-wing populist ethic is hard to say, as it’s not symmetrical between the parties. The most prominent left-wing populist in Congress is probably Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a politician who, despite her many faults, doesn’t want for policy ideas. Ask AOC what her top priority as a legislator is and she might say the Green New Deal or Medicare For All. The most prominent right-wing populist in Congress is likely Marjorie Taylor Greene. Ask Greene what she wants to do with her power as a legislator and she’s apt to say, “Impeach Joe Biden.”…
Where left and right differ is that the leadership of the populist left has a policy agenda whereas the leadership of the populist right does not, apart perhaps from “seal the border.” Trump didn’t run for president because there was a suite of legislation he was keen to pass, he ran because he didn’t want to end up as just another rich guy whom nobody remembers…
A party that can’t decide what it wants on policy can at least converge on the belief that the libs are bad and that whatever irritates them must have value. So spite has become the glue that holds together an uneasy coalition of classical liberals, nationalists, country clubbers, hawks, and social cons. And it’s no wonder that Trump has become its indispensable figure, as he relishes combat with his political enemies for its own sake and rose to fame with policies aimed at excluding undesirables (“build the wall,” the Muslim ban). Shortly before the 2020 election, Rich Lowry described him as “the only middle finger available” to the right in repudiating the cultural left. It’s hard to do better than that in capturing the spite that animates Trump-era populism…
For someone like Carlson, I suspect there’s a strategy to spitefulness. When Tucker shows up to backslap the Hells Angels, he’s not just trying to get a rise out of Democrats and normie conservatives. I think it’s part of his effort to condition right-wingers to a new type of politics by encouraging them to question their traditional assumptions of right and wrong. Sure, the establishment says crime syndicates are bad even if they happen to ride Harleys and mumble platitudes about freedom. But since when do you let the establishment do your thinking for you?
I’ve always believed conditioning the right was the barely hidden goal of Carlson’s Russia apologetics. In March, the economist Noah Smith astutely diagnosed the reason the socialist left and the authoritarian right each seemed so invested in seeing Putin prevail in Ukraine:
…If Putin defeats the Ukrainians, the conservatives that are standing against Putin will look ineffectual and weak. The Trumpists will then be able to solidify their control over the GOP. And it also means a victory for raw power and will (perhaps implying that efforts like the January 6th putsch are the preferred method for attaining power). But if Putin loses, then Trump and his allies who for years praised and defended Putin’s regime will be discredited. Success has a thousand fathers; failure is an orphan. Even more damningly, if Putin loses, it’ll be a success for the globalist order — sanctions and aid to Ukraine will represent a triumph of international cooperation. Exactly the kind of world order the Trumpists want so badly to smash…
… If Russia prevails in Ukraine over the West, it’ll create the sort of political space for insurgents that Smith describes—but only if the right is willing to claim that space. That’s what Carlson’s conditioning program is about, I think. He’s trying to cultivate in his audience an instinct to question—or spite—liberal pieties wherever they arise, from grand-scale geopolitics like “Russia is bad” to more pedestrian but no less correct beliefs like “Biker gangs are bad.” If nationalists intend to see their rebellion against liberalism succeed, they can’t let the enemy dictate to them what their morals should be. One small but vivid way to signal that is to show up as the guest speaker at Sonny Barger’s funeral.
If it bothers you, well, it figures that it would, lib…
Shortly after ridiculing John Fetterman for his tattoos, Tucker flew to CA this weekend to attend the funeral of Hells Angels founder Sonny Barger. Probably didn’t say anything to these guys about theirs. pic.twitter.com/PcXnboVqQ3
— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) September 26, 2022
Also, IMO, relevant:
Only paid ones.
— Wombat 🇦🇺 🐨🌊🇺🇦🌻 (@BrisbaneMum67) September 26, 2022
Because it pays well.
— Erin Leigh🌻 (@pukeuprainbows) September 28, 2022
SiubhanDuinne
What a malicious, vile little man.
frosty
@SiubhanDuinne: I think we can close the comments now. That sums it up.
prostratedragon
@frosty: Yeah, pretty much. The below [My bold] was just now making me wonder why Fishstick’s avatar is supposed to be so damn politically viable, but this article here reminds me how much of his appeal stems from his militant opposition to any form of instruction he has received since toilet training, which makes him a hero to his followers.
