Here’s one I wasn’t expecting this summer or ... ever, really: All of a sudden, Fox News seems veeeeery interested in the mind-expanding power of psychedelics.
Okay, I shouldn’t say “all of a sudden,” like the studio execs just woke up one day and decided “hey, let’s explore the inner-reaches of our minds, man.” Fox’s pivot toward brain browsing comes after Green Bay Packers quarterback and Trump-leaning himbo political question-asker Aaron Rogers waxed rhapsodic about his love of ayahuasca, the South American psychedelic he credits for affording him the “best season of my career.”
And now that Rodgers is into tripping, suddenly Fox News is onboard too, it seems.
“I guess it just doesn't seem that crazy,” Gutfeld! panelist Kat Timpf mused on Thursday.
“I mean, because ayahuasca is it's not like a party drug,” Timpf, the network’s rising star and highest paid woman in late-night comedy continued. “It's like something that you do and people take seriously and they look to get something out of it to benefit their mental health. And it is really is helpful to a lot of people and it's common in other cultures, just to us it seems kind of crazy for a lot of people.
“The only downside is, in fact, you do become someone who speaks that way,” Timpf concluded, mocking Rogers’ description of how the psychedelic gave him the clarity of self-love and freedom.
Now, it should be noted that Timpf’s endorsement notwithstanding, Gutfeld! host Greg Gutfeld was himself not exactly, uh, all that open minded about the benefits of mind-expanding substances. “Call me old fashioned,” he said, “I think football players should stick to steroids.” Which, to be fair, is fairly in keeping with his overall animosity toward the human brain. Nevertheless, a Fox News star throwing her weight behind the legitimate good provided by some psychedelica is a fairly significant step for a network which just recently ran alarmist headlines about how smoking weed could induce “scromitting,” and also how cannabis is directly responsible for mass shootings. Having said that, it’s important to mention that Timpf felt the need to clarify that ayahuasca is okay because it’s “not like a party drug” — as if substances that could be easily written off as such don’t also have their own medicinal, psychological, and cultural benefits (and even if they didn’t, who cares? Don’t be a narc).
Still, I never expected a Fox News host to go full psychonaut in defense of mind-expansion and self-exploration. And all it took was a Trump-supporting handsome white guy multimillionaire athlete to get the ball rolling.
Editor’s note: While much of Fox News has a long and demonstrated history of opposition to drugs, Greg Gutfeld and Kat Timpf have in the past expressed support for legalization. This piece has been updated for clarity.
