Candace Owens and the Hypocrisy of Conservative Inc.

How going from bashing the black community to lying about Jewish people finally brought Candace Owens down.

As tempting as it is to say “I told you so” about conservative commentator Candace Owens’ recent turn toward antisemitism, I shall refrain. But the signs were there from the moment Conservative Inc. decided to turn her into a star.

In fact, many others in the black conservative space did our level best to show folks on the right that their latest firebrand sensation was not all she was cracked up to be.

Back during the dawn of the Trump era, Owens soared to the heights of conservative media by casting herself almost like a Moses-type figure that would lead black Americans from the “Democrat Plantation” to open and welcoming arms of the Republican Party.

Yet, her entire platform was built on attacking the black community and black culture.

When George Floyd was murdered by a police officer, Owens castigated black people who were rightly outraged by the officer’s behavior, referring to them as “trained chimpanzees.”

“To be black, you instantly have to jump up like a fucking trained chimpanzee. Excuse my language, like a trained chimpanzee every single time the media runs a story and act angry and riot and talk about how much pain you were to see this happening to black people,” she said during a video rant.

During an interview with The Blaze’s Glenn Beck, Owens claimed black culture is “broken” because African Americans were outraged at Floyd’s death, saying he is “a symbol of black America today” and “a symbol of a broken culture in black America today.”

She added: “And people are not willing to talk about … how we contribute to our own demise.”

When footage emerged on social media showing the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, Owens seemed upset that even conservatives were outraged at the atrocity. In a post on Twitter, she claimed black American didn’t care about the murder of nine-year-old Tyshawn Lee but became angry about Arbery’s death, falsely referring to him as a “burglar.”

“Our culture is a joke,” she wrote.

Of course, these were all lies. It was not only black people who were upset about Floyd’s death — white Americans on both sides of the aisle condemned Derek Chauvin’s actions on that day. Moreover black Americans across the country are working in their communities to curb gang violence, a fact that is rarely reported in the media. Lastly, Arbery was not in the middle of a burglary when he was chased down and shot after trying to defend himself.

Yet, these dishonest attacks on black people were not only acceptable to many on the right, they were cheered and encouraged.

Around the same time, Owens started Blexit, a movement supposedly dedicated to reaching black people for the Republican Party. Yet, the organiztation was mostly a sham, a con job aimed at making it appear as if she and the Republican Party were trying to win over black voters.

Yet, folks on the right never questioned why Owens spent so much time insulting and denigrating the black community while claiming to be trying to reach them. After all, if one was truly trying to appeal to a group of people, wouldn’t it be counterproductive to constantly bash them with lies and insults?

That should have been a red flag right there. But to many on the right, it wasn’t.

Suffice it to say, Blexit was never truly about winning over black voters. It was meant to con well-meaning white Republican voters that their party truly sought to expand the conservative tent.

Here’s the blunt truth: Conservative Inc. used Owens to regurgitate their lies about the black community while also assuring regular folks on the right that their party was trying to win over more black folks.

Conversely, Owens used Conservative Inc. to amass clout, clicks, and cash, and to give her a vast platform.

In fact, Owens recently said the quiet part out loud about the plaudits she received for bashing the black community.

Owens’ whole shtick was built on pandering to the lowest common denominator, fooling people into thinking she is some kind of "truth teller" while playing victim whenever criticized, pretending that the "powers that be" were targeting her because of her truth telling.

She is not the only one. Several prominent conservative and libertarian “influencers" are still using this same playbook.

Several of my colleagues at RedState wrote pieces explaining why her incendiary and dishonest rhetoric about the black community was not only ignorant, but harmful to the conservative movement. Yet, we were told that we were “jealous” or that she was “telling hard truths that black people needed to hear.”

But now, something has changed.

Owens’s personality has not changed. What has changed is her chosen target: Jewish people. Over recent months, the influencer has engaged in blood libel against Jews, peddled antisemitic conspiracy theories, and attacked Israel, behavior that conservatives just cannot abide.

I’ll be blunt again: This is utter hypocrisy on the right.

Owens is lying about Jewish people. But she lied about the black community first.

For many on the right, her lies and vitriol toward black Americans were acceptable. But her attacks on Jews are somehow a step too far.

To be clear, I don’t think the right would only show this hypocrisy when it comes to Jewish folks. If Owens had pivoted to anti-white rhetoric resembling that of folks on the hard left, the right would have turned on her all the same.

For too many on the right, it is great to lie about and denigrate black people. But it is wrong to go after Jewish or white people.

Unfortunately, the tactics that folks like Owens employs work all too well. So-called influencers build their platforms by telling a particular audience only what it wants to hear while constantly attacking other groups of people who are viewed as political opposition. In so doing, they garner praise and money for affirming people’s biases while ginning up animosity through their clickbait campaigns.

It is an easy formula, and many influencers are cashing in at your expense.

I'm not confident there will be a time in the near future when people will stop falling for this.

The allure of prominent individuals playing on people’s fears and frustrations while blaming groups of people they can label as "the other" for the problems of their audience is quite strong.

People have finally realized what Candace Owens is only because she finally attacked a group of people they view as off limits

But the question is: Will they recognize the same grift in the others who are currently thriving by following the same playbook Owens did?