Tucker Carlson barely even referenced last week’s right-wing assault on the U.S. Capitol on his show Tuesday. But he did bring on Glenn Beck so they could complain about seditious conservatives being banned from social media platforms after inciting the violent Capitol mob.
Beck made a couple heinous comparisons to the bans, which were warranted because Twitter, Facebook and the like all have rules against inciting violence on their platforms. As conservatives love to do, Beck compared private platforms enforcing their agreed-upon rules to crimes against humanity that have been committed by governments.
“These are two wooden shoes. Japanese shoes worn by an American citizen,” Beck whined, holding up his prop. “She lost all of her rights, as did all of the Japanese, and they did it because of fear. FDR was afraid the Japanese had infiltrated the West Coast, even though the Pentagon said it wasn’t true. He knew better.
“And so he pushed through his policies, and we made one of the one of the biggest mistakes of the 20th century by taking our own citizens and, listen to this, confiscating their wealth, making sure they couldn’t work, shutting them down and then putting them in camps. Tucker, this is the road we’re on again.”
Yes, you’re reading that right. Beck tried to claim that Donald Trump getting banned by Twitter is the first step on the road to the U.S. government putting people in internment camps.
Tucker did not push back against that comparison, or the even worse one Beck made next.
“And it’s not right if it’s the left or the right that is doing it. It is absolutely un-American. You can’t have freedom of speech if you can’t express yourself in a meaningful place,” Beck told Tucker before ramping it up.
“This is like the Germans with the Jews behind the wall. They would put them in the ghetto. Well, this is the digital ghetto. ‘You can talk all you want, Jews, do whatever you want behind the wall.’ That’s not meaningful. And that’s where we are. That’s where millions of Americans will be,” Beck said, before trying to clarify that he didn’t mean the comparison literally.
“It’s not to compare it to the Germans. It’s not to do anything but warn: if you don’t stand up for free speech, you will be the one that loses it as well.”
Despite what Glenn Beck and Tucker Carlson would have you believe, a Twitter account is not a human right. And being banned from Facebook is actually not like the Holocaust at all.
In September, a judge ruled that Tucker Carlson is not a credible source of news, declaring that any reasonable viewer would know he’s not making true statements on his Fox News show.
You can watch the quoted portion of Tuesday’s episode of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” in the video embedded up at the top of this article.