4 Comments
Nov 29, 2022·edited Nov 29, 2022

Might it be possible that Kanye, who has bipolar disorder and displays unmistakable manic and paranoid behaviours, isn’t receiving adequate support or medical care and is being taken advantage of by YouTube personalities who have no interest in helping West but in likes, subscribers, and comments for the algorithm?

Mental illness doesn’t excuse one from being held accountable, and West has indeed said some unfortunate things in his many rants over the years. Still, he, unfortunately, says whatever comes into his head at any given time. In contrast, most of us have a filter that warns us something might not be palatable for public consumption before we say it.

West should retire from the public eye immediately, get treatment for his manic and paranoid behaviours, and hire a decent publicist—though I don’t envy the person who accepts that role. He can eventually pay some form of public penance to “the Jews”, and all will be forgotten in time.

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After watching the interview that you reference, I don't really see the host's handling of the situation as deserving quite the level of accolades that you seem to. I certainly agree with him that his show is not intended to be a platform that he simply turns over to his guest to give a one-sided speech, and respect his willingness to challenge Kanye, not backing down as Kanye starts walking out. What I found to be a bit unhelpful was the way that he entered straight into discussion, sort of on Kanye's 'level', without asking for clarification on what was meant by specific things Kanye said. I have to admit that, in the span of just a few sentences, Kanye made so many innuendos that deserved, if not demanded explanation, that it would take a great degree of calm and collected focus to be able to hold the interview in anything like a sane, organized train of thought. But, then again, trying to have a sane discussion with someone who is presenting with such extreme levels of loose associations being thrown together as if they support an implied thesis that became increasingly manifest as delusional, may be impossible for anyone. I was just thinking that it might be helpful to ask questions like, "Trying to arrest you? Could you tell the viewers how you became aware of that?" But, again, Tim was fighting a losing battle from the start and it probably would have made no difference how he went about trying to bring the conversation into reality.

One thing that stood out was that the very thing that Kanye might say about woke-ists, namely, that they forward their agendas for control by spewing out unfounded labels/characterizations onto people, not based on the legitimacy of those characterizations, but on fact that those people have opposing views from theirs, is exactly what he's doing. Which, to me, pretty clearly reveals that there is a deeper motivating force. To project malevolence onto others in reaction to not being allowed to have their way is a very common tendency among children. And when a person does not develop a mature sense of self during their formative years, they wind up in an endless pursuit of validation that they can only get through the responses they get from others. That's the essence of narcissism. The subconscious importance of meeting that insatiable craving for validation makes criticism or anything perceived as disrespect absolutely untenable. And to the narcissist (or, one with strong narcissistic tendencies), an extremely harsh reaction to rejection seems merited. When the degree of such underlying compulsions reach certain levels, developing specific scape-goats (eg groups) can fit very effectively in the story that they tell themselves.

The pursuit of being seen as 'special' is shockingly widespread today. The eager pursuit of some in-vogue diagnosis or some designation that gives one a "special identity" is rampant. And just try to interject the notion that there is nothing actually new here, other than specific forms and maybe prevalence, and get ready to be crucified. There are lots of articles from 10+ years ago written by school counselors and therapists discussing the drastic increase in the levels of psychological disfunction and self-diagnosed conditions among youth. And now that those youth are young adults, the secret is plain for all to see.

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I think you may have overlooked the full implications of this from Alinsky: “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.” If the rule is that every letter gets a reply, send 30,000 letters. You can kill them with this because no one can possibly obey all of their own rules.

Hmm…

Some people are racist and some people always will be, even in what is truly the most open, welcoming, tolerant countries in the history of humanity. The future of open, tolerant, welcoming societies is now under serious threat, it seems to me.

As I see it, your observation that if everyone is racist, then no one is, is not merely inaccurate, it trivializes a fatal-to-freedom device being used successfully to destroy the West and its values.

It is more accurate IMHO to see racism accusations leveled against the West as justifying attacks that are successfully undermining a supposedly hypocritical West, both in its own eyes and in the eyes of the rest of the world.

Given human nature, there will always be racists, and we cannot allow our inability to eliminate the evil inherent in human nature to destroy our very best efforts to keep the evil aspects of human nature under tight legal, morality-based control. But what is the source of morality in an increasingly G-dless world, filled with corrupt legislatures and jurists? It’s gettin’ scary.

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I propose a couple perspectives that continue to be missed in the Ye Chronicles, where his views on specific radioactive topics and his ineptitude at conveying those opinions make it difficult to see past the initial public reaction:

1. We would all ignore Ye if he wasn't wildly successful financially and artistically. In today's attention economy culture, success in those realms conveys authority and prowess to the intellectual ring. Ye is essentially the top professor and head of the Music Department, but the worst student in his debate class.

Celebrities, artists, and athletes hold the seats of influence and the largest platforms, which translates to eyeballs. You no longer need to be able to communicate your ideas clearly to garner attention - you only need to throw out contentious statements. The headlines follow, the masses organically pick sides, and Ye watches the fireworks.

It's a proven marketing strategy, and the only solution is to stop caring about what a master of soundboard button pressing/MIDI program splicing thinks about literally anything else. Individuals need to find better expressers of ideas they connect with.

2. Ye's Christian faith and view of God is a consistent fallback for his failure to elucidate his positions. Any mishandling of communication, emotional tantrum, or headline-focused statement can be explained away by "God is guiding me," "The only one I'm ultimately accountable to is God," "His plans are working through me," "I was meant to falter here because God wanted me to learn from it," etc. This cyclical thinking excuses any mishap on Ye's part and his weakness of character in facing people who intelligently and calmly challenge his stances.

To him, anyone who doesn't get what he's saying immediately is to be disregarded as a bad actor or a waste of his time. This is the attitude of immature adolescents who haven't developed debate skills or cognitive resilience. It's also the exact strategy of leftist ideologues he claims to oppose. "You disagree with me? I follow God (good guy) so you must be against God (bad guy)."

What we end up with is a grown man who states he's done with victim mentality, then spits monologues about how a particular ethnic group is out to get him, all within the same interview. A man who claims entire power frameworks are out to silence him, then actively walks out of a one-on-one conversation, thus silencing himself. A man who declares "We are all Children of God," while criticizing the exact ethnic/religious group of "God's Chosen People" laid out in the very Bible he lives by.

He contradicts himself constantly and doesn't even realize it, all while leaning on his religious faith to explain away his surface-level decision-making as divinely guided.

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