The True Face of Tucker Carlson

[wiggin]

Ah, a parsing issue. Okay then.

Re: the Trump intentionality. I have been continually vacillating on this issue for years. How much of his bombast and bluster and insanely offensive statements are the reflexive responses of a man with a massive ego and no impulse control, and how much is part of a calculated attempt to legitimize his discourse and gin up support among the worst of his supporters? How much is transparent code that let us know what he's really talking about, and how much is a man with no clue?

I still don't know the answer, but I do know that the result either way is ruinous.

[Ziggy Stardust]

"This is a fraud on the American public. This is an embarrassment to our country. We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election".

Some guy on election night while the votes were being counted. Forgot his name.

[Wraith]

Re: the Trump intentionality. I have been continually vacillating on this issue for years. How much of his bombast and bluster and insanely offensive statements are the reflexive responses of a man with a massive ego and no impulse control, and how much is part of a calculated attempt to legitimize his discourse and gin up support among the worst of his supporters? How much is transparent code that let us know what he's really talking about, and how much is a man with no clue?

I still don't know the answer, but I do know that the result either way is ruinous.

I've landed on this: The man-child's an absolute moron who mostly gets by on all the undeserved confidence that gives him, but a lot of the people around him are not morons and are fully aware of what they're doing. I think he legit did not understand Pence attempting to explain that what Trump wanted to do was unconstitutional, but people like Bannon, Hannity, Cruz, etc. did understand and just didn't see why it should matter. Then you have people like Mike Lindell and Sidney "The Kraken" Powell, who bring their own forms of crazy detachment from reality. The one I can't figure out is Giuliani - is he dumb, crazy, or just intensely gullible?

But I agree with you that it doesn't really matter. The damage they've done and continue to do is so great that it doesn't matter why they're doing it - they need to be stopped.

[wiggin]

You know, one thing I've never believed is that Trump is stupid.
Willfully ignorant, shockingly naive, easily swayed, certainly. But I'm willing to bet his native intelligence is decent. He just doesn't appear to use it much.

But agreed that his enablers appear to know exactly what they're doing.

[Ominous Gamer]

His intelligence doesn't matter, he responds super well to conditioning (surprisingly similar to a toddler) and is easy to manipulate into certain channels, enhancing that conditioning.

As you said, it's ruinous.

[Aimless]

Trump has decades of practice in exploiting power disparities and weaknesses for personal gain, and his ability is enhanced by people around him who enable his corruption for their own personal gain. He's extremely "well adjusted to a profoundly sick society". Impulse control issues aside, his actions to undermine everyone and everything intended to keep him in check are intentional—and intelligence doesn't have to come into it at all.

[Wraith]

You know, one thing I've never believed is that Trump is stupid.
Willfully ignorant, shockingly naive, easily swayed, certainly. But I'm willing to bet his native intelligence is decent. He just doesn't appear to use it much.

I'm basing it on how he speaks, what he says, personal interviews, and reports about how private conversations with him have gone. My suspicion is that he used to be smarter, but that's been bleeding away with age. He seems to genuinely believe the shit he says no matter how stupid it is, and whether his stupidity is out of willful stubbornness born from occupying the very bottom of the Dunning-Kruger effect in all subjects, or it's from a lack of cognitive capability, the guy's dumb.

Case in point: He was just on OAN bragging about the number of people he sent to the Capitol.

[Being]

The fact he has served no time in jail seems to indicate an above average level of intelligence but not getting caught suiciding Epstein proves he is pure genius.

[Steely Glint]

My suspicion is that he used to be smarter, but that's been bleeding away with age.

I think there's some truth to this. See this video of him on Larry King in 1989: https://edition.cnn.com/videos/cnnmo...money.cnnmoney and the difference between this and how he speaks now is pretty noticeable.

