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Commentary

Be Wary Who You Listen to

September 9, 2024

Last week, a talk show guest propounded a theory so bizarre on a platform so prominent that it was sure to draw attention. During a convivial appearance on “The Tucker Carlson Show,” podcaster Darryl Cooper declared that “Churchill was the chief villain of the Second World War.” Cooper alleged that Churchill despised Nazi peace offers, prolonged the war, dragged other nations into it, and was therefore ultimately responsible for millions of civilian casualties — insinuating vague connections to Jewish interests throughout. Undaunted by blowback, Cooper doubled down on this heterodox view last Tuesday in a thread of over 50 tweets on X.

While the sheer impudence of this argument might win it a hearing, its fundamental flaws should not win it many converts. Among the flaws are issues of timeline (Churchill was not yet in power when Great Britain declared war on Germany in response to Nazi aggression), character (Hitler, not Churchill, was the genocidal autocrat pursuing world conquest), and diplomacy (other nations that Hitler invaded were looking to Great Britain for leadership, including British allies Poland, the Netherlands, and France).

Beyond this, those seeking a detailed refutation of Cooper’s claims will have to look to other publications and writers. Among the conservative responses to Cooper, I will link to three by Hillsdale Professor Miles Smith, columnist Sohrab Ahmari, and National Review Executive Editor Mark Antonio Wright.

Rather than respond in detail, my purpose in writing is to urge caution to readers when consuming news — especially news they agree with — lest they get sucked into a silo of lies like Q-Anon or those who breached the Capitol on January 6.

Ahmari, in particular, notes, “Long before he appeared on Carlson’s show, Cooper had made known his nutty views about the Jews as well as his sympathy for the Third Reich.” Yet Carlson “hailed Cooper as the ‘best and most honest popular historian working in the United States today,’ and lent him … credulous, uncritical treatment.”

Readers of this article likely hold a range of opinions on Tucker Carlson. Some may even be offended by the suggestion that there is anything wrong with what he does and who he platforms on his show.

I’m not here to tell anyone what to think about Tucker; I lack the authority or competence to judge another man’s heart. I am here to offer a warning of equal relevance to fans of Carlson or any other favorite thought leader: Be cautious about what you believe, especially when it is what you want to hear.

“The time is coming,” Paul warned, “when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths” (2 Timothy 4:3-4). According to Paul, we are in danger of wandering off into myths if we listen to teaching that suits our fleshly passions. By contrast, the sound teaching found in God’s word denies our fleshly passions.

Of course, Paul’s primary concern is with teachers propounding false religious doctrines that compete with and twist the truths of Christianity. On the surface, his warning does not apply to different theories about a 20th century war.

In this case, however, Cooper’s theory about World War II may conceal a religious subtext. Many who try to rehabilitate the Nazi regime do so because they sympathize with its neo-paganism (or its anti-Semitism). Whether or not Cooper falls into that category, he did declare in May, “No god in any religious tradition is as consistently brutal and bloodthirsty as Yahweh of the Old Testament.” This is a vile blasphemy against the God who created all life and called it good, and who condemned pagan practices of child sacrifice as an abomination.

Politics can also be a false god and idol. Political parties and ideologies preach salvation, community, and ethics. For some sincere believers, political allegiance functionally replaces religious belief as the driving force of their lives. Paul’s warning certainly applies to political ideologies that seek to replace the Christian faith.

Rebeccah Heinrichs, a nuclear security expert at the Hudson Institute and a Christian homeschool mom of five, suggested Cooper’s theory was as ideologically fraught and inaccurate as the late 1619 Project. “Nihilists,” she responded. “It’s the 1939 Project, and the people who would suffer the most from its success are Americans.”

Paul explains elsewhere that the goal is not to resist false teaching simply to avoid being wrong, but that we might train ourselves for godliness. “Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths,” he wrote. “Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come” (1 Timothy 4:7). Ultimately, “the aim of our charge [for people not ‘to devote themselves to myths’] is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith” (1 Timothy 1:5).

Lest we get sucked into the destructive ideologies of our age, Christians should remember that, “though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:3-5).

So, be careful how and to whom you listen. Listen not to indulge your fleshly passions with exciting new theories (or myths), but believe what accords with God’s word in Christ. “The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever” (1 Peter 1:24-25).

Joshua Arnold is a senior writer at The Washington Stand.



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