Friday, October 28, 2022

Watching Ye crash and burn

     Hey Diddy! Rabbi Neil here. I know you’re in the studio, laying down your next megahit. A thought: People are soooo tired of hearing songs about chillin’ in the VIP room with a bottle of Cristal. Why not make that table bottle Manischewitz instead? They really have some very drinkable vintages nowadays. Or, better, a nice Dr. Brown’s cream soda. Show the home team a little love. I know that the Sanhedrin would be grateful, and you’d find a little something extra in next month’s envelope ...

     Two things about bigotry that don’t get said nearly often enough:
     First, it’s a kind of stupidity. A low, dank and nauseating sub-cellar of ignorance. The world just doesn’t work the way haters seem to think it does. Assuming their bile is sincere, and not just empty words that bad people throw at others, lashing out instinctively.
     The kerfuffle over Kanye West — whoops, “Ye,” he changed his name and might want to consider doing so again — quickly devolved into an exercise in accounting, keeping track of how badly his antisemitic spew hurt his sprawling business empire. Which meant that not enough consideration was given to his original offending remarks, such as the suggestion that rival singer, producer and lifestyle tycoon Sean “Diddy” Combs is somehow “controlled” by the Jews, followed by Ye’s threat to go “DEATHCON 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE.”
     What does that second part even mean? The funny thing — funny sad, not funny funny — is that Ye probably meant “DEFCON,” a state of military readiness, and it was just an illiterate gaffe. An unfortunate slip, since wishing death on people, particularly Jews, tends to catch attention in our mass shooting age. The worst antisemitic massacre in American history, 11 worshippers slaughtered in a synagogue in Pittsburgh, happened in 2018.
     We need to notice, because our political climate, at home and globally, increasingly takes its cue from antisemitism’s embrace of utter lies, from the blood libel to the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” to this, which showed up in my email inbox Monday:
     “All INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES in America and Europe, now know that the disastrous [WTC 911] attack was planned and realized by the American CIA and Mossad with the help of the Zionist world, to place the blame on Arab countries and to persuade the Western powers to intervene in Iraq and Afghanistan ...”
     That reasoning is the exact same logic that Alex Jones used to declare Sandy Hook was fake — you don’t like the result, in Sandy Hook’s case another stark example of the need for America to do better dealing with guns. So you pretend that result was someone’s intentional goal all along, as part of a plot. It’s like blaming ice cream for causing hot summer days.

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5 comments:

  1. 6 weeks ago I would have never imagined you writing a single word about Kanye West.

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  2. Bigotry is the common thread linking almost all Trump supporters. It is why he chose immigration as his rally point.
    They blame Black Americans for their difficult situation without realizing that it was their segregationist policies after the slaves were "freed" that was in fact the cause.
    How they keep blaming Jews and other ethnic groups for their misery is beyond me.
    Now that we can pick our truths, I'm not sure things will change.

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    Replies
    1. They blame the Jews, because all the people previously blamed the Jews.
      Anti-Semitism is the oldest hatred!
      Always blame a small group, that was insular long ago in Europe, which prized education over worshiping a Jew who die & then they hate the Jews.
      Makes no sense, but bigotry never does make sense!

      Delete
  3. I've read that this rapper, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer.is widely regarded as one of the most influential hip-hop musicians and producers, as well as one of the greatest musicians of his generation. By whom? Millions? Tens or hundreds of millions? Not by me he isn't, and that's all that matters to me. I've always hated rap and hip-hop and all related musical genres. Sue me.

    I couldn't stand this clown ten or fifteen years ago, especially after he got political, and I certainly can't stand him now. I could easily have an excuse for despising him because his tirades about Jews, but I certainly didn't need that. He's been an asshole in my book for a very long time, and I think the guy is having a serious mental breakdown and needs to shut his self-destructive face, isolate himself from the public eye, and seek serious psychiatric help.

    Perhaps I'm the sick puppy here, because. I confess that I'm actually enjoying watching Ye Gods melt down like the Wicked Witch of the West, and I'm enjoying the way he's suddenly being reviled and shunned and is hemorrhaging millions of undeserved dollars. Probably because I've disliked him so much, and for so long. How sweet it is. The best part is that nobody had to pull his tail. Like Dorothy said to the Lion: "You did it to yourself." Gay kocken offen yom, shtick dreck. Kuss mir in tuchas.

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  4. There is a phenomena I find puzzling among highly intelligent people struggling with mental health issues. They often embrace racism and are given to racist rants, anti-Semitism in particular. One example would be chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer. Although his was of Jewish decent, he thought the holocaust was a hoax. Another was mathematician John Nash the subject of the movie "A Beautiful Mind." I don't know if Kanye West can be placed among the highly intelligent, he is an accomplished artist. He does exhibit a lack of inhibition, mental illness being a possible cause of his behavior

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