The only thing more nauseating than listening to Tucker Carlson suggest he’d love nothing better than an ethnic cleansing in America was seeing him pat himself on the back for his “honesty” and holding himself up as a paragon of tolerance.

As he often does, Carlson couched this bit of white nationalism in an “I’m just asking the questions nobody else has the courage to ask” pretense.

Carlson’s attack on diversity began with Democrats Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton calling diversity a “strength” of this country. But despite the fact that “E pluribus unum” (out of many one) appears on our country’s Great Seal and our coinage, Carlson wants you to think he’s more American for suggesting that diversity is exactly what’s wrong with the U.S.

“It’s hard to know exactly what it means, though,” Carlson said, other than “stop talking or else.” With his furrowed brow that’s a stand in for sincere thoughtfulness, he declared, “We won’t stop talking.”

A lower-third banner read: “RULING CLASS REPEATS ‘DIVERSITY’ MANTRA.” Given that Carlson couldn’t be a more entrenched member of the ruling class, that’s yet another piece of dishonesty.

“We need answers for real, not just with a sneer and a trip to the HR department for sensitivity training,” Carlson sneered. He went on to depict California as some kind of hellhole thanks to immigration.

Then Carlson got to the meat of his ethnic-purity wet dream, speaking rhetorically to those who like diversity:

CARLSON: Next, how, precisely, is diversity our strength? Since you’ve made this our new national motto, please be specific as you explain it. Can you think, for example, of other institutions, such as - I don’t know, marriage or military units, in which the less people have in common the more cohesive they are? Do you get along better with your neighbors or your co-workers if you can’t understand each other or share no common values? Please be honest as you answer this question. … And, by the way, if your ideas are so obviously true, why does anyone who questions them need to be shamed, silenced and fired?

Here’s some honesty for ya, Tucker. Besides the fact that we need a diversity of biology to survive (what would we eat without a variety of plants and animals?), the very concept of heterosexuality makes the case that differences are often desirable.

Furthermore, Carlson seems to have made the hideous assumption that people from diverse backgrounds can neither understand each other nor share common values. I feel certain that I share more values and understanding with the Hispanic abuelos down the street, whose extended family lives on parcels of land that sprawl through the neighborhood, than I ever would with fellow Anglo Carlson, who purchased a $3.895 million house about a year ago

But what’s possibly even more pernicious – and dishonest – is Carlson’s claim to champion free speech and the marketplace of ideas. Shamed, silenced and fired? Why, almost any guest Carlson disagrees with gets that treatment. In fact, Carlson did exactly that with the guest Quentin James immediately following this nasty monologue.

Carlson complained, “What we never hear about is the ideas of the people who seek to take [Trump’s] place.” Then, Carlson refused to let James discuss those ideas. James mentioned a Democratic agenda of a higher minimum wage, reforming immigration and lowering health care costs, Carlson changed the subject to ask whether Democrats who supported the 2008 bank bailouts, killing Qaddafi in Libya and the bombing of Syria and “talking about more war with Iran and Russia” have “rethought this at all?”

Unfortunately, James was yet another guest who failed to call out Carlson’s tactics, much less the bigotry, and wound up on defensive. But when James tried to argue that the past two Democratic presidents, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were great for the economy, Carlson laughed derisively before James finished his sentence. Shamed? Check.

Carlson continued making dismissive faces and sounds as James tried to continue, then interrupted James to end the interview. Silenced? Check. Fired? Well, as much as a guest can be fired, check.

Not surprisingly, there was quite an outcry online about this segment. Carlson responded with a whining session on Twitter. In it, he posed as someone interested in uniting the country, even as he clearly aimed at sowing more divisiveness:

“The organized left is lying about a segment we did on Friday night. Our topic was ‘diversity is our strength,’ a phrase our leaders use to end conversation rather than spur it. …These are the questions our leaders out [sic] to be asking every day. How does a nation of 325 million people hang together? What do we all have in common as Americans? Why should we remain a country? Nothing is more important than answering this. … What’s at stake isn’t a cable news segment. It’s the existence of rational conversation in America. If they can prevent you from asking honest questions, there’s nothing they can’t do.”

crossposted from Newshounds