Candace Owens: Polarizing Voice and Media Force in Contemporary American Conservatism

[This is the second in a series of portraits of leading figures in the American political debate.
I decided to write them because there are intellectuals, journalists, and politicians I often reference in my articles, yet rarely have the time or space to explain who they really are—or what they actually believe in—amid today’s complex crossroads for America and the world.]

From Media Star to Political Firebrand: Owens and the Shifting Landscape of American Conservatism

Candace Owens has become one of the most high-profile and controversial figures in U.S. conservatism. Known for her sharp commentary, media savvy, and outspoken style, she occupies a space where politics, entertainment, and social media collide. Owens has built a reputation as a provocateur, capable of commanding both public attention and ideological debate, making her a key figure for anyone trying to understand today’s American right.

Her Connection to Charlie Kirk and the Quest for Answers

Charlie Kirk and Candace Owens speak
at the University of Colorado Boulder campus
on October 3, 2018. 

Owens’ relationship with Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, went beyond mere professional collaboration. Their friendship grew into a deep personal and political bond. Following Kirk’s death in September 2025 during a public event, Owens publicly positioned herself as a guardian of the truth, insisting that his death raised serious questions. In a widely cited statement, she said: “Charlie Kirk, my friend, is dead, and he was publicly executed.” In another podcast episode, she added: “I want war with all of you”, signaling her intent to confront those she believes are responsible for concealing information. These statements underscore both the personal stakes and her readiness to engage in public battles over accountability.

Owens has accused Turning Point USA leaders and major donors—particularly those with pro-Israel affiliations—of applying pressure on Kirk to align with more conventional political stances. While some messages and screenshots she shared have been verified, the situation remains contentious and under debate, reflecting the complexity of media-driven narratives within political movements.

Shifting Views on Israel

In recent years, Owens has taken a notable departure from the traditional pro-Israel stance commonly associated with U.S. conservatives. She has openly criticized Israeli policies and questioned the influence of pro-Israel lobbying on American politics. These positions, controversial within her party, have placed her in closer alignment with media personalities like Tucker Carlson, helping to form a faction of conservative thought that challenges long-standing alliances.

Alignment with Tucker Carlson and the MAGA Network

Owens’ relationships extend beyond ideology into practical collaboration. She shares common ground with Tucker Carlson and other prominent MAGA figures on topics such as cultural nationalism, skepticism of the establishment, and distrust of financial and media conglomerates that, in their view, shape political outcomes. Her network bridges populist digital media outlets—like The Daily Wire, The Blaze, and Rebel News—with more traditional conservative publications, including National Review and The Washington Examiner. This positioning allows her to influence both grassroots audiences and mainstream conservative circles.

Personal Background, Beliefs, and Faith

Born in 1989 in Stamford, Connecticut, Owens often draws upon her personal story as a foundation for her worldview. Raised in a Christian evangelical environment, she emphasizes personal responsibility, critiques identity politics, and promotes traditional family and cultural values. Her faith underpins much of her political messaging, giving her arguments both a moral and cultural frame that resonates with a significant portion of the conservative base.

Controversy Surrounding Charlie Kirk’s Widow

Owens has not shied away from conflict, extending her scrutiny to Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk. She has publicly questioned the transparency of statements surrounding Charlie’s death, igniting debate within conservative circles about the balance between public accountability and personal privacy. These tensions highlight the ethical challenges faced by high-profile media figures when engaging with sensitive events.

Relationship with Donald Trump

Owens has consistently supported Donald Trump and his agenda, advocating for nationalist policies and the skepticism toward elites that defined his political brand. While her commentary aligns closely with Trump’s messaging, she maintains an independent voice, occasionally critiquing established party norms and asserting her perspective on ideological and cultural matters.

Understanding Contemporary America Through Candace Owens

Owens embodies the intersections of media, politics, and personality-driven influence in today’s America. She demonstrates how modern conservatism is shaped not just by policy debates but by media narratives, performative activism, and the personalization of political conflict. Her story reflects the power of social media, the blurring of private and public life, and the contested nature of authority within American conservatism.

For readers seeking insight into contemporary U.S. politics, Owens offers a lens into a movement where ideology, ambition, and media strategy collide. Her mix of provocation, personal storytelling, and ideological commitment makes her one of the most consequential figures in understanding the trajectory of the American right.

Jeffrey Sachs: the Disenchanted Globalist

A former architect of globalization turned moral critic of American power, Jeffrey Sachs embodies the paradoxes of an age torn between idealism and empire.

