HN Theater @HNTheaterMonth

⬐ throwaway24424

This interview was the final straw for me where I came to the conclusion that calls for Kanye to be de-platformed, at least temporarily are reasonable and necessary. If not for the victims of his comments but for himself. I don't want to go all armchair psychologist on this but I think spiralling is an apt word here.

FYI: I didn't make it through even 50% of the podcast because of the sheer incoherence on Kanye's part.

⬐ Rapzid

Light is the best disinfectant.

People are saying Lex was exploiting West, but I viewed this as a public service; shinning a light on the depths of West's antisemitic thinking.

Lex was calling him out and pushing back constantly. Yes, also pulling back and keeping things going.

⬐ andromaton

A generous take is that Kanye uses many words in atypical ways. A neutral take is that Kanye is incoherent or trying to Andy Kaufmann his way out of the consequences of his actions/speech. The interview would have shed more light if Lex would have tried to nail down some of those contradictions.

⬐ baby

I had to stop watching, it’s not fun watching a crazy man digging his own hole

⬐ darthrupert

https://decoding-the-gurus.captivate.fm/episode/lex-fridman-...

⬐ artur_makly

As one of the Jews who controls all media, I pray for the Philosopher King's recovery, and may he one day find some peace and genuine love for all humanity.

⬐ hunglee2

the difference in how Ye comes across between the Champs, Piers Morgan and Lex Fridman interviews is stark.

Champs was way too comfortable, Morgan way too hostile, Fridman plays it as he usually does, neutral listener and Ye seems reasonable most of the time. We have individual personalities, but how they are expressed is determined as much by who we are with

⬐ AzzieElbab

The guy still came out as a psychopath. Just listen how he explains love for his ex in terms of gene pool.

⬐ Rapzid

Yeah, I'm still trying to figure out which part he came across as reasonable. Maybe the part where he and George Soros are fighting for control of the world? Wasn't the least reasonable part anyway haha.

⬐ baby

Really? All I saw was crazy rambling about planned parenthood being worst that the holocaust and all medias being controlled by the jews. Lex was very uncomfortable.

⬐ flodcw

I really enjoyed the Pierce Morgan interview. Lex’s was pretty incoherent. At least in the beginning

⬐ chrsw

Interesting difference in reaction between this interview and Lex's Douglas Murray interview.

⬐ tibbydudeza

I could only handle the first minute of the Holocaust discussion because Kanye was just unhinged - African Americans is not a lost tribe and Planned Parenthood can in no way be compared to genocide.

Lex wrongly assumes you can reason with and even find value in the rantings of somebody who is suffering from mental illness.

⬐ lupire

"mental illness" is a very vague term.

⬐ wahern

> African Americans is not a lost tribe

African Americans, or even Africans, identifying themselves as a lost tribe of Israel is nothing new. In fact, it's been a recurring theme in black empowerment narratives for well over a century. Not just allegorically, but literally. One example closest to mainstream awareness would be the Rastafarians, and specifically the sub-sect which Bob Marley belonged to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Tribes_of_Israel_(Rasta...

Kanye West is refashioning ad hoc black empowerment narratives in basically the same manner he would do when crafting music based on pre-existing musical themes--lyrics, beats, etc. (Which is to say, basically the same way we all internalize cultural narratives.) If you have even a passing familiarity with these movements then it's all easily intelligible and plausibly coherent so long as you don't think about it too much.

The same is true regarding Planned Parenthood. There are tens of millions of Americans who equivocate abortion with murder, and more recently with genocide of the "black race" because of the (supposed--I haven't verified) greater rates of abortion among black Americans.

⬐ pcdoodle

Good watch.

⬐ ZeroGravitas

https://youtu.be/60RFIF9y8fY

Holocaust highlights.

⬐ bundie

To this day, I do not understand why I am blocked on Twitter by Lex Fridman over a small disagreement.

⬐ TheLoafOfBread

If somebody else wants to get blocked by Lex Fridman just ask about his research on MIT regarding Tesla Autopilot, which got later retracted by MIT.

https://www.thedrive.com/tech/27359/mit-study-showing-high-f...

https://imispgh.medium.com/mit-research-debacle-human-side-o...

⬐ speedylight

Get on the Podcast and ask him!

⬐ timonoko

I was blocked beforehand without ever subscribing Lex. Also any comment of Youtube disappears immediately. Reason was somebody retweeted my tweet of about the Finnish volunteer Panzer-group liberating Ukraine 1943.

In spite of jovial appearance, Lex is quite humorless person. He sticking to the world-view he learned in Soviet schools, without ability to learn anything new about history.

⬐ tjpnz

Has anyone ever challenged him on his podcast? Lex is as prone to getting things wrong as anyone else, but I cannot recall a time where his guests have corrected him. Compared to some of the other podcasts I listen to I do find that rather jarring.

