The New York TimesThe New York Times

Tucker Carlson, 'white men' and the lynch mob mentality

By Charles M. Blow

03 May 2023 · 4 min read

Editor's Note

A text message, sent by Tucker Carlson in the hours after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, has drawn vast attention this week. The NYT explores the text in relation to the "lynch mob mentality".

I have always been interested in the psychology of lynch mobs.

How did the people in these mobs — made up mostly of white men in the American accounts I’ve read — rev themselves up to peak barbarity? At what point did their humanity go dormant and bloodlust consume their beings?

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