How do you solve a problem like Candace Owens?

The podcaster has built a following imitating a century's worth of conspiracy theorists and fake news peddlers

- JONAH GOLDBERG COLUMNIST

JOE RAEDLE Getty Images

CANDACE OWENS' eponymous show ranks among the top-10 podcasts on Apple and Spotify.

CANDACE OWENS has a very popular internet show in which she trots out deranged conspiracies about, among other things, the demonic nature of Jews, the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk (probably by Jews and their pawns, in her estimation) and the allegation that French President Emmanuel Macron's wife is really a man.

Owens is hardly alone. There's an entire ecosystem of right-wing "influencers" who peddle conspiracy theories brimming with racism, antisemitism, demonology, pseudoscience and general crackpottery in regular installments. There’s an even larger constellation of media outlets and personalities who feed on controversy without ever quite condemning the outrages that cause it.

It’s appalling and reprehensible. But this isn’t really a column about all of that.

A foundational small-c conservative insight is, “there’s nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). In a time of relentless technological change, it’s understandable to think the utility of biblical wisdom has expired. But the point wasn’t about new things. It’s that human nature doesn't change.