Much has been made of Tucker Carlson‘s video grocery shopping in Moscow. It was supposed to convey that Russia, or at least Moscow, offered a better or, at least, less expensive life than what Americans have experienced under President Joe Biden. However, Carlson’s video is very disingenuous and reveals more about what he doesn’t know than what he learned.
The foolishness started in the very beginning when Carlson filmed himself getting a grocery cart. He was shocked to discover a supermarket with carts chained together that required a coin deposit to release them. When visitors finish shopping, they return the cart and receive their coin back.
“All right, here we go,” Carlson said. “So I guess you put in 10 rubles here, and you get it back when you put the cart back — so it’s free, but there’s an incentive to return it and not just bring it to your homeless encampment. OK.”
But Carlson didn’t have to go all the way to Moscow to experience this. He could have simply visited any ALDI grocery store in the United States and would have witnessed the same thing. But, as much as Carlson tried to portray himself as vox populi, complaining about high grocery prices, he’s probably never shopped at ALDI, unlike, presumably, much of his American audience.
Kudos to him for being in a financial place to do so — that’s the benefit of living the American dream. However, he did look quite silly with his reaction to millions of Americans who do this every day. It was reminiscent of 1992 when President George H.W. Bush was shocked and amazed to discover what a barcode scanner was in a grocery store. Like Bush, Carlson’s moment came off as elitist and out of touch while trying to appeal to the people he was out of touch with.
Next was Carlson’s reaction to grocery prices in a Moscow supermarket. He was shocked to find how much cheaper groceries were there than in the U.S. and insinuated that inflation due to the Biden administration was to blame. However, this was also disingenuous and, quite honestly, deceptive, misleading, and manipulative. Grocery prices in Moscow were lower than those in the United States long before Biden became president. I know — I lived there in 2018.
I lived in Moscow as part of a study abroad program. Next to how clean and elegantly decorated the subway stations were, the difference in food prices was the next thing I noticed. I frequently mentioned this to my family while sending them pictures of the delicious yet inexpensive food I was eating — and some photos of the not-so-delicious stuff, too. Additionally, before my trip, I read this article from March 2018 that mentioned prices being lower in Russia than in the U.S. Carlson’s “discovery” was nothing new or out of the ordinary.
Furthermore, if Carlson thought grocery prices in Moscow were inexpensive, he should have visited some of the smaller cities in the region that I did, such as Tver or Yaroslavl. He would be completely shocked by the difference in prices in those cities compared to the U.S.
It’s one thing to report things when they are legitimate. It’s another thing entirely to prey on the vulnerabilities that come with much of the population not knowing the differences in Moscow and American grocery prices. The conservative Republicans that Carlson claims to represent and be part of are supposed to be the purveyors of truth — we are supposed to be the good guys. Leave the hyperbolic hysteria and baseless claims for the Left.
I wholeheartedly support criticizing the Biden administration’s failed economic policies and its disastrous promotion of Bidenomics as something Americans should be thankful for. Such an insinuation is just as wrong, misleading, and manipulative as Carlson’s praise of Moscow shopping carts and grocery prices.
Propaganda is bad whether it comes from Democrats or Republicans, liberals or conservatives, the Left or the Right. We cannot legitimately claim we want the truth from the media but then genuflect at the altar of Carlson when he advances dishonest information. He is trying to take advantage of the anger of Republican voters and should be called out for doing so.
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I am completely against everything Biden represents, and I would argue that most of my beliefs align with Carlson’s as opposed to Democrats in the country and the media. However, there is right, and there is wrong, and pretending grocery prices in Moscow being less expensive than those in the U.S. is a recent development is wrong.
Furthermore, it’s time we all ask ourselves what we really want and value in this country. Do we want truth in reporting from the media, or inaccuracies and propaganda so long as it aligns with our political views?