BREAKING: I Don’t Care What Kanye Thinks About Politics
By Jacob Geers
Over the last few days there have been much ruckus over rapper Kanye West’s statements about United States Presidential Politics.
At a concert in California last week, Kanye announced that he “Very Patriotically“ did not vote at all, but if he could’ve been bothered to show up at a polling booth, he would’ve voted for Donald Trump.
"I would've voted for Trump" – @kanyewest pic.twitter.com/XtyUteCgUZ
— albertoreyes (@albertoreyes) November 18, 2016
But that wasn’t all!
Last weekend, instead of giving hisSacramento fans the concert they paid for, he showed up 90 minutes late and then went on a nonsensical rant.
Yelling at radio stations, he promised they would be “Hillary Clintoned” if they didn’t innovate in unspecified ways.
Yelling at his fans, he told them that they were surprised about the election because Google and Mark Zuckerburg tricked them.
Yelling at his fellow celebrities, he whined that Jay-Z should finally call him back and that Beyonce stole a VMA award by agreeing to perform there. He then dropped his mic and peaced out after only two songs.
And people were mad. Twitter erupted. Even mainstream media covered Kanye’s antics. But here’s the thing: aside from all the people who spent time and money to see Kanye throw these tantrums instead of his promised performance, nobody should care.
To me, Kanye’s political opinions are not particularly relevant.
Being a celebrity, public figure, or brand does not automatically mean your opinion has some special weight. If anything, one’s experience of the world would be highly privileged and out of touch with most people. If we are looking toward Kanye West, or Kim Kardashian, or Katy Perry for keen political cues, our country is in trouble. That’s not to say celebrities might not have valuable things to say, but their general political knowledge or insight probably isn’t any greater than you or your neighbor’s.
It’s why I feel perfectly comfortable being gay and eating at Chick-Fil-A. Despite Chick-Fil-A’s President’s comments on homosexuality, I trust him to make my chicken. Would I vote for him for office? Hell no. But he makes good, affordable chicken. I trust him to make my Cobb chicken salad.
Kanye is a legendary rapper and songwriter. People should trust him to make great music — granted, that is, if he actually shows up and finishes his concerts for now on.