April 26, 2018

"Kanye West is not in fact losing millions of followers for tweeting his love of Donald Trump."

The Verge has figured out. Well, it was easy to figure out, because by "followers," The Verge simply means followers on Twitter, and anybody can look and see how many follower he has. 27.9 million. He follows exactly 1 person, his wife.

West has been tweeting things like:
You don't have to agree with trump but the mob can't make me not love him. We are both dragon energy. He is my brother. I love everyone. I don't agree with everything anyone does. That's what makes us individuals. And we have the right to independent thought.
And:
my wife just called me and she wanted me to make this clear to everyone. I don't agree with everything Trump does. I don't agree 100% with anyone but myself.
And even:

All that fire! And that led to:

58 comments:

rhhardin said...

My advice to blacks was been don't identify as black, lest you be marked as violent, dangerous and stupid. Dress white.

Maybe West can change the brand though.

It's him vs black leaders.

MayBee said...

It's amazing seeing how people are responding to the simple act of Kanye not hating Donald Trump.

Imagine, if you will, if this were about Obama. Who would be getting excoriated? *Not* loving Obama was the crime back then.

MikeR said...

I love that line: "I don't agree 100% with anyone but myself." A disclaimer on a disclaimer.
I would have added a third disclaimer, "And lots of times I don't even agree with myself."

MadisonMan said...

Kanye does know how to get people to talk about him.

Sydney said...

We are both dragon energy

He does have a distinct Trumpian vibe. Lots of ego. And he Tweets like Trump, too.

MikeR said...

I don't know what it is, but I think it's a neat idea to have a president with dragon energy. Campaign slogan - as opposed to "low energy". Of course, it probably makes him tell lies and stuff.

Tommy Duncan said...

"I don't agree with everything anyone does. That's what makes us individuals. And we have the right to independent thought."

Independent thought?

In a time of progressive political correctness, independent thought is a revolutionary act.

Tank said...

@MM

Kanye is like Donald.

Could be a tag.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Sad commentary that the leftwing will now purge him.

John henry said...

Miker beat me to it.

I talk to myself a lot because sometimes it's the only intelligent conversation I have all day.

Problem is that sometimes I argue with myself and lose.

Seriously, I think that Kanye West can be a huge problem for the dems if he keeps speakkng out like this.

John Henry

AllenS said...

2020 campaign slogan --

I'm With Dragon Energy

Chuck said...

To me, it makes perfect sense that Kanye West would be a Trump fan.

It’s going to be a fun day; reading old Althouse.blogspot comments under the “Kanye West” tag.

Mike Sylwester said...

I still can't remember whether Kanye West is friends or enemies with Taylor Swift right now.

Darrell said...

It’s going to be a fun day; reading old Althouse.blogspot comments under the “Kanye West” tag.

Why? It means there is even hope for you.
#RedemptionForAssholes

FIDO said...

The Dems have been taking the Black vote for granted a long time. This was inevitable.

MayBee said...

It is racist to believe Black people think only one way politically, just as it is sexist to think women think only one way. I don't know how Democrats have gotten away with this for so long, but I hope the pushback works.

whitney said...

My head is spinning

MayBee said...

I mean, the sitting President of the United States called Kanye a "jackass". Imagine!

PJ said...

@AllenS: “I’m With Dragon Energy” could work in 2024 and 2028 as well. Don’t bother with a sticker, just engrave it into your bumper.

Wince said...

How long before Kanye is excommunicated by the left and relegated to doing commercials for his new 'Dragon Energy' Drink on right-wing talk radio?

robother said...

Let the Hat-red begin!

FullMoon said...

Guy has a wife who seems to be pretty popular with many young people.

Gonna be aggravating for Dems if she gets on the Trump train. Neither one will recant, is my prediction. May take the steam out of the bullying leftists.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

I think John Legend is a racist for supporting white Hillary. John Legend is a white supremacist.

Birches said...

I thought this whole thing was orchestrated for publicity until Chance the Rapper said black people don't have to be Democrats. Now I wonder if something is really happening.

MayBee said...

It's not just Kanye. Chance the Rapper had the audacity to say black people don't have to be Democrats, in support of Kanye. And now he's being excoriated too.

Michael K said...

Seriously, I think that Kanye West can be a huge problem for the dems if he keeps speakkng out like this.

This is a dagger right at the heart of identity politics and what else do Democrats have ?

sparrow said...

Love Candace Owen now Kanye. Dems have been neglecting their traditional base for awhile now. I'd love to see the party of Lincoln recover it's historical African American base: even bringing in 10% would make a world of difference.

Chuck said...

Seems to me that the conversation-ender here is Kanye's statement that if he had voted, he'd have voted for Trump.

