Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson hit back on Thursday night against critics who called Queen Elizabeth a ‘colonizer’ and celebrated her death – insisting that the British Empire was something to be proud of, and calling it the most ‘benign’ empire the world had ever seen.
Carlson spoke out after the queen’s death was celebrated by some opinion writers, with one promising to dance on her grave and another describing her 70-year reign as ‘devastating.’
While millions around the world were mourning the death of the 96-year-old monarch, provocateurs were within hours of her death mocking the outpouring of grief – in some of the most esteemed publications in the United States.
One Pennsylvania professor even said she hoped the queen’s final hours of pain would ‘be excruciating.’
Carlson described them as ‘ghouls’ and said they were misguided.
‘The British Empire was not perfect, but it was far more humane than any other ever,’ Carlson said.
‘It was an impressive place run by impressive people.
‘We will see many empires going forward, but we will never see one so benign.’
Tucker Carlson on Thursday night condemned critics of Queen Elizabeth who were celebrating her death
He said they were attacking the queen out of a form of jealousy, because her era was better than the one we live in now.
‘Slander the ruler, discredit the entire period she lived in,’ he said.
‘And that’s exactly why they are attacking Queen Elizabeth tonight.
‘Not because she was a bad person, she was not a bad person, but because she lived during a better time.’
At its peak in the early 1900s, the British Empire covered around 25 percent of the world’s land surface, including large swathes of North America, Australia, Africa and Asia.
In 1952, when Elizabeth learned of her father’s death, Britain possessed more than 70 overseas territories. Now it has only 14 – the largest of which is the Falkland Islands, inhabited by less than 3,000 people.
Carlson singled out commentators who condemned the queen’s role in the British Empire
Carlson said that those countries ruled by Britain during the peak of the Empire benefited enormously.
‘In an ideal world, there would not be empires, no empires, only sovereign nations,’ he said.
‘But we don’t have that world I never have had that world. Going back to the Assyrians, 1400 years before Christ.
‘In the real world, the one we live in, strong countries dominate weak countries, and that trend shows no sign of changing.
‘The very least you can say about the English is they took their colonial responsibility seriously.
‘They did not just take things, they added.’
He said Britain left India – which became independent in 1947 – in a strong situation.
‘When the U.S. government withdrew from Afghanistan after 20 years we left behind air strips, shipping containers, and guns,’ Carlson said.
‘When the British pulled out of India, they left behind an entire civilization: a language, a legal system, schools, churches, public buildings. All still in use today.’
He was particularly taken with the train station in Mumbai, a UNESCO world heritage site completed in 1887, the year marking 50 years of Queen Victoria’s rule.
‘The British Empire spread Protestant Christianity to the entire world,’ he said.
‘It published some of the greatest literature ever written and produced some of the finest manufactured goods ever made anywhere at any time – including now.’
Carlson dedicated much of his Thursday night show to the death of the queen
He said Elizabeth’s coronation in 1953 marked the end of Britain’s preeminent place on the world stage.
‘Britain was already over whether the British knew it or not,’ he said.
‘To this day Britain claims to have won both of the century’s World Wars – but together they destroyed that nation forever.
‘After victory came, humiliation.
‘The Empire evaporated and along with it Britain’s self-confidence, and ultimately its self-respect.’
He mocked modern Britain as a place overrun by migrants and in the thrall of financial services.
‘It’s hard to believe now, but Britain was not always a regional banking center-slash-refugee camp: it was a real place with a history and a language and a culture and a genuinely remarkable people,’ he said.
‘A country in the North Atlantic the size of Alabama that somehow took over the world and ruled it with decency unmatched by any empire in human history.’
Carlson mocked the ‘woke’ writers who on Thursday failed to see the greatness of the British Empire.
‘The British Empire was evil, they wrote, apparently totally unaware of what came after.
‘And speaking of that, what came after the British Empire? How, for example, did Africa fare after the British left?
‘Let’s see: Uganda got Idi Amin, who was a cannibal. Rhodesia became Zimbabwe and then became the poorest country on the planet under the racist lunatic Robert Mugabe.
‘As of tonight South Africa is being into the ground by an incompetent kleptocrat named Cyril Ramaphosa.’
The ridicule of her reign was led by Tirhakah Love, senior newsletter writer for New York Magazine.
‘For 96 years, that colonizer has been sucking up the Earth’s resources,’ he wrote in his Thursday evening newsletter.
He added: ‘You can’t be a literal oppressor and not expect the people you’ve oppressed not to rejoice on news of your death.’
Tirhakah Love, senior newsletter writer for New York Magazine, said he was looking forward to dancing on the queen’s grave
Love, who was appointed in December, described by magazine editors as ‘creative and restless’ and ‘funny and surprising’, said he felt nothing but joy at her death.
‘Now I’m supposed to be quiet or, better yet, actually mourn what was a barely breathing Glad ForceFlex trash bag? Please, no,’ he wrote.
‘I just want to remind you that in the rest of the world, and I mean the actual world, most will be celebrating today.
‘We all have our methods of mourning friends; doing the electric slide on a colonizer’s grave just happens to be mine.’
