Yesterday on Alex Jones' show, he had Kanye West and Nick Fuentes as guests. No doubt the thought this was a great idea to “own the libs”. It didn’t go well.
Jones gave Kanye a softball set-up, saying, ““You’re not a Nazi, you don’t deserve to be called that.” And the singer came back with -- “Well... I see good things about Hitler also. The Jews...I like Hitler.” In fact, it went so poorly that even Alex Jones got uncomfortable after a while, finally commenting to West who kept bring Hitler up that he seems to have a “bit of a Hitler fetish going on.” But no doubt to Alex Jones’ continued discomfort (and how far does one have to go for that), Kanye West continued, later saying that “I don’t like the word ‘evil’ next to Nazis,” And “I love Jewish people, but I also love Nazis.” By the way, among the reasons Kanye West told Alex Jones he likes Hitler are that he says Hitler invented the microphone and highways. Putting aside the virulent anti-Semitism and that, no, "Hitler" himself did not "invent" any of these things -- Alexander Graham Bell patented the microphone in 1876, and highways were built in 1811. That reality aside, getting even more basic, one wonders if Kanye West has never heard radio and album recordings from, say. the 1920s. Clearly he’s also unaware of highways being built long before Hitler came to power. But one does wonder that if Kanye West learns that der Fuhrer didn’t actually invent the microphone or highways, maybe he won't like Hitler anymore! How bad was Kanye West’s meltdown? A couple of months ago, the House GOP Judiciary Committee posted a tweet that said, in its entirety, “Kanye. Elon. Trump.” And in the intervening months, they got a lot of ridicule on Twitter that they still had left it up. But today…finally, after expressing his support of Hitler…at last they deleted it! Yes, Kanye West was so extreme anti-Semitic that even the House GOP Judiciary couldn’t defend it. That's how anti-Semitic one has to be to get the GOP to say it’s too much. That’s how low the bar is in today's Republican Party. As Professor Peter Beinart of City University of New York put it, in today's GOP, "it's okay to be anti-Semitic, just not genocidal anti-Semitic." If you didn’t see photos of his appearance on Alex Jones’ show, Kanye West showed up with his head fully covered in what can best be describe as a sack. Not that West needs anything else to make him come across as crazy, but the "Fully covering his head" is such a sweet touch. As does having changed his name to now go by “Yes.” The thing is, if I had the views of Kanye West, I'd probably want to change my name, too. Though in fairness, I'd hide it a whole lot more than going by "Obert." Y’know, it seems that the whole "Nike can't do anything to me" hasn't worked out as good for Kanye West as he thought. And to be clear, none of this is on anyone else to blame. It's on him. He chose to say it all out loud in public. To be clear, Kanye West is entitled to his opinion. As are others to be aghast in sick horror in their replies. Yet on and on he goes. He later tweeted out -- “I love the first amendment! Long live Ye! I pray to Jesus that Elon is for real…” Hey, I love the first amendment, too, though it only pertains to the government making laws, not to any company that can't prohibit speech that it believes will hurt its business, like when people say things like, oh, that they love Hitler. And Fun Fact: Jesus was Jewish. But honestly, you have to love him writing about himself, “Long live Ye!” Every little bit that points to how loony he is helps undercut the sentiments he keeps repeating. [UPDATE: Alas, this tweet didn't age well after a whole day. Elon Musk confirmed this morning that Twitter has suspended Kanye West. This came after the short-lived Ye posted a swastika inside a Star of David. So, apparently, even Musk has limits (again) on his cries of "Free Speech!!!" Though it begs the question how far one has to go to get banned.] But for all this, for as much attention as was understandably and deservedly put on Kanye West for his latest, crazy anti-Semite meltdown, this is also on Alex Jones who knew full-well who Kanye West is and gave him a platform – because of knowing who Kanye West was. Even if Jones was surprised by the level of bile West spewed, he knew there was plenty of anti-Semitic hate there. And further, and perhaps most importantly, it's on Trump. He tried to distance himself from well-known anti-Semite Nick Fuentes by claiming that supposedly he didn’t know him, but that he only knew Kanye West. So, he can’t hide from that. Trump, by his own acknowledgement, knew Kanye West, knew his views, knew that West had lost hundreds of millions of dollars and most of his partnership and endorsement deals for violent anti-Semitic statements, and yet still gave him his ear and platform. Indeed, even putting aside the latest West fiasco, Trump trying to wipe his hands clean in a bucket of muck by saying, "But he never talked about Jews at dinner," is like trying to justify inviting Vladimir Putin over for a slumber party to exchange Best Friends Forever rings and saying, "But he never brought up blacklisting." In the end, many Republican officials have condemned Kanye West and Nick Fuentes (though they cowardly haven't condemned Trump for his involvement with those two). The thing is, though, for all these GOP officials condemning West and Fuentes's deeply anti-Semitic views and love of Hitler, then -- if they want people to believe they truly mean what they say -- it follows they must publicly condemn all neo-Nazi groups who hold and have voiced the same views, even if such groups support the Republican Party. I am not holding my breath on that.
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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