He has been at the top of his game in the United States. Rapper Kanye West has been among the world’s most popular musicians. He was married to one of America’s most famous women, Kim Kardashian. At the same time, Ye, as he now calls himself, has become more and more extreme. It peaked this week, when he openly paid tribute to Adolf Hitler. Yesterday he posted a swastika on Twitter. Now West is kicked out of Twitter and is no longer allowed to buy the conservative website Parler. The Republican Jewish Coalition is asking conservatives to distance themselves from West. – Conservatives who have mistakenly allowed themselves to like Kanye West must now make it clear that he is a pariah. Enough is enough, writes manager Matt Brooks. Kanye West received a lot of attention for his visit to the White House in 2018. Photo: SEBASTIAN SMITH / AFP Republican support The Republican Party has long pressed the black rapper to its chest. West gave his support to former President Donald Trump already in 2016. At the time, Trump referred to the artist as a “good man” he had “known for a long time”. In 2018, he visited Trump in the White House, wearing a red Trump cap. Republican presidential candidate in Georgia, football player Herschel Walker was endorsed by West as recently as last week. The rapper posted a photo of Walker with the caption PRO LIFE, in support of Walker’s desire to ban abortion in all cases. That same week, Ye had dinner with Donald Trump and Nick Fuentes, one of America’s most famous right-wing extremists. Nick Fuentes wearing sunglasses at a Trump rally in 2020. Photo: Jacquelyn Martin / AP Paying tribute to Hitler It was on the podcast of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones that West moved from borderland to clear homage to Nazism. Among other things, Ye said that one must “stop talking badly” about Adolf Hitler. – I see good sides in Hitler. All people have valuable things they have contributed, and especially Hitler. I love many things about Hitler. A lot of things, West said. Adolf Hitler started World War II and carried out genocide against over 6 million Jews. Donald Trump has not distanced himself from the statements, but recently referred to his friend Ye as “pretty crazy”. After the interview, the Twitter account of the Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee deleted a text that appeared to support the rapper: “Kanye. Elon. Trump.” Normalizing the extreme Hilde Restad at Oslo Nye Høyskole and author of the book The American Paradox says the outer wing of the Republican Party is comfortable with far-right voices. – The Thanksgiving dinner that Trump had at Mar-a-Lago with Ye and right-wing extremist Nick Fuentes is a fine tableau of where the outer wing of the Republican party is today, says Restad to news. Hilde Restad, associate professor at Oslo Nye Høyskole and author of the book The American Paradox. Photo: Martin Holvik / news Former president Donald Trump has also previously made a number of racist statements and support for right-wing extremists. When Nazis demonstrating in the city of Charlottesville in 2017 were met by counter-protesters, Trump stated that there were “very fine people on both sides” of the conflict. An anti-racist protester was killed in the clashes. During a 2020 presidential debate, Trump refused to condemn white hate groups. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the number of racist hate groups in the United States increased by 55 percent during the years Donald Trump was president. Kanye West has previously been open about his mental health issues. Ex-wife Kim Kardashian has, among other things, written on Twitter that he is bipolar.
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