The Best Thanksgiving Ever

On Thursday it was revealed that Owens, 35, was denied entry into Auckland, New Zealand. Under their law visas cannot be granted to someone who is barred from another country, or in this case an entire continent.

Someone let Owens know the  “Candace Live: 2024 New Zealand & Australia Tour” is canceled. 

Owens was initially barred from entering Australia in October after downplaying the Holocaust and spreading misinformation about Nazi behavior. This caused New Zealand to properly follow suit and bar her as well. 

When is it America’s turn?

The far-right political commentator has accumulated a following of three million cultists on YouTube, where she shares inflammatory opinions on feminism, racism, and vaccinations. Her platform amplifies conspiracy theories and harmful rhetorics making her a global hazard.

The college dropout claimed to become a “conservative overnight” after realizing liberals were the “racists” and “trolls,” launching her career in 2017. In 2020 she started her show “Candace” on the Daily Wire where she interviewed people like Donald Trump and Mike Pence. 

Recently, she’s taken a strong stance denying Nazis’ medical experimentation in concentration camps and calling it “bizarre propaganda.” Unsurprisingly, her accusations and stance on the war on Gaza insulted Daily Wire co-founder, Ben Shapiro, leading to the loss of her position.

Maybe don’t say anti-Semetic things to your Jewish boss.

Platforms like YouTube attempt to regulate her influence by flagging her videos for misinformation and the Anti-Defamation League has condemned her statements. But nothing done in the U.S. has been as bold as refusing her entry into a country.

Unlike America, Australia values their citizens. 

The Australia Immigration Minister, Tony Burke, told Associated Press reporters, “[Owens] has the capacity to incite discord in almost every direction…[our] national interest is best served when Candace Owens is somewhere else.” 

That somewhere else is not where I live, though.

Under the Australian Racial Discrimination Act 1975, it is unlawful to “offend, insult, humiliate, or intimidate another person or group if the act is done because of race, colour or national or ethnic origins.” In New Zealand's Human Rights Act 1993 they explicitly state the unlawfulness to publish, distribute, or broadcast writing that is “threatening, abusive, or insulting.”

Though in the U.S., we don’t have a law specifically addressing hate speech. In fact, we have the opposite: our laws protect inflammatory or derogatory speech with the First Amendment. 

Can we focus on that rather than womens’ bodies?

Her divide has already begun here: Owens has polarized the nation by dismissing the realities of systemic racism by downplaying police brutality and called both Black Lives Matter and COVID-19 a “scam”. 

She’s not only creating an emotionally harmful narrative, but undermining public health measures with anti-vaccination conspiracies is putting physical health in harm's way.

It’s understandable why Australia is concerned about her threat to public harmony. But why isn’t America?

These bans reflect the drastic cultural difference in addressing harmful rhetorics – some places actually prioritize well-being over unchecked “free speech.” 

It’s a comforting feeling knowing someone that feels like an intruder can’t enter a place that feels like home.

So thank you, Candace Owens, I might like Thanksgiving now.