Bet a lot of the lawsuit counters forgot that one.
Misterpuff
Poor Tucker Cucker Cher and Sam Elliott already did “Biker Gangs Aren’t All Bad” 37 years ago.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I still can’t beyond there are people who are willing to admit to being Tucker Carlson’s friend.
Hey Anne, you might fertile ground for mocking with Steven Segal’s movies, who oddly seems to really personify the mentality of these right wing apex wankers like Carlson here. I wonder if Segal will drafted too by the Russian Army.
Amir Khalid
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Steven Segal? Where are the Russians going to find a uniform big enough to fit him?
bjacques
Hunter Thompson wrote about the Hell’s Angels having an affinity with Nazism, beyond the imagery of swastikas, WWII helmets, and Iron Crosses to “bug the squares”. They showed they were firmly on the Right, between beating up hippie anti war protesters, their WG1WGA attitude to fights, and Barger writing President Johnson (fuck LBJ) volunteering his club to fight as “gorillas” [sic] in Vietnam. As a criminal organization, they are naturally conservative, preferring a system and rules they know how to subvert over any change to it. And the idea of an honor guard of rolling thunder has appealed to more than one conservative Walter Mitty. It’s a plot point in Stephen King’s The Dead Zone.
It’s all fantasy and legend. Just like the FBI and corporations pushed the mob out of Vegas, the feds and Interpol cut them down to size.
sab
@bjacques: It’s not all that complicated. Simple racism.
opiejeanne
Tucker didn’t say anything about the Hell’s Angels’ tattoos because he wouldn’t dare.
Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]
Whut? classical liberals? that phrase is doing some serious “both sides” lifting Mark Ames…..
NotMax
(click on stopwatch)
This is the maximum time I’ll spend on anything to do with Tucker Carlson.
(click off stopwatch)
NotMax
@bjacques
One word: Altamont.
’nuff said.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
I’m not sure whether Carlson or Hannity has the better claim to the title of America’s 21st-century Lord Haw-Haw.
They both ought to be deplatformed, though. Preferably in the manner by which the original Lord Haw-Haw, William Joyce, was deplatformed in January of 1946.
Ten Bears
The Angels I rode with would have laughed at the little puke.
If not slap the shit out of it …
bjacques
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: I think he goes by Little Lord Haw Haw these days. I had Mark Meadows pegged as Lord See Haw.
I was gonna mention Altamont…
I’ve got this book on the “to read” stack:
https://www.amazon.com/Angels-Death-Inside-Bikers-Empire/dp/0676977316
When I first moved to Amsterdam, almost 25 years ago, the local chapter had a compound out by the jail, on the southeast fringe of town, sharing with a breaker’s yard a wooded patch of ground that remained of a WWI-era amphetamine factory. But development came to that area, as it inevitably does here. The Angels were moved on and the jail torn down.
Anne Laurie
Pretty sure Carlson rode up with a camera crew… and a bunch of his own ‘security guys’.
Not to mention, a metric ton of his network’s money to spread around for ‘exclusive video.’
As the ancient Roman would say, Money has no odor… but it sure has a lot of friends.
JPL
It seems a little odd that Greene’s husband filed for divorce so close to the election. It won’t hurt her chances, though. Evangelicals are a strange breed. Since GA is a fifty/fifty state, maybe he wants to protect his funds. Marjorie’s husband has been running the business, Taylor Commercial already. Since she has been having affairs for years, I can’t imagine that was it.
Tony Jay
That’s really the essence of Modern Conservatism, isn’t it? Conditioning people to believe that your Constitution boils down to the question “Who the fuck are you to tell us what to do?” and the proposition that this is their country, not yours. You’re not even a proper Citizen. You’re all ‘registered aliens’, allowed to be here on their sufferance, and you’ve outstayed your welcome.
Looked at that way, and only that way, being an aggressive creep is a patriotic act in defiance of foreign occupation.
Tony Jay
@JPL:
Maybe one day he looked in the mirror and decided this whole extended practical joke his friends were pulling on him about being ‘married’ to Mickey Rourke had run its course and he just wanted to get back on track for qualifying as a Pedicurist.
