The rhetoric just continues to escalate.

By Lauren Elizabeth
04/10/2022

After Georgia Representative Marjorie Greene has been making the headlines for claiming Democrats were “pro-pedophile” and increasingly sounding like a leader who hopes to set the stage for genocide, FOX News’ own Tucker Carlson decided he was going to add to the increase in violent rhetoric coming from the right wing as well. On his April 8th show, Carlson decided to draw teachers and fathers into the mix.

William Valliancourt with Yahoo News writes:
“Tucker Carlson on Friday suggested that fathers of students should inflict violence upon teachers whom he claims are “pushing sex values” on them.

The Fox News host spoke with Ohio GOP Senate candidate JD Vance about how, as he put it, President Joe Biden “wants to determine what your kids learn about the deepest and most important issues there are.” Biden, he added, is therefore aiming for “control over your family, and your values, and your beliefs.”

“I don’t understand where the men are. Like where are the dads?” Carlson asked. “You know, some teacher is pushing sex values on your third grader. Why don’t you go in and thrash the teacher? Like this is an agent of the government pushing someone else’s values on your kid about sex, like where’s the pushback?”’

In no uncertain terms, Tucker Carlson just advocated for right wing fathers to go into the classroom of their 3rd grade child, and physically attack their teacher. If the mention of the very existence of lgbtq+ individuals even comes up in a classroom, Carlson’s language seems to indicate he views it as a responsibility for a father to come in and take matters into their own hands.

It’s one thing for a random, angry right winger in a fringe chatroom online to make these statements as if that wouldn’t be disturbing enough. It’s another when this is coming from the top cable news host in the country, who happens to be one of the most popular figures on the right.

Fascism isn’t coming, it is here.

Frankly, I’ve lost count of the number of times where I’ve addressed the actions and statements coming from GOP figures like Carlson, and pointed out that they know exactly what they’re doing. They know exactly how their language is going to be interpreted by the people they’re speaking to, and how to finesse it just enough to give themselves plausible deniability. Carlson is intelligent, tactical, and calculating. He knows his audience. He knows there is a significant chance that someone will hear what he said, agree wholeheartedly, and engage in violence towards educators. Between the language coming from the likes of Carlson, Greene, and others, it’s a matter of time.

It’s a matter of time before a father becomes convinced that his child is being indoctrinated by a teacher he’ll claim is a pedophile for simply answering a question about sexuality, and comes for them not just with fists which would be bad enough, but with weapons.

How long before someone is killed at a school board meeting?

Since all of these talking points on the right wing intensified in recent months and weeks, it’s not lost on me how utterly bizarre it is for conservatives to insist conversations about sexuality and gender in classrooms is indoctrination.

I remember being in 2nd grade, having my first innocent little crush, feeling those butterflies for the very first time, and just enjoying sitting next to the boy in class or playing together outside at recess. No one would claim I was indoctrinated. No one would claim my teacher was pushing “sex values”. No one would claim my father should come in and assault my teacher.

Frankly, my heart absolutely breaks for a little girl in a state like Florida whose going to look at another little girl, experience those perfectly natural butterflies, and feel like she has no one at school to turn to or talk to about it. How inhumane, cruel, isolating, and needlessly evil to create an educational environment where not only do LGBTQ+ children feel frightened and lonely, but their teachers are offered no real way of helping them through it.

And then to top it all off, Tucker Carlson directs violence their way.

It’s moments like these where it truly hits me just how dangerous things are getting, and I think it’s only going to get worse before it gets better.

Lauren is a writer & leftist with analysis on topics related to politics & policy. She can be reached at LaurenMartinchek@gmail.com or Twitter