Fox News host Tucker Carlson blasted online payment system company PayPal for refusing service to white nationalist website VDARE late Tuesday, and the site promptly thanked the conservative primetime star for calling out the “deplatforming.”
Prior to interviewing presidential son Donald Trump Jr., who spent much of his segment complaining about his Instagram likes, Carlson lashed out against the “totalitarian left” for supposedly trying to destroy all “major freedoms protected by the Bill of Rights.” This includes, apparently, the right to use PayPal.
Claiming that the left has spent decades weakening the First Amendment, Carlson said they’ve created “phony hate speech exemptions out of thin air” and are now allying with big corporations to “make it impossible for people who say the wrong things to make a living in this country.”
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Spotlighting PayPal, Carlson said it was “essential” for anyone who wanted to make money online, going on to chastise the company and its CEO Dan Schulman for banning far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, Islamophobic provocateur Laura Loomer, and VDARE —which he described as merely a “publication.”
Carlson further criticized Shulman for taking guidance on hate speech from non-profit civil rights organization Southern Poverty Law Center—a group Carlson described as “fraudulent” and an “arm of the Democratic National Committee.”
VDARE, designated as a hate group by the SPLC, tweeted out its appreciation of Tucker calling out PayPal while giving the site a shoutout in primetime.
“Thanks To Tucker Carlson! Tucker Calls Out PayPal For Deplatforming, Names VDARE.com Among Victims,” the tweet read.
Carlson, who is currently suffering through a sustained advertiser boycott, has long had to fend off accusations that he peddles thinly veiled white nationalism on his highly rated primetime show. Among Carlson’s biggest admirers, however, are notorious white supremacist Richard Spencer and racist website the Daily Stormer.
And now, it would appear, VDARE.