I’ve started to feel a certain way about Kanye West’s mental illness, and it’s the same way I feel about all of those “psychology of Donald Trump” pieces. I honestly don’t care about their motivations, psychology and, in Kanye’s case, their profoundly disordered minds. I just can’t care about the “why” of it when it’s a life and death situation and a massive public safety crisis. Donald Trump represents an existential threat to all Americans. Kanye is trying to get Trump re-elected, so he too represents an existential threat. Frame it like that. Don’t frame it like “haha, Kanye for Prez, that’s hilarious!” It’s not hilarious. It’s not a minor curiosity. It’s frightening and disgusting. It’s appalling to see these white men blatantly use a mentally ill man for their own destructive, narrow ends.
It’s gotten to the point where I feel like the media should stop engaging with Kanye too, because it just ends up being a really sad account of a man who refuses to get help. Like this New York Times piece. Kanye comes across really unwell here.
He asked his campaign staff to not have sex outside of marriage: Kanye West wants to bring back prayer in schools, give more government support to religious groups and has even asked his campaign staff to refrain from “fornicating” outside of marriage, according to people aiding his candidacy. Mr. West has a bare-bones platform, focusing on general objectives like reforming the police, reducing household and student loan debt, and “restoring prayer in the classroom,” with each point reinforced by a bit of scripture. In discussions, the topic he brought up most was his opposition to abortion. He does not, however, want to ban abortion.
How the interview happened: Mr. West first called a Times reporter for this article on Aug. 11, close to midnight on the East Coast but a couple of hours earlier in Cody, Wyo., where he lives. He had just tweeted, “I’m willing to do a live interview with the New York Time about my meeting with Jared,” referring to a recent meeting he had with Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, that The Times had inquired about. During the call, Mr. West was upset and insisted on a live interview on Zoom, demanding that the editor of The Times be present as well, to which the Times reporter demurred. “I’m Kanye, who are you?” Mr. West asked, adding, “I’m the head of everything.”
He thinks the New York Times is a magazine: He also expressed anguish about abortion, said he didn’t reflexively support Democrats, and asked, “Does anyone at your magazine believe in Jesus?”
What he would do as president: He sent a handwritten outline of his plan to build an idyllic “eco-village” called Birthday Lake, which he later tweeted. Mothers could “safely experience pregnancy & birth” there, and children could be cared for afterward. He would not say if he envisioned the government building such places.
It’s a mania focused on a very destructive, misogynistic reading of Christianity, combined with a narcissistic personality disorder and just flat-out megalomania. I can’t. I don’t even think it’s as simple as “Jared Kushner went to Kanye and convinced him to run for president to siphon votes from Biden and Kanye knows what he’s doing.” Kanye clearly does NOT know what he’s doing. I think that Kushner and other Republican operatives are just completely running Kanye’s campaign and Kanye has barely any comprehension of what’s happening. At all.
Also: Kanye has been tweeting nonstop about his music contract, owning his masters, and… politics, or something. I really don’t care! But he did call himself “Baby Putin.” So there’s that.
TRUST ME I WONT STOP UNTIL ALL IS FAIR TRUST ME FROM NAT YE AKA BABY PUTIN
— ye (@kanyewest) September 16, 2020
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Avalon Red.
Do as I say, not as I do. Great philosophy!
Twitter put him in a 12 hour timeout yesterday.
Wouldn’t it be great if the did that to Donald too!
Especially when he keeps re-tweeting manipulated media.
Trump just tweeted lies about mail in votes again. Twitter does flag him for that when people report so please head over and report him. I actually think Ivanka tweeted the two most recent rants about voting this morning. They’re in complete sentences and she’s tweeting on her own account at the same time
@lightpurple, love it! They should put more in time out.
And he should know better, fornicating outside of marriage is how his wife got famous.
I wonder what the final straw was? After all, in addition to the baby Putin tweet & the video of him urinating on his grammy, he was also flirting with some nice antisemitism w/his tweet about Nick Cannon’s wrongful “cancellation” (that was tweeted b/t his contract and peeing on his grammy but appears to have been deleted now)
Kanye needs some serious help. He is clearly very mentally ill and someone needs to step in. What a mess.