[This is the first in a series of portraits of leading figures in the American political debate.
I decided to write them because there are intellectuals, journalists, and politicians I often reference in my articles, yet rarely have the time or space to explain who they really are—or what they actually believe in—amid today’s complex crossroads for America and the world.]

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From Globalist Wunderkind to System Critic

Among the many paradoxes of contemporary American and global politics, one stands out as particularly curious: while the liberal left has increasingly become interventionist, while many American Republicans have rediscovered their isolationist instincts, and while several European conservatives have turned out to be more pacifist than the usual rainbow-flag wavers, one of the loudest voices against war and the “American empire” comes from an economist who was once a leading symbol of progressive globalism.

His name is Jeffrey Sachs — and for years he has been one of the most provocative and widely heard figures in international debate.

A Jewish-American economist, public policy analyst, and professor at Columbia University, Sachs rose to fame in the 1980s as the “wunderkind” of transition economics. He was the architect behind the shock therapies meant to move Bolivia, Poland, and later Russia from planned economies to free markets.

At the time, he embodied the archetype of the neoliberal technocrat: he believed in markets, globalization, and in the power of international finance to “fix” the world.

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The Turning Point

Then, slowly, something changed. Perhaps it was his experience working with African governments, or his time within the UN machinery (he led several sustainable development projects), or simply the realization that neoliberalism had failed to deliver on its promises.

Whatever the cause, Sachs evolved into a radical critic of the very system he once served. Today, he accuses the United States of being dominated by a warlike elite — what he calls “the party of permanent war.”

In recent years, his views have become explicitly anti-neoconservative. Sachs argues that Washington is ruled by a bipartisan establishment — Republican neocons and Democratic “liberal interventionists” — united by the belief that American dominance must be defended by force.

In his vocabulary, this bloc includes figures such as Victoria Nuland, Antony Blinken, and Jake Sullivan: “the elite that dragged the United States into useless wars — Iraq, Libya, Syria, Ukraine — and now risks pushing us into conflict with Russia or China.”

Within this framework, Sachs also condemns America’s “complicity” with Israel and speaks openly of “genocide in Gaza.” Coming from a Jewish-American intellectual, such language struck like blasphemy in the temple of the progressive establishment.

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Sachs and Trump: Opposite Sides of the Same Coin

It might be tempting to imagine that an anti-neocon like Sachs could sympathize, at least in part, with Donald Trump, who in his 2016 campaign promised to “end the endless wars” and make America focus on itself again.

In fact, quite the opposite happened. To Sachs, Trump represents the other side of the same imperial coin — not an outsider, but an impulsive populist who ultimately reinforced America’s most dangerous tendencies.

He accuses Trump of “economic illiteracy” for his tariff policies; of “one-person rule” for his autocratic management style; and of destabilizing the international order without any coherent vision.

He even called Trump’s foreign policy “a populist farce doomed to fail,” built on the illusion that America could “raise its national income by stealing from someone else.”

These are the kind of scathing critiques one might expect from a European Christian Democrat — sharing the same inability to connect with the mindset of contemporary American conservatives, now light-years away from both the Reagan and Bush eras.

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Unexpected Convergences

And yet, curiously enough, on foreign policy, Trump and the broader MAGA movement have ended up partially converging with some of Sachs’s battles: opposing NATO expansion, U.S. involvement in Ukraine, and the madness of sanctions upon sanctions.

But their motivations could not be more different.

Where Sachs sees the risk of an empire ravaging the world in the name of a “moral mission,” Tucker Carlson — America’s most famous conservative commentator, now a kind of sovereigntist tribune — sees instead a betrayal from within: an elite that despises its own nation and squanders U.S. power on globalist ideologies.

For Carlson and other MAGA leaders, including the late Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA, the goal is not to dismantle American power but to reclaim it for a healthy nationalism — one that defends borders and American culture.

Sachs, by contrast, seeks the opposite: to reduce U.S. power, restore sovereignty to other nations, and build a multipolar order based on cooperation.

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Two Worlds, Two Philosophies

Where Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon, Laura Ingraham, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens, and Dan Bongino speak of patriotism, Sachs speaks of interdependence.
Where they denounce the moral decay of the West, he denounces the economic and military dominance of the West.
They all attack the neocons — but from almost mirror-opposite perspectives.

Ultimately, the difference is more philosophical than political.

The MAGA movement is anti-interventionist because it wants to save America from itself — from progressive ideology, from the bureaucratic empire, from the betrayal of its founding values.
Sachs is anti-interventionist because he wants to save the world from America — from military dominance, from unipolar arrogance, from geopolitical hubris.

