"Thrown to the Lions: The Public Destruction of Ye" by Naomi Derfel

The “tortured artist” trope has both facilitated countless celebrities' success and been perpetuated by those celebrities seeking fame through any means possible. These antics particularly thrive in the age of social media, where through websites like Twitter and Instagram, celebrities become an imitation of themselves for the public to ridicule and psychoanalyze as their Freudian test subjects. Social media enables a mass subconscious parasocial relationship between celebrities and the public where the celebrity has an enormous impact on popular culture but the public refuses to assume responsibility when that impact is negative. Further, it is when a celebrity becomes a superficial imitation of themselves, that is, a persona – a symbol of something larger than themselves – that the public is also rid of guilt when that real person behind the persona suffers. The trajectory of Kanye West’s, or “Ye’s,” career exemplifies this dystopian phenomenon. Ye deteriorated in front of the entire world, mentally and politically. The public rejoiced in Ye’s downfall yet blamed him when the actions they emboldened for their entertainment had harmful social consequences.

Ye has remained an undoubtedly controversial figure throughout his career. However, in the earlier days of his fame, his problematic comments were considered contentious at worst and came at the low price of great music, shoes, and clothes. Even more recently, Ye continued to amass support in all his business ventures, even among political adversaries, when he donned a MAGA hat for the first time.

From strictly a publicity perspective, Ye hit the nail on the head. Seeing celebrity after celebrity announce the same mainstream (that is, leftist) views as if their arrival on the political scene was the most groundbreakingly perilous yet profound thing to hit TMZ was getting boring. From his star-studded weekly “Sunday Service” to the release of countless chart-topping albums to becoming a Forbes-certified billionaire, Ye was unstoppable in the eyes of those across the political spectrum. Ye’s fame was furthered by his tumultuous relationship with his now ex-wife Kim Kardashian, as his tweets and interview sentiments provided a drama-fiending public a riveting look into the mind of someone in an extreme state of mental turmoil.

Ye’s initial publicization of his conservatism was a great thing for conservatives: he made being right-wing cool again. He was talking about important issues within the Black community that white conservatives were failing to successfully deliver by virtue of their skin colour, such as Planned Parenthood’s eugenic history, Black Lives Matter’s suspect financial records, and Obama’s — and the entire Democratic Party’s — lack of change in high-crime Black areas like Chicago.

With the current political divide, the support of an influential figure for the alienated right was invaluable. Racism has been sustained in Democratic circles by white politicians who tell the Black community that if they vote for Trump they “ain’t black” and simultaneously buy the Black vote by promising welfare services that only serve to eternalize government dependency and poverty. The Democratic party’s deceptive tactics are able to permeate below the surface because they remain passionately unchallenged and defended by uneducated celebrities. Of course, racism exists on the Republican side too. As Ye himself said, everyone is racist. America is a racist country. You just have to pick your poison. But Republicans have done a great deal of work to improve the lives of Black Americans. For instance, Trump’s First Step Act has been the first step in undoing the damage done by Biden’s 1994 Crime Bill by lowering sentences and reducing the number of minorities in prisons. It goes without saying why coverage of the First Step Act on social media and in mainstream news is obsolete. Ye’s support could have fostered recognition of such anti-Black Democratic policymaking. Through popularizing conservatism, Ye could have helped bridge the current political divide.

“Could have” is the key term. The political discourse Ye engaged in was more promising than effective as any legitimate concerns were obscured by extremist language precipitated by his mental and emotional decline. Rather than saying that the Black community is being fooled by the Democratic party into remaining in a state of pseudo-slavery, or “mental slavery,” as he called it, he said that 400 years of slavery was a choice. Rather than expressing his frustration with online censorship, he blamed it on the Jews, purporting the age-old antisemitic trope that Jews control the media (and the entire world). Would the people have listened if Ye simply said the former of these arguments? If he did not jump to the extreme? The answer is unfortunately no.

Kanye West is first and foremost a celebrity; pop culture is his industry, not academia and politics. Gaining attention through extremism — aka being a “tortured artist” — is his brand. This is what people forget. Taking him seriously is what has escalated and fueled the tremendous influence he has outside his wheelhouse.

It was primarily other conservative figures, of all races, that either refused to denounce Ye’s comments or outright justified them with the excuse that they were peripheral in the face of other meaningful conversations he was bringing to the forefront. These excuses empowered his growing radicalization. The echo chamber many political figures find themselves in is blinding to the reality that more extreme does not equal more correct. Thus, an unfortunate consequence of their vehement loyalty and affiliation was that the right was pushed into further alienation. Had Republicans drawn a line once Ye began spewing increasingly fanatical ideas, the conservative movement would have gained more widespread respect.

All blame for Ye’s partisan emancipation cannot be placed on conservatives; popular culture and left-leaning social media is largely responsible. Politics and entertainment have been coupled in a world where extremist behaviour gets views and likes. In order for social media companies to maintain their dominance over the dissemination of knowledge, they create algorithms that bring attention to this cheap, and addictive, entertainment. Instagram and Twitter don’t care that Ye’s messages may be hurting people — he is making them more money by keeping his followers logged on and active.

The figure that is Ye is capitalism at its finest: a product, made through supply and demand. Consumers want drama: they get it in his marriage. Consumers want to see a glamourized version of mental illness: they get it in his Tweets. Consumers want a simplified explanation for the complex issue that is the current political divide: they get it in his interviews. Consumers want entertainment: they get it in his downfall. We made Kanye West. And the cherry on top is that we get off scot-free while he — a human being —suffers before our numbed eyes. We are all onlookers in the colosseum watching Ye for our enjoyment. We don’t care if he lives or dies. We only want blood, no matter the cost, and no matter the loss.

Kanye West is not a celebrity nor even a real person. It is a figure created through our need to see our sins manifested in a singular, tangible individual; a vessel for our misdeeds and voyeuristic tendencies. We make our own monsters and then fear them for what they show us about ourselves. Why are we so desperate to see extremism, to see hate, to see mental distress, and to see failure? Is it because these things are secretly within us all, qualities that can only be expressed and satiated when displaced onto the products we create? How have we allowed profit-driven corporations to have complete control over every aspect of our lives? These existential questions were only revealed in the process of the suffering of a human being. Remember that next time you like a post, retweet, or share on your story and then complain about the consequences. Now that your bed is burning, what will you do to extinguish the fire?