 So I want to show you two clips from Tucker Carlson's program that in total demonstrate two things that are really important, one, that he is a charlatan and two, that he is a very effective propagandist, perhaps one of the most influential propagandists in the country right now. And that makes him particularly dangerous. Now when it comes to COVID-19, he's kind of been all over the place. He cited skewed numbers from quack doctors to downplay the seriousness of the virus. He's gone back and forth on whether or not masks are effective. And now, to his audience of millions of mostly older viewers, he is fearmongering about the vaccine. Oh, quite frankly, she says, we need to censor people's views on the COVID vaccine. Now remember, Melinda Gates is not a scientist. She did not develop this vaccine. She has no background in epidemiology or any relevant discipline. She worked in the marketing department at Microsoft. But she's the wife of a billionaire. That's why she's on television. It's why she's allowed to control what you're allowed to say about the drug. She is demanding you inject in your body. Is this really science? Not even close. It's oligarchy. And all the billionaires are participating in it. Nobody cares what Melinda Gates thinks. Nobody cares. Now, overall, if you watch that, you might just think it face value. Well, this is really more about big tech than the vaccine, because he's just saying, look, I'm making a free speech argument. Big tech should not censor misinformation and fear mongering about the vaccine. That's the argument that he's making. But in the process of making this argument, he is priming his audience to believe that the vaccine might actually be harmful. Because think about the things that he's bringing up. It's very specific. So if the vaccine is being pushed by oligarchs, and since oligarchs are bad, well, perhaps we should be skeptical about the vaccine. Perhaps elites who are trying to stop us from questioning how safe the vaccine is may actually have some ulterior motive. Perhaps there's evidence that the vaccine isn't safe, and they're just trying to stop us from discovering it. I mean, this is exactly how priming works. You get your viewers to think about something by not actually saying what you want them to think about. This way, they think that they're coming to that conclusion by themselves. So he's saying very particular things, very deliberate words, that get you to think about the vaccine in a particular way. Because we all know in America that oligarchs are bad. But ultimately, he's trying to sow doubt about the vaccine. And the way that you delegitimize a vaccine is to bring up people who are not trustworthy, such as billionaires and oligarchs. And if you tie them to it, then their lack of legitimacy hurts the legitimacy of whatever you're trying to delegitimize. I mean, it is incredibly nefarious, albeit effective way to convey information, to convey a particular point in a really insidious way. Now, in this next clip that I'm going to show you, he also talks about COVID-19. But his tune here is entirely different. Now, he's not necessarily going to downplay COVID-19 seriousness. He's not going to bring up the vaccine. But what he is going to do is establish that COVID-19 is serious and the government is taking COVID-19 serious, although he then turns to a different issue entirely. So he's going to set up this segment by using COVID-19. And he's hoping that your beliefs on COVID-19 influence the way you think about this next subject, immigration. Last month, the CDC issued a press release that begins this way. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expanding the requirement for a negative COVID-19 test to all air passengers entering the United States. Testing before and after travel is a critical layer to slow the introduction and spread of COVID-19. The strategy is consistent with the current phase of the pandemic and more efficiently protects the health of Americans. Got that? It's all about the health of Americans. And that's why every human being who enters this country by air must first present a negative test for the coronavirus. That includes American citizens. There are no exceptions. Corona infection in fact is the one universal reality of the human condition. We are all potential incubators of this deadly virus. But it doesn't end there. Travelers who test negative for COVID must still wear masks at all times. And that includes while onboard the airplane or while walking through the airport. If you don't have a mask on, you had better be actively chewing. Otherwise prepare for a steep fine and the possibility of never flying again. Nor is one mask necessarily enough. Tony Fauci has announced we ought to consider wearing three masks at once. A paper petticoat for your face. That's how serious our government is about fighting this global pandemic. But of course you knew that. You've watched it. You know that the risk is imminent and profound enough that your children likely have been out of school for a year. Your business may be shut down right now. Your parents may have died alone unable to hold your hand in the final days. The United States itself bears no resemblance to the place you once knew 12 months ago. But those are the sacrifices you have been asked to make and you have. And for good reason. COVID is dangerous. It's existentially dangerous they keep telling us. The authorities are more than willing to destroy your family and your country in order to protect you from this virus. That's their public position stated every day. Do they actually mean it when they say it though? Those pictures of California Governor Gavin Newsom eating a maskless dinner in a crowded room at the most expensive restaurant in America were one indication that no maybe they're not entirely sincere about their COVID policies. Maybe it's kind of a sham. Maybe there's one standard for you a member of the despised and much bullied plebe class and another very different standard for politically favored groups who can do whatever they want. Now you'd hate to think that could be true in a country like this. A country with such a long and noble history of egalitarianism and equality under the law. Unfortunately there has been growing evidence of that double standard. Now there's hard proof. Tonight we've learned that Joe Biden administration is releasing thousands of foreign nationals living here illegally into American neighborhoods without bothering to test them for the coronavirus. People from countries with high infection rates living in crowded conditions sent forth into the American population like COVID isn't real. That's happening. It is the official policy of the U.S. government. On Friday the White House was asked about this policy and here was the response. U.S. Customs and Border Protection is saying that they're having to catch and release some migrants without giving them any kind of COVID test before they're entering the community. So what is being done? What could be done? Are you are you suggesting they're letting people in across the border without testing them or just tell me a little bit more. They're being released they're having to because of the executive order that the president signed earlier this week. Which executive which one? Yeah which one? COVID infected illegal aliens released into the United States? Whatever. So there was all of that setup. You'd think it would be a segment about COVID-19 but no all of a sudden he switches like that and we're talking about immigrants. It's a bait and switch. But it's important to understand why he had that really long and drawn