Makes as much sense as anything else.
JoyceH
What’s interesting is to imagine what kind of psychological back flips the authoritarian fan boys must be going through with the Ukraine war. For years, they’ve sort of shamefacedly explained away their infatuation with authoritarians with some version of “Well, sure, {Authoritarian Du Jour} is a brutal thug, but – so effective! He Gets Things Done!” So much easier and more satisfying than the time-consuming, messy, frustrating business of accomplishing things in a representative democracy! So when Coolly Efficient Thuggish Russia invaded Messy Disorganized Democracy Ukraine – it wasn’t supposed to be a shambolic fiasco! So what do they do now? Are they going to have to admit that they admire authoritarians simply because they enjoy and envy brutal thuggery?
JPL
@Tony Jay: I think it is about protecting the $$$$$.
Tony Jay
@JoyceH:
CIA Deep-State saboteurs infiltrated into the Russian Government by George Soros (in collusion with ‘cosmopolitan’ oligarchs) have sabotaged Putin’s anti-Liberal Fascist campaign in THE Ukraine, aided by the sinister machinations of the shadowy people who are really behind world finance and all that stuff.
There’s really no other explanation that accounts for everything we ‘know’ about the balance of forces, see?
Tony Jay
@JPL:
Pedicurian School is damned expensive.
Aussie Sheila
@NotMax:
Yes This exactly.
p.a.
@JoyceH:
Don’t worry, more objects of their affection* will crawl from under the rocks; they always do. Putin fucked up: he hit someone who could hit back. He punched down, but not down far enough and not just domestically.
*And teh craziness: the ‘art’ of supermachomuscular tRump etc as propaganda…
Anonymater
@Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]:
Classical liberalism
Essentially free market laissez faire capitalism. Democracy is good but don’t regulate the market. Libertarian lite. An
Brachiator
@Misterpuff:
Exactly . Tucker Carlson just looks like a doofus with those Angels. This is supposed to mean something? Or to prove something about conservatives?
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
@JPL: yeah, isn’t it DOJ policy that no one files for divorce 60 days before the World Series?
geg6
@Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]:
Classical liberalism is what you or I would call libertarianism:
https://www.britannica.com/question/How-does-classical-liberalism-differ-from-modern-liberalism
ant
A party that can’t decide what it wants on policy……
Swing and a miss from where I sit.
They have policy. Government policy is to bolster social hierarchies. Prop up the white privileged patriarchy. Insure that the privileged stay privileged with a caste system. They want graduated inequality.
The problem is that they don’t just fucking say so. They say it in wingnut speak:
Small government/low taxes/pro-life/MAGA…… all of it – just another way to say above without saying it honestly and outright.
Tucker is about hells angels not out of spite, but because they represent white men.
Republicans don’t give a fuck about the war. They hate that Biden picked Kamala Harris as VP. AKA Go Brandon.
They like tangface because he is such a contrast to O and H -people who got all fucking uppity, and aint knowin their place.
They hate Nancy because she got all uppity, and aint knowin her place.
They like amy coney barrett because she goes along with what the white men on the court want. She lets the men make the important decisions. She submits to her husband, just like the good book says. She pushes back against equality gains women have made over the last 100 years with this dishonest Pro-life horse shit, and puts them IN THEIR PLACE.
The spite come from them getting mad at losing the culture war.
Roger Moore
@Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]:
“Classical liberals” is an attempted rebranding by libertarians. The idea is they’re trying to follow in the footsteps of 18th Century liberals. Of course that’s a load of BS. Actual liberals have broad goals, and they happily change their tactics to respond to changes in reality. “Classical liberals” are trying to apply 18th Century solutions to 21st Century problems, mostly because those 18th Century solutions happen to align with what wealthy conservatives want to do today.
Matt McIrvin
@Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]: He was using the term in the technical sense to mean “economic libertarians”, not liberals in the modern partisan sense.
lowtechcyclist
Really? Who??
Does anyone actually get mad anymore when wingnuts pull shit like this?
ISTM that the liberal reaction in this particular case was to (a) help out the migrants, (b) cheer those that were in a position to do so, (c) note that the whole “what if they showed up in your backyard” gambit was a bust, and (d) note that in addition to misusing Florida tax dollars to for some reason relieve Texas of a handful of migrants, DeSantis might’ve also run afoul of Federal law. But anger? Not much that I could see.
