Introduction

The mass shooting in Buffalo, which left 10 people dead, has ignited a debate about the role the “great replacement” conspiracy theory plays in contemporary politics. As many commentators note, the “great replacement” theory not only animates the manifesto of the alleged shooter but also has become, in only a slightly watered down form, a staple of right wing media programs like Tucker Carlson’s show on Fox News.

Glenn Greenwald, a contrarian writer on Substack, rushed to Carlson’s defense in a lengthy post. First noting, correctly, that shooters have many different ideologies, Greenwald goes on to downplay Carlson’s well-documented history of racism. According to Greenwald, “Carlson believes … that the proper citizenry of the United States is multi-racial and that Black Americans and Latin Americans and Asian-Americans are every bit as much U.S. citizens, with all of the same claims to rights and protections, as every other American citizen.”

Is Tucker Carlson really as enlightened as Greenwald believes? To take this up, I spoke with Eoin Higgins of The Flashpoint newsletter, who has written multiple times about Greenwald’s habit of acting as Carlson’s pro bono mouthpiece.

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