Oh Kanye

by publius

Via a Weigel tweet, Kanye interrupts Obama's address to Congress.  Plus, a Kanye thread.

Comments

[Adam Collyer]

I'll take partial credit for this post, since I bugged publius about it last night on Twitter. :)

Maybe I'm taking this too far, so feel free to correct me. But the "Kanye incident" ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yOOPHe3QHU ) is very telling to me. It's a clear representation of what our norms in behavior have come to - disrespect and a strange method of self-promotion.

I realize this is just an MTV Award Show, so it's not exactly a big deal to most people. But for those of us in their mid-20s, the VMAs are somewhat of a staple. MTV isn't just a fad, it's the representation of pop culture in America. For an 18 year old girl to win a VMA is a huge deal, and to have that moment taken away from her and having her embarrassed on national television is just very sad. To justify it as "honesty" and "just speaking the truth" is shameful. It's a disservice not only to the artist who won, but everyone who worked with her on that video/song/album.

Somewhere along the line, we all went along with enough oddball occurrences to allow people like Kanye West and Joe Wilson to believe that their disrespectful and boorish behavior was totally rational and a good idea. I think that makes us all responsible.

[liberal japonicus]

Being the expat who has no idea about this, this and this seem to explain what happened. Perhaps everyone knows about this but me, but if there are any others like me, check out the links to see what Adam is talking about.

[russell]

I never heard of Kanye West before.

Jeez, what a jerk.

[Slartibartfast]

russell, Kanye West is the guy who said "George Bush doesn't care about black people".

I'm pretty sure that was an off-the-TelePrompTer moment. It looked as if Mike Meyers was reading the script, and he kept looking sidelong at West, wondering what the hell he was up to.

[hairshirthedonist]

Classy, d'd'd'dave, if that's even really you.

[Catsy]

Is that really Stuttering Dave? I mean, he's deep into wingnut territory, crosses the line into trolling more often than not, and is offensively wrong about almost everything--but he's usually not crass.

[hairshirthedonist]

My guess: not him.

[sekaijin]

[quote edited - publius. sorry. i want no trace of troll]

Now I really feel like a hang-wringing idiot, in a moment of gaiety. Anybody can lob the 21-cream pie salute at me anytime.

[hairshirthedonist]

unbold? I hope....