Kanye West has allowed himself two entirely normal tweets about the death of Migos member Takeoff, before doubling down yet again on antisemitism.
Takeoff was shot dead outside a Houston bowling alley just days before, with the 28-year-old’s passing leading to widespread mourning. West posted two tweets in tribute to the rapper, dubbing him “family”. In a case of almost comedic irony, West tweeted “love forever” before immediately shooting back into antisemitism just an hour later.
Following several weeks of intense discourse and shaming of West for his flagrantly horrible antisemitic views, he clearly hasn’t been shamed enough into rethinking. Ye tweeted another bible passage that puts Judaism front and center for killing Jesus of Nazareth. Quoting John 19:19, West has shown no sign of wanting to back down.
Despite all the talk from Elon Musk weeks prior on West allegedly being sorry for causing offense and Musk believing he’d made a real impact on Ye, it’s clear Musk may not be the best judge of character. Or, like everyone else on the planet, Ye doesn’t care about anything Musk has to say.
Eulogizing the death of a young musician before ranting about Jewish people a mere hour later makes it far less heartfelt a tribute but seems perfectly in character for West. With new Twitter owner Musk constantly bringing up how he wants freedom of speech on the platform, West is an obvious issue.
Freedom of speech paradoxically doesn’t allow everyone to feel freedom, with West’s antisemitism being allowed to be expressed clearly stopping Jewish people from feeling comfortable. Allowing hate speech on Twitter under the guise of free speech is a dangerous route that feels like one Musk will fall into.