Lulz.

The post-voting world. The really important thing, is that Kanye is back on Twitter with Trump.

sparrow said...

Kayne creates cultural cover for those who are on the fence: his comments support and encourage second thoughts that, in some measure, are likely to erode the solid Dem block.

sparrow said...

In fact erosion of Dem support needn't translate to Republican support to have an effect. All that is necessary is tepid Dem support and low turnout. Post Obama the enthusiasm for Dems among blacks is understandably lower.

Sebastian said...

"I love everyone"

Deplorable.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

The notion that West’s non-hate for Trump is some kind of leading indicator is ridiculous. If West is interested in politics though, it’s a very smart move. Don’t let yourself be pigeonholed by fanatics. Don’t apologize for having an opinion. Don’t write off half the people that could help make your ambition a reality. This kind of stuff used to common sense in American politics. JFK knew it. Nixon knew it. So did Bill Clinton. None of which are my favorite politicians, but they certainly knew how to gain power in the face of conventional wisdom.

robother said...

Sparrow: "All that is necessary is tepid Dem support and low turnout."

True, but Blacks would be better served by voting Republican in a transactional way for at least 3 or 4 cycles. Their political powerlessness is a function of being perceived by both parties as guaranteed Democrat voters, i.e., not in play. Trump is perfectly positioned to court them in a transactional way during his Presidency. (Restore voting rights for Black drug offenders who sign on a civilian auxiliary policing the Southern Border for 4 years?)

WisRich said...

The seed has been planted. We'll see if it bares fruit.

rhhardin said...

Blacks are not better off voting stuff for themselves, whatever party they vote for.

They should vote American.

Amadeus 48 said...

"The really important thing, is that Kanye is back on Twitter with Trump."

And Jennifer Rubin no longer self-identifies as conservative at WaPo.

Meanwhile, Chance the Rapper is staging a prison break-out.

If the GOP were smart (I know, I know), they'd make a real pitch for the votes of black Americans on a platform of robust non-discrimination and equal opportunity. Current gains in black employment are historic and important, and they need to be maintained for the good of everyone. Black Americans are as vulnerable to the negative effects illegal immigration as any other American.

The Dems would have some real interesting counter-messages to nondiscriminatory, equality of opportunity, employment-supporting, legal immigration-supporting messaging from the GOP.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Dems have been neglecting their traditional base for awhile now. I'd love to see the party of Lincoln recover it's historical African American base: even bringing in 10% would make a world of difference.

The unspoken underlying events that have begun to break up their monolithic hold on the "Black" voting block is the Democrats pandering to and seeming to care more about Hispanics than blacks.

The Dems have found a more attractive and useful victim group and are playing it for all they are worth. Literally all 'they' are worth. Being black victims is so passe anymore. Hispanics and Dreamers...That's where it is at. So the Dems toss the blacks onto the ash heap of history.

You think that the blacks aren't noticing this? Think they don't realize that they are old news and that the Democrats have been using them for decades as convenient pawns? You think that there isn't real and nasty strife between the two selected victim groups?

Think again.

mtrobertslaw said...

There is a video out there somewhere showing Candice Owen at some college shutting off a black radical who was loudly claiming to have suffered under slavery. Very powerful. Among other things, Owens told this women in no uncertain terms she was disgracing and dishonoring the memory of those blacks who actually suffered under slavery.

robother said...

DBQ: "You think that the blacks aren't noticing this?"

Looking at the older homophobic tweets of Joy Reid, you can't help but notice resentment at the way LGTBQs have taken pride of place in the Democrat hierarchy of victimology. And look at the way Latinos have literally pushed blacks out of Compton and other traditionally black areas of California. Identity politics is a deal with the devil, and maybe, just maybe, he's due.

WK said...

The Donye ticket in 2020. Imagine the style at a state dinner with Melania and Kim.....

Seeing Red said...

The effects of the '86 immigration reform are finally being voiced.

Achilles said...

Chuck said...

To me, it makes perfect sense that Kanye West would be a Trump fan.

It’s going to be a fun day; reading old Althouse.blogspot comments under the “Kanye West” tag.


It will. The 1000 or so bitter GOPe outcasts will watch from the corners they inhabit at DC cocktail parties as the Republican Coalition grows on a platform of Americans First.

No more open borders. No more globalist foreign policy.

Black people are doing better now than under democrat/uniparty rule and they are noticing. First we traded the working class for the CoC and neocons. Now a good chunk of the black voting block is going to flee the democrat plantation.

We are so much better off now that Billy Kristol and his crowd are officially democrats.

PM said...

I would not ride that ponye too far.

Achilles said...

FullMoon said...

Guy has a wife who seems to be pretty popular with many young people.

