Bari Weiss interviewing Kim Kardashian, what could go wrong? If you’re unfamiliar with Bari Weiss, she is the former New York Times columnist and now professional substacker obsessed with “cancel culture” and how she is being oppressed by cultural cancellations and/or people saying snarky sh-t to her online. Many believe she’s a hack, but Kim Kardashian isn’t hearing any of that. Kim and Bari chatted about Kanye West, MAGA hats and (what else) cancel culture. Some quotes from Kim:
Kim regrets asking Ye to remove his MAGA hat on SNL: “Why should he take that [MAGA hat] off if that’s what he believes in? Why can’t he wear that on TV? Half of the country voted for him, so clearly other people like him.” She said she “learned a lot from that situation” and should have supported West’s freedom of speech. “I respect the fact that he knew exactly what he believed in and always stood by that. To me, that’s a good quality to have.”
Why she asked him to stop wearing the red hat: Kardashian explained that because she isn’t really a “rule breaker,” the public backlash West received really affected her. “I was very nervous. I didn’t want him to wear the red hat. I remember other people were around and it became a thing where he wasn’t going to go on because he wanted to be who he is. I’m very neutral, but that night I was very forceful with him, and argued with him like, ‘You have to take that hat off.’”
People shouldn’t worry? “If I worried about every last thing that someone said and I had to try to change it, then I would never be me. Anyone wouldn’t be them!”
On cancel culture: “That’s why I think cancel culture is the most ridiculous thing…because I really do believe … in rehabilitation and freedom of speech. I’ve never really been into cancel culture. If we cancel someone for something that they had done or said in their past, then we’re not inviting them into the conversation to really understand,” she continued, noting it, of course, “depends on the situation.” In some instances, she explained, “I don’t really care what people think about me, but there’s some times where I say, ‘OK, I completely understand how you would feel like this is disrespectful, and I will absolutely change this.’ I always own up to the mistakes that I make and I try not to make them again. But I think if you don’t have these conversations with people, how are they ever going to change something that isn’t right?”
Re: the MAGA hat conversation… there’s a nuanced part of the conversation which I wish Kim would have acknowledged, and those nuances are “shame” and “privilege.” As in, Kanye and all of Donald Trump’s supporters should have felt deep and profound shame for supporting a racist, fascist, serial sexual predator. That’s why it’s okay to tell a loved one to take off the f–king MAGA hat, because you’re ashamed to be related to them and they should be ashamed to wear it. The “privilege” nuance is because Kim and Kanye are both privileged enough to not be affected by Trump’s policies. The argument of “we should respect his beliefs” only goes so far when his “beliefs” lead to babies in cages and Trump inciting terrorist acts against members of Congress.
As for Kim’s thing about cancel culture, she was thinking of herself and how people criticize her for cultural appropriation and doing dumb sh-t for ratings. This whole cancel culture/anti-cancel culture sh-t is so played out. Just stop f–king talking about it, y’all sound like f–king idiots.
When Kanye wore a red MAGA hat on SNL, the internet nearly broke.
"Now, looking back I thought, 'Why should he take that off if that's what he believes in?'" says @KimKardashian. "If you want to wear the hat, wear the hat." pic.twitter.com/TMNs74TXwd
— Honestly with Bari Weiss (@thehonestlypod) December 16, 2021
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.
There’s a great podcast called you’re wrong about. They do an episode on cancel culture and their conclusion is that it doesn’t exist for people with power. The only people it really affects are random people on Twitter with no power. Like that girl in PR who tweeted about Africa and then lost her job when she got off the plane.
+1. Also, I think Kim Kardashian is the most ridiculous thing.
Completely agree!!!
That girl “Justine Sacco” who was interviewed multiple times and is the poster child for right wing “anti” cancel culture? She who was able to return to the job that initially canned her, in addition to taking other lucrative pr jobs? And let’s revisit her comment:
“ Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!”
