A smear campaign that has gained steam in recent weeks on social media is tarring any person
who expresses distaste for U.S. military intervention as a tool of a vast Qatari influence-peddling conspiracy.
The man most maligned by this smear is Tucker Carlson, whose views have sharply diverged with Republican conventional wisdom in recent weeks. Because he is a sharp critic of war with Iran, he has been dubbed “Tucker Qatarlson” by neoconservative critics as a way to undermine his credibility in the hope of limiting his influence in the conservative movement.
Independent journalist Glenn Greenwald commented that those accusing their political opposition of being owned by Qatar are participating in a conservative version of Russia-gate. President Donald Trump does not seem to have been swept away by Qatari-phobia. He was recently given a hero’s welcome by the Qataris and reportedly worked with them to broker a ceasefire to cool hostilities between Iran and Israel.
Subsequently, the slur of “Woke Right” has also been used to slam anti-war voices on the Right. Prior to this, the term “woke” was used to refer to the excesses of political correctness and leftism, now woke has been redefined to attack anyone on the Right who has the audacity to question the necessity of America’s long-standing alliances. These are the last gasps of a gatekeeping apparatus that is in its death throes.
Neocons shaped mainstream Republican opinion for decades, but their cultural capital has waned considerably because MAGA has opened up the floodgates against status quo politics. No longer are there a handful of elite media sources that dictate public opinion on the Right. The new decentralized milieu terrifies the neocons as people are now asking questions about foreign influence that would have never been broached before.
It is easier for neocons to accuse their opponents of being foreign agents or cast them as “woke” instead of debating their ideas. The neocons lost the argument decades ago after Bush-ism failed, paving the way for the rise of Barack Hussein Obama, and nearly destroying the Republican Party before the tea party revived it as an entity and President Trump transformed it into a vessel for America First. The neocons still linger on because the establishment sees value in promoting their bloodthirsty ideology, but their relevance is rapidly approaching its nadir.
Carlson, Greenwald and others are on the vanguard of a new media paradigm, empowered by Elon Musk’s takeover of X, where they can operate with virtually no editorial constraints. They are able to broach topics and engage in long-form discussions that would never be allowed on cable news or in the newspapers. They can cater more directly to what their audience wants without having to kowtow to any middlemen. They provide a better product than their antiquated competitors hiding content behind paywalls, and their futility within this new media atmosphere is driving them insane.
The independent media is tapping into a youth demographic chronically underserved by conservative politics. For example, Fox News still has the cultural cache to manipulate a predominantly older Republican audience to want war with Iran, similar to how they misled their flock to believe Iraq had weapons of mass destruction in the build up to that disastrous war. But there will not be a new generation of Fox News watchers coming along to replace the old when they pass. Young, tech-savvy individuals will consume content on their own time, using various dynamic platforms, and the independent media is built to suit their tastes.
As those who are left behind by these changes circle the drains, they will inevitably lash out, as they are with baseless Qatari slurs and Woke Right accusations. These tantrums will be sorry exercises in futility. The hearts and minds of the people have been won over by the independent media. Too many understand how they were being deceived, and they will never be returning to the elites who preferred to keep them in the dark. Topics that were previously verboten will be rethought and reconsidered in the marketplace of ideas, for better or for worse. Those who can adapt will survive. Those who cannot adapt and insipidly bleat out absurd accusations at their opponents will not survive.