Gonna be aggravating for Dems if she gets on the Trump train. Neither one will recant, is my prediction. May take the steam out of the bullying leftists.


This is already in motion. She has a beauty product line that is being threatened by the plutocracy as we speak.

Fascists on the left are calling for the giant corporate sponsors to punish the heretics.

They started out as International Socialists but they are morphing into the definition of Nazi's right in front of us.

FullMoon said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Michael K said...

Rham Emmanuel in Chicago is also being accused of courting Latinos and ignoring blacks.


That was the scene last week outside the Hyatt hotel off the shore of Lake Michigan, where a handful of activists and black clergy gathered in protest as guests filed in for the city’s annual Martin Luther King Jr breakfast celebration. “You should be ashamed,” they shouted at the crowd headed inside to Emanuel’s event, many of whom were clergy themselves.

“Everything that’s going on here in Chicago under the current mayor completely contradicts the legacy and the spirit of Dr King,” said activist William Calloway, one of roughly two dozen protesters assembled.


The natives are restless.

JAORE said...

When you think the size of the pie is fixed, fighting over the biggest piece becomes nasty.

JaimeRoberto said...

Is dragon energy anything like tiger blood?

langford peel said...

What Quislings like Chuck fail to realize is that Kanye and Kim are motivated by one thing. Self interest.

They know there is a huge audience out there who support Trump and who are denigrated and trashed by people like Cher, Colbert and various cooler companies and sporting goods stores.

They are very smart media manipulators who have been on top for a long time now. I would not bet against their reading of the populace.

Chuck said...

langford peel said...
What Quislings like Chuck fail to realize is that Kanye and Kim are motivated by one thing. Self interest.


Oh, I realized that alright. No problem. Just like Trump. Self-interest; unrestrained by conventional morality, courtesy, restraint, decency, humility, Christianity, culture or intelligence.

"No one in this world, so far as I know — and I have researched the records for years, and employed agents to help me — has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby."
~ H.L Mencken, 1926

a/k/a "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people."

TWW said...

You black boys need to stay on the plantation. Let the white folk handle the Democrat thought-speak strategy. We been letting you boys make money but we draw the line at opining.

Gahrie said...

a/k/a "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people."

This is exactly what I would expect a member of the GOP Establishment to think about the American people.

I bet he's even jealous that Hillary came up with the term Deplorables first.

The Godfather said...

You don't suppose the Black kids are being taught in public schools that it was the Republicans that led the way to ending slavery and the Democrats who then imposed Jim Crow laws in the South and even in the Federal government (the sainted Woodrow Wilson). Are they taught that the civil rights laws in the '60's wouldn't have passed without Republican votes, because the Southern Democrats were still in "segregation forever" mode?

Of course not.

And that really shouldn't matter. The reason Blacks should support conservative policies is that they offer opportunity and growth, and that's what Blacks need now. We ALL need opportunity and growth, so that's not a cause that should divide Black from White, or from Latino, or from Asian, etc. But among all groups, tribalism has a strong attraction -- MY group v. the OTHER groups -- and that's what the Democrats have used very effectively. West may be a sign that this approach may be beginning to fail. MAY be. The Republicans are entirely capable of blowing the opportunity.

Gahrie said...

You don't suppose the Black kids are being taught in public schools that it was the Republicans that led the way to ending slavery and the Democrats who then imposed Jim Crow laws in the South and even in the Federal government (the sainted Woodrow Wilson). Are they taught that the civil rights laws in the '60's wouldn't have passed without Republican votes, because the Southern Democrats were still in "segregation forever" mode?

They are in my room. I throw in the Trail of Tears and Japanese Internment also. We discussed Bakke and reverse discrimination yesterday.

ccscientist said...

He follows only his wife on twitter: could there be any better description of a narcissist? This interchange is one of the funniest things I have seen all week. Words of wisdom from Kanye! He doesn't agree 100% with anyone--but the Left wants 100% agreement (ie submission).

Achilles said...

JaimeRoberto said...

Is dragon energy anything like tiger blood?

Dragon Energy is better than Tiger Blood. More on the level of Liger Blood.

Achilles said...

Chuck said...

a/k/a "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people."

"By Chuck. We will not miss you."

Signed: Republican Voters.

Vance said...

I find it amusing that Chuck just clearly stated that appealing to the Republican base, over 60 million people who voted for Trump, is the exact same as selling a hoax.

He clearly views any attempt to appeal to the Conservative base as nothing more than a cynical ploy, something you have to do but no one should ever, ever believe it.

Gosh, I wonder where GOPe Chuck would've gotten that idea from--that you just lie to the Conservatives because they are easy to fool.

Maybe because that's the GOP's strategy and has been for forever.