Dr. Mike Israetel is a fitness educator, author, and Russian-born American. During a conversation on the Garage Strength podcast, he took a moment to address political commentary from Tucker Carlson.
Israetel first praised intellectuals such as Thomas Sowell and Steven Pinker for what he described as their evidence-based approach to understanding society. He then contrasted them with Carlson, whom he accused of promoting misleading narratives.
“And then the other end of the political spectrum is somebody like Tucker Carlson who says a bunch of stuff that’s just make-belief nonsense. Total nonsense,” Israetel said. He went even further, questioning whether Carlson’s rhetoric unintentionally mirrors foreign propaganda efforts.
“Sometimes I squint my eyes and think, is Tucker Carlson literally being handled by either the Iranian or the Russian or the Chinese propaganda ministries?” he continued. “Like you’re doing propaganda for evil countries for free. Why? It’s just like the most anti-American stuff I’ve ever seen in my entire life.”
Despite his criticism, Israetel admitted he does not fully understand Carlson’s motivations and suggested online engagement incentives could play a role.
“I think it just works well for his algorithm and he does it,” Israetel said. “I don’t know why he does it. Maybe he really believes those things.”
Israetel then pointed to the ongoing war in Ukraine as what he considers a revealing test of political reasoning.
“A good litmus test is the war in Ukraine. Real good litmus test of if people are thinking things through,” he said. “Who started the war in Ukraine? Russia only. It’s the only country that did it.”
Addressing one of the most common arguments used by critics of NATO expansion, Israetel dismissed the idea that Russia’s invasion could be justified by security concerns.
“People say, well, you know, imagine China was trying to put military bases in Canada. Wouldn’t we invade Canada?” he said. “You think we’d invade Toronto? We’d b*mb the buildings with our fellow Canadians in them, regular people. We wouldn’t invade Canada. It’s nuts.”
Israetel also argued that Russia has long coexisted with NATO infrastructure near its borders without military escalation.
“We already have NATO bases in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and we’ve had them for a generation,” he explained. “Putin didn’t do anything about them because NATO is not an offensive alliance. NATO is never coming to take over Russia ever. It’s not part of the plan. Nobody needs to take over Russia.”
Drawing from his own upbringing, Israetel pushed back against romanticized portrayals of Russia and questioned why some commentators frame the country favorably.
“I can’t tell anymore if you’re just doing it for engagement, if you really think that somehow in some strange way,” he said. “Because I’m from Russia. I live there. I was born there. It’s not a place you want to go.”
He concluded by arguing that outrage-driven media has contributed to growing division in the United States. “His channel among many others is one that just basically does rage bait,” Israetel said. “They want you to feel pissed. And it’s hurting American unity as a people.”
Even with his strong criticism, Israetel emphasized that he supports Carlson’s right to express his views.
“We have free speech,” he said. “I think he should be saying all the things that he’s saying, but I think he’s wrong a lot.”
