For Ye, embracing Nazism not the surest path to re-establishing parental rights

Did you notice, in Monday’s column, how I copped to not knowing about the Greek god Artemis before the current moon mission? Despite all my talk about being educated. How can I do that? Because one of the things I learned is that the world is big, filled with stuff, and most people know absolutely nothing about almost everything. The shame is in pretending otherwise.

So I can confess that it wasn't until Monday, reading my Sun-Times with my morning Nespresso, that I learned, on page 12, that Ye, the artist formally known as Kanye West, last year released a song called "Heil Hitler." If, like me, you just found out about it now, what is your reaction? Are you offended? Incredulous? I hope not. As one of my cherished readers, I'd prefer your reaction to be curiosity, mirroring my own response: an enthusiastic, "I gotta hear this song."

Easier said than done. One of the worst aspects of our current dilemma is the idea of gatekeepers preventing supposedly vulnerable populations from having their sensibilities seared. Whether the right, vindictively trying to purge life of people they hate. Or the left, timidly trying to pretend that hate doesn't exist. One is worse; neither are commendable.

I started at YouTube. Nothing but criticisms and parodies. Then Apple Music. The same. So I did a Google search, and found the full song — of course — on that slop sink of hate, X, nee Twitter.

I stopped using X regularly when Elon Musk went full fascist — his Nazi salute. Kind of a giveaway. But I didn't quit, for eventualities like this.

"With all of the money and fame I still can't get my kids back," Ye trills. "So I became a Nazi, yeah."

Stop right there. Offended yet? Of course not. At this point, if you are like me, you feel sorry for Ye, who has four children with his former wife Kim Kardashian. 

Imagine connecting those two thoughts — complaining about not being able to see your children, then using that as an excuse to embrace Nazism. Is Ye expecting that to help? "Your honor, I need to see my kids. I know I had troubles in the past — never should grabbed that microphone from Taylor Swift. But I've worked hard to improve myself. I'm a Nazi now..."

Not a smart strategy, right?

I shouldn't jest. Ye has admitted to being bipolar, and nobody argued with him. He also apologized for the song, though that's a tough one to claw back. He also sold Nazi merchandise.

I think it's important to recognize that people still embrace the Nazis. It's valuable to be reminded of their error, which sadly is not confined to the 1930s. To embrace Nazism is to be lulled by a strong start — great uniforms, bold iconography, massive Nuremberg rallies, the Blitzkrieg, those diving Stukas — but ignore the bad end. Your nation bombed to total ruin, the Nuremberg trials.

Any more recent examples of the error of allowing a strong start to conceal a bad finish? Maybe being sunk into a military morass by the illusion of bombing an enemy who, when the smoke clears, is somehow still there, still closing the Strait of Hormuz. That comes to mind.

I don't think people should be prevented from expressing the hate within their hearts; I think they should be compelled to. So they can face the consequences — and haters almost inevitably hurt themselves more than anybody else. Ye was going to headline some big summer festival in London, until the sponsors started pulling out. If I were a Brit, I might not be a fan of the idea that our prime minister should vet concert artists. Yet we are allowed to draw away in disgust from those who are revolting — the far right pretends their free speech is being trampled. Elon Musk sued companies who didn't want to see their names floating around in his toilet. But it's only fair: if haters can rant, decent people can avert their faces.

Then again, "fairness" is not high among hater values.

Admiring the Nazis is betting on a team that has already lost. It's like envying someone jumping out of a plane without a parachute. The thrilling view! The wind in their hair! Those smitten don't consider the splat at the end. I try to tell the Nazis who write in, waving this or that flimsy fig leaf, "You know, the whole Nazi thing didn't work out so well for the Germans." They never engage. They always scurry off, as if I've raised a concept too deep for them to fathom. Maybe I have. Another reason to be willing to admit not knowing things. Given what others aren't aware of, we're still way ahead of the game.