In Support of Ben Shapiro

In his public spat with Candace Owens

I started listening to Ben Shapiro four years ago when I was just getting to know the world of Conservatives. A friend of mine told me, “You should listen to Ben Shapiro. You sound a lot like him.” I don’t, not really. But online, I kind of do. My Facebook posts and Tweets come off as much more assertive and bold than I actually am in real life. But I took his advice, and I was hooked.

I loved how fast Ben thought and spoke. I found him to be brilliant, though definitely a religious Conservative, an Orthodox Jew. He is a deeply moral person who never wavers from his own convictions.

Do I always agree with him? No, I don’t. I don’t always agree with anyone, whether it’s Glenn Greenwald, Megyn Kelly, Tucker Carlson, or Ben Shapiro. I respect them for being honest about what they think; for that, they are good sources of information for me.

Though Ben has been a favorite target of the Left to attack, mock, dehumanize, and tease—oh, those good people of the Left, he gives it right back, and by the end of it, his profile is boosted. Good luck debating him. You will lose.

But the one thing that hasn’t happened to him is “friendly fire,” someone who works for and with him attacking him in an online forum, as Candace Owens did and continues to do. It works for her. It grows her profile online. But as someone who runs a website myself, if someone who worked for me wrote a tweet like this:

What she does here goes beyond disagreements. She passive-aggressively attacked him, and when he responded, she got personal. I would not want to be friends with someone who talked to me like that and got 8 million views online, let alone employ them.

I have run my own website for 25 years. That’s not just a lot of blood, sweat and tears, it also represents your point of view. The Daily Wire was founded by Ben Shapiro and Jeremy Boering, two old friends who wanted to compete with the mainstream media and Hollywood.

They should be proud of what they built. It has been a successful. But there are so many people who seek their downfall. The beauty of what they have built is that they can’t be “canceled” or shut down. The last thing they should tolerate is someone helping their haters doom their own success, which is what Candace Owens did.

Some have pointed out that they have made a public show of bringing people on board who have been canceled, like Gina Carano. But “free speech” doesn’t mean allowing people who work for you to destroy you and your brand.

Candace Owens knows Shapiro has many enemies; all she has done is give them more fuel for the fire, which is absolutely her goal. She did it purely to boost her own profile, and that's fine, but she should not be working for or with the Daily Wire.

The fight has worked for her. She has 5 million followers and could soon top Ben Shapiro’s 6 million, so she continues to volley it in public.

And, in her words, she is “free” —

The anti-Israel voices, like Dave Smith, are bending over backward to defend her, which is kind of hilarious.

When Owens attacks, she gets deeply personal and tries to wound people exploiting their vulnerable spots. I see the game, man. I know the game. Her followers love for it - I think it’s creepy and weird. She seems to me to be a sociopath, and her obsession with self is kind of shocking.

I do not think any of this will work out for her. The people who are now supporting her because of her anti-Israel stance will turn on her once she says something anti-gay or anti-trans or whatever it is.

She entertains in the same way someone like Tim Pool entertains. They don’t stand for anything, but like stirring the pot.

Not a Free Speech Issue

Free speech in a public forum like Twitter or Facebook is separate from an outlet like the Daily Wire, a privately owned site offering content. If YouTube banned Candace Owens from publishing on its platform, that would be a free speech issue. That’s how I see it anyway because I run a website, and those are my rules, too. They don’t have to agree with me, but they're gone if they actively hurt my brand.

As one would expect, the coverage of their spat falls down ideological lines. Here is the pro-Israel side, with Dave Rubin having predicted the Daily Wire would not renew her contract (and is friends with both):

And the anti-Israel side (Ana Kasparian is the only high-profile Leftist who has debated Ben Shapiro in the past) with activists posing as journalists to paint Candace Owens as the victim because it helps their anti-Israel platform.

Do I think Candace Owens is “anti-Semitic?” Not really. I think she’s a bomb thrower who likes to poke tender spots, which helps boost her profile. Her ultimate goal is to be a huge personality on the level of Ben Shapiro or Tucker Carlson. I don’t think she cares what gets her there.

The bottom line for me is this: Ben Shapiro had every right not to renew Candace Owens's contract or even to fire her. It wasn’t a free speech issue. It was, to my mind, a loyalty issue. I would never extend my time, labor, and money to support people actively trying to turn people against me online.

“Free Palestine” has won.

Now that Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Elizabeth Warren, and all of the Democrats are pushing back against Israel, it seems pretty clear that the activists have won. And that means Hamas has won. That means what the Chinese once mocked Americans for has become a powerful tool to shape public opinion.

No matter what you think of the war, it seems pretty clear America is becoming weaker with no strength in leadership. Biden is now a guy who buckles because his poll numbers are bad in the swing states. That’s bad for this country in the long term if we want to maintain our status as hegemon.

Free Palestine, like Black Lives Matter, has the establishment of this country by the balls. There is no nice way to say it.

While I was researching protest videos from Trump’s inaugural, I was surprised to see “Free Palestine” protesters there, along with Black Lives Matter. That is how long this movement has been alive.

It is starting to feel like the 1970s again. This, I think, helps Trump. He isn’t wishy-washy and doesn’t back down like Biden is doing now.

Hamas has won.

Maybe you think that’s a good thing. Maybe you think Israel is in the wrong. But when you back off a war you once supported, it proves how easily manipulated you are.

The weakness the United States has shown makes me think the consequences of this moment will be dire. We have shown our enemies our Aquillis heel—our own people. I imagine that would have been a problem for the Allied forces during World War II.

Israel might have done better getting in and out quicker, but it’s been dragged out, with Hamas refusing to make any compromises. Public opinion has turned on Israel, even with hostages still being held. There is no negotiating now.

I wonder how anyone, Candace Owens or Dave Smith, would feel if their own children had been beheaded or their husbands or wives were being held captive now. Would they still urging a cease-fire? I’m not so sure. War is not personal until it is.