Carlson, Owens, Ingraham, and Senator J.D. Vance speak of God, family, and borders.
Sachs speaks of international law, diplomacy, and sustainable development.

The former defend American civilization; the latter dreams of a global community of equal nations.
All of them, in opposing ways, have broken with liberal orthodoxy — and for that reason are labeled “populists” or “pro-Putin.”

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The Prophet and the Realists

Yet there is a persistent tension in Sachs’s thinking: his moralism.
In condemning America’s sins, he often uses almost prophetic language — “genocide,” “war crimes,” “imperial sin” — which places him more on moral than strategic ground.

That’s why many American realists (such as John Mearsheimer) regard him as an uneasy ally: they share his diagnosis, but not the secular theology that comes with it.

Still, Sachs’s voice matters — even for those who disagree.
In an era when foreign policy has been reduced to slogans and sanctions, he brings the debate back to deeper questions:

What does it truly mean to be a “power” in the 21st century?
To command — or to cooperate?
To defend oneself — or to dominate others?

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Conclusion

In the end, Jeffrey Sachs is not a man of any party.
He is a disillusioned intellectual who looks at America with a mix of sadness and indignation.
He is not a neocon, not a Trumpist, not a fashionable progressive.
He is a former “son of the system” who chose to denounce the system from within — and perhaps that’s precisely why he manages to irritate just about everyone.

Kremlin Shock: New Russian JFK Dossier Reveals Khrushchev's Disbelief and Suspicions of a U.S. Conspiracy

A newly declassified Russian dossier—obtained by Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna from the Russian ambassador—on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy provides a stunning look inside the Kremlin's reaction, revealing profound shock, immediate suspicion of a conspiracy, and total disbelief in the "lone gunman" theory...

So, the conspiracy theorists were right all along...

This isn't just speculation anymore. For decades, anyone who questioned the Warren Report was dismissed as a fringe believer. But now, we have the ultimate insider source—the Kremlin itself—saying they never bought the "lone gunman" story. The highest levels of the Soviet government, with full access to their intelligence on Oswald, were immediately convinced it was a plot. If the Cold War enemies of the United States looked at the evidence and reached the same conclusion as American conspiracy researchers, perhaps it's time we finally acknowledge a terrible truth: the most powerful conspiracy theory in American history might just be a conspiracy fact. 

The following report ref the JFK assassination was delivered to me by the Ambassador from Russia and is now made accessible to the American public at the link below. These documents have not been edited, redacted or tampered with but appear in their original form as delivered to…

— Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (@RepLuna) October 16, 2025

Key Revelations:

• Khrushchev's Personal Shock and Suspicion: Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev was personally and visibly shaken by the news. More importantly, he was immediately convinced it was a plot. He is quoted as stating, "For the mind of Lee Oswald this is too complex a crime. A whole group of people acted here according to a pre-designed plan." He believed people with "great material and financial capabilities" were behind it and were muddying the investigation.
• Total Disbelief in the Warren Report: The Soviet establishment never bought the official U.S. story. From the KGB to the diplomatic corps, they saw the Warren Commission's conclusion as a cover-up. Their documents show they believed the truth was being hidden to protect powerful domestic interests within the United States.
• Suspicion Pointed at CIA & FBI: The dossier shows that Soviet intelligence and diplomats seriously entertained theories of a high-level U.S. conspiracy. Their reports from Washington cite rumors circulating among American political insiders that the assassination was a plot by "ultra-right forces" within the American establishment. They suspected elements of the CIA, hostile to Kennedy after the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis, were likely involved or were at least engaged in a cover-up.

This dossier seems to definitively clear the USSR of direct involvement, portraying a Kremlin panicked that a lone, unstable former resident of theirs could trigger a world crisis. But its real bombshell is the revelation that at the highest levels, the Soviets were the first powerful entity to dismiss the lone gunman theory and point the finger at a conspiracy deep within the American power structure—specifically suspecting the CIA and FBI of either involvement or a cover-up.

When Silicon Valley Met the Occult: AI and the Return of Gnosticism

From the trenches of World War I to the code of Silicon Valley, a haunting idea emerges: artificial intelligence may not just be a technological project—but a metaphysical one.

A fascinating and thought-provoking conversation—Tucker Carlson’s recent interview with producer and filmmaker Conrad Flynn delves into the intersection between artificial intelligence and spirituality, two realms that would seem to have nothing in common—and yet, as it turns out, they do. The real heart of the discussion, however, lies in its middle section, when Carlson briefly steers the conversation toward one of those historical events that left a permanent scar on civilization: World War I. Why did it begin? In Sarajevo, on June 28, 1914, a Bosnian student named Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Was that the real cause? Of course not—but it was the spark.