His verbal ticks are far less pronounced, he doesn't really repeat himself any more than a normal person, his vocabulary seems pretty normal, he doesn't have this childlike fixation on everything being either the biggest/greatest or the smallest/worst, doesn't feel the need to bring out playground level insults, he doesn't rely on these cut and paste sentences and phrases with words swapped out for everything etc. The argument he tries to make is, while vile and completely wrong, at least internally coherent and the conclusion actually follows from the premise rather than being completely incoherent and he appears to be content to let to speak for itself rather than saying that the central park five are 'very bad guys' at least 6 or 7 times.

To be clear, I don't think there's any great or even above average intellect there, the success he's achieved in his life and in avoiding consequences, can be explained easily by his enormous privilege and the fact that our institutions always, always default to defending or deferring to power.

But I think the idea that he has declined mentally, probably beyond what can be explained by simple aging, has some merit.

[Aimless]

Woke up in a world where Tucker Carlson is being used by Russian and Chinese media to bolster a bizarre propaganda gambit to justify chemical attacks against Ukrainians in response to Pentagon-supported Ukrainian bioweapons labs' weaponization of infected migratory birds against Russia. Wondering when this poop will reach the Lewkowski-section of the centipede.

[LittleFuzzy]

You have to be willing to look at it from Carlson's perspective, Aimless. Ukraine was offered a chance to help Trump steal the election and they refused. If they'd helped keep him in power, he'd be willing to intercede for a modicum of mercy on their behalf and Carlson wouldn't be forced to support them getting indiscriminately gassed. They really only have themselves to blame. Them, Biden, and the Democratic Party.

[Aimless]

I mean yes, of course, but the specific conspiracy theory in question—and the way it human-centipeded its way to the right-wing meme ecosystem—is just so painfully dumb -_-

[Aimless]

Twitter Link

At least one member of this board does this.

[Hazir]

Twitter Link

At least one member of this board does this.

Eh, this statement can only mean that you are that member.

[Aimless]

Eh, this statement can only mean that you are that member.

My balls are naturally tanned so I'm excluded

[Flixy]

I do have an IPL at home actually, which works with VIS/IR light. Don't think it's particularly pleasant on the testicles though, but not sure, never used it (only have it because I worked development on it for a bit, a sort of souvenir).

Pretty sure increased testosterone levels weren't part of the indication though!

[Dreadnaught]

The arc of television personalities always bends towards weird health obsessions.

[Aimless]

The human hemorrhoid is openly pleased with the classified docs leak, and has upped his treason game to the point of spreading Russian disinfo to all his viewers through the Fox brain-scrambling machine:

Twitter Link

Afaict, these figures are doctored in Russia's favour, and the real score is more like the opposite? Anyway, always exciting to see Lewk's favorite treason-monkey in action

[Wraith]

Of course the Russian Asset would spread easily disproven Russian propaganda.

[Aimless]

bahahahaha

Carlson out

[Steely Glint]

Speaking of Tucker Carlson's face, why does he have this expression:

[..]

in every single picture I see of him?

He can finally relax and stop pulling that face all the time.

[Loki]

Now he can run for president...

[Being]

Now he can run for president...

... or, he ditches the rug, grows a goatee and comes back as Carl Tuckerson. Nobody will know it is him.

[Wraith]

Apparently he was forced out by Rupert Murdoch. I guess a foreigner finally took his job away.

[Wraith]

Russian State Media offers Carlson a job. Maybe he'll go ahead and just make it official.

[Hazir]

Russian State Media offers Carlson a job. Maybe he'll go ahead and just make it official.

Maybe he'd do it for the money. But I doubt it's good for his brand to be on a channel that nobody watches and which may well go down in flames when Putin goes.

[Aimless]

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-b2352930.html

He referred to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky as “sweaty and rat-like”, “a persecutor of Christians”, and in bed with American investment bankers.

It's like you think the mask is off and then you realize there was another mask underneath the first one and now that mask is off.

Conservative Americans' favorite thought-leader is just your basic ol' neighbourhood neo-Nazi.