Tucker Carlson has spent years sanding down the edges of old antisemitic narratives and repackaging them as elevated commentary about “Western civilization.” But last week, on the Shawn Ryan Show, he aggressively abandoned the polish. What emerged was not just his open hostility toward Israel. It was an attempt to evict Jews from the very civilization they helped create.
In an alarming monologue, Carlson declared that “identity politics,” “tribalism,” and “group supremacy” are the enemies of the West — and he then added a new villain (at least for most self-described “conservatives”) to the list:
“It’s DEI, it’s tribalism… it’s Zionism. Netanyahu says he defends Western civilization. No. He’s its enemy — literally its main enemy.”
He went further:
“Why are the Nazis bad? Because they said we’re fighting these people based on who they are… and Netanyahu believes the same thing.”
This was not analysis.
It was moral derangement — the leader of the world’s only Jewish state cast as indistinguishable from Hitler, and Zionism smeared as the twin of Nazism.
It is the oldest hatred dressed up in pseudo-philosophy.
And Carlson is now its most visible American salesman.
Carlson’s “West”: A Civilization with Judaism Removed
Carlson cloaks his argument in talk about “the individual soul,” claiming Zionism violates Western values by affirming Jewish peoplehood. This may resonate with those unfamiliar with history, but it collapses instantly under scrutiny.
Judaism has always existed as both a faith and a people tethered to the land of Israel. And the West, itself, does not exist without Judaism.
The ideas of a moral universe governed by law, of human dignity rooted in a divine source, of covenant and equality — these are Jewish innovations. Christianity’s intellectual framework is built directly on Jewish scripture and philosophy. The American Founders repeatedly cited Hebrew texts as the basis for natural rights and the inherent worth of the individual.
To claim Zionism — the modern expression of Jewish self-determination — is anti-Western is like claiming the spine is anti-body. It is not merely false. It is an erasure.
And it echoes Charles Lindbergh’s 1941 assertion that Jews “distort American policy” and threaten Western civilization — a narrative Carlson now repeats almost word for word.
Projection Disguised as Principle
Carlson accuses Zionism of “tribalism,” “group supremacy,” and “identity politics.” But these traits define the “woke right” movement he has helped empower.
Nick Fuentes openly advocates stripping Jews of civil rights.
Marjorie Taylor Greene promotes Christian nationalism.
The “National Conservative” sphere defends ethnic hierarchy.
White nationalist rhetoric about Jewish “control” now circulates across the digital landscape Carlson helped cultivate.
These are not champions of universal individualism. Along with the far-left, they are among the most identity-obsessed factions in American politics. Carlson’s charge against Jews is not simply hypocritical — it is psychological projection.
He sees in mainstream Jews what the “woke right” and the far-left are both championing: a politics of grievance, fear, and internal enemies. And, as history shows, it is always the Jews who get cast in the internal enemy role.
Manufactured Disloyalty
A few weeks ago, Carlson railed against Jewish commentators like Ben Shapiro and Mark Levin:
“Give us the money for our preferred little country… You’re flirting with real backlash. Like a real one.”
“Backlash” is not an observation.
It is a threat.
And it follows the same script used by Lindbergh: Jews are steering America to ruin, and if people turn on them — well, they brought it on themselves.
Now Carlson has escalated from warning of “backlash” to labeling Jews who support Israel — meaning the overwhelming majority — as enemies of the West itself.
This is how demagogues test the boundaries of acceptable discourse.
And then push them.
No, Zionism Is Not Racism
And Carlson’s Chosenness Smear Is Either Ignorant or Malicious
Carlson’s newest accusation is that Zionism is racist and premised on harming people “for the way they were born.” This is wrong on every level.
Zionism is not a racial ideology. It is a national liberation movement — no different from Greek, Irish, or Armenian self-determination. Jewish identity predates European racial categories, and Jews come in every pigmentation known to humankind. Israel’s Jewish population is majority “non-white” by American standards, and Arab Israelis serve across government, the judiciary, the military, and the police.
There is nothing racist about Jewish self-rule — any more than Japanese or Latvian self-rule is racist.
Carlson’s dog whistle about Jewish “chosenness” — paired with his attacks on Christian Zionists — is equally dishonest. Chosenness in Judaism is not a claim of ethnic or racial superiority. It is a burden of obligation: a mandate to follow moral law, not a license to dominate others. And unlike Christianity or Islam, Judaism does not claim that one must join the Jewish people to merit salvation. It is the only Abrahamic faith that does not require membership for a place in heaven — hardly the posture of a people obsessed with supremacy.
What Carlson presents as proof of Jewish exclusivity is actually one of the most inclusive theological frameworks in Western religion.
His smear relies on twisting a complex religious idea into something sinister, recasting Jews — and the Christians who support Israel — as zealots driven by visions of innate superiority. It is a distortion as old as antisemitism itself, repackaged for a new audience.
Why Carlson Needs Jews as the Villain
The far-left claims Israel “controls” America.
The woke-right claims Jews “subvert” America.
This is the political horseshoe closed into a circle: the oldest hatred meeting itself on the other side.
And Carlson is working to become its most effective megaphone.
He needs a villain that unites both fringes.
He needs a target requiring no evidence.
He needs a narrative that flatters resentment.
And history has shown which group fills that role.
It is always the same group — the one that rhymes with “news.”
The Real Threat to the West
Carlson insists the West is built on the dignity of the individual — and that Zionism contradicts it. But what he promotes violates Western values far more clearly:
- Declaring a minority’s political participation illegitimate.
- Warning Jews of “backlash” if they do not alter their politics.
- Comparing Jewish self-defense to Nazism.
- Erasing Judaism’s foundational role in Western civilization.
- Suggesting Jews who support a democratic ally are disloyal.
- Dressing conspiracy rhetoric in philosophical language.
This is not Western civilization.
It is its dark mirror.
Carlson wants Americans to mistake that mirror for the real thing.
The Real Threat to the West
At a time when truly anti-Western forces — Iran’s theocrats, their fascist militias, and the campus radicals cheering them on — proudly chant for America’s decline, Tucker Carlson has chosen to target the people who helped articulate the ideals the West is built on.
Not the ones burning American flags.
The ones who helped write the ideas those flags represent.
Carlson is not defending Western civilization.
He is trying to redefine it into something smaller, harsher, and hostile to the very people who shaped it.
Because the West he claims to champion was built on Jewish ideas, Jewish texts, and Jewish moral philosophy.
If he wants a civilization without Jews, he is not defending the West — he is abandoning it.
