12 hours ago
Tucker Carlson's a Trump-coddling coward
The online meltdown over Tucker Carlson's evisceration of Ted Cruz was predictably theatrical.
Social media buzzed with the usual suspects declaring it a must-see affair, praising Carlson's surgical dismantling of the Texas senator's Iran hawks routine. And yes, watching Cruz squirm like a pinned beetle was wildly entertaining. The man's capacity for public humiliation remains genuinely impressive.
Cruz, a man-shaped lobbyist pamphlet, was an easy target, though. Carlson's takedown wasn't brave—it was bloodsport for clicks. He used Cruz as a stand-in to criticize US policy on Iran while conveniently dodging the one person actually responsible: Donald Trump. The man who greenlit the military aid to Israel. The man Carlson won't touch.
This is the sleight of hand. Carlson postures as a dissident, but his crosshairs never rise above the Senate floor. He talks like an outsider, but never punches up. The result is cowardice—calculated avoidance dressed up as defiance, monetized for maximum clicks.
Carlson isn't challenging power; he's cackling all the way to the bank, turning selective outrage into a subscription model.
And in many ways, that's worse than the naked sycophants. At least Cruz grovels openly. Carlson misleads his audience into thinking he's rebelling against the machine, when in truth he's guarding its king. He lashes out at the foot soldiers and spares the general. This is not journalism. Not the respectable kind, anyway.
When Israel began pounding Iran, Carlson didn't question the president's role in approving support—he attacked Cruz's rhetoric. Trump got a pass. He always does from Carlson. From the entire pseudo-revolutionary right. They all know who signs the checks, who pulls the strings, and who might one day hand them a podium or a pardon. That's why the silence is deafening.
Steve Bannon, that other supposed voice of anti-establishment fire, falls into the same craven category. The architect of MAGA is perfectly willing to criticize the decision to assist Israel's Iranian adventures—but only in the abstract, never with Trump's name attached.
For all his blue-collar cosplay and populist posturing, Bannon knows exactly which side his bread is buttered on. Without Trump, he's just another uber-wealthy ex-Goldman Sachs banker playing dress-up in work shirts and five o'clock shadow.
But this isn't harmless. If Iran falls, the region doesn't get freer—it gets bloodier. The Islamic Republic is brutal, yes—but it's also a geopolitical keystone. Remove it, and the arch collapses. The aftermath wouldn't be democratic reform or some Instagram-filtered 'Persian Spring.'
It would be tribal fragmentation, religious warfare, and the violent settling of decades-old scores. Hezbollah would spin even looser in Lebanon. Israel would face attacks on multiple fronts. ISIS remnants would resurface in the chaos, feeding off the vacuum like parasites in open wounds.
Iraq would fracture again. Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states would pour in money, weapons, and jihadist mercenaries to counterbalance rising Shia influence. Iran's Revolutionary Guard wouldn't simply vanish—it would splinter, with rogue commanders forming warlord fiefdoms across the region.
Russia and China, already circling, would seize the chance to claim strategic energy corridors and military influence. Western embassies would go dark. Diplomacy would give way to drone strikes.
And Europe? It would face a second refugee crisis, exponentially worse than 2015. Millions of displaced Iranians, Afghans, Iraqis, and Syrians, fleeing instability, starvation, or sectarian cleansing, would flood the Mediterranean and Balkans.
Greece and Italy, already on the brink, would snap. France and Germany would fracture internally. The EU itself might not survive another wave. What falls in Tehran doesn't stay in Tehran.
And yet no one on the right with any real influence is willing to say the obvious: Trump bears responsibility. Not Ted Cruz. President Trump, a man whose decisions, backroom deals, vanity, and erratic instincts bring us closer to World War III.
Carlson won't say it. He can't. His son, Buckley, works for Vice President J D Vance. His livelihood depends on proximity to Trump's orbit. He'll hurl rocks at Congress but never at the throne. The result is a pathetic parody of journalism, where everything is questioned except the one man most responsible.
We are ruled by strongmen and served by courtiers. Carlson's job is to entertain the peasants while never threatening the king. And as long as this charade continues, the real culprits walk free, while the world inches closer to complete carnage.