You can be both a big influence and a fucking idiot. In fact, we see that quite often. Kanye is a fucking idiot. Or mentally ill.
And yes, I'm white. And no, not subtle racism
Kanye TMZ Live Interview: "When you hear about slavery for 400 years. ... That sounds like a choice"
- Thread starter Senator Toadstool
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And yes, I'm white. And no, not subtle racism
“What’s the travel ban?” -Kanye
Didn’t think it’d be possible.
Someone who reads less than Trump?
Didn’t think it’d be possible.
or maybe Kanye becomes Scott 2.0 just roaming around the crib.
Look he's earned everything he's gotten up to this point. I don't think anyone can take away what he's been able to accomplish with his music. But part of achieving what he has and gaining that platform means that he also has a responsibility that goes far beyond himself and his immediate family. Like it or not to anyone reading this, but Kanye is a transcendent figure, not just in the music industry but in our culture, moreso within black culture because of his roots in hip-hop and his family's background. Part of the baggage that comes with that is he's become an icon of specifically the black community. Now I know we all want to be more than just the labels thrust upon us. I'd like to be thought of as more than just some guy from Jersey although it's a big part of my identity. I'm sure members here at ERA would like to be known as more than just a group of randos who just happen to like video games. In that I can sympathize with Kanye because he's likely having a crisis of being labeled as "just a music guy" or "just a black guy" and he wants to be more than those things. But part of being more than what you are perceived is accepting the responsibility of your platform. And if he truly wants to be a transcendent figure into the world of socio-political discourse up to and including the office of the president, he can't be irresponsibly pontificating on things with only a surface knowledge of an issue provided by other people who he's not properly vetting. Let's not mince words here, Kanye has adopted Candace Owens as his socio-political advisor. It was shown clear as day when she sniped his seat in the TMZ interview and was about to start going off on black-on-black crime in Chicago.
As much as he's accomplished in his professional life, he unfortunately is lacking in his personal. The Kardashians are a cancer for him. He's surrounding himself with people who are selling him a bill of goods that they're not going to deliver on. And all this as he's seeing his successes in his professional life grow with his clothing lines, his album about to drop, and so on. The notion of being about love, changing personal realities, and so on is people misleading him by exploiting his natural spirituality with actual tangible intellectual thought. What he was doing in that interview and others was him essentially repeating a bunch of self-help mantras he's likely consuming himself which unfortunately is also co-opted by some of the worst parts of conservatism. He doesn't want to hear about history and wants to focus on the now, but as any doctor will tell you, you can't properly treat the symptoms until you understand the cause. He's selling people on a placebo, to think positively and create their own reality which can only take you so far if you continue to ignore what got people into the situations they're in now, as Rosenberg mentioned today on Hot 97.
He needs help, yes, but not the kind of help that the people around him are willing to give. Phone calls and texts aren't going to do it from people like TI, Legend, Ebro, Jay, or whoever else we want to bring up. He needs someone like Van to get into his face and explain to him how he's fucking up and hurting people and hold him accountable, because the only person right now in his ear is Owens. He needs someone to do like what Kevin Smith did with Jay Mewes and actually put him up in their home for some time to help get his head straight. But also as Rosenberg pointed out, no one is likely going to do that. If they were blood that'd be one thing and likely someone would have gone out to LA to pick his ass up and take him somewhere. But short of someone willing to go to that length, the most people will do is offer thoughts and prayers and hope he comes to some realizations himself. Unfortunately the kind of intervention he needs will not be accomplished over the phone or in a radio/TV interview. Dude needs a personal asylum with people who really care about him.
will.i.am on this comment from Kanye
He also touches on the theory some have, which is that he's only doing this to try to create enough controversy so that it converts into more albums and clothing sales.
He also touches on the theory some have, which is that he's only doing this to try to create enough controversy so that it converts into more albums and clothing sales.
Wendell Pierce (The Wire, Treme) chimes in with a wonderful thread. Click to read: https://twitter.com/WendellPierce/status/991532988637810688
- Activate launch pad sound suppression system (T-16 seconds)
- Activate main engine hydrogen burnoff system (T-10 seconds)
- Main engine start (T-6.6 seconds)
- Solid rocket booster ignititon and liftoff!
don't give them the support, just wait for other people to post highlights.
You could always not give him the attention. The shitty parts will assuredly be clipped out for posterity.
Well, that's a relief. On a more depressing note, that did expose me to this:
Reminder that Candace is one of the three people Ye follows on Twitter, so this stuff takes up about a third of his entire timeline. Probably closer to half
(and yes, they are driving a red pill convertible)
Thanks for the suggestions, however, I'm a grown man and am capable of making my own decisions.
I love you both
. Spread love
Is it some bullshit then? Does he call in, what?
why did they make Kanye and Candace lighter than they actually are?
Why is it that so many people (including the people featured in these recent interviews, Charlamagne and this TMZ guy) are still praising Kanye?
Especially with this clip at the end, he's called a genius and at the same time he says something you find hurtful.
I get you are disappointed, but why did you have faith in him being decent to begin with? Did you not see his previously shitty behaviour, or did you just not care?
I guess I am confused as to why he's placed on this pedestal (that's how I view it), and treated with what I consider kid gloves when he says something that is so vile.
