Lionel Nation - How Candace Owens Blew Up the Internet

Dec. 11, 2025 - Lionel Nation

20:27

How Candace Owens Blew Up the Internet

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	The fact remains, the fact remains that every time I think, well, I think we've covered this Candace Owens thing enough.
	I think we've pretty much figured that one out.
	Something else happens.
	Some other story which is bigger and more wild than the other.
	Candace Owens did something today, yesterday, probably tomorrow, that almost no one in American media can pull off or has ever pulled off or I don't know when.
	She detonated the entire internet without lifting a finger and sent every outlet, every influencer, every commentator, every jealous hanger-oner into a full-blown cosmic meltdown.
	I mean, you could watch it happen in real time.
	Just going through some four stories in particular.
	Four stories hit the wire today or yesterday, depending upon when you're reading this.
	Never date these things.
	Each of them dripping with the same panic sweat, the flop sweat.
	Mediaite, which by the way, is nothing but a parasite.
	It doesn't have stories.
	It just highlights and curates what other people do.
	What other news platforms do?
	What other media platforms do.
	Anyway, Mediaite pushed another manufactured Kirk conspiracy angle, which of course they can't conceive that maybe there's something to the story that Current Affairs delivered a thesaurus-filled tantrum about decay of the American brain because they don't know what the hell to call this.
	Yahoo tried the tired MAGA celebrity meltdown routine and the Daily Mail threw its usual gas or petrol as they would say on the fire and all of them swarmed the same person.
	All of them obsessed over the same name.
	Guess who?
	All of them terrified.
	They can't control her because they can't.
	That's the story.
	Not the accusations, not the angles, not the breathless media framing.
	The story is that Candace Owens, again I say, is now the hottest figure on the internet today or the ecosystem, whatever I hate that word, whatever this is called.
	And the people who built their brands pretending to be fearless truth tellers can't handle it.
	Like you probably have noticed.
	They don't know what to do.
	This isn't supposed to, they're just commenting.
	What you saw and what you see isn't reporting.
	It's envy, jealousy, dressed up as journalism.
	It's resentment pretending to be some kind of analysis.
	It's an entire, I want to find out, give me a word other than ecosystem, whatever you want to call it, the platform.
	It's an entire whatever.
	Staring at one woman and realizing they don't have her reach, her talent, her instincts, her audience, or her gravitational pull.
	They don't know what to do.
	There's nobody on the left who can come close.
	Jasmine Crockett, but that's almost mocking derision.
	This isn't mocking derision.
	This is serious.
	Nobody's laughing at Candace Owens.
	She's not simply trending.
	She is driving the culture in real time.
	And every attempt, every attempt to attack her only amplifies her.
	Every insult, everything becomes exposure.
	Every hit piece becomes proof that she has what they don't.
	She has the audience's attention, the world's attention, the country's attention, and she holds it with ease, effortlessly.
	I mean, look at the tone of the coverage.
	Look at what they say.
	It's frantic.
	It's frenetic.
	It's out of control.
	It's emotional.
	It's rooted in fear.
	It's rooted in the realization that they have no control of what's happening.
	You don't write pieces like that about someone irrelevant.
	You write that way when you feel threatened, when you feel like, oh my God, when you feel your audience is drifting towards someone else or something else who tells the truth with more clarity and excitement and entertainment than you do.
	And when your own influence is shrinking and hers is rising, oh my God.
	The writers at these outlets see the same numbers everyone else sees.
	Her clips go viral on every platform.
	Her commentary dominates social feeds.
	Even her critics, even her critics can't stay away.
	The people who hate her can't stay away.
	They pull her into their headlines because her name guarantees engagement.
	And it kills them.
	And they can no longer earn anything on their own.
	They are parasitic.
	They're vultures, predators, scavengers.
	This is the secret they won't admit.
	Candace Owens is not being covered because they think she's wrong, because they disagree with her.
	She's being covered at this level because she's winning and she's exciting and she's outperforming them in every metric once claimed to be theirs or that they own.
	She is more relevant, more interesting than their host, more consistent than their pundits, more confident than their contributors.
	And here's the thing which is the most important.
	They're more connected to, or she rather is, to the public mood than their entire editorial boards combined.
	And their real frustration, the real problem is not moral outrage.
	Oh my gosh, it's professional jealousy.
	It's jealousy, plain and simple.
	And you know it's true.
	I mean, if you want proof, oh my God.
	Look at the proof of the desperation.
	By the way, it also, her fellow content providers as well, Mediaite, for example, openly frames imagination as investigation.
