Ever since Kanye West tweeted praise for conservative commentator Candace Owens, the right wing fringe has been falling all over itself at the prospect of having a bona fide A-list celebrity to welcome into the fold. Although far right and so-called alt-right personalities have, in part, based their personas on lambasting the supposedly out of touch, limousine liberal Hollywood elite, conspiracy theorists like Infowars founder Alex Jones and vlogger Paul Joseph Watson are practically frothing at the mouth at the prospect of rubbing elbows with one of the most famous people of a generation. Among the first of the right wing personalities to embrace West was Owens herself, who tweeted at the rapper, begging him to “take a meeting” with her and then appeared on Fox & Friends on Sunday the day after West tweeted about how he likes “the way [she] thinks.” Part of the way the pro-Trump “Owens thinks” entails criticizing Black Lives Matter, denying the existence of systemic racism, and arguing that Black Panther is a “pro-Trump movie.”
I’m freaking out. @kanyewest ….please take a meeting with me. I tell every single person that everything that I have been inspired to do, was written in your music. I am my own biggest fan, because you made it okay. I need you to help wake up the black community. https://t.co/Uz1nB9K0Oz
— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) April 21, 2018
“Kanye West does not really want to fold to controversy,” Owens said during her Sunday morning Fox & Friends hit. “If you look at things historically, Kanye West has really represented the battering ram against political correctness.”
.@RealCandaceO: @kanyewest is not one to fold to controversy and I thank him for supporting me and my ideas pic.twitter.com/0SrCK6RKJi
— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) April 22, 2018
This is all very funny considering that in September, Owens posted a YouTube vlog titled “Dear Celebrities: NOBODY CARES WHAT YOU THINK!!!” Apparently, Owens cares what celebrities think as long as they care what she thinks. Owens serves as “urban engagement director”—and, apparently, director of communications—of Turning Point USA, a dubious non-profit dedicated to spreading “true free market values” on college campuses. The organization’s founder, Charlie Kirk, wasted no time capitalizing on West’s endorsement by co-opting the rapper’s image for use in one of Turning Point USA’s Twitter memes. (West’s rep did not return a request for comment regarding his likeness being used in Turning Point ads.)
Today @kanyewest Had Some Incredible Words To Say About Turning Point USA’s Director Of Communications @RealCandaceO #ThinkForYourself #Kanye #BigGovSucks pic.twitter.com/JhwkzQjgNV
— Turning Point USA (@TPUSA) April 21, 2018
The team at Infowars wasted no time launching a full court press trying to court West. Paul Joseph Watson, who serves as an editor-at-large, recorded extremely thirsty videos praising the rapper for being an iconoclast and begging his followers to tweet those videos to West.
Kanye West is threatening to red pill black people and the establishment is terrified.
Everyone retweet this and send it to @kanyewest https://t.co/R2VFTGIKMu — Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) April 22, 2018
On Monday, Jones swooped in, hoping to cajole West into an appearance on Infowars, and presumably to get the rapper to start hawking the snake oil supplements that subsidize Jones’s operation. “I admire your bold moves against the thought police,” Jones tweeted at West. “And if you want to see these control-freak vampires really go crazy, please join me on my broadcast!”
.@kanyewest I admire your bold moves against the thought police. And if you want to see these control-freak vampires really go crazy, please join me on my broadcast!👌
— Alex Jones (@RealAlexJones) April 23, 2018
This is quite the 180 from the days when Infowars, via Watson, used to accuse West and his wife Kim Kardashian of naming their son Saint West as an homage to the Illuminati. Or when Infowars writer Kit Daniel accused West of being emblematic of the country’s “decline.” Apparently all it took for the staff to reverse its position on West is the inkling of hope that he might actually pay attention to them.
The fact that disgraced Fox News host Bill O’Reilly spent years calling West a “disease” and his music a blight on society didn’t stop him from caping for the rapper when the backlash came for him over the Owens endorsement.
Kanye West finds himself under attack by the American Stalinists. Please read my column posted right now on https://t.co/fqUvO5EEW0 about the attack crew. Frightening. I’ll deal with Mr. West tomorrow.
— Bill O’Reilly (@BillOReilly) April 22, 2018
MRA mascot and Dilbert creator Scott Adams wasn’t going to be outdone by a bunch of second-rate YouTube stars, so he recorded a 22-minute DIY TED Talk praising West as a visionary.
Scott Adams tells you how Kanye showed the way to The Golden Age. With coffee. https://t.co/RCFwKuXjCA
— Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) April 22, 2018
West, in kind, tweeted clips of himself getting red pilled by Adams’s video, which itself demonstrated the cartoonist’s Sahara Desert-level thirst for the rapper’s approval. He, obviously, is far from alone.