Kanye

Indymisanthrope said:
@Jonathan Y as the resident scholar on all things Kanye, what ARE your thoughts about the events of recent months? Is this a calculated plan to do...something? Is it a manic episode? Combo of both?

Not baiting -- I just know you have always felt like he's somewhat misunderstood by the media and that what look like random acts of erratic behavior are sometimes part of a larger narrative that is difficult to see. Just wondering what you think of his trajectory in the last year.

(i.e. not asking you to act as his defense attorney -- I don't think you excuse a lot of what he's said, but I think you might have an explanation for why you think he's saying it)
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Do you ever get the sense that the more powerful people get, the more foolish they become? You're not the only one. Four university professors thought the same thing, and they devised a test to find out if it's really true. It is, they concluded.

That is, they found that power dependably breeds overconfidence, and overconfidence dependably leads to bad decisions.

Not only do overconfident people tend to acquire roles that afford power . . . but the subjective sense of power brought on by these roles causes people to become further overconfident. . . . Finding practical ways to soften and/or hold in check the causal relationship between power and overconfidence represents an important endeavor for future research.

www.forbes.com

Study Finds That Having Power Can Make You Stupid

Exhibit A: Tony Hayward. Do you ever get the sense that the more powerful people get, the more foolish they become? You're not the only one. Four university professors thought the same thing, and they devised a test to find out if it's really true. It is, they concluded. That is, they [...]
www.forbes.com www.forbes.com

Basically, the more power you get, the less accountability to others you have. And this removal of accountability, tends to make people stupid, power-drunk, and brings out the worst in human nature. This is a big reason that I think that people shouldn't really be allowed to be ultra-mega-billionaires. It's bad for them, and because they have undue decision making power, it's bad for all of us.
 
Indymisanthrope said:
Honest question: every news story that mentions that the annual tuition for Donda Academy is $15k, is that meant to be sensational? That's about $1600 a month for a 9 month school year. That's....not that much for a private academy aspiring to a prestigious reputation in 2022, is it? The most affluent private school in Indianapolis is >$25k per year.

I mean, it's not peanuts, but it's almost notable for how much the cost has to be getting subsidized, not for how expensive it is for the families.

None of that is meant to exonerate the reputation of what I find to be a super super weird and problematic project.

Gotta love a Christian academy that is ready to exact some 'vengeance.'
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Yeah I read that and thought it was substantially low. 100 kids at 15k won't go very far for a school without public funding. Maybe they've got advertising money coming in or something...
 
Indymisanthrope said:
What's really interesting is that poverty is also shown to have impact to cognition (mostly attributable to stress, lack of sleep, etc.). Having too much money can make you stupid, but so can not having enough. I know there's the notorious $77k salary data that shows that quality of life improvements become marginal after that mark, but I wonder what the sweet spot is for maximum income and cognition/decision-making.
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www.gobankingrates.com

What Is the Minimum Salary You Need To Be Happy in Every State?

What's the price of happiness in your state?
www.gobankingrates.com www.gobankingrates.com

Yes, I have read these studies too. It's really interesting. The main issue with making too much money is that you no longer let the people around you check yourself. As you become richer and more successful, you stop asking peers for evaluation or checks, because you start (wrongly) believing that you have no peers.

Also, capitalism in general makes you sick, so maybe the answer is to step away from economic systems that are fueled solely on greed.

Gabor Maté: How Capitalism Makes Us Sick

An interview on health and politics – Two physicians discuss the political economy of human well-being.
briarpatchmagazine.com
 
He's done, imo. He's been given a lot of breaks over the years and his supporters have always been right behind him ready to counter any criticism, but it looks like even a lot of the superfans are starting to turn on him. I think his early work will always be fondly remembered and influential, the same way people still love the Smiths despite Morrissey's later political views. There was definitely a time when he was one of the most exciting artists currently working, but that was a long time ago and as for anything he's doing currently, I have zero interest.