And of course we got to laugh when the itinerary for the second flight, this time to Delaware, was spotted ahead of time so that people were ready to help the migrants out when they landed, and he canceled the whole thing on account of that. (Or possibly for other reasons too, but who cares? We know that would have sufficed.)
Sure, we get mad at acts of genuine cruelty on their part, as we should. The rest of the time, afaict, the main reaction on the left to their stunts is to shrug and think, what dumb shit are they pulling this time?
Maybe Fox News tells them that it makes us mad. That probably suffices for them.
bjacques
@Roger Moore: so Libertarians were embarrassed Republicans, so now classic liberals are embarrassed Libertarians. We can’t know whether classic liberals can be embarrassed unless someone holds a séance and asks one. Even then, they’d likely be embarrassed at being name-dropped by these idiots.
I think I’m caught up now.
Princess
@ant: ant is right. Their policy is white patriarchy. Everything else makes sense when you understand that.
Anyway
Similar to their constant accusations of voter fraud without any evidence and without bothering to understand the rules in place. Breaking the system in place is their goal.
Brachiator
@ant:
I have never associated the Hells Angels with privilege or the pinnacle of white patriarchy. Mainly a bunch of white trash criminals.
I have also known some nonwhite Angels and some non affiliated bikers who had daytime jobs as IT professionals.
None of these people had anything resembling a coherent grasp of politics.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Brachiator: Meh. This is in line with Tucker’s worship of tough guys. I think dweebs like him think it makes them tough by proxy. The fact they are white and racist makes them ‘acceptable crooks’.
Tony G
Tucker Carlson, that rich, pampered little dweeb sucking up to goddamn Hells Angels so that his followers will think that he’s a tough guy? What a sick culture we have in about 30% of this country.
WereBear
Perhaps this way he doesn’t have to do it after she’s — you know — charged with something.
Frankensteinbeck
@JoyceH:
Their response from what I’ve seen has been ‘Putin is winning and you are chumps for thinking Ukraine has a chance’ and ‘Fuck Biden for spending our money to help foreigners’ with a side of ‘This is corrupt Biden rewarding the Ukrainians because Biden got kickbacks from Hunter’s job there.’
@ant:
Yes, and no. White patriarchy certainly got them here. White patriarchy and their anger they’ve lost the culture war underlies their spite. It has gone beyond that. They do have policies, but those policies are all variations of “Fuck you, libtards.” Usually this serves white patriarchy, because so many liberal policies include equality. But they have shown amply they will oppose whatever liberals want even if it has nothing to do with white patriarchy, even if it hurts themselves. And importantly, they do it with a sneering bully attitude, where they celebrate any sign it makes liberals unhappy, even if those signs are imaginary.
RSA
He fits in so poorly, in his plaid shirt and loafers without socks, that he might as well have been photoshopped in.
Tony G
And, of course, this obsequious performance by Tucker at the gathering of a criminal gang makes a mockery of the idea of “support for law enforcement officers” on the part of his fan-boys. But that’s always been a sham. These people support white racist cops who shoot unarmed non-white people. That’s the full extent of their support for law enforcement. Since the Hell’s Angels are overwhelmingly white, and since they project the kind of brutal tough-guy image that appealed to twelve-year-old Tucker in his upper-class home, they have his support.
Tony G
It won’t matter though. Tucker’s fans are the same people who thought that Donald Trump — pampered rich boy who grew to be and obese, weak and cowardly man — is the epitome of manly toughness. Even the fantasies of these people are pathetic.
Gin & Tonic
If it was just spite, and a stupid cosplay pose with the Hell’s Angels it would be laughable and pitiable. But Carlson is actively promoting russian disinformation into the US media space. He is actively working against the interests of the United States.
Kent
Perhaps, but I think it is also fear. Conservative are the most pathetically fearful, cowardly, and frightened segment of the population by far. Most conservative issues can be boiled down to fear and cowardice:
Guns? I have lots of MAGA relatives who spend half their time stroking their guns. They are by far the most paranoid people I know in every way. If you aren’t a pathetic coward you have no need for guns.
Immigration? Fear of brown people.
