On Fox News Channel on Thursday, host Tucker Carlson opened his show with a monologue about what he called “liberal hypocrisy,” talking first about instances of wearing blackface and moving on to a variety of issues. Among them, he oddly included the assertion that progressive don’t tip servers at restaurants.

“Being a progressive allows you to attack others for the very same sins that you yourself are committing in greater abundance,” said Carlson at the start of the above clip. “And it’s not just true of wearing blackface. It’s true of everything.”

He gave a hypothetical circumstance as example, imagining a wealthy but selfish person who upon feeling guilty after making it big by exploiting others, decides upon the salve of progressivism. The “selfish and mediocre person” in his tale “might decide to join a movement that accuses other people of destroying the planet by consuming too much,” to make their own “over-consumption” seem less “sinful,” he said. “At least you’re a deeply caring person. And you would tell yourself that as you flew private to global warming conferences all over the world.”

“That’s what Tom Steyer did, and Mike Bloomberg and Leonardo DiCaprio, that’s what they tell themselves. This attitude defines a ruling class,” Carlson said. “Once you understand that contemporary politics comes into focus.”

He offered several examples, such as people with private security opposing gun ownership or womanizers who pose as feminists, and stating that progressives lecture about “sins” of which they are themselves guilty.

“It all makes sense now,” he said, leading into the tipping claim.

“Ask any waiter how well progressives tip,” he said. “Seriously, ask a waiter.”

Again he illustrated with a story.

“A group of progressive activists arrives at a restaurant. They linger for hours delivering passionate lectures about the horrors of income inequality,” the story began. “When they leave, they shaft the working people who’ve serve them food; the very people they claim to care about.”

“Only with progressivism is this behavior possible,” said Carlson, drawing the story to the conclusion connecting it to the big point. “Precisely because they care so much about structural inequality, progressives don’t have to leave actual cash on an actual table for actual workers. Their tip is their profound sense of caring. Too bad waiters can’t pay the rent with that.”

Presumably this is meant to demonstrate actual behavior, and to assert that being bad tippers is a real and specific thing that is common to progressives, although there was no real world example to anchor it, like his example of Leonardo DiCaprio anchored the story of the empty gestures of the wealthy.

At the conclusion of the monologue, Carlson summed it up by saying that progressives care more about showing virtue and atoning for their sins than anything else, and that therefore it is less a political philosophy and more an “especially rigid form of religion.”

“The kind of religion that produces witch hunts and inquisitions,” he said, finally revealing how it was a defense of Donald Trump, which card both Tucker Carlson Tonight fans and detractors alike were waiting patiently for him to show. It all makes sense now, they may have been tempted to agree.

Watch the clip above, courtesy of Fox News Channel.

[Featured image via screengrab]

—

Follow Caleb Howe (@CalebHowe) on Twitter

Have a tip we should know? [email protected]