True. But even Justine Sacco eventually got another job,
I love You’re Wrong About! The bigger conversation was that cancel culture isn’t effective, especially for the rich and powerful. When someone famous is “cancelled” it just means they’ve fallen out of favor with a group, but falls into favor with another group. Like the MAGA crowd embracing Kanye. The only people who face real consequences are regular people who are likely to lose their job or be ostracized by their community.
You said it so much better than me! Thanks! 🙂
Jon Ronson’s book “So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed” is also a really good analysis of this. He also writes about the Justine Sacco situation. The book came out a bit before the term “cancel culture” had such cultural cache, but honestly, I think his use of the framework of “shaming” is a really helpful way of conceptualizing the conversation and allowing for a bit more nuance. (Plus he’s a great writer.)
OMG! For a hot second i read: ‘Ron Johnson’ and thought, never! could not be that racist idiot in the US congress! And then i saw that it was Jon Ronson. Whew! (whom i didnt know abt, anyway.)
PLEASE. The words “Kim Kardashian” and “I think” in the same sentence is beyond an oxymoron, it’s a frikkin’ fairytale. Idiot, empty-headed, waste of space. Somebody BURN this family….
Tired of hearing the phrase “cancel culture”. People have always been “cancelled” or fired or not supported because others don’t agree with their actions or words. If somebody is paying you to do a job and don’t like the way you do it, they can fire you. The difference now is that it is happening to higher level people who get more airtime with their whining about it. The people have their freedom of speech and the supporters have their freedom to say “no more”. It’s all related. The “cancelling” is somebody else using their freedom to disagree.
The right wing is so put out that society no longer finds it acceptable to be openly racist, bigoted, and misogynist they spend an inordinate amount of time bitching about cancel culture that doesn’t actually exist. Bari Weiss thinks she has been canceled when the fact is no one wanted to read her bullshit in the NYT.
Spot on
She’s just upset she can’t exploit cultures and profit off of them without POCs stepping on her neck. I still laugh to this day that the mayor of Kyoto put this talentless hack in check when she tried to steal the word kimono.
And apparently thinks that facists and racists have a point of view that needs to be honored and have a place at the table. She’s not upset about cancel culture, she’s upset that the rich can’t just do anything they want without consequence.
I thought the pandemic made clear that these people, that most celebs, simply have no value, no morals, no care about anyone but themselves. They are not smarter, they certainly don’t care anymore than the working stiff. It’s time to stop giving attention to those who are least valuable to society as a whole.
“talentless hack” hehehe
Every time I start giving Kim the benefit of the doubt, I regret it.
Re: cancel culture, I do believe that it’s harmful to promote “canceling” someone over something instead of promoting growth, change, and education. But most people who are “canceled” 1) are repeat offenders and have no intention of changing, and 2) continue to have perfectly successful careers and their transgressions are swept under the rug.
People have been boycotting people and places forever. If people want to cancel you, that is their option. A right wing talking point over something as fake as the war on Christmas. Why isn’t Kim and those billionaire relatives doing something to help those poor people who lost everything in the Midwest? Personally, I don’t know why we give the vapid moron so much space.
Same. She does some good things (like her push for some justice reform) and then gives an interview like this. I just don’t understand what she actually believes.
And it just came out that Kanye’s bogus presidential campaign was being run, you guessed it, by GOP operatives all along. It’s not clear how much Kanye himself knew about this, but the operatives went to some lengths to disguise that they were working for his campaign on the official filings.
Coming right after his PR rep was shown to have tried to intimidate a Georgia poll worker into claiming she saw fraud she didn’t, the LEAST of the issues with Kanye is his choosing to wear a MAGA hat.
I think Kim is the most ridiculous thing and do think she should be cancelled.
Seriously. She SHOULD be canceled. She should be canceled for sitting in her ivory tower richsplaining to the rest of us how we should try to understand our oppressors.
I can’t type the words I want to say so *#*@ her.
She and her whole family should have been cancelled a long time ago.
It’s so funny to me that she went out of her way to cancel Taylor Swift but she doesn’t believe in cancel culture. Like weren’t she and her family posting about how Taylor was over? Seem a bit hypocritical
I do remember that mess. Kimberly is not a smart person.
