Haters gonna hate, Nazis gonna Nazi…
Darn—the shrug-worthy removal of hate-spreading Nazi Charlie Kirk from the marketplace of bad ideas (remember: no big deal, “things happen”) has only made room for more hate-spreading Nazis to compete for his market:
Conservative media figures like Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens and Ben Shapiro have been sniping at each other online, flinging accusations of dark conspiracies and anti-semitism, some of which even appear to be true. The immediate cause of the strife is a growing divide over U.S. support for Israel, but there’s little doubt that the feuds are fueled by unchecked ambition: To exploit Kirk’s death to get more followers — and more power — in the toxic MAGA media ecosystem.
While Kirk was never the mega-celebrity the right now pretends he was, it does seem he was powerful enough within MAGA to keep a lid on the burgeoning desire that exists in some circles to embrace overt anti-semitism and even Nazi sympathies. He was the frequent hate target of Nick Fuentes, a Hitler-praising far-right influencer with an alarmingly large following, who viewed Kirk as a major obstacle to his schemes to remake MAGA in his own proudly fascist image. Turns out he was right about that; now that Kirk’s gone, Fuentes’ star is rising. Last month, he sat down for a tongue bath of an interview with Carlson, which the former Fox News host justified by bluntly declaring Fuentes’ popularity demanded it. That led to Shapiro and GOP Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, among others, to openly condemn Carlson. Shapiro dubbed Carlson “the most virulent super-spreader of vile ideas in America.”
…Shapiro isn’t just facing tension with Carlson. He’s also competing with Owens, his former Daily Wire employee, whose open flirtation with anti-semitism eventually forced him to fire her last year. She struck out on her own and has been building her audience, rapidly surpassing Shapiro in podcast rankings. In the past month, she’s garnered over twice the YouTube views as Shapiro, who has been losing viewers at a steady pace in recent weeks.
The key to Owens’ success seems to be the very anti-semitism that got her fired from the Daily Wire. She’s been fueling, in her usual oblique “just asking questions” fashion, an elaborate conspiracy theory suggesting that the Israeli government orchestrated Kirk’s murder to keep him from speaking out against the war in Gaza. She’s also been asking pointed questions that suggest Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, was complicit. While Owens mostly sticks to raised eyebrows and claims that something isn’t adding up with the official story — which is that a lone gunman shot Kirk for still somewhat obscure reasons — plenty of far-right people online are openly declaring that it was a Jewish conspiracy [Amanda Marcotte, “Charlie Kirk’s Death Is Tearing MAGA Apart,” Salon, 2025.11.24].
Alas, the ongoing work of democracy is an ongoing game of whackamole with the far too numerous advocates of Nazism that have hitched their influence/clicks/cash-seeking wagons to the MAGA market.
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