A Tale of Two Grocery Store Visits: Tucker vs Boris

The weird transformation of the former Fox anchor from libertarianism into a Russian propagandist

Dear Readers:

As believers in the power of the free enterprise and liberalism, here at The UnPopulist we were disheartened to see Tucker Carlson’s recent attempt to prop up Vladimir Putin during his excursion to Moscow. Carlson’s interview with Putin serves to sand off the edges of Putin’s revanchist nationalism, gloss over his brutal aggression toward Russia’s neighbor, Ukraine, and downplay the wrongful imprisonment of dissidents like Alexei Navalny, who died in captivity shortly after Tucker’s soiree as if to mock the former Fox host’s blatant propaganda.

However, Carlson’s trip did not end there. Between a visit to Kiyevskaya Metro Station and a grocery store, he marveled at the cleanliness and luxury that has risen from Putin’s autocratic order, while failing to demonstrate the cost of such measures, going so far as to claim that he was “radicalized” against the United States and its leaders after what he saw in Moscow.

Today, we take a look back at someone who underwent a similar type of “radicalization,” but in the opposite direction: Putin’s predecessor Boris Yeltsin, whose 1989 visit to a grocery store in Houston, Texas, catalyzed his liberal turn and signaled the beginning of the end for the Communist Party’s reign.

My latest video aims to highlight the stark contrast between the two grocery store trips, and to illustrate how far Carlson and his right-wing populism have come. Long gone are the days when he hailed limited government and open exchange—Tucker now longs for the promise of control, and the order it allegedly brings.

View it below or on YouTube (and subscribe to our YouTube channel), and after watching, tell us: Why do you think Tucker regards Russian grocery stores as a triumph of Putinism and American dollar stores as a malaise of rapacious capitalism?

Our favorite response will get a shoutout in Substack Notes.

Landry Ayres
Senior Producer

© The UnPopulist 2024

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