“Why Tucker Carlson pretends to hate elites” — Vox, 2019, 8:37 — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNineSEoxjQ
An excellent application of the false consciousness in explaining Fox News’ Tucker Carlson. The false consciousness distracts the masses from their exploitation at the hands of elites. This can involve scapegoating economic problems on non-elites, shifting the public’s attention away from oppressive business practices and onto more benign issues, and/or pacifying the poor through fantasies of economic mobility. Either way, the false consciousness benefits the rich by distracting the proletariat from the true cause of their oppression. For trust fund babies like Tucker Carlson, the false consciousness protects their generational wealth and privilege.
Where else do we see the false consciousness in the media, politics, or everyday life? Why have the proletariat accepted these false narratives for so long? What can be done to awaken a class consciousness among the working classes?
From the video’s description: Why would Tucker Carlson, who used to brag about being an “out-of-the-closet elitist,” use his primetime Fox News show to rail against the ruling class? Tucker Carlson has branded himself as a populist, condemning the “liberal elite” that he argues makes up the American “ruling class.” It’s a good shtick, and it’s helped him stand out from other Fox News hosts. But while Tucker decries the “elite” on his show, he regularly ignores major stories of Republican economic policies that harm the working class, choosing instead to focus on bogus culture war stories. That isn’t an accident. Carlson’s show is meant to distract Fox News viewers from Republican economics, channeling their frustration and anger at groups that don’t deserve it. That kind of misdirection produces what Marxist theorists call “false consciousness”: when workers are tricked into accepting their own exploitation.