For those of you who haven’t followed much of the Tucker Carlson story and wonder why I’m paying attention to him at all – and/or who wonder what I’m referring to by “demon” – a little intro is in order.

Tucker’s been around a long time in the news/pundit business, but he didn’t really become a phenomenon till he got his own show at Fox in November 2016. Then he became something of a star in the news commentary world and got a huge following, plus a reputation for fearless hard-hitting truth-telling. Whether or not that reputation was deserved, that was how he was perceived by millions. When Fox fired him in April of 2023 I assume he was angry at them, but also happy because he realized he could use his fame and reputation to launch his own podcast and that it would be popular and lucrative.

And he would no longer be bound by Fox’s constraints. He’d be completely his own man.

I wrote a series of posts about Carlson’s motives and evolution (devolution); you can find them here, here, and here, with more about Carlson here. So I won’t go into all of that again. The point is that, although some of Carlson’s following now is undoubtedly leftists, Islamists, and bots, there are still many people formerly on the right who follow him, and some of them believe what he says. I don’t know the numbers, but his podcasts draw a huge amount of traffic, and he is trading on his former reputation as well as the distrust of so many people towards more conventional sources of information.

Regarding the demon – Tucker himself has said he was attacked by a demon. Make of that what you will.

If you believe in demons, you might think the demon was the ghost of Goebbels, because that’s the sort of thinking Carlson has been channeling lately. His modus operandi is different – the thoughtful furrowed brow and then the maniacal laugh, and the “just asking questions” pose as he gives fawning softball interviews to those who accuse Israelis and Jews of persecuting Christians and being vicious child-killing warmongers, as well as extolling Arab countries such as Qatar and promoting conspiracy theories such as the preposterous idea that Israel assassinated JFK (see this). In contrast, he is very hard on anyone who defends Israel, such as in his recent interview with Mike Huckabee. The contrast is stark.

Now Carlson has gone after Chabad (as has Candace Owens, by the way), a group of Orthodox Jews around the world who basically provide outreach to Jewish students on college campuses, do charity work, and have a presence in many places in order to provide a safe and welcoming atmosphere for Jews. They are peaceful, they don’t proselytize, and they basically stay away from politics:

Carlson claimed that Chabad is orchestrating a religious war aimed at destroying the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem’s Old City so that the Third Temple could be rebuilt in its place.

“This has been going on a long time in public through, in part, the efforts of a group called Chabad. C-H-A-B-A-D,” Carlson said.

Chabad, a sect of Hasidic Judaism known for its global religious outreach and houses on hundreds of college campuses, does not function as a political advocacy organization. Its teachings describe the rebuilding of the Third Temple as part of a future messianic redemption achieved through acts of mitzvot — not a project to be advanced through modern warfare or the destruction of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

“To blame it on a Hasidic movement based in Brooklyn that just goes around the world, spreading Judaism, spreading love, spreading kindness, it’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard,” Yossi Farro, a member of the Chabad movement known for wrapping tefillin with celebrities, told the Forward in a phone interview. “He’s appealing to people that have never heard of Chabad and now, their first opinion is, this is horrible, these people are warmongers — which is the exact opposite of what we represent.”

The right-wing podcaster Candace Owens amplified the claim, posting to X, “Tucker is telling the truth about the Chabad Lubavitch.”

This group is intensely vulnerable because they are visible and operate – often just a married couple in each venue – all over the world. They have already experienced attacks, such as the terrible one in Bondi Beach, Australia, during a Chanuka celebration. Tucker is trying his hardest to ensure there will be more.

One interesting thing is how Tucker uses the old trick of reversal. What he says about Chabad is untrue, but strangely enough it is true of the mullahs of Iran, who really do want to spark a war in order to bring about the coming of the Mahdi (see this). What Tucker says Israelis do to Muslims and Christians is not true either, but that sort of persecution is what Muslims have done and still do to Jews and Christians.

Meanwhile, Trump has chosen to condemn Tucker outright – and adds the insult that Tucker’s not smart enough to realize how lost he is:

“Tucker has lost his way,” Trump told me. “I knew that a long time ago, and he’s not MAGA. MAGA is saving our country. MAGA is making our country great again. MAGA is America first, and Tucker is none of those things. And Tucker is really not smart enough to understand that.”

And this:

Chabad’s spokesman reponded:

Carlson’s @TuckerCarlson claim about Chabad and the Temple Mount is a slanderous lie. His implication that Chabad is behind the war in Iran is a dangerous blood libel.

Chabad’s focus is on encouraging mitzvos—good deeds—to bring more goodness into the world and hasten the coming of the Messiah, while living responsibly in the present. The Messianic vision is one of peace and harmony for all.

He is also wrong about the Temple patches. They did not come from Chabad. Had he done even basic research, that would be clear. It would also show that many who wear the Temple patches see them as symbols of faith and hope for peace, and a yearning for the day when there will be no more war.

Carlson doesn’t care about truth, so doing research will not change anything. He is putting a target on Chabad’s backs all over the world, a message to leftists, Islamists, white supremacists, and odd assorted lunatics.

Yes, it would be nice to ignore Tucker and the other people spreading these vicious lies. I hope their followers become fewer and fewer. But they do have followers. There are a lot of young people with few anchors and a lot of anger combined with a great deal of distrust of conventional sources of information, and they are ripe for believing the sort of vileness Carlson and his fellow-travelers spew out.