What a long, strange trip it’s been
—“Truckin’” by the Grateful Dead
First, the good news: We’ve juuuust about reached the point where we won’t have to talk about Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens anymore. They’ve unmasked themselves as lying, bigoted click-whores.
Carlson’s career was longer; Owens’ was shorter. But for a brief, flickering moment in the 2010s, both were considered credible, trustworthy journalists and/or mainstream conservative “influencers.” Turning Pont USA and The Daily Wire boosted Owens; Carlson was the beneficiary of the (exceptionally) well-oiled NewsCorp PR machine.
And then… they weren’t.
Conservative audiences are a fiercely loyal breed. We instinctively protect our favorites from the liberal mob — because history has taught us that they’re constantly under attack. That’s our muscle-memory: They smeared Rush Limbaugh. They smeared every other big-name Republican. They attack, demean, defame, and deplatform — and the only way to stop them is by fighting back.
Rush Limbaugh still reigns supreme in conservative hearts. No man in the history of political media was slandered more viciously than El Rushbo.
Not because he deserved it — but because liberals feared him.
That’s the tragedy of Carlson and Owens’ dark turn: Limbaugh dedicated his professional career to building goodwill between himself and conservative audiences. Time and again, that “harmless, lovable fuzzball” proved himself worthy of our love and respect. No matter how often the mainstream media called him a racist, a sexist, a Nazi, and a homophobe, we knew it wasn’t true.
This became our template. It’s how we understood the host-audience relationship.
So great was Limbaugh’s legacy that we assumed future hosts would be just as worthy — which meant, as long as we continued to have their back, conservatism, truth, and decency would prevail. It’s a symbiotic relationship: If we do our part, the host will surely do his.
Turns out the paradigm was wrong: Carlson and Owens were unworthy successors — and Rush Limbaugh’s genius was even rarer than we thought.
Carlson and Owens traveled the road that Limbaugh paved. They benefited from all the trust and goodwill that he spent his entire career building.
And then they destroyed the road.
Because, despite how easy Limbaugh made it look, talking about conservatism 24/7 for years at a time is VERY hard work. Even in the talk-radio medium, there’s absolutely no one else like Limbaugh — someone capable of carrying a three-hour show completely on his own, without guests, co-hosts, a “morning zoo,” or a whack-pack. (Heck, Rush barely even took phone calls!) Yet Limbaugh had the #1 show for decades… and it mostly consisted of him speaking extemporaneously about life, politics, news, and culture.
Of course, Rush had real, actual talent (“on loan from God!”). Lesser hosts must take shortcuts to retain an audience.
Like, for instance, Sean Hannity: The veteran conservative still has a highly entertaining program when he’s interviewing someone interesting and compelling.
And when he doesn’t, it’s not.
There’s no shame in that. Limbaugh-level talents are extraordinarily rare; there almost certainly won’t be another one in our lifetime. (Or, probably, in our kid’s lifetime.)
If anything, Hannity deserves credit for staying true to his values. Despite the pressures of fame and fortune, Hannity continues to provide conservative programming for conservative audiences — because conservatism is his north star.
Not so with Carlson and Owens. They abandoned conservatism when they became independent journalists.
When they worked for conservative media outlets, they delivered a (mostly) conservative message. Then, when they lost their jobs and had to get clicks to make money, their content changed in a hurry.
Instead of being like Limbaugh or Hannity, they embraced the business model of Howard Stern and Jerry Springer: saying and doing increasingly outrageous things.
Such as global Jewish conspiracies. Or Mrs. Macron’s innie being an outie. Or Erika Kirk murdering her husband. Or Donald Trump being the Antichrist. Or Muslim extremists being peaceful friends of Christians.
Initially, it was important for conservative media to call out the bait-and-switch, because Limbaugh’s legacy loomed so large, we instinctively gave Owens and Carlson the benefit of the doubt — over and over (and over) again. In fact, the more they were attacked, the more we yearned to protect them!
After all, Rush Limbaugh never broke our hearts — so why would his successors?
It was a dangerous time for the conservative movement, because Carlson and Owens were mainstreaming antisemitism, crazy conspiracy theories, and historical inaccuracies. Tainting MAGA with their nonsense would’ve been electoral poison.
We still considered Owens and Carlson conservatives first — and influencers second. (Just like you-know-who.)
Alas, the trouble with the shock-jock strategy is that it depends on escalation: What shocked us yesterday is old news today. Once you begin circling the drain, you’ve got to circle faster and faster — or the novelty wears off.
And eventually, you still go down the drain.
It was newsworthy when two of the top conservative media personalities abandoned conservatism, opting instead to be political shock-jocks. But it was bigger than that: If we don’t protect our movement, it’ll be coopted by bad actors who’ll repurpose it for their own agenda.
Protecting MAGA is MAGA’s responsibility.
But that was then. Today, the word is out — and the evidence overwhelming: Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens are antisemitic bigots who say stupid [feces] every week.
Like this past week, when Candace Owens cruelly mocked Erika Kirk for being fearful of assassination:
Candace viciously mocks Erika:
“People online- they’re just saying that they want me to die! I’m just so overwhelmed, Mr. Vice President…*Dab, dab, dab – no tears*…I just don’t want my kids to be an orphan, Mr. Vice President!”
This is coming from the woman who has CAUSED… pic.twitter.com/uvHhu5U3eP
— Jackie Chea ⚖️ (@Fair_and_Biased) April 17, 2026
This is the same Candace Owens who’s constantly claimed to be under death threat herself, and even refused to meet with Erika Kirk because it was too dangerous:
Back when you lied about being eager to meet us in person any time, any place, you made up multiple fake assassination plots as an excuse first to not come to our Phoenix studio, and then to not come to Phoenix at all. You’re the last person with any credibility to accuse others…
— Blake Neff (@BlakeSNeff) April 15, 2026
Meanwhile, this past week, Carlson has officially become a Holocaust revisionist, arguing that Hitler’s Jew-hatred was overstated:
🚨 EXCLUSIVE — Tucker Carlson won’t say that Hitler murdered 6 million Jews.
Based on my own long ago conversation with him, this isn’t some weird fluke.
Tucker simply doesn’t believe the Nazis slaughtered six million Jews.
So, is Tucker a Holocaust denier?
Yesterday, Tucker… pic.twitter.com/Z5ltKFZzf1
— Joel Mowbray (@joelmowbray) April 16, 2026
If you think Owens and Carlson have now hit rock bottom, think again: Next week they’ll say something even MORE shocking — and MORE loathsome.
They have to, because the shock-jock business model demands it.
But I have no interest in playing the “OMG have you heard what Carlson/Owens just said?!” game, because it incentivizes the shock-jock model. Outrage and attention is exactly what gives it oxygen.
Enough already.
At this point, the word is out: Carlson and Owens aren’t conservatives. You know it and I know it.
And we’ve got better things to do than stare at the bottom of the toilet.
One Last Thing: 2026 is a critical year for America First. It began with Mayor Mamdani declaring war on “rugged individualism” and will reach a crescendo with the midterm elections. Nothing less than the fate of the America First movement teeters in the balance.
Never before have the political battle lines been so clearly defined. Win or lose, 2026 will transform our country.
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