Public discussion is no longer organic. There is now a system that decides which stories can be reported by news outlets, which topics politicians are willing to comment on, and which topics should be deemed untouchable. We now have no-go topics.
The environment of “acceptable speech,” contrasted with the topics nobody dares to touch, frames the “public discussion.”
It was in this context that former Fox News host Tucker Carlson interviewed the leading 2024 candidates for the Republican Party, with the exception of former President Donald Trump. The videos went viral on Twitter. News outlets were plastered with either praise or hit pieces, while some just ignored it altogether, because what Carlson had done was ask many of the questions you’re just not supposed to ask….