Ben Shapiro Is Right

The ideological war, which has spread from the pundits to at least some corners of the conservative movement, has been heating up. 

One of the principal areas of contention is the relatively new focus on blaming the Joos for every problem in the world, and even some people treating a man who admires Hitler and Stalin as a person to take seriously, but what has really divided people is the fight over Candace Owens.

I haven’t written about Candace, who, to be honest, never appealed to me that much. She is clearly intelligent, beautiful, and good at what she does. But what she does has never impressed me, even when she mainly seemed sane. Now that she has gone around the bend, she is only worth talking about because some of her fans have followed her down the rabbit hole, and some pundits have been trying to keep her in the conservative fold. 

In other words, Candace (and Tucker, for that matter), only bears discussion because they are dragging people along onto a dark path. 

Ben Shapiro: “Today I want to talk about something even more important — how to discern those attempting to speak truth from frauds and grifters…The conservative movement is in danger from charlatans who claim to speak in the name of principle but actually traffic in conspiracy… pic.twitter.com/FVHW60ZMJT

— The Bulwark (@BulwarkOnline) December 19, 2025

Ben Shapiro spoke at TPUSA and took a shot at Tucker, Candace, and others, including Megyn Kelly, for abandoning the principled fight for conservative values and, to put it bluntly, grifting off the controversies. (John’s piece is here.) 

I can’t speak much to Kelly, since she has never been my cup of tea, and as far as I can tell, she has been trying to broker a peace more than make money off the controversies, but I have paid some attention to both Tucker and Candace because they strike me as particularly dangerous. I don’t dispute that Kelly has been on the wrong track; I just haven’t paid much attention to her. 

You have lost me Megyn, which I never could have imagined. There is no gray area here. By not unequivocally condemning Candace’s lunatic antisemitic ravings you give her and a growing, metastasizing faction of the right energy, capital, and validity. How do you not see that? https://t.co/AJRLsj5eiL

— John Ondrasik (@johnondrasik) December 19, 2025

In many ways, they are more dangerous than our leftist enemies, because they distract good people from fighting the right people. When your target is TPUSA, Erika Kirk, or people fighting the good fight, or you are defending feudalism, Russia, Sharia law, or attacking Winston Churchill, you are choosing the wrong side in the war for civilization. 

Ben Shapiro’s speech at TPUSA is what moral clarity looks like. We are obligated to tell the truth. We are obligated not to slander or smear. And we should be committed to moral principles. Watch the whole thing: pic.twitter.com/fkhyDoLXr9

— Jonathon Van Maren (@JVanMaren) December 19, 2025

Shapiro’s speech went straight to the point: why do we fight, how should we fight, what our responsibilities are to each other, and trying to find a way to make things better. 

First and foremost, we must tell the truth. So much of the work I do is trying to figure out and disseminate the truth, and my most passionate rants are against the lies we are told and the liars who tell them. Lies are a direct attack on self-government, even when they are “noble lies,” which so many are not. 

I see a lot of people praising @benshapiro’s excellent speech last night—but I think it’s important not to miss the really unique part.

There’s already been a lot of commentary—mostly from the haters—saying Ben “attacked” Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, Steve Bannon, and Megyn… pic.twitter.com/77S9q1KtOJ

— David Reaboi, Late Republic Nonsense (@davereaboi) December 19, 2025

There’s already been a lot of commentary—mostly from the haters—saying Ben “attacked” Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens, Steve Bannon, and Megyn Kelly. They’re calling it an “attack” because they want to hide the ball and turn it into a clash-of-pundits drama. 

—— 

But Ben did something really valuable—something that none of his critics would have or could have done: He laid out 5 duties and responsibilities people who speak or write about politics and the world have to their audience.

(1) Truth. “Our first duty is truth. We owe you the truth. That means we should not mislead you; it means we shouldn’t hide the ball; we shouldn’t be deliberately obscure about what we are telling you. We have an obligation to clarity and to honesty.”

(2) Principle, Not Personal Feeling. “Friendship with public figures who do or say evil things is not an excuse for silence on the matter… if you are willing to sacrifice basic truth and simple principle in favor of emotional solidarity, you have betrayed your fundamental duty…”

(3) Responsibility. “if we offer a guest for your viewing, we owe it to you to ask the kinds of questions that get at the truth. If we agree with the guest, that’s fine—but we should own it.”

(4) Evidence. “Emotive accusations, conspiracy theories, and ‘just asking questions’ is lazy and stupid and misleading. None of them are a substitute for truth.“

(5) Solutions. “If you truly come to believe that nothing in your life is in your control, you won’t take control of your life. You’ll despair of your ability to change your own circumstances. And then you’ll fail.”

——

I’ve always thought that it’s a privilege to have an audience—and, with it, comes the very real responsibility to make that  audience smarter and more capable of dealing with the reality of the world. All around are frauds and grifters operating m the opposite way. This only ends when their audiences demand it ends. 

If you don’t tell the truth, even when it hurts or garners you criticism, then you are making things worse. Period. End of story. Obviously, I am not talking about dumping classified information into the public sphere, but whenever one says something affirmatively, one should tell the truth as one knows it. So much of the decline in public confidence in important government institutions like the CDC comes from its engagement in sophistry. Many of the lies they told were “for our own good,” and they have proven about as bad as those they told for venal reasons. 

Principle: This should be obvious, but since politics is about team loyalty, sticking to your principles means paying a price. When I called Trump’s plaques and renaming the Kennedy Center the Trump-Kennedy Center “idiotic,” some of you blasted me. But I thought it was wrong and harmful to the cause, and I said it. My loyalty is to the cause, not the man. 

Responsibility. Enough said. 

Evidence. This has been the real problem with Candace, and my wife and I were joking this morning that, just because there are conspiracies afoot, it doesn’t mean that EVERYTHING is a conspiracy. Unfortunately, conspiracy theories flourish when social trust collapses. Go to any Third World country, and everybody believes the most outlandish conspiracy theories because nobody believes the authorities. We, at least, should try to stick to what we have evidence for, and when we speculate, we should make it clear that it is speculation, not supported by evidence. 

Ben Shapiro: ‘friendship should not trump our requirement to speak up when people are doing/saying things that are wrong’ 🎯

making friends is great. but keeping friends on the basis of keep your trap shut when they’re obviously wrong is evil

pic.twitter.com/LoolbfpJ50

— Mikale Olson (@realmikolson) November 8, 2025

None of this should be controversial, but because it is not a great way to make money or capitalize on the collapse in social trust, some conservatives have been losing their way. Tucker and Candace especially so. 

That gets to the last principle: solutions. I am cynical enough to believe that any solutions we find will be temporary—human beings are fallen, and we are in really deep trouble now, and any solutions will be partial at best in any case—but our goal should be making things better, and not worse. 

Of course, when speaking to people who now see a man wearing a yarmulka as an invader with dual loyalties, I’m not certain that Ben was the best vehicle for this excellent message. But few are as smart, principled, and articulate as he, so it was he who delivered it. 

Ben was so obviously right that it pains me that so many have taken issue with his message. It’s a minority—I hope a small minority—of conservatives who have, but the divisions are real.

It would be wrong to demand that conservatives be unanimous in our views on public policy or analyses—we don’t need an Amen corner of thoughtless robots mouthing the same nostrums—but conservatives should be united in fundamental principles that make us “conservative.”