Kanye West Shouldn’t Be Censored, But He’s Got Some Explaining To Do

Until now, my Jewish and conservative identities have co-existed in harmony. My non-Jewish conservative peers have been largely sympathetic to domestic and international Jewish vulnerabilities, and my Zionist colleagues largely sympathetic to right-of-center political views. But after Kanye’s appearance on Tucker Carlson last week, followed by a weekend of the controversial rapper being censored on multiple platforms for alleged antisemitic remarks, I am questioning whether my fellow travelers have their priorities right.

Carlson’s interview with Kanye was a fascinating portrait of a narcissistic, overly simplistic, and quasi-intelligible man, emotionally in heat and slightly out of tune with reality. It also revealed a man with some solid foundational instincts, creative ideas, and traditional values, admirably chest-pounding at the liberal mob and bitterly pushing back against wokeism and its variants.

Kanye is a split screen: both a bloviating cultural force with a bruised ego, and an attractive brand of anti-establishment revolutionary who bears the scars of leftist tyranny, his family having been destroyed by Hollywood. Although we should clearly not attribute wisdom to a man like Kanye, some on the political right have anointed him a spokesman and perhaps even future president.

This type of outreach is understandable. Conservatives are desperate for cultural representation and on the lookout for champions. Although Kanye is an elite iconoclast, allegedly the richest black man in the world, he has publicly betrayed his Hollywood class. One Twitter user noted, “Conservatives claim to hate Hollywood but fall all over themselves when a celebrity validates their views for them. It’s weird to watch.” 

From Carlson to Twitter

The day after Carlson’s interview aired, Kanye was censored on Instagram for antisemitism after sharing screenshots of a text conversation with rapper P. Diddy that included a cryptic reference to “Jewish people.” Kanye was also criticized for telling Carlson, with no evidence, that the Abraham Accords were merely a means for Jared Kushner to grow his fortune, an assertion some say invokes classic antisemitic tropes of money-hungry Jews.

Given Kanye’s disdain for the Kushners and inability to control his impulses, I preferred to give him the benefit of the doubt. But then, Kanye lashed out on Twitter, presumably in response to being censored on Instagram, pushing an antisemitic conspiracy theory of the Louis Farrakhan and Black Hebrew Israelite variety about black people being the real Jews. He also threatened to go “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE,” and insinuated Jews are to blame for cancel culture.

Immediately, Twitter locked Kanye’s account. Jews on right and left, as well as our liberal allies, were quick to express outrage. Rep. Richie Torres commented, “If you see yourself at war with Jewish people, then you are, by definition, antisemitic.” United Nations Watch director Hillel Neuer aptly noted “the last time someone went death con 3 on the Jews, six million of us were murdered.”

Multiple people pointed out the particular danger of Kanye spewing gutter antisemitism on an account with more than twice the number of followers as there are Jews in the entire world. Indeed, Kanye’s words triggered the Jew-hating Twitter scum to come

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