Candace Owens Demands Meeting With Babylon Bee to 'Clarify' Meaning of Their Satire

There's a line from that Adele song, "Hello," that always triggers the "ick" factor in me: 

I was wondering if after all these years you'd like to meet

To go over everything

Friends, if your ex asks "to go over everything" years after you've split up, RUN AWAY. Nothing good can come of this. 

I got that same ick factor when provocateur Candace Owns essentially asked to "go over everything" with The Babylon Bee. 

It all started on Christmas Eve when Bee owner and CEO Seth Dillon shared Vivek Ramaswamy's reaction to the satire site roasting him: 

When we joked about Vivek, he laughed and leaned into it — then sat down with us to talk about the need to take ourselves less seriously and lose our "hunger for sanctimony." He's an impressive guy all around, but this moment really stood out. https://t.co/63T6XlI7Pj

— Seth Dillon (@SethDillon) December 24, 2024

(I know we're supposed to be mad at Ramaswamy today, but bear with me. This is not about him.)

For some odd reason, Candace Owens thought she should be involved in the discussion: 

Is this an invitation for me to come on your podcast and discuss your really funny jokes?
Because if so, I fully accept. I think it would be an illuminating discussion for the public to understand why I simply do not like the way you move behind the scenes. https://t.co/ojU7JVHcgB

— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) December 27, 2024

(The reason is not so odd when you recognize that one of the ways to get noticed on X is to pick a fight with someone with a lot of followers.) 

Someone in the thread suggested that Dillon and Owens debate. Owens replied, "Not even a debate. A discussion about his company and jokes which will help clarify matters to the public. He is publicly representing that this is all just satire and nothing more and I am stating that I know he is not being truthful. Daylight is always the best disinfectant."

Lighten up, lady! You don't belong on social media if you can't laugh at yourself. There is no need to go over everything when it comes to jokes and satire. There is nothing that must be "clarified." There's nothing to "disinfect." There's no nefarious Jew plot going on behind the scenes at the Bee. 

I'm guessing her post was a reaction to this Bee post: "Candace Owens Horrified To Learn Christmas Was Started By Birth Of A Jew" from Dec. 22: 

Media personality Candace Owens was shocked and appalled today after discovering that Christmas originated because of the birth of a Jew.

"You've got to be kidding me," exclaimed a stunned Owens. "This whole thing -- the lights, the carols, people worshipping -- all this started because of a Jew being born? Ugh. Our entire national calendar revolves around this holiday, and no one talks about that it's all because of a Jew. And we're still pretending like they don't control everything?"

The horrified Owens began tearing down all of her Christmas decorations and throwing them out to the curb, disgusted that she had been tricked by a Jewish plot. Lighting her nativity scene on fire, Owens resolved to expose the villainous Christmas plot to her listeners.

The point of satire is to use humor to mock someone's foibles; in this case, it's Owens' long history of antisemitic comments. 

[Update: Astute reader C. S. P. Schofield noted in the comments: "Sweetie, satire with a political point to make is pretty much where satire STARTED. It’s supposed to bite. Go read Swift's ‘A Modest Proposal,’ but not while you’re eating. If you can’t handle the kind of gentle joshing the Babylon Bee hands out, you REALLY need to retire from public life and take up orchid culture or something."]

My colleague Scott Pinsker wrote in August: 

Her current salvo in Jew-hatred is endorsing the idea that today’s Jews aren’t the “real Jews” and therefore have no true ties to the Holy Land. It’s an extension of the Khazar hypothesis of Ashkenazi ancestry, a pseudoscientific idea that was popular in Germany during the run-up to the Holocaust (can’t imagine why), but has since been discredited by modern DNA testing. There are roughly 16 million Jews in the world, so it’s not like their DNA is a mystery: Jewish genetics has been exhaustively studied. And we know, definitively, that today’s Jews can genetically trace their origins to the Middle East.  

“I mean, I’ve read a ton of books, and I’ve figured it out, okay,” Candace assured us. “I’m just, like, so over the idea that Israel is our ally.”

Well, Israel is our ally. It’s Candace Owens who isn’t.

At this stage, if Candace truly wants to cosplay as a Nazi, she should grow out the rest of her mustache to complete the ensemble.

Dillon and the Bee have nothing to apologize for, nor must they honor her with a platform. Word of advice to Ms. Owens: If you're dissecting jokes, you are losing. And probably woke.