Far-right extremists celebrate, embrace, and defend Kanye West’s antisemitic remarks
Written by Justin Horowitz
Research contributions from Media Matters Staff
Published
Updated
Far-right and neo-Nazi-linked extremists are embracing, celebrating, and defending rapper Kanye West’s recent antisemitic remarks.
On October 8, West lashed out at Jewish people, writing, “I’m going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE.” In the same tweet, he claimed, “You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda.” West later tweeted, “Who you think created cancel culture?"
Here are examples of violent far-right and neo-Nazi-linked extremists celebrating West and his antisemitic comments:
- Infowars celebrated West multiple times on October 9. Host Owen Shroyer said, “I did not hear one thing Kanye West said that was bigoted.” He later added that the backlash to his antisemitic remarks “only proves what he’s talking about is real.”
- White nationalist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes posted on Telegram, “Kanye is going to be cancelled by the Jews for saying that the Jews invented cancel culture” and shared multiple memes celebrating the rapper. Fuentes also streamed West’s music on his Cozy.TV platform while wearing a West-inspired face covering. The title of the stream was “DEFCON 3.”
- Daily Wire host Candace Owens on West's “death con 3” tweet: “If you are an honest person, you did not think this tweet was antisemitic.” Owens added that, “It's like you cannot even say the word Jewish without people getting upset.”
- Antisemite and Gab founder Andrew Torba posted, “How do we get Kanye on Gab?"
- Neo-Nazi blog The Daily Stormer published a story by neo-Nazi founder Andrew Anglin with the headline “Lying Jew Media Claims Kanye West is Mentally Ill for Going Death Con 3 on Jewish People.” On October 10, the header on the site’s homepage read “d e a t h c o n 3” and featured multiple stories celebrating West’s antisemitism.
- Stop the Steal organizer Ali Alexander used West's remarks to suggest that Jewish people have “weaponized their trauma” and complained that “all of us are forced to learn their trauma.”
- Far-right British extremist Tommy Robinson wrote that West’s statement “needs to be addressed” above a meme that appears to suggest that liberals are overreacting to West’s comments.
- Neo-Nazi streamer Baked Alaska compared himself to West and wrote, “IT KEEPS GETTING BETTER AND BETTER” under a screenshot of one of West’s Instagram posts.
- Former BlazeTV host Elijah Schaffer posted multiple tweets that appear to be in support of West.
- BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock defended West’s remarks in a tweet, writing, “You can't question black entertainers' unhealthy relationship with non-religious Jewish power brokers in Hollywood.”
- White nationalist and notorious antisemite Vincent James Foxx wrote on Telegram, “Kanye is going to do another Holocaust?”
- Fascist streamer Dalton Clodfelter wrote that West’s remarks are “very admirable.”
- Fuentes' cronies Tyler Russell and Brandt Wiggins both celebrated West’s remarks with posts on Telegram.
- Failed congressional candidate and anti-Muslim bigot Laura Loomer defended West’s remarks with multiple posts on Gab. In one post, she wrote, “Ye does have a point in his posts.”
- On violent white nationalist Gavin McInnes’ Censored.TV, host Josh Lekach said he admires West and claimed, “I don’t understand why you can’t talk bad about the Jews.” Lekach added he believes that West may be killed for his beliefs.
West’s antisemitic remarks came after he was criticized for wearing a “WHITE LIVES MATTER” shirt last week at Paris Fashion Week. He later appeared on white nationalist Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show to ramble about censorship, the media, his shirt, his career, and his family.
Updated (10/10/22): This post has been updated with additional examples.