Kanye doesn’t appear to be an immediate threat to himself or anyone else. (Existential threat is another conversation….) And without his cooperation, his family is very limited on what they can do to get him into inpatient or even outpatient care.
It’s really alarming at this point. He needs help. I have no idea how but I had two google news notifications this night that Kanye West pissed in a grammy award
He did. I saw it. Soledad O’Brien retweeted it saying that she prays he gets the help he needs.
That is probably why he was put on timeout on Twitter.
That tweet is still up.
He got the timeout for tweeting the phone number of a Forbes editor. He was quite busy on Twitter yesterday!
He was put on Twitter timeout for doxxing someone at Forbes magazine. Put out the guy’s phone number and said “if anyone wants to talk to a white supremacist” call him.
He can rot in hell. I am tired of excusing his garbage, destructive behavior over a mental illness he has resources to get help for, but refuses to.
Untreated mental illness allows him to ignore reason and reality, and let’s him think he’s the best, most brilliant leader in the history of mankind.
Reality shows he’s a dumbass, egomaniacal, misogynistic jackass who is not that bright, but wrote a few good songs.
@Ariel – up until the line “but wrote a few good songs” I thought you were talking about Trump!
@Ariel that isn’t how mental health works. Often the person experiencing mania does not believe anything is wrong with them. You can’t get help for a problem you don’t think exists. It takes a lot of work and patience from family members to bring someone in from the wilderness. Trust me, I’ve been there.
That birthday lake project sounds like a sect to me… scary
Why are we still finding ways to blame Ye’s behaviour on others?
+1000 this is him, totally him. This isn’t the first time he has railed about music contracts (see previous lawsuits) and religious zealotry is not usually classified as a mental illness either.
Why does this sorry excuse have a platform? Still? If he were ever to become a politician, he’d bring The Handmaid’s Tale to fruition. Asking employees to refrain from premarital sex? Are you f*cking kidding me? Was there a mass Exodus? Because there should’ve been. Someone wrap him in a beige straightjacket and throw him in a red room please.
It’s mostly on the strength of his earlier albums. The last couple have suffered from mediocrity with beats that aren’t up to his usual standards and some have described them as “demo quality” releases. His sales aren’t what they used to be. People were put off by the odd religious album and writing a fanboy song about ChikfilA as the savior of family values. He wasn’t even doing that well financially a few years ago, famously begging Zuckerberg to give/lend him a bunch of money, and there is speculation that Putin’s oligarchs or other backers of Trump bailed him out in exchange for being Trump’s minstrel.
I can’t believe I’m asking this question because obviously nothing he says is in any way connected to reality, but wouldn’t separation of church and state prevent a US President from mandating scripture in schools? How does he even think that would work? (And yes I know that’s not the only problematic thing he said.)
You are correct
He’s not on enough state ballots to win. So he is either just an idiot or Trumps Useful Idiot or both.
That being said, I agree with him on his comments on the music industry. It’s almost criminal how those contracts are structured.
I don’t pretend to understand the American electoral system, but if he is not on the ballot in a specific state and voters write his name in, will those votes count? I suppose it doesn’t matter if they do or not, since the whole point is to syphon votes away from the Democratic party.
mental illness doesn’t exonerate him. I don’t know him personal, and of course, everyone is different. Mental health is serious, and should be taken seriously, exceptionally in the black community. How Kanye West present himself to the public. I feel he knows what he is doing. Maybe I’m wrong.
Dude, your oldest daughter was at your wedding to her mother, STFU.
And conceived while one person in the relationship was still married.
I know life can be messy, but this dude really needs to stay in his lane when it comes to other people’s bedroom.
Mental illness does not make you a Republican. Mental illness does not make you an asshole.
I am TIRED of people living with mental illnesses get thrown under the bus so we can keep making excuses for Kanye West. He has BEEN an asshole.
THIS!!!!
Exactly this.
Can we just cancel him already, I’m so sick of hearing his name! No one, I mean no one should give this guy a platform to speak or report on his tweets or antics any longer.
I’d be more than happy for this website to flat out ignore him from this point onwards.
He’s a hypocrite just like his wife !
Lust is only one of the 7 deathly sins, what about some of the others he is swimming in?