HAH yes indeed!
Kim Kardashian is an unintelligent woman. She can buy her way into a law career, and schmooze her way into respectable circles, but she’s just a frivolous p*rnstar with a showbiz mom, qnd anyone looking for anything more is jonesing
completely correct.
so many here want to give her credit for building her brand but SHE didn’t do any of that work. Her mother is the real genius, and everything else is from the hired help (from nannies to lawyers, stylists, accountants, business managers, etc.)
The only people who call it “cancel” culture are those who’ve never had to face consequences before. This is pretty indicative of what kind of lawyer Kim would be, if she ever passed the bar–not that I think that will ever happen. Lol.
This.
Holding people accountable for their words and actions within the public sphere is nothing new. “Cancel culture” is just a pejorative term meant to shield and absolve harmful people of any semblance of responsibility. It fits in nicely with the victimhood complex of the Right.
She is laying the ground work to never be cancelled. These people will never go away ,the closest they ever came was after her 72 day marriage. But now backlash and the threat of getting cancelled is part of their brand.
Yeah, now she can ignore every single instance of criticism, fair or unfair, she receives in the future. Anything she changes or considers must be on her terms, rather than thinking about why her actions have potentially hurt others.
Great human rights lawyer mindset.
Walk off a cliff Kim, and take Kanye with you.
Take the whole Klan with her
“Half of the country voted for him” (meaning Trump)
Kim, no. No they did not.
This, too. Excellent point.
I f*cking hate that people still perpetuate this lie.
Starting to think she actually voted for Trump. She was probably ok with Kanye liking Trump privately…she just didn’t want him making it public because it would hurt the Kardashian Brand. That’s all they really care about.
Hmmm I’ll bet she did. The whole family is Republican, or they were before it became an admission of being a Nazi sympathizer.
Seems like for most celebrities ‘cancelled’ means ‘people were really, really angry online for five minutes’. And somehow even five minutes of being anything less than worshiped is unacceptable. At the same time, it’s a badge of honor they use to show how independent-minded they are, and excuse how little they care for public opinion the next time they seriously mess up. I guess that’s easier than taking off a hat, or not stealing Black women’s styles.
This is why I never understand why people ride for her so hard. She’s a textbook example of someone whose principles are all a mirage and for show. She talks in circles to justify people not having to be accountable for their actions ie the whole cancel culture is ridiculous. She negated the good baby bar press to bask in her privilege. Worst she doesn’t even have the courage of her convictions here backtracking at the last minute with the whole “Depends on the situation”. Plus she’s not actually neutral. She just plays it that way for the brand. How can you say in the same sentence I don’t care what you think about me then where I can see how someone might think it’s disrespectful and I will change that. Because she does care (hence the nervousness she referenced in the article) and wants to always be perceived positively so she will away sway with the wind if it threatens her brand. She’s so disingenuous, she just doesn’t want to be accountable when she’s called out for her problematic behavior. Lastly it’s audacious and entitled as hell to say you owe a conversation to educate someone who is engaged in morally wrong behavior. This whole discourse that people who wore MAGA hats did so out of ignorance and simply needed to be enlightened erased the agency, bigotry, and the culpability behind their actions. She might be content to whitewash those actions like she has whitewashed a whole lot other things, but I’m not.
She’s trashy with a capital T!!! Absolutely nothing about her is real. I’m still holding on for the day when her 15 minutes finally ends. I still have hope that it will happen.
Bari Weiss is one of my least favorite personalities ever. I’d take a Kardashian any day of the week over Weiss. She is such a hack and she’s so sooooo stupid AND she’s an Islamophobe. Y’all think Kim is dumb? Take a deep dive on Weiss and you’ll be aching for the IQ points you’re bound to loose. Cannot stand her!
I don’t really think about cancel culture often but given this article- do cancel culture “victims” realize that the entire world isn’t taking a vote on whether or not we will continue to support them/put up with their shit? There aren’t arguments going on behind closed doors over whether they will continue to be famous and popular. They just piss a lot of individuals off and then you have collective irritation. There is no scheme.
