Kanye West On InfoWars

Overview

Kanye West On InfoWars refers to the December 1st, 2022, episode of the InfoWars podcast hosted by Alex Jones in which Kanye West made an appearance with Nick Fuentes. The episode resulted in considerable controversy for Kanye following his anti-Semitic statements in the months before, with particular attention and backlash given to his props, remarks made about Jewish people and his overt support for Hitler when he said "I see good things about Hitler" and "I like Hitler."

Background

On December 1st, 2022, Kanye West appeared on the controversial InfoWars show, hosted by Alex Jones and hosted on Banned.Video.^[6] Surrounding the surprise guest appearance was Kanye's recent cancelation of business deals and decline in reputation over his previous anti-Semitic comments and tweets, while Jones lost some of his lawsuits surrounding the Sandy Hook shooting in which he's expected to pay in excess of $1 billion in payouts with more lawsuits pending. Going into this episode, the belief was that Kanye, who previously had walked out of the Tim Pool podcast not long before, was going to continue with his contentious expositions.

Kanye's "I See Good Things About Hitler"

One particular part of the episode that received significant attention is when Alex Jones stated that people who are not Nazis should not be called "Nazi" and be demonized, which caused Kanye to interject when he said Hitler had some "good things" to him, coincidentally while the infamous curb-stomp scene from American History X played in the background. This section notably led to Kanye saying, "Well, I see good things about Hitler, also. Every human being has value that they brought to the table, especially Hitler," as shared on Twitter by @greg_price11^[1] (shown below).

Alex Jones: "You're not Hitler. You're not a Nazi."

Ye: "Well, I see good things about Hitler, also. Every human being has value that they brought to the table, especially Hitler." pic.twitter.com/xZtjq18dm6

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) December 1, 2022

"I see good things about Hitler. I love everyone and Jewish people are not going to tell me. You can love us and you can love what we’re doing to you with the contracts, and you can love what we’re pushing with the pornography. But this guy [Hitler] that invented highways and invented the very microphone that I use as a musician, you can’t say out loud that this person ever did anything good. I’m done with that. Every human being has something of value that they brought to the table, especially Hitler."

Kanye's "I Like Hitler" and "I Love Hitler"

Continuing on with the topic of Nazis and Hitler, Alex Jones then went on to say that demonizing people by calling them "Nazis" or being against those who said they "didn't hate the Nazis" wasn't right, referencing Arnold Schwarzenegger who reportedly said he liked Hitler and still won acting awards,^[8] which prompted Kanye to say "I like Hitler" right before the cut to a commercial break (shown below, reupload via MrPop).^[2][7]

Alex Jones: 'I don't like Nazis'
Kanye: "I like Hitler"

-commercial break- pic.twitter.com/q2mkmVV1ct

— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) December 1, 2022

In another moment from the episode, some online speculated that Jones was attempting to give Kanye an out or further explain his controversial statements when he related Kanye's history with fashion as a reason for his admiration of Hitler and Nazis — particularly noting the brand Hugo Boss and its ties to Nazi Germany at one point.^[14] However, after Jones said, "I get the Hugo Boss uniforms … but just because you're in love with the design, you're a designer, can we just kinda say you like the uniforms but that's about it?" Kanye responded, "No. There's a lot of that I love about Hitler. A lot of things" (seen below, reupload via RightWingWatch^[13]).

Alex Jones desperately tries to get Kanye West to clarify that he doesn't actually love Hitler … but nope.

Ye: "There's a lot of things that I love about Hitler. A lot of things." pic.twitter.com/QI87RNcx8A

— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) December 1, 2022

Kanye's Benjamin Netanyahu Props and Impersonation

Later on in the show after his comments on Hitler, Kanye then decided to bring out props, including a fishing net and a bottle of YooHoo, as a bit against the former Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu. The segment involved him holding up the net and talking as though it were Netanyahu. Jones, appearing to grasp for more information, asked Kanye if he liked Netanyahu, to which Kanye remarked that he had a funny name (shown below, reupload via @brenonade).^[3][9]

Kanye is currently doing prop comedy about Benjamin Netanyahu & praising hitler on InfoWars alongside a conspiracy theorist & white supremacist pic.twitter.com/dFRBMTHAsR

— Brennan Murphy (@brenonade) December 1, 2022

[Kanye pretending the net is Netanyahu] "I'm the head of the Mossad. I'm going to kill you and take your children away from you. We control the history books and we control the banks, and we always kill people."

