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Culture War Roundup for the week of November 14, 2022

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I have my doubts about that text

That's fair, but he hasn't denied it or responded to any comment requests from the articles I've checked. I think he would have made a comment to deny it if it were not authentic.

secondly possible that this is ‘tough love’ come from a genuine place of - if not actual altruism, then at least mutual self interest in Kanye’s life and career not imploding spectacularly.

I'm sorry, but I think it is completely absurd to call that threat "tough love." It is deranged and lends credence to Kanye's perception. This Newsweek article also paints Pasternak as a scandalized Jew, very upset that Kanye's anti-Semitic remarks got less attention than his "White Lives Matters" t-shirt:

Pasternak also told Newsweek on Monday, "I spoke to Kanye for about five hours yesterday, and his communication is very incoherent at this point. It doesn't forgive someone for being antisemitic. In fact, the lack of outrage over his tweet from people is very sad, regardless of whether he's mentally ill or not. It's not acceptable."...

Said Pasternak, "As someone who's been his friend for 15 years, I will not speak with him again until he issues a formal apology. He seems like he's either [having] or is on the verge of a mental break. This is a person who probably struggled understanding reality from not reality even in the best of times, and I'm extraordinarily saddened by the lack of outrage. The amount of outrage that came from a T-shirt that he wore a few days earlier was a millionfold more vocal than the tweet that he implied that he was going to wipe out a race of people."

That's not "tough love" when you are telling Newsweek that you are sad more people aren't piling on outrage, and interpreting the "death con 3" Tweet with the most uncharitable interpretation humanly possible. He'll tell Newsweek that everyone should be more offended by Kanye's anti-Semitism, but no denial of that deranged message he sent Kanye...