“You Can’t Say That!" One Guaranteed Way To Get Canceled

Mike Lerner's take on the controversy at Daily Wire

If you've been following the rift between Candace Owens and Ben Shapiro, you know the havoc it's wreaked on conservative circles — igniting heated feuds based on divided ideological views. Conservatives are siding with one or the other. And based on my DMs, plenty of Liberals are finding themselves agreeing with either Shapiro or Owens "for the first time ever."

Owens, a firebrand commentator known for her unapologetic views, was ousted from the platform following her critique of Israeli policies and the assertion that "Christ is King." Shapiro publicly denounced Owens' stance, labeling her behavior as "disgraceful," which escalated into a full-blown online war of words. As of Friday, the two have publicly agreed to sit down (without a moderator - not on Ben's channel) to debate the issue "like two adults." 

The clash is significant in that it underscores a growing disconnect, particularly in the conservative movement, raising questions about the boundaries of acceptable discourse within right-wing media. Mike Lerner presents his take on the feud.

As always, feel free to comment below. 

IMAGE BY MIKE LERNER

A lot of you might be confused right now. My last name, I know. Is this guy  Jewish? No, I don’t have that type of power and fortunately for me, my mother is a Latin American Catholic and raised my brothers and me, (and maybe even a little  reluctantly my father) that Christ is INDEED King. That right there, is what I’m talking about. Say it with me, “Christ is King.” We’re all canceled.  

I wish I were joking, but given the recent news in conservative media and Con  Inc. influencer circles, saying the very phrase is cause for being fired from one of the biggest, if not THE biggest conservative platform in the world. On March 22nd, just a couple weeks ago, firebrand conservative commentator, Candace Owens, was axed from the Daily Wire. Jeremy Boreing, CEO of the Daily Wire, didn’t give a direct  explanation of Candace’s firing, but in a recent X space, Lauren Chen asked “Would  you hire someone who is critical of Israel?” Jeremy answered “…I pay people to speak,  I’m not just a platform where everybody can just start their own account and say the  things they wanna say, I, I pay people, and I’m not going to pay people to say things  that go beyond certain lines of what I believe, why would I do that?” He later says  “Why would I have done all the things that I’ve done, if I didn’t actually have a core set  of beliefs, why would I pay people to say things on…through the mechanisms I’ve built  that I don’t agree with…” So where did he and Candace differ in political ideology? 

Let’s take a brief walk through Candace’s history at The Daily Wire, looking at  some of the bigger stories she’s covered. She unmasked the Black Lives Matter  organization as a money making grift, she produced a docuseries about the dangers of  childhood vaccinations. She produced another docuseries, “Convicting a Murderer”, a  rebuttal to Netlfix’s hit docuseries, “Making a Murderer.” She covered Ye’s public circus  after comments about Jewish power in Hollywood were made public on X. She did a  deep dive into the history of modern Psychology. During the last two years Candace  has touched on almost every popular cultural topic on her daily podcast “Candace,”  she’s toured the US speaking at colleges and events, and has appeared on numerous  hit podcasts as a guest. All the while, on maybe a rare occasion here and there, she  diverted from the common ideologies shared with all of the Daily Wire’s talking heads. 

It wasn’t until October 7th of last year that a line was seemingly drawn into the  Israeli sand. Did Candace side with Hamas? Was she supportive of the attack? Is she  unabashedly “pro-Palestine”? Was she showing up to inner city protests sporting the  Palestinian flag or sitting in on city cease fire votes? Nope. Candace, like any normal level headed, non hawkish Conservative wanted little if any US government aid sent to  Israel, a position similar to our involvement in Ukraine. She called out Israel’s  indiscriminate bombing campaign on Gaza, resulting in the loss of thousands of  innocent Palestinian lives, including babies and young children. And she waited to  make any concrete policy or ideological statement before any details were given to the  American public. Co Founder of the Daily Wire, Ben Shapiro, publicly said of Candace  during an event “…her behavior during this has been disgraceful…she still works for  my company…and I think she’s been absolutely disgraceful…I think that her faux  sophistication on these particular issues has been ridiculous…it’s not sophistication,  it’s ridiculous and everyone can see the moves she’s making and the things that she’s  saying and it’s disreputable.” They went toe to toe on X, exchanging blows when Ben  ultimately told her to quit if she “couldn’t serve two masters.” 

The craziest part of all this culminated in Candace’s public defense against a  disgusting Rabbi Schmuley, a Rabbi who sells sex toys, along with his unhinged  daughter, who has been virtually stalking Candace ever since she came to the defense  of her friend Ye, two years ago. Once Candace’s views on the the war in Israel were  made clear, the Rabbi’s slanderous and unhinged rants intensified. She was labeled as  pushing the dreaded “blood libel” because she liked a tweet where someone merely  pointed out Shmuley was lying about Candace supposedly telling her followers to kill  Jews. It wasn’t until Candace hosted another Rabbi, Rabbi Barclay, on her show who  conveniently said that the definition of anti-semitism is always changing, and accused  Owens of being an anti-semite because, I guess she wasn’t lining up to join the IDF.  Candace also stood up to the Rabbi in her Christianity and valiantly declared “Christ is  King”, the phrase heard around the world. Again, Barclay labeled her an anti-semite  and the rest of the culturally Jewish media called it a “dogwhistle.” It wasn’t long after  that interview where they made the call and decided to fire their most well liked  personality.  

Her whole history was disregarded. It never mattered if Candace worked for  Dennis Prager, the founder of Prager U, has Jewish friends and supporters, and never uttered one word about hating any Jewish people. The hypocrisy of new right wing media is screaming at us. Say whatever you want about Blacks, Latinos, the gays, the trans, the Dems, the Women, whatever, and whoever, but don’t you dare, don’t you even think about taking the side opposite of Israel and forget about saying “Christ is King”— you can’t say that!