To have a bunch of Black children & to cape for a fascist sexist racist politician whose political party works OVERTIME to ensure that people who look like her children & women are CONSISTENTLY disfranchised tells you EVERYTHING that you need to know about Kim Kardashian 🤬
Agreed. Her comments about Trump and Kanye make me want to vomit. Here’s the real Kim.
She thinks because her kids are considered upper-class (mega rich) they won’t have to deal with racism. She’s a moron to the fullest. She hasn’t stopped her culture vulture ways and never will. So I guess she’s ok with people saying horrible things about Armenians then? I doubt that. She’s a hypocrite, a known liar, and fake as can be. I mean, she talks a lot about the Armenian Genocide but goes ahead and makes a Skims factory in Turkey. She also said she agrees with the Republicans regarding taxes. Yeah of course she does. Like her family hasn’t already found a way to hide their wealth and pay little tax, just like Trump? Doesn’t Kris Jenner own a Church or something?
I had no idea she created a Skims factory in Turkey. It would have made so much more sense for her to do it in Armenia, and I bet the Armenian government would have moved mountains to help her do it too. But I’m not surprised. This family is beyond phony.
Yeah, um no I won’t “respect” a fascist dictator who pose words incited the murder of several groups of people during his “reign”
Glad things are so easy for her, when is the world going to wake up and try to pin her very Trump like jelly to the wall. Just like him, she says one thing and then immediately negates it, so no one can ever hold her to anything.
To disgustingly wealthy people money matters above all else.
It’s called “criticism,” Kim. You’re a public figure. Deal with it.
THANK you! Yes! Exactly!
Kim is an idiot. Replace “MAGA hat” with “Nazi swastika”. Some things are not only about free speech or the right to hold your own political opinions, they are also about white supremacy, bigotry, scapegoating, injustice, inequality, racism and sexism. You have to think deeper than a hat or how someone intends to vote.
Hey Kim, STFU.
+++++1!!
It’s weird that she finally passed the Baby Bar but still doesn’t seem to understand the actual concept of “freedom of speech.”
I’ve tried giving her the benefit of the doubt, but I feel like we’re done here.
Whenever she gets backlash she distracts with posts about her kids. She used to distract with nude pics but that doesn’t work anymore. Kylie is due to give birth real soon, that will be the distraction Kim needs. The problem is there are too many people in this Klan. They can never go away because one just replaces the other over and over again.
They are like a plague
This is the danger of normalizing reality tv personas who proclaim to be billionaires, “saved” a Afghan woman’s soccer team, and “passed” the baby bar after five attempts. Kim thinks that she can do no wrong because Kris’ “Kim finally passed the baby bar” PR was effective, for the first time in her life, the press wasn’t treating her like the woman who became famous because of what she did in a video with Ray J. The press needs to do better.
No one should be surprised that Kim is a undercover Trump supporter and is defending Kanye’s support of Trump. Kim and Kris still need Kayne to gain access into the fashion world(even though earlier this week, Kris was spinning that Kim was over Kayne); Kim has always been open about her friendship with Ivanka and Jared; she refused to condemn Trump for putting children in cages and making 2-4 year olds defend themselves in courts without a lawyer after her White House photo-op with Trump and Jared; the Kardashians/Jenners use the same cons and grifts that Trump uses, from acting as “sources” on positive stories about themselves and negative stories about their perceived enemies and exes(Trump leaked positive things about himself using the name John Barron and had tabloids post negative stories about Hillary and Ted Cruz) to conning Forbes into giving them the billionaire status; and Kim is a hypocrite.
I don’t understand why the press is acting surprised by Kim’s cancel culture comments, this is the same woman who declared that any man who rejected her or doesn’t find her attractive is gay. When Kim complains about cancel culture( like Josh Hawley, Jim Jordan, Matt Geatz, and Fox News hosts), what she really means is that she doesn’t want to be held accountable for her bad behaviors(exploiting men with mental illnesses, taking credit for other people’s work, using the press to disparage her exes and other women, playing the victim, contributing to negative body image, and lying).
