In the final speech he gave as a Fox News host, Tucker Carlson saluted the bravery of those who take the road less traveled and the position less popular.
Carlson gave the keynote speech Friday night at an event in National Harbor, Maryland, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Heritage Foundation.
On Monday, he was fired from Fox News, with no public reason given.
In his speech, the longtime host of the cable ratings juggernaut “Tucker Carlson Tonight” spoke of people who “break under the strain, under the downward pressure of whatever this is that we’re going through.”
“And you look with disdain and sadness as you see people you know become quislings, you see them revealed as cowards, you see them going along with a new, new thing, which is clearly a poisonous thing, a silly thing, saying things you know they don’t believe because they want to keep their jobs,” he said.
Speaking of people who are dominated by the herd instinct, Carlson said, “I’m not mad at people; I’m just sad. I’m disappointed. How could you go along with this? You know it’s not true, but you’re saying it anyway. Really, you’re putting your pronouns in your email? You’re ridiculous. But no one else thinks it’s ridiculous. ‘Oh no, it’s the pronouns in the email.’”
He said, “So, for every 10 people who are putting he and him in their electronic J.P. Morgan email signatures, there’s one person who’s like, ‘No, I’m not doing that. Sorry. I don’t want to fight, but I’m not doing that. It’s a betrayal of what I think is true. It’s a betrayal of my conscience, of my faith, of my sense of myself, of my dignity as a human being, of my autonomy.
“‘I am not a slave. I am a free citizen, and I’m not doing that. And there’s nothing you can do to me to make me do it. I hope it won’t come to that, but if it does come to that, here I am. Here I am.'”
“There is no thread that I can find that connects all of the people who’ve popped up in my life to be that lone, brave person in the crowd who says, ‘No, thank you,’” Carlson said.