	This current affairs deploys kind of an academic vocabulary like a fire hose, convinced that calling her dangerous sounds more intellectual than calling her effective.
	I mentioned Yahoo.
	Yahoo tries the oldest trick in the book by implying a meltdown when none exists.
	The Daily Mail, which is interesting.
	Come on, they've got some good trash in there.
	It swirls the drama into this narrative, this gumbo, because they know that anything with their name on it sells.
	These outlets are not offering criticism.
	They are offering plain and simple content, content that depends on her for clicks.
	They can't leave her alone because without her, they can't keep their traffic numbers alive.
	That simple.
	And it's killing them.
	And meanwhile, meanwhile, Candace moves on with the same calm, the same confidence that built her audience in the first place.
	She's never ruffled.
	That's what enrages them.
	She won't flinch.
	She won't apologize.
	She won't break under the pressure, under the pressure that they apply, because she understands full well exactly how the cycle works.
	And what's more important, she knows outrage amplifies her.
	She knows attacks reveal the attackers.
	She knows the public sees the difference.
	And her competitors are going berserk.
	She knows the difference between someone who speaks bluntly and someone who hides behind, I guess, institutional reputation.
	Oh, she knows this.
	She knows this.
	She knows that every time they write her name, they admit her power.
	They admit begrudgingly.
	Tim Poole, oh my God.
	Tim Poole's reaction is the perfect case study.
	He's not angry because of what she said.
	He's angry because she commands a spotlight that he wants.
	That he wants.
	He's angry because he can't control the narrative.
	Can't control the narrative that she sets.
	He's angry because her rise reminds him of his ceiling, his limit.
	Candace hits audiences that Tim can't reach.
	And she shifts conversations in ways that Tim can only comment and comment on after the fact.
	I mean, put it this way.
	It's more fun to attack her, apparently, and more metrically advantageous to attack her than to agree with her.
	You know, Tim Poole's frustration is not ideological.
	It's existential.
	I mean, that same frustration and anger is bubbling across the entire influencer class.
	But you better be careful.
	You've got to be careful.
	What do you do this?
	Tearing her down?
	Look, creators who once believed that they were untouchable are watching a woman who refuses to play by their rules, lap them effortlessly.
	They once relied on institutions and sponsors and networks or, I guess, algorithms to guide attention.
	And Candace relies on authenticity and force of will.
	That scares them because they don't have it.
	That exposes them.
	See, that reveals how fragile their positions really are.
	It's phenomenal.
	See, the media don't hate her because she's controversial.
	They hate her because she's independent, because she doesn't care about them.
	She doesn't need them.
	And that's unforgivable.
	Look at what she did this week.
	She turned a conversation about Charlie Kirk, which I think everybody should be talking about, into a national moment.
	She did.
	She forced outlets to respond.
	She forced analysts, theoretical analysts, to engage, to consider.
	She forced critics to confront narratives and stories they wanted buried.
	She took what they hoped would be a closed case and turned it into a cultural ignition point.
	See, that's influence.
	That is reach.
	That is what a true disruptor does.
	In an era where media, where media pretend to be bold, but they act terrified, she is the one person, the one person who continues to go directly at the subjects that everyone else avoids.
	And here is the deeper truth, if there is, if that's even possible.
	The public responds to her because she says what they feel without checking with a producer.
	She's not polished and burnished and made safe by a committee.
	She is not crafted by consultants.
	She's not politically correct.
	She's not careful.
	She's dangerous.
	She's not managed into blandness, into this anodyne.
	She's raw.
	She's direct.
	She's unafraid.
	The audience knows it and loves it.
	That quality is rare in a landscape built on safe opinions and cautious phrasing.
	You know, people crave honesty in a world full of frauds.
	And she gives them, listen, she gives them truth.
	Truth without filters.
	And that's why she's growing exponentially.
	That's why they panic.
	That's why the attacks multiply.
	Because remember this, my friend.
	The bigger you or she or anyone becomes, the smaller they feel.
	Candace Owens, again, this fascinates me, has become the central character in a media, I don't want to say that E-word, that ecosystem, I guess.
	A world, I'll call it.
	Desperate for a villain, but incapable of producing a hero.
	They offer nothing.
	They attack her to feel important.
	They obsess over her to feel relevant.
	They critique her to pretend they matter.
	She does more with one post, with one post, one reference, than they do with a month of programming.
	And they know it.
	And she knows it.
	And we know it.
	The audience knows it.
	That's the critical point.
	Today, just looking at Drudge had some stories.
	It was the perfect demonstration.
	Four major stories written by people who can't stand her, but can't stop covering her.
