From Tucker Carlson to Tenet Media: How Conservatism Lost Its Counter-Culture Status

Written By B.J. Dichter, Posted on September 8, 2024

Has Digital Influence Peddling Eroded Conservatism?

It is essential to recognize that offering critique of individuals or their perspectives on significant matters does not equate to personal disdain or disrespect. This nuance, once widely understood, appears to have been overshadowed in our increasingly hyper-reactionary world.

I appeared on Tucker Carlson’s show on Fox News during the Freedom Convoy, something I never could have imagined happening many years prior. Tucker first came to my attention during his time at CNN, where he seemed to play the role of a conservative, similar to the token conservative strategy often featured on a Real Time with Bill Maher panel. You’ll notice they often make sure to platform the least articulate conservative possible—a common propaganda technique. Tucker played this role on CNN Crossfire, and he played it well. However, as the years passed, he seemed to shift his personal philosophy to the Tucker Carlson we have been familiar with until his departure from FOX News.

A Shift in Philosophy and a Strange Fascination

It was quite an evolution—from wearing a ridiculous bow tie on CNN to becoming a figure who mirrored many of our views. That was, until earlier this year, when he developed an odd fascination with Russian shopping cart coin dispensers and told his audience that food in Russia—despite being three times more expensive than in the West—was actually cheaper. This bizarre claim was not lost on Konstantin Kisin, who covered it on Triggernometry and in his Substack.

The turning point for me was seeing Tucker on stage in Canada, alongside the very people who sold out the truckers during the Ottawa convoy. These political proxies swindled donations from hardworking Canadians and likely used it to pay Tucker’s alleged $150,000 speaking fee—while discussing “freedom” with those who restricted ours. For me, this isn’t about Tucker; it’s about a broader issue. Conservatives, who are liabilities, hijack grassroots movements as part of a containment strategy—a tactic political insiders have used for generations. Even Malcolm X, whom I have nothing in common with, complained about this prior to his assassination. These political containment strategies always seem to surface during election season, perhaps by coincidence. Have organized political containment strategies become democracy’s Achilles’ heel?

Revisionist History and Tucker’s Latest Blunder

The latest blunder was an interview with Tucker Carlson’s guest, YouTuber Darryl Cooper, a self-proclaimed “historian” who seems confused about who the bad guys were in WWII. Many of you are likely aware of the absurdity of this interview now—so lazy and shallow, it’s hard to tell if it was parody or reality. The world is complex, but few events are as clear-cut as WWII and the Holocaust—the most documented genocide in history. Yet, this narrative is often used to sabotage conservative grassroots momentum, especially when conservatism, until recently, was the new counter-culture we hoped would end the postmodern era.

Infiltration and Outrage: A Tactic to Derail Movements

Time and again, an infiltrator posing as a conservative joins an organic movement, gains association with it, and just as the goal of greater freedom from authoritarian policies seems within reach, they make an outrageous statement—conveniently timed to coincide with legacy media coverage. Suddenly, they’re promoting Jewish conspiracies, claiming 5G causes COVID, or even implying Hitler was partially a victim. This tactic is designed to alienate reasonable, mainstream voters who are frustrated with the radical left or the establishment right and are searching for alternatives.

The Containment Strategy in Action

Imagine an average family cooking dinner after work, with the kids playing on their iPads or doing homework on the couch, and the TV on in the background. Suddenly, a news clip breaks, showing the “conservative alternative” spouting absurdities and revisionist history, claiming Churchill was the real villain of WWII. The viewer reacts with disgust, quickly concluding that this new option is dangerous or even a “threat to our democracy.” This is the containment strategy we are all being subjected to.

You might have witnessed similar tactics during the Freedom Convoy, when paid bloggers and political operatives published fabricated hit pieces on Substack and in videos, targeting me and other participants to undermine the peaceful movement.

