The Bulwark: The Shocking Reeemergence of Candace Owens

Candace Owens’ total victory over Ben Shapiro in popularity seems reflective of what the internet is doing to conservatism: intellectual Jewish neocons that dominated the old media environment being outcompeted by minorities who talk about Jews and conspiracy theories pic.twitter.com/w7m1rUO9Id

— Keith Woods (@KeithWoodsYT) March 20, 2025

Keith Woods brought this to my attention last night.

A year ago, Candace Owens was fired from The Daily Wire. Several decades ago, this would have ruined the career of anyone who was banished from the synagogue of Conservatism, Inc. – people like Joe Sobran or Sam Francis – but today Candace is lapping Ben Shapiro on YouTube. She is getting millions of views on YouTube while Ben is averaging around 100K to 200K per video.

The Bulwark:

“Discovered” by alt-right luminaries Milo Yiannopoulos and Mike Cernovich during the first Trump administration, Owens skyrocketed through roles at Turning Point USA and the Daily Wire between appearances on InfoWars. She attended Paris Fashion Week, palled around with Kanye West, and even received accolades from President Trump, who called her a “very smart thinker” for her defense of neo-Nazis in Charlottesville.

But even the right has limits, and Owens found them. She was fired from the Daily Wire in March 2024 for peddling the blood libel and Holocaust denial, among other antisemitic conspiracy theories. She leapt into the crossfire between Jordan Peterson and neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes, with the latter praising her for waging a “full-fledged war against the Jews.”

Banished to the right-wing wilderness, Owens relaunched her solo YouTube show three months later. Early numbers were solid but not impressive; she hit a low point in views and subscribers after the 2024 election as she was casting about for new scandals. …

After posting a dozen videos on the case, Owens announced she had surpassed 4 million subscribers to her channel for the first time ever. She added nearly 400,000 new subscribers just in the month of February 2025. …

HOW COULD IT COME TO BE that someone too toxic for the Daily Wire had not only reinvented herself as an influential culture commentator in such a short time, but had risen to preeminence in her new role? …”

Candace recently won the Antisemite of the Year award from Stop Antisemitism.

I’m standing by my view that Jews are a declining elite: the ADL advertiser boycott of X was a flop, the SPLC is a shell of what it used to be, “antisemitism” is now ubiquitous online, support for Israel has cratered to a 25 year low in Gallup polling, conservative influencers like Candace Owens are thriving while gatekeepers like Ben Shapiro have lost their leverage in the online marketplace and people like The Hodge Twins, Ian Carroll, Theo Von and Tucker Carlson talk about Jews all the time and criticize Israel on their platforms while the legacy “mainstream media” continues to shrink and decline in relevance.

Note: If Matt Walsh went independent like Tucker and Candace, he would probably be more successful too. Walsh is able to push the envelope on his show because of this.