Why is Kim using conservative talking points(cancel culture is bad and the world needs to understand the mindset of Trump supporters)? Is this to distract from Kayne’s publicist harassing Ruby Freeman?
Kris will probably trying to distract from this interview by buying Kim another award or title that she doesn’t deserve or paying the press to write that Kim “saved” another soccer team.
You know that soccer team that was “saved” was not specifically because of Kim. The company Skims helped with some funding as did others. The part I don’t understand is why didn’t the co-founder of Skims Emma Grede even get mentioned? Kim doesn’t own Skims on her own. Emma is also the co-founder of Good American (Khloe’s company). Emma is a successful Black woman who deserves credit where it is due…but nope. Wonder why?
In some fairness, reading her comments on their own, don’t make it seem half bad. But the fact that she granted an interview to Bari “Getting Palestinian Professors and Academics Fired For Their Views Is NOT Cancel Culture” Weiss shows that she knows exactly what she’s doing and who her audience here is. The biggest mistake people make about Kim Kardashian is the assumption that she’s stupid. She ain’t stupid. Kanye isn’t stupid either. Both of them know exactly what they’re doing insofar as their attempts to signal to their audiences. This is no different. Kim’s decision to give an interview to Bari “Killing Palestinian Children Is An Unavoidable Burden” Weiss is a very calculated and intentional one, and it’s reprehensible of her to do so.
People choosing to not like you anymore because of your views is not cancel culture. That’s just how things work in the real world. No one is obligated to be your friend. No one is obligated to be nice to you when you support and espouse views that are harmful to others in your life. No one has to hang around with you or support you if you have opinions that basically can be summed up as you don’t think certain groups of people are human beings worthy of equal rights. There are consequences, always, to sticking by your principles. You are not owed time of day by people who have better things to do than to waste their energy on civility towards people who behave with none towards them. The sheer entitlement some of these people have about the relationships they feel they deserve is mindboggling.
People the world over have taken stances that have isolated them from their friends, family and community. The world is full of lonely people who have abided by their loneliness bc they felt, for whatever reason, they were doing the right thing. If people want to have principles of any kind, it comes with the territory that sticking with them is going to cost something. The only question is, are these people willing to pay the price? Many people are not, and are more worried on whether people will like them, whether people will still respect them etc., in which case the answer is that they are not willing to pay the price. In which case, they’re either a coward, or are more willing to re-evaluate their views than they would like to admit. But to expect the world to make it easy to take a stance of any variety is just bizarre.
Kim knows which side her bread is buttered. She knows her audience is primarily composed of people who categorically oppose Kanye’s views. She just wants to absolve herself of the guilt she feels for continuing to associate with Kanye on any level. She knows that being seen with him, and around him, esp with that MAGA hat on, is detrimental to the brand she wants to build of some type of social justice lawyer. She knows being seen within 10 ft of that hat is going to call into question the work she’s attempting to do with prison reform or w/e. Someone needs to tell her she can’t f-cking sit around speaking out of both sides of her f-cking mouth. If you want the eyeballs for your legal work, then ditch Kanye and stop trying to defend him. It’s as simple as that. That’s the world she lives in. Either get with it, or gtfo.
Haha. Thanks for showing your ass (again), Kim. Now we all notice he isn’t wearing that vile hat anymore. Why? Because it was never about anything (let alone taking some kind of righteous stand) but proximity to power. Now Trump is a national loser, so Kanye is over him. That’s not principle. That’s the celebrity game. (My dad also had that hat and wore it constantly. The moment Trump lost the election, he stopped wearing it. These kind of people do not really care about right and wrong or compassion or justice. Only power.)
By the way, Kim says she’s “neutral” in a time like this, on a topic like this!? Right there, you can hear from her own mouth that she too only loves money and power. Not truth or morality or righteousness.