Humble Pie
The whole hoo-ha incited by Kanye West’s controversies peaked when he famously stepped out with Candace Owens wearing shirts with a particular slogan. It turned into an avalanche of backlash. Naturally, what followed was countless media analyses on why he’s suddenly knee-deep in antisemitism and similar ideological cancel-baits. His formerly attractive platform turned into a circus full of clowns pulling all sorts of distasteful tricks and hurtful pranks to keep your attention. While we are constantly being reminded that he legally changed his name to Ye (who cares?), it increasingly seems like it’s all an elaborate prank of someone who was desperate for even more spotlight than he already has. After all, it’s Kanye West, the guy with an unrestricted access to Kim Kardashian’s private parts. What more could he want?
It seems, a lot more than that. Maybe the joke was on us all the time and we finally get to see him for what he is: someone with questionable morals and ideological preferences. And he certainly doesn’t hold back: from MAGA hats, photo-ops with Donald Trump and using tweets like bullets in a digital gun. Haters jumping at every opportunity to throw mud at people like West enable them to reach their goal of notoriety. By now we all know what Gwyneth Paltrow’s vagina smells like. Of course provided you’re willing to dish out so much money on a scented candle. It’s a joke of course, but it was undoubtedly a very profitable one since we all fell for it. The next step might be a scented equivalent by Kanye West. I highly doubt it would have the same market value though, only groupies might be interested. At least those that still don’t have access to the original.
The whole scandal prompted an another kind of question as well: how much is actually uncurated in the lives of these people. Maybe their privacy is too relatable in its ordinarity, so they keep to obnoxious public behaviour to maintain an illusion of excitement. After the whole thing started to unfold, West started losing the lucrative endorsements of Balenciaga, Addidas and others that linked their brands to his own. This is like a story of a serial killer at large for so long he believes he’ll never get caught. Kanye seemed convinced his fame would protect him from consequences of his actions. Because words are also actions. And then the very same thing happened. It went as far as it could go, until he finally trespassed that velvet rope of what was unacceptable.
Inevitably, his market value plummeted and the court of public opinion put him on their scaffold for fallen angels. People with powerful media platforms dissect his social suicide unable to tell if it’s a daring attention stunt gone horribly wrong or something genuine we ignored while he dished out hits and distracted the audience with his marital antics. We’re bombarded by mundanities that steal precious amounts of our time and focus on a daily basis. In order to stick out from those shallow digital waters one needs to take risks and walk a thin line of nastiness that plays straight into the claws of cancel-crusaders coming in for the kill every chance they get.
If it’s meant to prove a point, he certainly succeeded, though not in what he may have had intended. Instead of a Pennywise, he’s a different kind of clown, not exactly harmless but harmful primarily to himself. A strange bedfellow of an ideology that allowed a media tycoon to turn the Republican party into a tacky one-man show, West is a gift that keeps on giving for people feeling simultaneously uncomfortably entertained and threatened by his provocative behavior. Just like his ideological brethren that provided inspiration for hilarious skits in Saturday Night Live.
In the meantime, Twitter’s new boss, Elon Musk, decided to grant him access to the platform that he was previously denied due to hate speech. It speaks volumes about who’s really in charge of our society and how impossible it is to protect our physical freedom from its digital counterpart. Kanye West’s demise is a cautionary tale for all those contemplating to test thee length of the political rope. But he’ll be fine. He’ll probably be able to stick to the lifestyle he’s used to. If you can lose billions of dollars in a matter of days, it means there’s more than enough loose change left to keep you going. He might be too toxic for the mainstream, but there must be more than enough people in the MAGA crowd to help him keep his train on the tracks.
They must be equally puzzled by all this as the rest of us. Even Tucker Carlson, who makes his living from divisive rethorics on Fox News that are rather mocked than dismissed. And just when he thought no one could top his taste for offense, Kanye shows up and topples him. I doubt anyone saw it coming, but unexpected blessings usually come in disguise. We might laugh it off right now, but lest we’re careful, one day in a not so distant future, we’ll bite our tongue instead. American carnage did end up in carnage at the Capitol Hill after all. Even if they believe to be all the wiser for it now, America is no less divided than it was back then.
The strange case of Kanye West is a rare glimpse behind the scenes of a confused, distorted and disturbing world that’s hidden in plain sight. Until it suddenly erupts in all its pointless fury. The toll is usually higher than what its torchbearers expected, fueled by ideas of grandeur betrayed by their own lack of intelligence and intent. And Ye? He’ll sooner or later face his own naivety for being the ideological Sancho Pansa to Trump’s Don Quixote. He’ll hardly get into the billionaire club anytime soon, but Hollywood always had a backdoor anyway. Provided you can get past the ushers, and that’s usually the tricky part because it involves lots of a rather unsavoury humble pie.
