“If there’s any talking head you can safely classify in the spectrum of ‘alt-right,’ it’s Tucker Carlson.” -- Neo-Nazi Eric Striker, The Daily Stormer

Tucker Carlson’s takeover of Fox News’ 8 p.m. time slot has been greeted with cheers by his fans in the neo-Nazi, white nationalist, and misogynistic corners of the Internet.

As the news began to break last week that Bill O’Reilly would not be returning to Fox, “alt-right” figures began expressing their hope that Carlson, who has garnered a large audience at the network since his show launched late last year, would get the coveted hour.

“Tucker Carlson taking O'Reilly's time slot would be huge win for America,” tweeted Mike Cernovich, an online personality with a history of making white nationalist and misogynistic commentary who helped push the “pizzagate” conspiracy theory.

Jazzhands McFeels, the pseudonymous co-host of the popular “alt-right” podcast Fash the Nation for the anti-Semitic website The Right Stuff, similarly claimed that Fox had the “opportunity for an all-star lineup” led by Carlson.

The dregs of the so-called “alt-right” championed Carlson’s promotion because they think he is actively working to mainstream their despicable beliefs.

Like many Fox hosts, including the one he replaced, Carlson has a long record of offering virulent commentary about women and people of color, and he has served as a cheerleader for President Donald Trump, another white nationalist favorite. But it is the Fox host’s interview style -- in particular the way he demolishes perceived enemies of the “alt-right” on air for his audience’s amusement -- that has turned his show into must-see viewing for members of the misogynistic and racist movement.

“The key to his success is that he destroys people everyone hates,” writes Eric Striker on the neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer, which recently celebrated the 128th anniversary of Adolf Hitler’s birth and has a section devoted to the “Jewish Problem.” “He mocks and berates an assembly line of Jewish liars, literally laughing at the absurdity of their canned talking points about everything from immigration to Russia to trannies,” Striker continued.

In the post, which was devoted to congratulating the Fox host for his debut ratings in the 8 p.m. time slot and his forthcoming book, Striker claims that if there’s “any talking head you can safely classify in the spectrum of ‘alt-right,’ it’s Tucker Carlson.” He concludes that Carlson is “America’s voice and we need to draft him for President.”

Other Daily Stormer headlines about Carlson’s show over the past week include “Tucker Carlson SUFFOCATES and SODOMIZES Illegal Spic Goldman Sachs Employee,” “Tucker Carlson BARBARICALLY MUTILATES Fat Black Woman Demanding Free College for Black Slaves,” and “Tucker Carlson GASSES Jew Mark Cuban with a DIESEL MOTOR Salvaged from a SOVIET SUBMARINE.”

Several white nationalist and neo-Nazi figures were particularly pleased that Carlson would replace O’Reilly, whom they view as a “cuckservative” whose time had passed.

The neo-Nazi website InfoStormer, whose mission is “Destroying Jewish Tyranny,” wrote of Carlson’s promotion: “Dumb move by these feminists. They pushed out Bill O’Reilly only to see Tucker Carlson installed in his place. Carlson is a one man gas chamber who gasses Jews and feminists on a nightly basis. He is literally and figuratively Hitler.” The website also commented that it was good that Carlson would replace O’Reilly because he is “a much better pundit than O’Reilly and has been regularly lampshading Jews on national television.”

The anti-Semitic writer Kevin MacDonald, whom the Southern Poverty Law Center calls “the neo-Nazi movement's favorite academic,” says that Carlson is “far edgier & less cuckservative” than O’Reilly, adding, “Tucker is red-pilled but manages to stay mainstream.”

And according to Richard Spencer, the white nationalist who coined the term “alt-right,” Carlson “is a much better figure” who is “more intelligent” than O’Reilly and “is at least sympathetic towards the alt side of things” in a way his predecessor is not.

A bigoted movement desperate for attention and implicit approval is now getting it from the biggest megaphone in cable news.

Images by Sarah Wasko.