By now, you’ve probably heard of Kanye West’s newest publicity stunt. If you haven’t, or if you want to know more, I’ll give you a quick rundown. He began with this bombshell—
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.
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) April 25, 2018
—which understandably caused a bit of an uproar. Soon after, he posted a conversation with John Legend:
pic.twitter.com/L9a7OeywJ6
— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) April">https://twitter.com/kanyewest/status/9895419740708... 26, 2018
To make matters even more interesting, in a TMZ interview, Kanye said, “When you hear about slavery for 400 years ... For 400 years? That sounds like a choice.” In response to the understandable outrage that this statement caused, Kanye tweeted, “[T]he reason why I brought up the 400 years point is that we can't be mentally imprisoned for another 400 years. We need free thought now. Even the statement was an example of free thought. It was just an idea. [O]nce again I am being attacked for presenting new ideas.” This tweet has since mysteriously vanished.
Now, Kanye’s opinion is not inherently more valid than anyone else’s. In fact, his opinion should be ignored outright considering his core character and the fact that he is likely only saying these things to help boost his publicity and help his next album sell. The biggest reason Kanye’s words are causing so much discourse is because he has an audience. Kanye is one of the most popular artists today, and he has droves of loyal followers, many of which are young and impressionable. If they see him post 100 tweets about love, 100 tweets about acceptance, three tweets about how great Trump is and one tweet saying slavery was a choice, they might believe all of them.
The main reason I’m writing this is to highlight the one key idea that Kanye is centering his new brand around: “Free thought.” He tells John Legend that bringing up his fans is a fear tactic to manipulate his “free thought.” In a tweet, he says he’s being “demonized” for “asking unpopular questions.” After the “slavery was a choice” comment, Kanye said, “Once again I am being attacked for presenting new ideas.”
Kanye is using the same logic I see so much from other people who love to hate the left. Any time they are attacked for believing one thing or another, they retreat into their bunker of “free speech/free thought/my opinion.” For example, actor Wendell Pierce wrote a Twitter thread about the ethical implications of Kanye’s words. One reply to his critique is this masterpiece of human language and high-level thinking: “Wow there we go again judging instead of understanding what he’s trying to say WE are different and we all know kanye is very different and it’s ok RETHINK THE WAY WE THINK.”
What these people don’t realize is that free speech only means the government can’t punish you because of your words. It does not mean people have to respect your opinion. It does not mean that your opinion cannot be challenged. And it does not mean that voicing your opinion does not have consequences.
I’m inclined to believe that the only reason people sink to using the “free speech” argument is that they really can’t think of anything better. After all, it works for anything. If you said, “Hitler did nothing wrong,” you could respond to any criticism with “That’s my opinion!” and it would work just as well. It’s a lazy argument and only serves to divert attention from the real issue and dismiss healthy and serious discussions.
This is why we need to recognize and call out when people use this kind of argument. It’s a sneaky way of normalizing harmful, radical ideas. Instead of defending the details of their opinion, they can simply defend their right to have an opinion, which they obviously have. It is therefore easy to defend. Suddenly opinions like “slavery was a choice” and “Hitler did nothing wrong” go from being instantly laughed at and shunned to being seriously discussed. If we collectively demand more than the “free speech” argument, social and political discourse will become a lot healthier and we’ll be able to avoid catastrophes like the ones we’ve been put through over the past two years.