On April 4 I had the distinct honor and pleasure of being interviewed by Tucker Carlson about the subject of my book The Weaponization of Loneliness: How Tyrants Stoke Our Fear of Isolation to Silence, Divide, and Conquer. How ironic, then, that with Tucker’s dismissal from FOX News, our hour-long conversation–on the subject of silencing and censorship–was itself silenced. It may well have aired on the FOX Nation Show “Tucker Carlson Today” this past Tuesday, the day after he was gone from FOX.
As a bit of consolation, I wrote up the experience for the Federalist. It includes my reaction to the speech Tucker gave just last Friday at Heritage Foundation’s 50th Anniversary Gala Dinner, which I had the honor of attending. It was such a profound and hopeful speech. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that his speech–delivered with such heartfelt passion –was one for the ages. Here’s something from it that all Americans should take to heart: “The more you tell the truth, the stronger you become. And the more you lie, the weaker and more terrified you become.” This is so true. The whole purpose of political censorship is to squash our willingness to speak truth.
My Federalist essay (I don’t write the headlines!) is titled: I Taped a Show with Tucker on Censorship Right Before he Was Fired. Here’s an excerpt:
I believe our discussion was critical to helping more people grasp the human dynamics that lead to the mass misery, loneliness, and dystopian policies we see all around us today. More people must understand that destructive agendas depend upon the human impulse to self-censor. When we shut up or lie about what we believe in hopes of “fitting in,” we give abundant oxygen to tyrannical agendas. But with the exit of Carlson, Fox News is a huge step closer to declaring that it’s completely on board with the media monopoly’s efforts to create the illusion of unanimity of thought. Such illusions are meant to tease out the conformity impulse by making us feel all alone in our views, and, therefore, less likely to express them.
But the cancelling of my interview was merely collateral damage in a far bigger picture. In my opinion, Americans’ decades of obedience to political correctness prepared the ground for the tyranny we see around us today. If only we could better understand these dynamics and learn counter-strategies, then we’d be in a better position to disarm those who seek to march us into censorship and ignorance and misery. But I promise to keep talking about this!