At school you learned that Nazi Germany under Hitler was responsible for starting World War II and the persecution and murder of six million Jews between 1933 and 1945?
All this nonsense, the real “bad guy” of the story would rather be Winston Churchill. The atrocious fate reserved for the Jews? A “humanitarian” solution of the Germans overwhelmed by the large number of prisoners.
Tucker Carlson is dangerous
What you have just read above is the corrected version of the history of the Second World War as expressed by Darryl Cooper during an interview conducted on X by Tucker Carlson.
Cooper claims to be a historian and was introduced as such by the former Fox News star. The same star who had to leave the network, whose stars lie with great regularity, because disinformation had become too costly.
Cooper’s statements, encouraged by Carlson, constitute Nazi propaganda that is not historically supported. History is being reinvented without bothering with facts and sources.
Disinformation as a political agenda
I revisit this interview that aired last week for two reasons. First, Tucker Carlson made an appearance at the Republican convention in July and will soon be taking the stage with Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance.
In a healthy political context and in a party that had a minimum of respect for democratic regimes, Carlson and his ilk would be dismissed and then vigorously condemned.
In 2024, we prefer to get involved with these agents of mass disinformation. A Trump and Carlson alliance does not bode well.
My students sometimes tell me at the beginning of the session that history is used to learn lessons from the past. I hasten to correct them and this revision of Nazism unfortunately confirms what I teach them.
The second reason to revisit this interview is that by agreeing to Carlson’s presence at the convention and alongside his running mate, Donald Trump is giving more weight to the threat posed by the 2025 Project, which he plans to draw inspiration from after a victory.
I often hear Trump supporters these days claiming that we are exaggerating when we say that the fate of democracy is currently being played out in the United States. They say: “Trump was in power for 4 years and democracy still exists!”
This is to make little of the assault of January 6, 2021, but it is also to ignore history once again. I would like to remind them that democracies do not collapse suddenly, they are first undermined from within and the checks and balances on power are gradually eroded.
In 2024, Republicans are in a good position to hold majorities in the House and Senate. If you have nerves of steel, imagine what a Trump presidency supported by a Republican Congress would be like.
