Perhaps the most interesting—and troubling—thing about the Kirk conspiracy theories, especially the idea that the Jews were involved, is that they obscure the reality that antifa/trans violence is a serious problem in America.
It was trans activism that inspired the murder of one of the most prominent conservative leaders in our lifetime. Tyler Robinson explicitly said that Kirk’s hate could not be negotiated. So he murdered Kirk for his trans lover Lance Twiggs.
Yet, despite Robinson’s admission, Candace Owens fans twist themselves into overbaked pretzels trying to deny the only rational conclusion. They do this by denying the evidence and instead engage in the style of fantacism characteristic of paranoid schizophrenia.
Because of their antisemitic worldview, Candace Owens fans have become minions of the Queer movement. It’d be hilarious if it weren’t so dangerous.
Trans activists have to be guffawing watching faux/pseudo-conservatives divert attention away from the danger the queer movement represents to humanity (especially to children) by blaming Jews for Kirk’s murder instead.
Queers for Palestine suffer from Islamophilia, too, so they’re no doubt ecstatic about this. It’s no accident that pro-Muslim posts often appear in the various Candace Owens groups across the Internet’s social media space as frequently as Kirk conspiracy theories. Birds of a feather.
Candace Owens fans (when not actual devotees of that anti-Western combination moving undercover) are useful idiots for the Red-Green Alliance.
So it is no surprise that Hasan Piker proclaimed after Owens debated Andrew Wilson over whether alleged Charlie Kirk assassin Tyler Robinson is the shooter see (I’m Embarrassed for Other People, and Sometimes Stating the Obvious Feels Cruel, but Here Goes), “I’m a fan now.”
Piker commended Owens for casting doubt on who is actually responsible for the killing and thus, in his words, “single-handedly” diminishing the impact that Kirk’s assassination might have had on blunting left-wing extremism.
The Owens cult is a massive betrayal of everything Charlie Kirk stood for.
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Rationally judging the winner of the Andrew Wilson-Candace Owens debate requires a basic understanding of the rules of evidence and inference. Owens fans do not work from reason but from emotions and feelings. They judge those who work from reason based on those standards, not from rational standards. They are Arthur Schopenhauer’s fools.
To understand why people followed Jim Jones or history’s other myriad charismatic figures who captured the attention of the masses, we have to study intelligence and psychology. We find in our studies that the less intelligent operate on feelings. Taking them systematically through the debate and showing how Wilson destroyed Owens in every exchange will usually prove futile.
The debate reaction is thus something of an intelligence test. Reviewing reactions across several social media platforms, it becomes obvious Owens’ followers are incapable of understanding what actually transpired. They cannot see how little she knows about the case because they believe she knows everything—and they know too little to grasp that she doesn’t. Nor can they know that she doesn’t possess the capacity for rational thought. They don’t know enough to know that. And they’re not willing to try.
It doesn’t register as significant that she didn’t know about the message Twiggs sent Robinson telling him to watch for the surveillance camera footage in which he appears. That’s not an insignificant fact. Yet Owens didn’t know it. She demanded a fact-check, not recognizing it would only amplify how little she knows about the facts of the case. For Owens’ followers, the claim that Robinson’s messages were coming from a source other than Robinson doesn’t register as fantastic. They believe that DNA and other evidence are hearsay in a probable cause hearing because Owens told them they are. They know as little as she does. This is why she is their queen.
Owens didn’t even know until recently that thunder is the sound of lightning. She wasn’t even aware that admitting this revealed her incapacity for drawing the simplest of inferences. This incapacity is tied to the intelligence quotient. It explains why she can’t pronounce rather basic words. (See Candace Owens is a Clinically Stupid Person)
I wish it were not true that there are dumb people in the world, but it is, and it is very difficult to get dumb people to understand that they’re dumb.
Charisma is not an indicator of general intelligence. Emotional intelligence and general intellectual ability are distinct phenomena. High emotional intelligence tricks dumb people. Owens has high emotional intelligence. She knows how to manipulate people. She is very good at it. (See Mistaking Our Species Innate Linguistic Capacity for Native Intelligence.)
Owens is the charismatic leader of a cult. She plays her audience like a fiddle because she makes them feel a certain way. She valorizes their shallow thinking by mirroring it. This is why her confidence impresses them—they see themselves in her. Her followers believe she won the debate for the same reason they’re pulled into her universe. If they were critical thinkers to begin with, then they wouldn’t be Owens followers.
The problem of charisma is a perennial problem across human societies. There will always be a proportion in any population that succumbs to the pull of charismatic persons who prey on dumb people. This can lead the rest of us to very dangerous places.
It’s not that Wilson should not have debated Owens. He did a useful thing. Some of those who thought Owens was on to something now see what a fraud she is. And they learned something about how logic works. But those whose eyes were opened are few. Wilson is working the margins. The reaction to the debate is more useful for researching the cult phenomenon. The Owens cult is public in a way that many other cults aren’t. This allowed Wilson to expose a cult leader before millions of people. That made the exercise worthwhile.
freedom and reason 