Candace Owen is Wrong

In contemporary American political discourse, few figures embody the perils of collectivist worldviews as starkly as Candace Owens. A popular commentator, Owens has repeatedly promoted antisemitic tropes and conspiracy theories that reduce individuals to members of sinister groups, particularly Jews.

This mindset—viewing people through the lens of collective identity rather than as unique individuals—is not only factually wrong but morally harmful. It echoes the very group-based judgments that fueled the Nazis' atrocities against Jews, a historical wrong that Owens has disturbingly downplayed or defended in various contexts.

Owen's antisemitism is well-documented. She has defended Kanye West (Ye) after his explicit threats against Jews, claiming honest people would not find his "death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE" tweet antisemitic. She has promoted tropes about Jewish control of media and Hollywood "gangs," downplayed Holocaust horrors by calling accounts of Josef Mengele's experiments "bizarre propaganda," and even defended aspects of Adolf Hitler's nationalism.

Organizations like the Anti-Defamation League and StopAntisemitism have cataloged these remarks, with the latter naming her "Antisemite of the Year" in 2024. These are not isolated slips; they form a pattern of conspiracy-laden claims that paint Jews as a monolithic, malevolent collective scheming against others. The historical Nazis did the same thing. 

This collectivism is profoundly wrong because it denies the fundamental reality of human relations: individuals are unique, responsible for their own actions, not guilty by association with any group. There is no collective guilt—Jews are not responsible for the actions of any individual Jew, just as no ethnic or religious group bears blame for the misdeeds of its members.

Judging people by group identity, as Owens does, mirrors the Nazi ideology that targeted Jews collectively, leading to the Holocaust. Historically and ethically, Owens stands on the wrong side by reviving such dangerous stereotypes under the false guise of "truth-telling" or criticism of Israel.

The harm extends beyond rhetoric. Collectivist thinking justifies discrimination, violence, and dehumanization. It treats people as interchangeable parts of a tribe rather than autonomous beings with rights. In the U.S., this worldview has historically associated with the political left—through identity politics, class warfare narratives, or demands for group-based equity that prioritize collective outcomes over individual merit.

Yet Owens, falsely claiming to be on the right, imports a similar groupism, fixating on alleged Jewish cabals or influences. This remains immoral wherever and from whomever it appears.

A similar collectivist strain appears in criticisms of Israel's actions in Gaza, where some, like Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley, have accused Israel of "ethnic cleansing" and complicit "murder." Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, has co-authored reports claiming U.S. complicity in a systematic plan to depopulate Gaza, framing the conflict in terms of collective Palestinian victimhood versus Israeli aggression and "genocide" as Bernie Sanders claimed. 

The genocide claim is completely false for several reasons. One, Israel is not trying to murder every Arab in Gaza when there are two million Arabs living in Israel. Israel only targets terrorists and Hamas is responsible for any civilian being harmed because they hide behind them. If Israel wanted to genocide all Arabs in Gaza they never needed to enter the strip or risk casualties with their own troops. It could have been bombed from afar as the Allies did with Nazi Germany - who lost over one million civilian deaths in that war. 

Blanket claims of ethnic cleansing and "murder" as Jeff Merkley does is collectively blaming all Israelis or Jews, ignoring individual agency and the complexities of urban warfare against a terrorist group.

Russ McAlmond, a U.S. Marine veteran running as a Republican for US Senate in Oregon, highlights this issue sharply. Challenging incumbent Merkley for his extreme left views, McAlmond argues that party affiliation matters less than rejecting collectivism, antisemitism and its group hatred of any group. 

He sees it as harmful and immoral—whether in Owens' conspiracies or Merkley's antisemitic condemnations of Israel—because it violates the principle that no one should be judged or punished for their group's perceived sins.

McAlmond emphasizes individualism: people as unique, not collectives. This view aligns with America's founding ideals of individual liberty, rejecting the "groupism" that Nazis inflicted on Jews.

Ultimately, collectivism in any form—left-wing identity hierarchies, right-wing conspiracies, or oversimplified geopolitical narratives—erodes truth and ethics. Candace Owens and Jeff Merkley exemplifies its dangers by promoting antisemitic tropes and falsehoods that historically lead to persecution.

We must affirm individualism: judge people by their actions, not immutable groups. Only then can we avoid repeating history's gravest errors.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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