Exactly. He is obsessed with being a “billionaire” yet tweets that money doesn’t matter. LOL ok buddy sure. Kanye and his whole Kult only care about money and fame.
Money doesn’t matter but he’s going to war with his label because the stupendous amount he made off his albums still isn’t enough for him.
“He sent a handwritten outline of his plan to build an idyllic “eco-village” called Birthday Lake, which he later tweeted. Mothers could “safely experience pregnancy & birth” there, and children could be cared for afterward. He would not say if he envisioned the government building such places.”
That’s a Black Mirror episode right there, I tell you what. *shudder*
This is how cults start.
“Does anyone at your magazine believe in Jesus?”
Says the billionaire. Tweeting against abortion and managing your employees’ sex lives will not slide camels through that needle’s eye any easier, dude.
(I know it was not an actual needle for sewing and it translates as difficult, not impossible, but still. YOU ARE A BILLIONAIRE. What’s the equivalent of your two copper coins?)
Says the rapper whose album cover was a childish-quality painting of him having sex with an armless succubus.
tbh I think it’s fair game to play with “un-Christian” concepts and imagery creatively, but then I’m not an evangelist. Or a baptist.
But the scriptures are VERY CLEAR on how much harder rich people have to work in order to be truly devout. This is not an optics issue, this is bedrock. Kanye literally has more money than he or his children will ever be able to spend, and his contributions elsewhere are nowhere near what he COULD give. Business Insider exposed his charity as a joke. He is building churches and charging $500 dollars to attend service. And he asks the NYT if THEY believe in Christ? smh
👏👏👏👏👏
“In unrelated news, all of Kanye’s staff quit yesterday…”
He needs help. The media needs to stop interviewing him. Twitter needs to freeze his account. All the attention seems to be feeding into his mania. I hope someone can get through to him and get him help.
(And then he can go away because I think he’s an a-hole, but one who right now is clearly in need of medical attention).
Please just go away.
About his contract, he just want to copy what taylor did. He didnt even an original thought anymore, he is just like a puppet. Someone must being using him by whispering crazy ideas.
I’m glad you mentioned this; we need a thread dedicated to Kanye’s rant about his contract (or 10 contracts, if I read the twitter-vomit correctly).
He is complaining about not owning his masters. Uhhhmmmm…didn’t Kanye take Scooter’s side against Taylor Swift when she was fighting for the EXACT SAME THING???
I have him blocked on Twitter. It’s best for my mental health. He needs to take care of himself, but he won’t, so oh well. A friend in Minnesota posted her ballot. Kanye is on it. She was livid. When asked what percentage she thought would vote for him, she stated .0001%. I LOL’d.
Anyone who uses that term to discuss sex should be avoided at all costs. I feel like it’s a dog whistle – it’s abusive and sick.
I wish people would stop giving him attention. Unfortunately Twitter cant remove him and as he’s an adult Kim cant control him. His manager and entourage is enabling his destructive behaviour for $$$$
What is it with these religious and or political zealots? The first thing they want to do Is tell everyone who they can love/marry/ have sex with and next it’s how you can dress and even how you should decorate your home. I knew a couple that was in a religious cult and they had to consult with the pastor and get his input before they could choose the new drapes for their living room windows. As in he had to channel which drapes Jesus would find most appropriate. Pastor had to do this for every duckin’ decision in their lives. Exhausting.
Mental health issues aside I think that this just might be Kanye’s personality i.e. “very controlling”.
Q: can you tell me about some of the responsibilities you had at your last job working for, um, the Kanye West Presidential Campaign?
A: Mostly forging signatures and wearing a chastity belt.
Lock him up (in a mental hospital) !
There was a conversation on Twitter about what a lousy person he is toward people who work concerts and music shows. He is just an awful person, the mental illness is just the bitter frosting on top.
He and the Kardashians should just disappear back into private life.
He really is.
I used to work in the music business and I know personally someone who worked for him in one of the closest roles you can have with a touring artist.
This guy not only turned into the BIGGEST arsehole when he worked for Kayne but also developed a raging cocaine addiction because he was exposed to it 24/7 as part of the inner circle. Now this was back around 2005 – 2007 but the stories about Kanye’s terrible behaviour even back then were simply shocking.