What’s going on with Candace Owens these days?
Nothing good. And why would I even pay attention?
Well, she supposedly has something like the most views of any podcaster. Are they supporters, or just people following her out of morbid curiosity? What’s more, are they real, or are they just bots sent by entities trying to stir up trouble? Whichever it is, I believe she does have much influence with a significant number of people.
If you aren’t familiar with the extremely far-fetched conspiracy theories she’s airing, about Jews and the Macrons and about Turning Point and Egyptian planes and all the rest, here’s a pretty informative summary. I’ve cued up about an 11-minute segment, but you don’t even have to watch that much to get the flavor of it:
Turning Point finally answered her ridiculous charges recently, challenging her to some sort of debate, which she apparently sort-of kind-of accepted in the sense of saying she would offer a response on her own podcast. This whole thing is a distraction from what TPUSA does best, which is getting out the vote, especially among young people. But it seems to me that’s part of the goal of Owens, Tucker, Fuentes, and the lot: to split the MAGA base, if possible.
Speaking of which, this is as good a time as any to mention that Tucker Carlson has become a 9/11 truther. Hey, why ever not? And of course, he tries to implicate Israel.
“Turning Point finally answered her ridiculous charges recently”.
What’s annoying is this keeps the camera on Owens. We shouldn’t be talking about her at all. But how does one completely ignore this sort of craziness?
Rick67:
Exactly. You don’t want to call attention to her, but she already has so much attention, and is making such serious and wild accusations, that it has to be addressed.
I sometimes have to wonder if there isn’t, for every one of us, some mind virus with our names on it. There was a Canadian computational biologist, wrote for Scientific American, wrote more than one article and book debunking bad science and conspiracy theories, but he became a 9/11 truther. (He had at some point converted to Islam and that no doubt made him receptive.)
Looked up the reference to Tucker Carlson and his current take on 9/11 (Don’t follow him since he does pod cast). Just totally, utterly creepy. As for Candace Owens – someone I once considered a sharp young activist – she is beyond creepy. I think she’s over the line dangerous. I suppose the fact that she’s a top podcaster (really # 1 in the world????) saying the things she says just illustrates the scary degree of influence that so many people derive from online media/entertainment sources. (media and news and entertainment have morphed into one big ball of misinformation regrettably. Anyone think there is a solution?)
Re: Mind virus
I’ve had my shots.
I’ve believed so many different things that I’m vaccinated. Not perfectly, of course, but I have a healthy skepticism about beliefs, mine and others’.
Cindy Simon:
Boy, do I wish I had a solution. I don’t. There is apparently a seductive, fascinating attraction of the sort of horse manure Carlson and Owens are peddling. Anti-Semitism has always had that quality, but they go far beyond that. It is poisonous stuff and the fact that they are supposedly on the right is tragic.
Long ago I did a several part series on Magda Goebbels, and please note the description of Josef Goebbels here. Some people have mutable belief systems and really believe in nothing, but they often do great evil. Whether that is true of Carlson and Owens I don’t know, but it might be true.
Ever since I realized that the vast majority of Americans believe Oswald either didn’t kill JFK or was part of a conspiracy that was much bigger, I’ve realized how often people can fall prey to paranoia that is unsupported by the facts.
I suspect that what has happened to Carlson and Owens is akin to the phenomenon described by Eric Hoffer when he said, pungently, “Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.” If one traces the trajectory, one can see the resemblance. Both Carlson and Owens have entered into the “racket” phase of their journey. My concern is that TPUSA, deprived of its founder and leading light may also succumb.
The cumulative effect of the institutional lies about Covid, the Russia collusion hoax, Biden’s health etc. etc. have broken a lot of people to the point where they distrust everything and therefore are capable of believing almost anything.
I think the distrust began in earnest with the Kennedy assassination and has now been kicked into overdrive. I wish I could just laugh at the nonsense that is spewed by Candace and Tucker but they are unfortunately very influential. It is also unfortunate that it is almost impossible to use logic to dissuade people from beliefs that are based on feelings.
What if she’s right? Not all the details but directionally on some things. I’m not arguing she is, but I’m also not going to jump on the “she’s a loon” bus. She’s an outlier data point that may be worth monitoring. Something between dismissively mocking and uncritically accepting. There’s been some mind bending evil shit perpetrated on us by our government and deep state allies that we don’t, maybe can’t, fully comprehend.
If you want to keep an eye on which way TPUSA is heading I suggest you watch ” The Charlie Kirk Show ” which continues to be broadcast with some of Kirk’s Lieutenants. They have some interesting guest to interview sometimes. I watch it some on The Salem News Channel. Housing affordability is one of their current top concerns. H1B Visas has come up. TPUSA is getting ready for some upcoming event with VP Vance.
Here is a link to where The Charlie Kirk Show recently responded to Candace Owens who has been spreading rumors against TPUSA.
https://thecharliekirkshow.com/podcasts/the-charlie-kirk-show/the-charlie-kirk-show-responds-to-candace-owens
neo: … is making such serious and wild accusations, that it has to be addressed.
Though I may have missed it, I don’t believe that my serious and wild accusation that Art Deco is a Poo-Poo Head has been addressed.
Could it be that some people (moi?) are best ignored?
I agree their claims need to be addressed.
There’s a point at which ignoring them or just dismissively waving a hand and saying “They’re idiots” makes it look like you have something to hide, or like you can’t beat their arguments. (I still contend that Tucker and Candace are just idiots, though. They’ve taken on way too big a responsibility for their IQ level and they’re in over their heads.)
I think James Lindsay is right that a lot of what’s going on is nefarious people – to a large extent foreign influence – trying to split up the conservative movement and the country generally. And now we have proof that a lot of political propaganda accounts on Twitter/X are foreign actors.
Take a look at some of Michael O’Fallon’s points (posted on Lindsay’s channel) about how foreign powers like China are succeeding in dividing us by getting us caught up in fighting over politics.
https://youtu.be/wHMPBILnAw0?si=3Q3O8FdPyyBVN1VG&t=2629
Greg H:
Put another way: You can’t reason someone out of a belief that they didn’t reasonn themselves into.
Neo, Sorry, I should have made sure I was fully awake and fully read before commenting . I see your article mentioned Turning Point responding to Candace Owens.
@Marisa: You can’t reason someone out of a belief that they didn’t reasonn themselves into.
True.
I’m not convinced people reason themselves into or out of much of anything. Conservatives IMO overvalue reasoning in human behavior.
People change when they are ready. Most of that, iceberg-like, is below the surface.
The Right as well as the Left will always have these kind of people, how an organization deals with them will tell you about the organization more than the people themselves.