| Conservative podcaster and media personality Tucker Carlson made several comments this week which are being viewed by many as antisemitic. His first comment came at the memorial for Charlie Kirk, a right-wing personality who was assassinated on September 10th. Carlson compared Kirk’s assassination to the account of Jesus’s crucifixion. While he didn’t explicitly refer to the antisemitic conspiracy of deicide, he did refer to Jewish culture which suggests ties to this trope: “It’s about 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem and Jesus shows up, and he starts talking about the people in power, and he starts doing the worst thing that you can do: just telling the truth about people… picture the scene in a lamp-lit room with a bunch of guys sitting around eating hummus, thinking about, ‘What do we do about this guy telling the truth about us? We must make him stop talking.’” People on social media were quick to condemn his comment, with one user saying he “couldn’t contain his hatred for Jews even just a few minutes.” |
New docuseries on 9/11
In addition, in the past couple of days Carlson released his five-part series on 9/11, focusing on the conspiracy theories that circulated in the public sphere following the terror attack. Some newspapers are criticizing this move as bringing mainstream attention to fringe conspiracies, with others pointing out Carlson’s own past negative opinions on “9/11 truthers.”
This series spouts numerous theories of government coverups, international precognition of the attacks, and failures of the Congressional commission to accurately inform the American public of what led to the events of 9/11. Some of the more prominent theories that lean into antisemitic rhetoric come from later episodes which are behind a subscription wall.
In one of these episodes, Carlson brings up several conspiracy theories that infer possible Israeli involvement in the 9/11 attacks, including the “Dancing Israelis” theory where a video of some Israelis celebrating circulated post 9-11, and references to several Israeli art students who happen to have been living close to the location of several hijackers in LA and New Jersey.
Spreading conspiracy theories on social media
| Click the X post to view a clip of Tucker Carlson discussing these “theories”. Our data has shown the reactions to Tucker Carlson’s comments to be explosive, with nearly 142,000 online mentions since Monday. People have been quick to push back against him on social media, calling these comments antisemitic blood libel. Some other users have come to the defense of Carlson and were excited to hear antisemitic undertones, embracing him for “telling the truth” and validating their pre-existing antisemitic views. |
Support for conspiracy theories
Click the X post above to view a clip of Tucker Carlson’s comments at the Charlie Kirk memorial.