Kanye's Second Ban From Twitter

Kanye's Raëlism Symbol Post and Ban From Twitter

On December 1st, 2022, after making his appearance on Infowars, Ye posted a screenshot of a photoshop window displaying the symbol for Raëlism, a UFO cult, writing, "YE24." The project file is named, "YE24," suggesting he may be using the symbol to promote his 2024 presidential run. The symbol is a swastika inside of a Star of David.^[15]

That day, Ye shared texts between himself and Elon Musk where Musk tells him that posting the symbol went "too far," writing, "this is not love" (shown below). Ye pushed back against Musk's claim but Musk banned him from Twitter shortly after.^[16]

Chris Paul Cheating With Kim Kardashian Allegations

On December 1st, 2022, following Ye's appearance on Infowars, he tweeted, "Let's break one last window before we get outa here I caught this guy with Kim Good night," sharing a photograph of the Phoenix Suns point guard Chris Paul (shown below). Ye was banned from Twitter shortly after this for tweeting out the Raelism symbol. The tweet has been deleted with Ye's account, but was reported on and shared by numerous media accounts and social media users.^[21]

The news received viral spread and inspired memes about Paul cheating on his wife with Kim. On December 2nd, TMZ^[22] reported that a source "close to the situation" denied the rumors, claiming that Ye is making it up to deflect from the antisimetic comments.

Online Reactions

The reaction to Kanye going on InfoWars on December 1st, 2022, was immediate and expressive, with numerous users on social media sharing clips, memes and other reactions. For example, that same day, Twitter user @thelions1967^[4] uploaded a reaction as a POV meme depicting Kanye fans after this final straw being too much to defend him on (shown below).

Every person who defended kanye seeing this info wars I like Hitler bullshit…. pic.twitter.com/L83zpmHU5S

— Robert (@thelions1967) December 1, 2022

As a response to Kanye's outspoken support for Hitler on the podcast, some former defenders and supporters of Kanye immediately began to distance themselves after the snippets from InfoWars started to circulate. Additionally, many former tweets were subsequently deleted.

For example, a tweet previously made by the House Judiciary Committee Republican account, which had tweeted "Kanye. Elon. Trump." on October 6th, 2022, was deleted shortly after on December 1st (shown below, left). Memes also began to be made about Kanye's white supremacist views in relation to Nick Fuentes, who has denied being a white supremacist before. One such example via a Kingdom Hearts III Woody meme posted by Twitter^[5] account @halomancer1 that day received nearly 10,000 likes and 900 retweets in four hours (shown below, right).

Reactions to Kanye's statements continued to spread throughout the night of December 1st, including numerous reaction videos on YouTube. One such example was uploaded that evening by YouTuber Secular Talk, who recapped several of the notable moments from the episode, receiving over 283,000 views in 17 hours (seen below).

Many also began reposting old clips or jokes from comedians discussing Kanye years before, noting they "aged like wine." For example, on December 1st, 2022, Bill Burr's 2018 bit about Kanye was widely circulated on multiple platforms, including YouTube,^[10] Twitter^[11] and Reddit when Redditor Thosepassionfruits posted the clip to /r/videos,^[12] receiving over 43,800 upvotes in 15 hours (seen below).

/r/Kanye Subreddit

After Ye's Infowars appearance and subsequent Tweets, members of the /r/Kanye subreddit went into panic mode and started sharing memes denouncing and criticizing Ye, sharing their embarrassment for supporting him and announcing the end of their support and defense of Ye. Some of the top posts on the board that week include a post by Redditor^[17] bhlogan2 sharing a Zack Fox tweet predicting Ye saying he likes Hitler, a post^[18] by user rustttyyy declaring the forum a Taylor Swift subreddit and a photoshop of Ye at the Nuremberg trials posted^[19] by user Karmo1911 (shown below, lef to right).

On December 1st, 2022, Twitter^[20] user @velodus posted a screenshot from the subreddit of a user sharing an anime girl to the forum and declaring it a "big titty anime girl sub now," writing, "The Kanye subreddit is handling this as well as they possibly could," garnering over 16,000 likes in a day.

Related Memes

He Made Graduation

He Made Graduation refers to a cliché phrase reiterated by devoted Kanye West fans to defend Kanye or rationalize his various controversies by reminding themselves that West made the 2007 album Graduation which many regards as his best work. The concept of Ye's fans saying the phrase trended in memes on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok, among other places like the /r/Kanye subreddit, throughout the late 2010s and early 2020s. The phrase is most often used in Twitter replies or to caption image macros of crying or insane characters. It trended en masse following Ye's anti-Semitism controversies, specifically after his appearance on the Drink Champs podcast and his praise of Hiter on InfoWars.

Search Interest

External References