Why "drama" with The Daily Wire matters
They are not on our team. They are working against us, and we need to talk about it.
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In the last week, we’ve learned the following:
The Daily Wire writes terms into their contracts with content creators that force those content creators to adhere to YouTube/Big Tech censorship policies, which fundamentally changes what they are allowed to say and cover. If they don’t, they risk losing a sizable portion of their salary. We know this because Steven Crowder recorded a phone call with Daily Wire co-CEO Jeremy Boreing, in which he openly said this and said he doesn’t plan on changing it.
In a live stream on the topic, Lauren Chen reported that The Daily Wire is the ONLY conservative media organization she knows of with these policies. It is not business as usual when you are the only organization doing something.
Candace Owens (and other content creators at The Daily Wire) are willing to engage in personal attacks to deflect from this reality rather than answer the charge directly. They are engaging in a coordinated PR campaign to discredit Steven Crowder as retribution. To them, distracting their audience with a smear campaign is considered a better option than answering questions about why they are in bed with big tech.
And today, we discovered that Candace Owens recorded all of her personal phone calls with Nicole Arbour, threatened to play those calls on her show, and engaged in a smear campaign against Nicole for calling her out for engaging in cancel culture. This is important because Candace has been one of the chief attack dogs against Steven Crowder for recording a phone call when she, herself, was doing the same thing. And we also know The Daily Wire and Jeremy Boreing edited this out of Candace’s show to hide this information from the audience.
Some people call this “drama.”
They say we shouldn’t spend any time talking about it.
They claim we are all on the same team and should act like it.
But what should be blatantly clear to anyone paying attention is that we are NOT on the same team.
I left the political left three years ago because I saw them engaging in cancel culture anytime someone said something they disagreed with, and that didn’t sit well with me. People should be able to have different opinions without fearing an angry mob showing up at their door, whether that door is their house in real life or their digital homes.
And even though I have made fighting back against the woke left my mission and something I do every day, the reality is that I’ve been canceled by the woke right and those who claim to be “anti-woke” far more than I have by the left.
It’s not even close. It’s come from the right more, and it’s been more vicious. It got so bad that the smear campaign that started against me in 2021 by influencers on the conservative right derailed my entire last year of effort. I’ve only recently been able to recover from the constant, unending mobbing that came for me, all from people who claim to abhor cancel culture, and I almost quit on several occasions.
The point is that this is not just “drama.”
It’s not meaningless. It’s not frivolous. It’s not unimportant.
It reflects a disagreement on fundamental principles that must be called out and discussed. If we do not call out cancel culture when we see it, then we do not stand for the things we say we do.
The reality that the conservative right does not want to face is that there are bad actors on their side who are no different than the enemies on the left that they claim to hate.
Woke means authoritarian.
And authoritarianism is not exclusive to the left. It also exists on the right.
In my book Actively Unwoke, I wrote about woke on the right. Specifically, I brought up the same criticism that Nicole Arbour had against Candace Owens - the cancel campaign against Chrissy Teigen, which Candace led, two years after the fact. It wasn’t for principle - it was for revenge. And it was proof there were those on the conservative right who believed in cancel culture just as much as the woke left does.
The woke left is undoubtedly more dangerous than the woke right, and that’s why I focus the majority of my time and energy on it.
However, here’s the thing that keeps me up at night: If we get everyone on the woke left out of every position of power they hold, we don’t have anyone to replace them with. Replacing an authoritarian on the left with an authoritarian on the right isn’t better. It’s just a different brand of authoritarianism.
And the reality is that this problem isn’t coming from the conservative base - it’s being driven by their influencers.
The conservative right lifts up HORRIBLE influencers.
After I left the left and was vaulted into viral infamy on the political right, my platform grew very quickly. And it was made extremely clear to me that if I just toed the line and repeated the talking points they wanted me to (and never went off script), I would make a lot of money.
I declined. After it became clear to me in early 2021 that influencers on the conservative right was engaging in cancel culture and didn’t share my values, I joined the Libertarian party and never looked back.
Becoming a Libertarian won’t make you wealthy…but it does mean you don’t have to sell your soul.
But there are a lot of people on the political right who make different choices. The money is real, and it is very tempting. So you have a “movement” of people with leaders that are willing to lie to their audiences in order the make money and maintain their status. They have absolutely no problem misleading their audience if it results in likes and clicks.
Candace Owens has always been one of those people. So is Matt Walsh. So is Ben Shapiro (he’s more of a shill for the establishment duopoly, but a total status whore).
The Daily Wire are not the only people guilty of this, but they are the biggest player in the game that’s guilty of this.
And that hurts all of us.
It hurts our efforts to fight back against the woke left.
Hell, forget fighting back…it hurts our efforts to even understand what the woke left is doing. I spend half my time explaining to people what their own influencers get wrong about what the woke ideology is.
When the largest player in the game is lying to and misleading their audience, shackling their own content creators to the censorship guidelines of big tech, and making moves that are designed strictly to maintain their status with the establishment, that isn’t just drama. That hurts all of us.
When these figureheads are nothing more than raging narcissists who care more about enriching themselves and being internet famous than they are in changing the world and beating back a cultural revolution that is surrounding us, that isn’t just drama. That hurts all of us.
And when these things are dismissed and ignored because they are inconvenient, the problem will get worse. I’ve been watching this develop for two years on the political right. It’s only escalated. And it will continue to get worse until the people stand up and demand it stop.
If you want to dismiss the drama and pretend it isn’t happening, don’t be surprised when there is no one left fighting for you.
It’s not hard to do the right thing.
It’s not complicated.
All that is required is the will to do so.
Sticking your head in the sand and saying you don’t see what’s happening is a coward’s solution, and I don’t suffer cowards here.
We don’t ignore problems. We face them head-on and do something about them.
Even if that means that you have to (figuratively) kill your darlings.
Doing the right thing may require sacrifice in the short term. But long term, it’s always the best choice.
If you sell your integrity to protect your sacred cows, you are no better than the monster you’re fighting.
What do you think? Leave a comment and let me know.
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I believe the woke - on the left and the right - are an existential threat to our values as Americans. Some of them know it, most of them are just useful innocents. Regardless, fighting back against this woke cultural revolution is my full-time job. I’m dedicated to exposing the woke ideology in our country, helping people to understand what’s going on, and providing spaces for non-woke people to connect, support each other, and plan ways to fight back.
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DW (and other right news outlets like them) don't want problems solved because they have a higher chance of a sustainable income if the problems persist!
I had no idea this dispute was going on. I have some research to do. Thanks for bringing it to light, Karlyn! It’s discouraging to hear what’s happening, but excellent to have light shed on it. THANK YOU for not quitting!! I’ve become so wakened since Covid, and you’ve been a huge help in that.
I also now see why the right is in the position they are. They just talk about the problems but never propose solutions to fix them, so all that happens is people share news and information back and forth but do NOTHING to change it. These influencers by extension keep people feeling like they’re doing something by staying informed and sharing information with their network, but not one are helping people know what to do about the issues. Then people ring their hands saying, “Nothing is ever going to change.” My response? “Of course, if you keep that up. Quick being scared and go DO something about the problems. Stop waiting for someone to do it for you! The best two quotes I’ve heard are... “If you’re not at the table, you’re on the table.” And “We’re a government of the people and by the people who participate.” Thank you for being the real deal, Karlyn, and having integrity.