For me, separation of art and artist only goes so far, specifically when the personal life of the artist starts seeping into and influencing their works in a negative way. Even if you want to say at the end of all this that Kanye is still a brilliant genius when it comes to his music despite everything else, what proof is there from the last two or three years to back that up? It's not just that his public persona has become increasingly more toxic and unhinged; neither Jesus is King or Donda felt like the work of the consummate craftsmanship that so many of us once admired and, even if they were at the same levels of his previous productions, him actively deciding to make albums like these that are so intertwined with his image as a "problematic" "free thinker" makes it hard to ever want to revisit them.

Like @Jonathan Y said a while back, it's more just sad than anything. It's sad watching a once-talented artist deteriorate like this and it's sad watching someone become so consumed by hate and hubris that they essentially shut themselves off and refuse to budge. It's fair to say that at least the hubris was always there, after all Kanye knows what a provocative, polarizing figure he is and has played into that several times throughout his career. But the man just seems broken now.

Kanye's fans have always been very dismissive of any criticism towards him and made excuses for why he does the things he does. In their minds, everything has a secret motive or a hidden message that only the "true" fans are meant understand. This is a case where I would love for them to be able to tell me what his end goal is in this scenario. What purpose does alienating loyal fans and losing millions of dollars reciting Candace Owens talking points serve in the end? He's thrown so much away and tanked his reputation and what's he got to show for it? Pictures where he's surrounded by niche online alt-right microcelebrities who are only interested in him insofar as the number of antisemitic and White Lives Matter-adjacent quotes they can get out of him?

Anyways sorry for the lengthy rant; I've opted of the Kanye discourse for a while but I guess his recent liaisons with fascism just really pushed me over the edge, especially because I genuinely believe he's made some of the best albums of the last two decades. It's just hard to reconcile that the man who made MBDTF has fallen so hard in just 12 years.

I miss the old Kanye.
 
one of my favorite video essayists just made a deep dive into kanyes bipolar disorder, he does admit the video is a few weeks out of date despite just coming out, it explains how he is clearly having the manic episode but doesn't defend the antisemetic stuff he said, but explains how it got this insane... its a lot more nuanced than "fuck kanye" or "he is completely innocent".. i highly recommend it (except the ending "patreon question" where he says kanye can do an apology tour and honestly fix things... he outright stated in the premiere chat that he fucked up on that.. no one would have expected him to full on go on infowars)

 
duke86fan said:
one of my favorite video essayists just made a deep dive into kanyes bipolar disorder, he does admit the video is a few weeks out of date despite just coming out, it explains how he is clearly having the manic episode but doesn't defend the antisemetic stuff he said, but explains how it got this insane... its a lot more nuanced than "fuck kanye" or "he is completely innocent".. i highly recommend it (except the ending "patreon question" where he says kanye can do an apology tour and honestly fix things... he outright stated in the premiere chat that he fucked up on that.. no one would have expected him to full on go on infowars)

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Just to add another layer here, pot makes bipolar disease worse--more paranoia, higher manic periods, and lower more depressive moods.

Regardless of whatever short-term benefit patients perceive from cannabis, the evidence points clearly to an association between usage and worsening course of bipolar disorder over time. In a study of 4915 participants, Henquet et al.1 found a strong increased risk of manic symptoms associated with cannabis over a three year follow-up (after controlling for possible covariates). They also saw an earlier age of onset of bipolar disorder, greater overall illness severity, more rapid cycling, poorer life functioning, and poorer adherence with prescribed treatments.

Zorrilla and colleagues2 evaluated the subsequent course of patients with bipolar disorder who stopped cannabis use after an illness episode and compared their outcome with patients with bipolar disorder who had never used cannabis and a group that continued to use. The total sample included 1922 patients. In a two year period, the continued users had significantly lower rates of recovery, greater work impairment, and fewer were living with a partner.

www.psychiatrictimes.com

Cannabis: Patients With Bipolar Should Avoid Use

Regardless of whatever short-term benefit patients perceive from cannabis, the evidence points clearly to an association between usage and worsening course of bipolar disorder over time.
www.psychiatrictimes.com
 
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