Why not drop the dude? There's lots of great black artists out there that have at the very least some level of self-awareness.
And if this is all just some publicity stunt, why is it still something that is tolerated?
I'd really like to be able to wrap my head around this all..
Especially with this clip at the end, he's called a genius and at the same time he says something you find hurtful.
I get you are disappointed, but why did you have faith in him being decent to begin with? Did you not see his previously shitty behaviour, or did you just not care?
I guess I am confused as to why he's placed on this pedestal (that's how I view it), and treated with what I consider kid gloves when he says something that is so vile.
Why not drop the dude? There's lots of great black artists out there that have at the very least some level of self-awareness.
And if this is all just some publicity stunt, why is it still something that is tolerated?
I'd really like to be able to wrap my head around this all..
God I wish he would run for president. His crushing defeat would maybe humble him a bit.
Pssh, who am I kidding? No way that happens.
Plenty of people who finished college or are in college that are just as ignorant as him. You are as informed as you want to be. No reason with the internet especially that anyone should be able to get away with being ignorant.
It seems to me over this whole situation that Kanye knows what the truth is to many of the things he says but he doesn't want to accept that.
He touches on an angle i havent seen a lot of people touch on, mainly being. If this is a ploy for album sales, he threw his ancestors under a bus for them
Some companies make you send a STOP text to their number to opt out of text messages from them
Why does Kanye look so unhappy?
That was an incredibly insenstive and thoughless way to put it. The mental prison idea that he commented on, that relates to the fact that the human mind is incredibly malleable. Slavery was extreme social and psychological engineering on a massive scale. I mean there is a reason why even in slave contexts people conform to shitty norms.
That was an incredibly insenstive and thoughless way to put it. The mental prison idea that he commented on, that relates to the fact that the human mind is incredibly malleable. Slavery was extreme social and psychological engineering on a massive scale. I mean there is a reason why even in slave contexts people conform to shitty norms.
If conservatism has evolved to mean denigrating LITERAL slaves for not fighting hard enough, early enough for their freedom to shift the blame away from the institutions that owned them, there really is nothing left worth fighting for in the American right. It's seriously concerning to me that Kanye's comments aren't being UNIVERSALLY, UNCONDITIONALLY rejected, and that white American conservatives are now crawling up the man's ass because they think they can safely express their own racist garbage if Kanye is saying similarly horrible things.
I want someone to confront Kanye on this shit and ask him to tell the millions of people trapped in slavery TODAY that they chose the life of a slave and that all they need to do is believe in themselves to escape the grips of their masters. I want to see Kanye tell a bunch of political prisoners in China that they could break out of the cages that hold them if only they tried hard enough. I want to see Kanye tell a starving North Korean family that they chose to live under an oppressive regime and that they could be free if only they stood up to Kim Jong Un.
God fucking dammit I am so fucking angry at this slimeball, and it's only gotten worse as time goes on and people are starting to try making excuses for his colossally privileged idiocy. What the FUCK is wrong with America?
Because Kanye is a known egomaniac and perceives most criticisms when not delivered in a "compliment sandwich" form as a threat to his manhood and integrity. He's emotional fragile as could readily be seen in the interview he did with Sway earlier in the day. Barriers go up for him and he gets defensive, of which is favorite tactic is to start comparing his success to the success of the person challenging him.
So in that people understand that you gotta stroke his ego a little in order to get his attention. "Kanye, you're a genius, but..." is the only way he'll give you the time you need to get your peace across. Is it childish and ridiculous? Hell yeah, but we're not dealing with a person who likely has been told "no" in such a stern way in quite some time.
As to why bother with him, it's because of the fact he still has such a huge reach within not just his fanbase but the black community as a whole. Yeah, as Ebro In The Morning said there's no shortage of positive black role models in the music and entertainment industry for people to look up to. However, as I explained Kanye has done something that most haven't been able to do, and that's to become a transcendent celebrity with a reach into our culture most haven't achieved. People hang on his words, and his influence and platform is unquestionably large. He's placed on a pedestal precisely because that is the space in the zeitgeist in which he exists. And for him now to be used as a means to subvert progress by lending credibility to the talking points of the modern white nationalist is frightening if it truly starts to influence his fans; a not insignificant group of people, mind you. This is where the pleading for responsibility is coming from for Van.
If this is a publicity stunt, then no, it's not being tolerated as can be seen by some of the backlash against him. But we'll see in the coming days if this goes further than just social media. If Adidas balks at his line at the 11th hour or some other misfortune happens in his professional life because of the rhetoric he's parroting from Owens, then we'll see if he's still willing to double and triple down on this. Or as I mentioned, if those closest to him actually hold some sort of intervention.
America has the republicans, that's basically Hydra at this point. Cartoon villains that get away with this stuff by their right of freedom of speech. Then you have the alt right that it's the worse part of the internet, slime blobs of shit unable to have any kind of sympathy or empathy with others, specially opressed groups and women, mostly made out of white boys afraid of the outside world that thrive on harrasment and violence camouflaged, again, as freedom of speech. Finally you have people with 0 self-esteem, like Kanye, that support this alternative fact crew just to be able to fit in with them, or maybe profit from it. A fucking disgrace to his own race and culture. The same as LGBT guys or women that voted trump a.k.a the deplorables.