out setup. So first of all he basically argues that the government purports to take COVID-19 seriously. However the rules that they're imposing on the pleb class they're not actually taking very serious themselves. And he cites the example of California's governor Gavin Newsom dining indoors without a mask. Now that obviously is irresponsible even though he's the governor. He should be fined. It's morally reprehensible what he's doing. I think you should lead by example. This is objectively a bad thing to do during the pandemic. But notice that he makes a jump. He implies that because this one governor did something all public officials must be doing the same thing. He conflates him with they plural. So we're not just talking about one governor. We're talking about all of government. The Centers for Disease Control. The National Institute of Health. Every single official must also be hypocritical because there is this example of one government official being hypocritical. Now the question is why did he bring up COVID-19 and the restrictions that are imposed on all of us? If ultimately he's going to be talking about immigration. Well he's trying to establish his credibility. He's trying to convey to the audience that he takes COVID-19 seriously. And he is very cognizant of the rules. They're very strict. So if the government is going to be strict when it comes to COVID-19 then it's weird that they seem to be violating their own principles on this issue of immigration. So he says the Biden administration is releasing thousands of foreign nationals living here illegally into American neighborhoods without bothering to test them. People with high infection rates living in crowded conditions sent forth into the American population like COVID isn't real. COVID infected illegal aliens released into the United States whatever. It's not like there's a pandemic. These are direct quotes from him. The words that he's using like it conjures up very specific images. We're releasing these immigrants infected with COVID into the wild like you're thinking of them as if they're animals. Like we're releasing animals into you know the public. That's kind of the way that he describes immigrants. But ask yourself this question. Does Tucker Carlson actually care about immigrants giving other Americans COVID-19? No. Because if he truly wanted to fight COVID-19 we know what the solution is. The solution obviously is for the government to pay people to stay home. With his gigantic platform he could have had influence over the Trump administration if he actually pushed this because Trump actually took what he said seriously. So if he genuinely cared about protecting people from COVID he would have been advocating for that. But what is the solution? Well you know the implication is that maybe these immigrants shouldn't be released to the public but really he doesn't come up with a solution. Instead he primed his audience to think about immigrants in a different way. To think well you know since I don't think that they should be released into our communities because I'm taking COVID-19 seriously maybe we should deport them. I mean I'm against deportation usually but he does make a good point. This is a pandemic. And the fact of the matter is that if they're deported now traveling would put them at a greater risk to contract the virus. Whereas if they were released from the holding centers that they're at currently well they'd be subjected to the same state-based restrictions as everyone else. It's not like they're more likely to increase the spread of COVID-19 and he implies that population density will lead to a rise in cases. And you know he's probably right about that. So what he's trying to do is subtly suggest that you should make a decision. Your health or their health. It's us versus them. He's trying to get people who are traditionally sympathetic towards immigrants to think about them in a new way. He's using COVID-19 rather weaponizing COVID-19 to gin up xenophobia. What he's doing here is strategically very very influential. Because someone who traditionally doesn't fall for xenophobia or aren't afraid of immigrants well now he presented you a danger that immigrants pose in an entirely new light. Now in actuality immigrants I mean they're no more likely to give you COVID-19 than your neighbor or someone at the grocery store. But think about the way that he referred to them. He says people with high infection rates living in crowded conditions. Like he's trying to dehumanize them. Make them seem like they're not like you and me. They're different. They live in crowded conditions. They have larger families. More likely to contract COVID-19. They pose a threat to you. Now he said this before in a number of ways right. He's talked about how immigrants make America dirty and how they hate us. But this is a new way to utilize something against immigrants. The pandemic. It is really really nefarious. But this is one of the more clever examples of Tucker Carlson doing propaganda. As of late he's become a lot more brazen about just straight up lying. For example this is what he said about George Floyd just the other day. Beginning of Memorial Day BLM and their sponsors in corporate America completely changed this country. They changed this country more in five months than it had changed in the previous 50 years. Have they do that? They used the sad death of a man called George Floyd to upend our society. Months later we learned that the story they told us about George Floyd's death was an utter lie. There was no physical evidence that George Floyd was murdered by a cop. The autopsies show that George Floyd almost certainly died of a drug overdose. Fentanyl. But by that point facts didn't matter. It was too late. He's lying to you. He's telling you that the video you watched where the officer had his knee on George Floyd's neck for almost nine minutes that actually didn't cause him to die even though we literally watched him pass away. It was George Floyd's own fault. It was a drug overdose. Straight up lying. So think about the tactics that Tucker Carlson uses to make a point. Gaslighting. Priming. The way that he delivers the news to his audience is incredibly persuasive. And this is part of the reason why he is so popular because people might get the false sense that he's on their side. You know he lambasts oligarchs and elites and claims to be anti-establishment. But this individual is a trust fund baby. He is the oligarch that he denounces. He is the establishment at least when it comes to corporate media that he claims to despise. But yet because of the way that he uses language he can convince people that he's actually on their side so when he sells them xenophobia and racism and white supremacy even explicitly they take him seriously because he's cultivated that trust with his audience. But make no mistake about it this man is absolutely dangerous. The propaganda that he disseminates could kill people. And I'm not just saying that because he jins up hatred against immigrants and people of color and marginalized communities. But now he's trying to convince his audience mostly elderly viewers that maybe the COVID vaccine isn't a good thing to have. I mean he's not saying that explicitly but he got you to think that that's the case by priming you to believe that maybe it's a little bit suspicious that all of these elites want us to take this vaccine. It's dangerous. And if we don't know what to look for if we're not aware of what he's doing then we can't educate people and help them protect themselves against this level of propaganda which is highly effective.