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The artist formerly known as Kanye West, and now known as Ye, is currently in the midst of a very public bout of... something. All we know for sure is that something is very wrong.
Everyone knows by now about his turn toward antisemitism, which became public with his tweet that he wanted to go "death con 3" on the Jews. Then he began palling around with notorious bigot Nick Fuentes, bringing him to the dinner heard 'round the world at Mar-a-Lago. And yesterday, Ye sunk even deeper into the muck. He appeared on Alex Jones' show/podcast, accompanied by Fuentes, which is always a promising start. And throughout the appearance, Ye wore a black ski mask that covered his entire face, which made him look like a bank robber. Oh, and he also shared some new opinions, such as "I like Hitler" and "We've got to stop dissing the Nazis all the time." He also insisted that he loves Jews, too, and after the interview he tweeted out an image that combines a swastika and a Star of David.
There has been some scuttlebutt that the point of the dinner with Trump was actually to embarrass the former president. And we, and at least one reader (J.G. in San Diego), have considered the possibility that all of this is some sort of performance art, and that in 6 months' time Ye will come out and explain it was all a put-on, designed to expose the Trumpublicans for who they are. We doubt it, though, as this performance appears to have wrecked Ye's marriage, and it's definitely cost him over a billion dollars. If it actually is a performance piece, then he's really committed to the bit.
In any event, Ye is finally being canceled by those on the right. The RNC and other Republican officials have been deleting past tweets that were supportive of the artist. Parler has canceled Ye's purchase of the platform. Elon Musk has re-suspended Ye's Twitter account.
We did not especially want to write this story up, as it's got so much of a National Enquirer feel to it. But the fact is that, whether it was his intention or not, Ye has most certainly reminded us of how much extremism and bigotry there is among the Trumpublican wing of the Republican Party. Remember that his antisemitism was well-established weeks ago, and yet he was still getting dinner invites from the former president and being booked for appearances on all the right-wing media outlets. It was only when he kept it up, and crossed way over the line, that the Trumpers finally backed off of him.
The Daily Show has made this same basic point in a different way, with this video, which is well worth watching:
If you do not watch it, it's clips of Nick Fuentes' speeches and podcast, edited together with clips from Fox (especially from Tucker Carlson). It shows Fuentes saying something extremist and bigoted, and then shows someone on Fox... saying the exact same thing. What it boils down to is that when the MAGA members of the Republican Party and media establishment pretend to be upset about the awful things that people like Ye and Fuentes say, don't believe it. They have made very clear they aren't bothered at all. (Z)