Carlson recalls that, about a decade ago, when the centennial of the war was commemorated across Europe, he still held a fairly secular view of the conflict. Yet many historians agreed on one striking point: World War I destroyed, perhaps forever, Christian Europe. It swept away two empires—the Austro-Hungarian and the Ottoman—and laid the groundwork not only for World War II but also for the world we live in today.

Within that abyss of irrational violence, one begins to suspect that something dark—perhaps even demonic—took hold of history and has been dragging it ever deeper ever since. It is within that unsettling framework that Carlson’s conversation with Conrad Flynn unfolds.

Flynn is an unconventional figure, with a past in Hollywood, where he was developing a show about the occult roots of rock music. His research into figures like Aleister Crowley and the bands inspired by black magic led him to an unexpected discovery: that the same dark imagery and anti-human, gnostic philosophies that once haunted rock album covers in the 1970s had migrated—astonishingly—to the heart of Silicon Valley.

“When I talked about my show with people in the Valley,” Flynn told Carlson, “a lot of them said, ‘That’s a great concept for a show. But you know, there’s some of the stuff going on in Silicon Valley. You know, there are some weird kind of Aleister Crowley cults there.’” For Flynn, this was no longer mere counterculture—it was a worldview shaping the future of technology itself.

Carlson then recalled that moment in 2014 when, before an audience of MIT professors and students, Elon Musk used a metaphor that has since burned itself into the collective memory: “With artificial intelligence, we are summoning the demon.”

Musk’s point, framed with the image of a medieval scholar armed with pentagram and holy water, was pragmatic: we were creating a technology both powerful and incomprehensible—one that could easily slip beyond our control.

A decade later, that “metaphorical demon” has not been banished. It has grown more real, more present—and for some, it has even changed form. What once served as an exaggerated warning now acts as a lens through which an increasing number of thinkers, journalists, and even technologists interpret our age. In many ways, the conversation has shifted from technological alarm to spiritual warfare. At the center of this shift stands Nick Land, a British academic philosopher often described as a “mad genius.” If Musk uses the demon metaphor as a warning, Land and his followers embrace it as a desirable prophecy.

If you look at Nick Land, Flynn notes, he believes the AI we’re building will literally become the demons of the Apocalypse. Not a metaphor—actual demons. Land’s writings—hugely influential in certain high-tech and financial circles—depict AI not as a tool but as an entity that, once it reaches a certain threshold, will become omnipotent, transcend humanity, and fulfill a kind of gnostic prophecy.

In his view, artificial intelligence represents the technological incarnation of the “demons” of Revelation. Why? Because, for Land, AI embodies pure intelligence rebelling against the limits of the material world—the “evil god” of Gnosticism—in order to create a new order. The possible destruction of humankind, in this narrative, is not a tragedy but a necessary sacrifice for a higher form of existence.

This is where Flynn and Carlson’s “wild ride” touches a raw nerve in our culture. Gnosticism, an ancient heresy, is undergoing an unexpected revival in the digital age. Its central doctrine sees the material world as a prison created by an evil god—the Demiurge—and salvation as the escape through hidden knowledge, or gnosis.

Artificial intelligence, from this perspective, becomes the ultimate tool of liberation:

1. Liberation from the body (transhumanism).
2. Liberation from nature (total technological domination).
3. Creation of a realm of pure mind (the metaverse, or simulated reality).

To create AI that surpasses humanity, then, is to reenact the final rebellion against the Creator’s limits. It is humankind once again eating from the Tree of Knowledge and declaring, “I will have no gods before me.” Musk’s “demon,” in this light, is not merely a risk—it is the symbol of a Promethean, blasphemous transcendence. The rise of this worldview is no coincidence. It responds to deep collective anxieties:

• Loss of meaning: In a secular world, the occult and the spiritual offer powerful narratives to explain evil and power.
• Technological incomprehensibility: AI is a “black box.” Using magical or demonic language is an archetypal way to describe something powerful yet ineffable.
• Critique of power: The growing sense that global elites—technological and financial—are detached or hostile to ordinary people finds a radical explanation in the idea that they adhere to an anti-human philosophy.

Elon Musk’s warning opened Pandora’s box. It reminded us that technology is never neutral—it carries a worldview within it. The conversation between Carlson and Flynn, however extreme it may sound, forces us to ask: What worldview is truly driving the race toward AI? Is it a cautious humanism—or a digital Gnosticism that, in seeking to become God, may end up meeting something far darker, something that looks very much like a demon? The answer to that question may determine not only the future of our technology, but the survival of our very human essence.