Fareed to Tucker Carlson: You need to get out more

And now here's my take. Well, it's Tucker Carlson's interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Got a lot of attention. But I was more struck by Carlson's reaction to his visit to Moscow, his first ever. He was not just impressed. It left him radicalized and enraged at his own government. Where to begin? Perhaps with the obvious reminder that living in Moscow, if you criticize the government, can mean prison or death, Sometimes both. In Dubai, a few days after the interview, Carlson put for

th a bizarre hodgepodge of assertions. He thought the architecture of food and service in Moscow was better than in any American city, really. Moscow, outside of a small historic center, is filled with drab Soviet era concrete buildings. And while the food in Moscow can be quite good, better than New York or San Francisco, you need to get out more, Tucker. Many of his jibes were simply untrue. He praised Moscow, saying it is one of several wonderful places to live because unlike America, Russia

apparently doesn't suffer from, quote, rampant inflation, unquote. But using the Russian government's own data from last month, the country's inflation rate is 7.4%, almost two and a half times that of America's. That's why interest rates in Russia are 16%, about three times higher than in America. In a short video segment shot in Moscow. Carlson shops at a local grocery store and marvels the groceries to feed a Russian family for a week costs maybe a quarter as much as similar groceries would c

ost in America. This outraged him. But Russia's per capita GDP is approximately $15,000 compared to America's, which is approximately $76,000. Stuff costs more in rich countries than in poorer ones. Carlson should go shopping in Mexico, where his groceries would also be much cheaper. Perhaps he'll gain newfound respect for the Mexican government. Carlson also marvels at the grandeur of a subway station, contrasting Moscow's subways favorably with New York's Air Force. Now, while it's true that M

oscow subways are excellent, the stations are so grand because they were built by Joseph Stalin at huge public expense to showcase the superiority of Soviet communism. In contrast, New York's subways are a product of capitalism, having been built and operated through public private partnerships of various kinds, which are more budget conscious. It's always been true that centralized autocracies can marshal the entire resources of society to build great vanity projects. Dhaka should go next to se

e the pyramids and the Taj Mahal. They're amazing because this entire riff about Russia is really about America, he said. I grew up in a country that had cities like Moscow and Abu Dhabi and Dubai and Singapore and Tokyo. New York is one of his favorite cities. He says. But as he sees it, American cities are now broken. Carlson was born in 1969, so the New York of the 1970 is he so fondly remembers was in fact, a city of rampant crime, riots and graffiti, a city so badly mismanaged that it nearl

y declared bankruptcy in 1975. A 1977 blackout became legendary for the massive looting and crime. It triggered more than 800,000 people fled the city that decade, and real estate values plummeted. It wasn't just New York. San Francisco in that era was seen as a hotbed of hippies, drugs, pornography and radical experimentation. The movie Dirty Harry, portraying out-of-control urban crime, was set in San Francisco in the 1970s. Crime rates in New York today, like in major American cities in gener

al, are way down from their levels. Even in the 1980s and 1990s. Carlson speaks enviously of cities like Tokyo, Singapore, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. I've been to all these cities many times, some of them in the last few months, and they are indeed wonderful in their own distinctive ways. But what's striking about all of them is that they are somewhat tame and subdued. The product of authoritarian governments or conformist culture or both. American cities are different. They are the product of decentr

alization and diversity and democracy. Jane Jacobs, the great writer on urban life, always described the best cities as kind of bottom up systems, seemingly anarchic, but actually organic and in the long run, far superior to the abstract drawings of central planners. American cities are expressions of democracy. Places where people have to negotiate differences and find ways to live together that makes them messier and dirtier and sometimes chaotic. But perhaps that is what has made this city so

vibrant and innovative and why they have been at the forefront in making America the country that leads the world in economics, technology, culture and power. Once upon a time, American conservatives praised America's organic communities rooted in freedom and choice, built bottom up, not top down. But the new populist right despises these cities, and that disgust is in part a rejection of modern, pluralistic American democracy itself. Increasingly, they are dazzled by the clean and orderly ways

of dictatorships popular authoritarians and absolute monarchies, after all. Say what you will about Putin. He makes the subways run on time. Go to CNN dot com slash free for a link to my Washington Post column this week. And thanks to all of you for being part of my program this week. I will see you next week.