	Four attempts to undermine what she's doing and undermine her that only strengthened her reach.
	What does not destroy me makes me stronger.
	What does not destroy me makes me more popular.
	Four reminders that she is driving the conversation.
	She is it.
	She is box office and they're chasing her headlines.
	Candace Owens didn't just dominate the news cycle.
	She exposed who really controls it.
	And this, I can't say it enough.
	It kills them.
	She has become still, every day, the most talked about, feared, envied, and imitated figure in political commentary today.
	Not because she courts attention, not because she loves the spotlight, but because she commands it.
	Not because she stirs the pot and stirs controversy, but because she uncovers truth.
	See, it's not just going out there making all kinds of noise.
	You got to deliver.
	You know, what we're talking about is not because she plays some kind of game, but because she overturns the game.
	She's like a Teresa Judice with a table.
	And every outlet, every platform that tries to bring her down ends up proving her point, making her more popular.
	They're down in control.
	She is.
	And they can't stand it.
	And if you're watching this moment unfold, and if you're wondering, if you're wondering perhaps what it means, here is the answer.
	Candace Owens is not a commentator.
	She's a force.
	More than a brand, she's a personality.
	Beyond that, she's a disruption engine.
	She's not a story.
	She's that spark that ignites the stories.
	Every attempt that they have to cancel her strengthens her.
	It's Nietzsche.
	Every criticism expands her audience.
	She loves it.
	It's her fuel.
	It's her fertilizer.
	Every attack reminds the world whom they actually trust and whom they trust to speak plainly.
	Look, the media, the ecosystem, can either adjust to her presence or melt down around her.
	And judging from today's coverage of today in particular, they've chosen the meltdown.
	And if you want to see how powerful she is, listen to this.
	Look and try to gauge the panic.
	Look at the envy.
	Look at the jealousy.
	Look at the noise.
	Look at all this concatenation of freneticism.
	And then look at her.
	Calm, steady, unshaken, smiling, happy.
	If you want more voices, as fearless as Candace, then you have to support the ones who refuse to break.
	You know, share her work.
	Follow her platforms.
	If you disagree with her, fine.
	But she would tell you, just don't ignore me.
	Like the line from Fatal Attraction, I will not be ignored.
	Amplify what matters to you.
	Help her build a culture where truth and courage outrank institutions and gatekeepers, okay?
	And by the way, it's also great to say, I say this, but it's also great to see a woman command this, because everybody said in the old days, oh, this is a man's game.
	Oh, I don't know about that.
	It's not that people want men, they want guts.
	And the people who fear her cannot silence her.
	Only the audience can decide.
	Only the audience can decide who leads the conversation.
	I hate that word conversation, but you know what I'm talking about.
	And today, today, my friends, the audience made it clear.
	Very clear.
	Candace Owens runs the room.
	This is something, this is, my analysis is part media analysis, part evaluation, part truth, part whatever it was.
	It is fascinating.
	I was there when Rush Limbaugh came along.
	I worked with Rush Limbaugh.
	I was there on the 17th floor of Toupen Plaza.
	I sound like the old, I knew Rush Limbaugh.
	He's no Jack Kennedy, but I saw this.
	I saw when talk radio took off.
	I saw when things happened.
	I was there with the advent of the internet, so to speak, not as a developer, but as a consumer.
	I saw this.
	And I'm pretty good, not that you need my talent to say, this is big.
	This is, watch this, watch this.
	Remember when rap came along and people said, eh, they didn't understand.
	Remember when the Ramones came, the little recent outside CBGBs went punk and grunge and people dismissed it.
	It's like, you idiots, pay attention to what's happening.
	This is huge.
	And that's what this is.
	It's huge.
	Remember, you don't have to agree with her.
	Just watch her.
	And what she is saying about Charlie Kirk, God bless, at least somebody's getting to the bottom of this.
	She may not always be right.
	She may sometimes bring into the conversation the wrong people, the wrong subject matter, and the wrong suspects.
	But let me tell you something.
	From his point of view and his family's point of view, you go, girl, because at least somebody's talking about it.
	For all the people who love Charlie Kirk, they just wanted to brush him under the rug, so to speak, and move on.
	Well, guess what?
	That ain't going to happen.
	My friends, I thank you.
	Do me a big one.
	Do me a solid, as the kids say.
	Like this video.
	Hit that little bell so you're notified of live streams and new videos.
	Subscribe, It's the metric that keeps us going.
	Fun.
	Well, fun, yeah, fun, but inspire independents like me to go out there and say the word.
	I've been doing this for 37 years professionally.
	And I know what I'm talking about.
	This is big.
	This is huge.
	And you know that too.
	All right, my friend, I love you.
	I've got some questions for you at the comment section.

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