After lamenting that Gibson's liberal critics never spoke up as forcefully against Al Zarqawi and other evil-doers, the host took a call that questioned the basic meaning of anti-semitism:
CALLER: I have a problem against the term anti-semitic in general. Every time you say something about a group of people, they create a term for you. The fact is that this two and a half percent of people in America have way too much power, way to much control over doctors, lawyers, universities, banking. They control every diamond on the planet earth. They do have an enormous amount of power and control over the industries, and maybe Mel got angry one day.
A host who had any interest in pushing back against anti-Jewish extemism would have a very quick answer to that statement and would tell the caller that what he said was classically anti-semitic, hateful, and hurtful. But instead of being very clear and instructive on what was right and what was wrong, Carlson launched into a five minute long academic discussion of why Jews have so much more influence than their numbers would suggest. It was truly an amazing thing to behold.
As people like David Neiwert have pointed out many times before, this is a perfect example of how far-right extemism spreads throughout mainstream conservatism. You have a key Republican operative with a popular radio show who refuses to confront the anti-semitic statements of his own listeners. The same people who always rave about strong morals and absolutist decision-making refuse to challenge the divisive nature of people on their own side of the aisle. And so the show ends and all of the people who think that Jew's control the world are left feeling secure in their bigotry and even gain a new set of truthy reasoning to support their warped theories. In the end the lack of recognition of anti-semitic extremism and the lack of will to confront it only ends up spreading and further reinforcing a very ugly development of modern American conservatism.