⬐ hoseja

>jovial appearance

?? I had to watch approximately five minutes to get a very uncanny feeling and haven't watched anything since.

⬐ thinkmcfly

He reminds me of Sean Carroll if Sean didn't care about other people or philosophy or research

⬐ gjvc

Lex Fridman's constant schtick of telling everyone to think and act lovingly is getting old and tired and this point.

⬐ gjvc

("while sounding completely miserable in the process" being the key missing point, making the whole act feel really contrived)

⬐ californiadreem

I think every white person here needs to be reminded what we've all learned over the past decade. Racism is prejudice plus power. Ye, a BIPOC with (alleged) mental illness, cannot be racist against white people. By definition. Period. You do not get to police Ye's speech or his right to speak his Truth. Period. You don't have the lived experience. Period.

It's very telling that Ye was dropped as soon as he started directly criticizing the domesticatation wing of white supremacy.

You can literally be a rapist or a murderer and still get work in Hollywood. You can literally incite violence towards other BIPOCs for decades and still get record contracts and shoe deals. You can spread newstories about "super-predators" that lead to systemically racist legislation that incarcerates generations of Black men and still run for national office.

But yet, if you dare to bite the hand that feeds you and criticize a small cultural minority of powerful white people, you get "held accountable" for it overnight. You face lawsuits and instant allegations of mental illness. You get dropped by talent agencies and merchandisers. You get smeared in the news and radio.

At some point, you have to start asking real questions as to why some people get shielded for decades and others get ostracized at the drop of a hat.

⬐ Mizza

Even though I've enjoyed a lot of the Lex interviews in the past, I think this is really exploitative. A man with bipolar disorder is having a major manic episode and everybody is shoving microphones in front of him and getting upset when what he says sounds crazy.

⬐ listless

I agree. There is something gross about gleefully watching a person self-destruct. Reminds me a lot of what was done to Brittany Spears.

⬐ TigeriusKirk

I've listened to it and I have the opposite opinion. Lex is the one interviewer in this episode who has treated Kanye like a human being and not like a click generator.

⬐ ryanklee

100% agree. Totally irresponsible move to interview Kanye West. It's borderline parasitic. There's no intellectual value in pretending someone's psychotic delusions are valid discourse. Lex should take the interview down.

⬐ zach_garwood

I'm vaguely reminded of all those Charlie Sheen interviews from years ago when was self-destructing from drug abuse, and we all just laughed.

⬐ z7

He once said he has bipolar disorder. He now says things that sound crazy to me. Therefore he is having a manic episode.

The problem with this reasoning is that people can say things that sound crazy without it being a symptom of a mental disorder.

⬐ Mizza

I am very familiar with bipolar people and how they act when they are manic - unable to answer questions directly, rambling thought, believe entities are speaking to them, they are "chosen", infectious energy, not taking care of their personal appearance, it goes on.. I'm 100% certain this is mania. He even says he stopped taking his pills during the interview.

⬐ lupire

Yes, Ye and his family could be repeatedly lying or mistaken. At some point, you have to draw a concluson from incomplete evidence.

⬐ tsol

Many people have noted his behavior seems very similar to someone in a manic episode. While this isn't bulletproof evidence and shouldn't be taken as such, I think it's worth something. There's definitely something off about him, that doesn't mean he has no responsibility but I think it's telling the reaction

⬐ hotpotamus

I assume it drives engagement.

⬐ aaron695

None

⬐ fazfq

Kanye is too big to cancel so he's getting called "deranged" instead.

⬐ maegul

As a casual listener of Lex's podcasts, my position is now to ignore him unless a good reason for this guest right now can be made clear. I can imagine Lex himself talking about openness and diversity etc but this just reeks of opportunism.

⬐ lemondrink

That’s what it is.

Lex comments that he doesn’t care about the “clickbait” and that he likes Kayne as an artist, but he spends 85+% of the interview talking about the famous Kayne tweet. It’s nothing more than cashing a check on the back of a man who is suffering a public mental breakdown.

⬐ pathartl

I've only watched Lex's episode with Carmack and I just don't understand the appeal. It was like listening to a junior frontend dev stumble around programming topics with buzzwords. Maybe I just watched one episode and got a bad taste, but the questions weren't great and somehow Carmack still was able to give interesting answers.

⬐ baby

That wasn’t a great one, but there are better ones

⬐ EdwardKrayer

I assume approaching his guests as a layman allows his viewers to scratch the surface of tech/science/topics potentially inaccessible to people outside of the normal scope.

⬐ jackosdev

I like Lex, he's very open and wears his heart on his sleeve, he gets good answers sometimes because he's fearless with the questions he asks. His first intrview with Jim Keller is my fav ever and changed my life perspective after some of the gold Lex gets out of him. But yeah his programming knowledge seems very limited, same level as most Machine Learning engineers with science backgrounds.