These days it is interesting to switch back and forth from Fox and Newsmax to MSNBC and CNN to see how different each is reacting to the events of Jan. 6th. On Fox Tucker Carlson said last night we all saw what happened at the Capital on Jan. 6th (ie believe your own eyes) then told us what it wasn’t (ie believe his eyes). Seems to me he was telling me what I saw with my own eyes were lies.

1. He said it was not a racist mob. True AND false. Interviews with police have claimed some were called niggers. So some were definitely racist but no one has claimed that the entire mob was racist, nor that all the Trump supporters are racist. The point has always been that Trump has attracted the racist element and it is part (however big) of his base of support.

2.  He said it was not an insurrection. Then what the hell was it? Looked like an insurrection to me. Trying to overturn an election, which is what they were trying to do is the very definition of an insurrection.

3. He said it wasn’t an invasion by a mob of “dangerous white supremacist’s”. Did I not see the confederate flag? The guy with the Camp Auschwitz T shirt? Posts on the internet make it clear white supremacists were headed to Washington following Trumps invitation. So there WERE white supremacists in that mob. Though again, no one is saying all the mob were white supremacists. 

Tucker’s rant was that the attack is being used as a way to clamp down on free speech as never before in American history. He is right that there is a clamp down, but it is not against “free speech”. It is a clamp down on dangerous speech; speech that might lead to violence. A better safe than sorry reaction. Like in all such situations there can be overreach but that is to be expected under the circumstances. The same happened after 9/11. Trump did the same with his “Muslim  ban”.

The January 6th situation gave many of the Trump supporters of the past a chance to clean up their act. Try to tell the truth versus tell people what they want to hear. Unfortunately Tucker continued with the old party line and chose not to do so.

The fundamental fact is quite simple. In a world where a person can and DOES tune in to one media outlet and therefore ONLY hears one opinion there is a danger if that outlet does not tell the truth. Newsmax is NOT going to tell its viewers that there are convincing countervailing arguments to points they make. They don’t want people tuning into other networks. If you only watch Newsmax your view of what is going on is completely different from the person who watches CNN. Same if you watch Hannity, Ingraham, Levin, Carlson on Fox. Switching back and forth from Hannity and Rachel Maddow one is in two different countries.

The problem of the Trump supporter is that many of them ONLY listened to him and made a point of NOT listening to any arguments contrary to what he was pitching. He encouraged them to believe only him calling all opposition as fake news and enemy of the people. At one point even Fox suffered his ire. The Chinese communist government does the same. They stifle and outright block any views that do not suit them. Russia goes as far as assonating opposition. It’s all about control the message. If you control the message you control the people.