CRT/BLM? Fear of black people.
Abortion? Fear of women
etc. etc. etc
Even traditional conservative issues like tax cuts are also about fear. They signal belief in a zero-sum Hobbesian economy where if others do better you must by definition do worse. Rather than the opposite belief in an economy where prosperity benefits all. Gold bugs are a special form of this because hording gold is a zero-sum endeavor.
Jess
I think the best strategy to deal with these spiteful wankers is the guilt-by-association tactic they tried to pull on Obama. Point out the worst things the Angels have pulled (worst according to the center-right part of the spectrum) and start asking if Tucker condones or repudiates it. I’m sure the “palling around with terrorists” line could come in handy here. But our side needs to know when to shut up after making the point. Don’t bury it under a sermon.
Jess
@Kent: Absolutely! As I’m sure you know, there have been studies done that confirm that fearful, suspicious children grow up to become conservatives.
brantl
The middle finger that is trump should be a rotating tagline here.
cmorenc
@Brachiator:
How long would the Hell’s Angels stay friendly-acting to Tucker Carlson if he, say, remained behind to hang out with them after his camera crew / Fox Network security goons departed? How long could Tucker keep them at bay by buying rounds for all, until he found himself surrounded, his escape routes cut off, while they started menacingly breaking beer bottles nearer and nearer to him?
Paul in KY
@Ten Bears: I’m sure they do now. He’s just a useful idiot to them.
Mike in NC
“Fishstick Fascist” needs to be a rotating tag.
Paul in KY
@lowtechcyclist: I was sad for the poor refugees he lied to & abused their trust. Also a bit sad about all that taxpayer money wasted.
Paul in KY
@RSA: I’m sure he does have some leather somewhere…but that’s for special play & if he wore it, they would laugh at the assless chaps & stuff.
Paul in KY
@Jess: Agreed. Good tactic to use, IMO.
Paul in KY
@cmorenc: I, for one, would like to find that out. Preferably with video.
Chris
@Roger Moore:
The whole “Classical Liberalism vs Modern Liberalism” thing is… not entirely groundless, but to quite an extent it’s become just a conservative scam/schmuck bait.
The whole idea is that there’s an original pure Liberalism that happens to correspond exactly to modern libertarianism, and that the modern liberalism of TR and FDR – regulatory, activist, statist, suspicions of corporations and the rich – was either a corruption or a complete break from the original ideology. Real liberals would want no government and everything left to the private sector and all those other things Milton Friedman talked about.
Except, of course, it’s bullshit. Adam Smith couldn’t stop writing about how dangerous the rich were and how important it was to keep them under control; the American Revolution was at least in part a revolt against the East India Company from businessmen who felt strangled by its monopoly; at least a few classical liberals, more and more as time went on, were behind using government power to abolish and prosecute the slave trade; etc, etc, etc. The idea that the rich and corporate power are dangerous and that the government needs to keep a leash on them is very well supported in classical literature. It didn’t always take the same form or prioritize the same things (or have the same tools available) as liberals in the age of TR and FDR and their successors, but those liberals were very much continuing from the earlier tradition.
BigJimSlade
I think the spite thing is related to their need to have an enemy. Having an enemy really energizes them. With spite is how you treat an enemy. (Liberals, I think, are energized by fighting against injustice. Conservatives hate this because then we are in a position to tell them they are wrong about something. This is a cardinal sin to them.)
Matt McIrvin
@Chris: It’s related to the term “neoliberalism”, which actually describes a right-wing political ideology (basically the same one we’re talking about here–laissez-faire, low-tax hypercapitalism), but which often gets thrown around as a left-wing slam on liberals in the US Democratic Party sense, because the US meaning of “liberal” makes it convenient.
The terminology leads to confusion when Americans talk to people elsewhere. In Australia, the Liberal Party is the biggest right-wing party.
Tony G
You can bet that Tuckie got his candy-ass out of there as soon as the cameras were put away. I’m an old baby-boomer who remembers how, back in the day, some (not most) of the ww2 generation were openly bigoted. Some hateful attitudes, but at least those guys had been through hell in Europe, The Pacific and North Africa. The current generation of bigots chooses to worship pampered, prissy little boys like Tuckie and Trump. I miss the old-school bigots.