August 31, 2020

John Oliver was pretty pissed about the RNC featuring the couple of personal injury lawyers whose incendiary rhetoric warned the suburbs would be destroyed. He wondered what it had to do with the actions of Kyle Rittenhouse. Via the Daily Beast:

“I don’t know if he saw the McCloskeys speak the night before he drove to a city he didn’t live in to defend property he didn’t own,” said Oliver. “What I do know is he was an avid Trump supporter, even sitting front row at a rally back in January, and Trump and his media ecosystem have been delivering essentially the same message as the McCloskeys for years now. Just look at how quickly Tucker Carlson moved to try and explain away Rittenhouse’s actions as a natural response.”

Oliver threw to Fox News’ Carlson who, as soon as he got wind of Rittenhouse’s arrest, defended the accused murderer on his program: “So, are we really surprised that looting and arson accelerated to murder? How shocked are we that 17-year-olds with rifles decided they had to maintain order when no one else would?”

“Well, you don’t seem to be shocked—and that alone should be pretty fucking shocking,” said Oliver. “Because let’s be clear. A 17-year-old vigilante with a rifle cannot maintain order, because a 17-year-old vigilante with a rifle trying to maintain order is himself the definition of disorder—except, of course, if you’re a regular viewer of Tucker Carlson, a show that exists to teach its viewers precisely three things: Property damage is violence, homicide is order, and pillows are for sale.”

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