Love knew his views on the Dinner Party newsletter would be provocative, tweeting: ‘lol make sure yall read dinner party’.
When someone reacted with mock horror, the Texan replied: ‘lmaooo whatchu meaannn???? im about to be as respectful and sweet as always!’
In The New York Times, Maya Jasanoff, a history professor at Harvard University, where she focuses on the history of Britain and the British Empire, said it was wrong to ‘romanticize’ her reign.
Maya Jasanoff, a Harvard professor specializing in the history of the British Empire, said it was wrong to ‘romanticize’ the queen’s rule
‘The queen helped obscure a bloody history of decolonization whose proportions and legacies have yet to be adequately acknowledged,’ she wrote.
Jasanoff highlights repression in Malaya, Kenya, Yemen, Cyprus and Ireland.
‘We may never learn what the queen did or didn’t know about the crimes committed in her name,’ she said.
‘Those who heralded a second Elizabethan age hoped Elizabeth II would sustain British greatness; instead, it was the era of the empire’s implosion.’
A writer for The Atlantic magazine, Jemele Hill, also chimed in on her Twitter account, saying journalists had a duty to cover what she called the ‘devastating’ impacts of Elizabeth’s reign.
‘Journalists are tasked with putting legacies into full context, so it is entirely appropriate to examine the queen and her role in the devastating impact of continued colonialism,’ Hill wrote.
That tweet was also met with a comment section full of critics, with one remarking ‘Lol ain’t no one gonna say a thing tho.’
Jemele Hill, a writer for The Atlantic, wrote about the ‘devastating’ reign of the queen
Another journalist, Eugene Scott of The Washington Post, also offered his opinions, asking when it would be a good time to talk about colonialism under the queen.
‘Real question for the ‘now is not the appropriate time to talk about the negative impact of colonialism’ crowd: When is the appropriate time to talk about the negative impact of colonialism?’ he wrote.
Imani Gandy, a legal analyst at Rewire News, tweeted out a video of a group of men tap-dancing outside Buckingham Palace to the song Another One Bites The Dust.
‘The queen died and the Irish are already on it lol,’ she wrote.
Academics joined in, with a professor of English at the University of Michigan, Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, saying thoughts of Diana and Meghan Markle were keeping her from shedding a tear for the fallen monarch.
‘At this moment, the thought of Diana and Meghan are keeping my eyes completely dry,’ she wrote in reference to the reported poor treatment of the two women who married into the House of Windsor.
‘I’m surprised. I tend to weep even for personal enemies and structural oppressors, and US media, entertainment, and education has gilded her. But… yeah.’
The tweet was echoed by a chorus of Twitter commenters, agreeing with her and suggesting the queen was a harbinger of evil.
Thomas began her barrage on the queen earlier in the day as news of her poor health began to swirl.
‘Telling the colonized how they should feel about their colonizer’s health and wellness is like telling my people that we ought to worship the Confederacy,’ she said.
”Respect the dead’ when we’re all writing these Tweets *in English.* How’d that happen, hm? We just chose this language?’
Lyndsey Boylan, unsuccessful candidate for Manhattan Borough President who accused ex-New York Governor Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment, commented snarkily on the tweet, saying: ‘I cannot imagine what my Irish grandparents would be feeling.’
Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, a professor of English at the University of Michigan, said she was thinking of Diana and Meghan Markle
The commentary came just hours after Twitter deleted tweets from a Carnegie Mellon University critical race theory professor who said she wished the queen’s final moments were ‘excruciating.’
Uju Anya, an ‘anti racist’ teacher and associate professor at the Pittsburgh university, sparked outrage after calling the ailing queen the head of a ‘thieving, raping, genocidal empire.’
‘I heard the chief monarch of a thieving raping genocidal empire is finally dying. May her pain be excruciating,’ she wrote.
‘If anyone expects me to express anything but disdain for the monarch who supervised a government that sponsored the genocide that massacred and displaced half my family and the consequences of which those alive today are still trying to overcome, you can keep wishing upon a star.’
‘That wretched woman and her bloodthirsty throne have f***** generations of my ancestors on both sides of the family, and she supervised a government that sponsored the genocide my parents and siblings survived. May she die in agony.’
Twitter has now removed the posts for violating their rules as thousands of people – including Jeff Bezos – called her out for the insolent words.
Uju Anya is a teacher and associate professor at the Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She tweeted the disgusting words following the news that the Queen was in ill health
Bezos said: ‘This is someone supposedly working to make the world better? I don’t think so. Wow.’
Journalist Piers Morgan also added: ‘You vile disgusting moron.’
One horrified user said: ‘Don’t expect that of you but do expect common decency, respect for such a loss. If you cannot give that at this time, you are a disgraceful of a human being.’
Another added: ‘You are just so uncouth and manner-less. You speak of someone who just passed with such a vile and disdaining comment.’
The ‘anti racist’ professor has faced allegations of racism in the past for the words she has used online – and in one instance, the Foundational Black American organization created a petition to get her removed from Carnegie Mellon University.
Anya, who claims to be an expert in ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion,’ was called out for using an ethnic slur, which means ‘cotton pickers’ or ‘wild animals.’
The petition to get her fired garnered nearly 800 signatures.
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