Regarding this latest strategy in the Tucker interview, it’s perplexing how brazen they are and how confident they seem in their ability to brainwash the audience. Grievances from some Indian communities aside—and yes, I understand them, but that’s not the focus of this article—in the context of England and the West, Churchill was the right hero for the right moment. Even those pushing the containment narrative know this, yet they continue to promote an easily debunked fantasy to mislead their audience. Why? And would the reason explain what happened to the Tenet Media crew? Were some of them unknowingly bamboozled into becoming part of a well-financed containment strategy for foreign actors?

Tenet Media: Unwitting Tools of a Foreign Strategy?

Recently, two Russian state actors were indicted for funnelling money into Tenet Media, a platform funded by Lauren Chen, formerly a YouTuber using the handle Roaming Millennial. The indictment alleges Tenet Media received $10 million in investment capital from Russian cutouts to run a propaganda network aligned with their existing beliefs and paid some political YouTubers up to $100,000 per video. The idea that Matt Christiansen, Tim Pool, or others are Russian agents is nonsense, and they are even identified as victims in the DOJ indictment. However, as is often the case, many operatives are unaware they are being used as part of a broader political containment strategy. This is why it’s difficult to explain these strategies to those outside the political sphere, and why I speak out about the sabotage of the Freedom Convoy—it’s a perfect example of the template used to contain movements.

The Political Swamp and the Trump Campaign

I’ve observed the political swamp operating near to and adjacent to the Trump campaign, and I’ve repeatedly tried to warn my contacts in those circles but not much has changed for a number of reasons to complex to get into here. We will likely see a massive legacy media campaign suggesting Trump was a tool of Russia, linked through Lauren Chen, who has openly stated many times that she refuses to support Trump. This false narrative would be constant with the world of inverse reality we live in today.

We saw a similar pattern during the Canadian Trucker Protest, where political fundraisers linked to the Russian state, who frequently donate to political candidates in Canada, arrived in Ottawa and attempted to provoke violence by offering bribes to truckers—bribes well into the six figures. If CSIS or any three-letter agencies want more information, I can provide the Facebook links, or we can drop the charade and false naiveté and acknowledge that they already know who these people are and what they do. This is why the state-run CBC attempted a soft smear, suggesting the Freedom Convoy could be a Russian operation when it clearly was not, which is why the comical narrative blew up in their faces. When the truckers learned of the foreign actors’ attempts to bribe them, the individual was immediately escorted out of Ottawa and told to “go pound snow”—it was -20 degrees, after all.

Foreign-Funded Containment Strategies

Meanwhile, these Russian state actors, much like Islamist-linked NGOs laundering money for jihad in Canada, presumably continue to fund Liberal, NDP, PPC, and Conservative candidates, while our political parties turn a blind eye and pretends they are unaware. Fortunately, in Ottawa, the truckers—having plenty of life experience on the road—were smart enough not to take the bait and stayed focused on unifying Canada.

This issue of foreign-funded containment strategies isn’t unique to conservatives and is evident in alternative media beyond Tenet Media. The trend seem to have helped cement the progressive, collectivist left—a movement classical liberals largely rejected for decades. Channels like *The Young Turks* seemingly appeared out of nowhere, with opaque funding sources, but there’s little appetite to investigate potential manipulation by countries like Qatar. This digital influence peddling by hostile actors goes unpunished, with little to no investigation.

As for Tucker Carlson, he’s just secured a $15 million investment for his new media company, thanks to venture capitalist Omeed Malik, a former “corporate Democrat.” Malik, who said that five years ago he was a rote “corporate Democrat,” led the initial $15 million seed round with other private investors to help the former Fox News star develop a “proof of concept” for his planned media empire, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.

It will be interesting to see how the indictment plays out, but it’s clear that this is another attempt to destabilize the Trump campaign by paying $10 million to an influencer who, ironically, refused to endorse Trump for 2024. He’s not “conservative enough”—a sentiment you’d expect to hear from someone like Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin.

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