Candy Floss Conservatism
Candace Owens, a profiteering self-promoter and political putterer who barely saves herself from being dismissed as equivalent to the blustering conspiracy buffoon Alex Jones by being cuter and blacker than Jones — two qualities always valued at a premium in the popular “conservative media” — has been cut loose by The Daily Wire, a nonsense outfit most closely identified with a slightly cleverer and more Jewish profiteering self-promoter and political putterer, Ben Shapiro. In response to her employer’s brand-protecting business decision, Owens, in a pseudo-defiant social media post, declares with the purest (and perhaps even sincerest) puffery that she is “finally free,” while a “source close to her” claims that Owens “cannot be silenced.”
Although the ultimate root of the dispute between Owens and her ex-employer probably has more to do with ego clashes and money than with politics, the proximate or optical cause of her departure seems to be rooted in her anti-Israel position regarding the war in Gaza, as contrasted with Shapiro’s blind faith in Benjamin Netanyahu’s governance. In other words, the dispute has become a perfect storm of Zionist absolutism vs. Global Jewish Conspiracy hokumism — two fools in search of an answer easy enough for them to understand.
Having said that, I wish to highlight Owens’ aforementioned bravado, first in her own words on social media:
The rumors are true— I am finally free.
If you would like to support my work, you can head to https://t.co/fOcTKYQDFk where you will be directed to my locals page.
Or, you can give a gift at https://t.co/SB1L1WZYwW
There will be many announcements in the weeks to come. 🇺🇸✝️
— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) March 22, 2024
This post tells you everything you need to know about the mind and methods of Ms. Owens. For “I am finally free,” read I was fired from the job I revelled in and profited mightily from for the past few years.” For “If you would like to support my work,” read I am only doing this for money, and since I no longer have a giant contract with The Daily Wire, I need you to give me money in a new way. For “Or, you can give a gift at,” read Or you can just send me cash donations directly, because although I am rich now (thanks to my years at The Daily Wire), I must remind you that the only reason I continue to talk about politics in public at all is to continue getting richer.
And then there is the declaration made on her behalf by the aforementioned “source close to her”: “Anyone who knows Candace knows Candace has a voice that cannot be silenced.”
“Has a voice that cannot be silenced” is the standard populist media euphemism for “Never knows when to shut up,” a description which may never have been more apt than in the case of Candace Owens. But more to the point: Who was trying to silence Candace? It speaks volumes of the current level of “conservative” intellect within the Republican Party’s propaganda wing that Owens and her spokespeople appear unfamiliar with the meaning of censorship, or with the difference between private property rights and oppression. A private company has no more obligation to provide a platform for its own public humiliation, or for the expression of views diametrically opposed to those of its proprietors, than Candace Owens has an obligation to relinquish her social media account, or her living room, to Marxist agitators for an hour each day. And her employer’s decision to terminate her employment in no way constitutes an attempt to silence her, since Owens continues to have many other avenues to the public dissemination of her opinions, as indeed she has already proved in the hours since this supposed “silencing” effort. A private citizen is not guilty of silencing another citizen’s voice merely because he refuses to pay for her microphone and supply her with an audience.
A conservative would know that. A conservative would not use such loaded and misleading rhetoric. A conservative would not turn a political parting of the ways into an excuse for a whining pity party and profiteering catfight. We are not, however, talking about conservatives or conservatism here. We are talking about the Republican Party media, which not suprisingly has gone the way of the GOP itself in recent years. There is no meat to be found here, no substantial fare, no spiritual nutrition or political sustenance. It is all sugar-coated cynicism passed off as patriotism, and inflated nihilism swirled into a shape vaguely resembling “Judeo-Christian values.” Poison for the well of republican thought and infantile amusement for the immature souls of sheepish true believers. In short, political candy floss.
A nation is dying of intellectual malnutrition. The voice that ought to be heard has already long since been silenced in the most effective way possible, namely by collectively self-induced deafness.
