'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Computer scientist Lex Fridman recently spoke to Kanye West on his podcast and discussed the controversy surrounding the latter’s recent antisemitic remarks, among other topics.
During the podcast, Ye likened the Holocaust to abortion and said:
“We’re still in the Holocaust. Six million people died in The Holocaust. 20 million have died by the hands of abortion. The media promotes my body my choice which is actually still a promotion for Planned Parenthood.”
Although Fridman, who is Jewish, told the rapper that there is a difference between the two, the latter claimed that “50% of black deaths a year is abortion.” He further added:
“The most dangerous place for a black person in America is in their mother’s stomach.”
Kanye West went on to claim that Jewish people own the media and said:
“It’s not racism, that’s too wide of a term. It’s genocide and population control that Black people are in today in America.”
He continued:
“That is promoted by the music and the media that Black people make, that Jewish record labels get paid off of.”
In response, Lex Fridman said:
“I grew up in the Soviet Union. I'm Jewish, parts of my family perished in the Holocaust of Nazi Germany. I have to push back...When you say 'Jewish media,' there's an echo of a pain that people feel. The right thing is not to say there's Jewish control of the media.”
However, Ye continued to argue that he gets bullied by the Jewish media:
“That's incorrect though! That's a f**king lie. There is. And they did come and bully me and proved the point.”
The Donda creator also said that he does not want to offend anyone but alleged that several of his media associates are Jewish:
“I’m really not meaning to be offensive. I don’t think that’s anti-Semitism.”
Lex Fridman and Kanye West’s podcast interview largely circulated on social media and went viral online. Several social media users also praised the former for his approach towards Ye’s antisemitic remarks.
Twitter reacts to Lex Fridman’s response to Kanye West’s antisemitic remarks
As Kanye West continued to defend his antisemitic remarks on the podcast hosted by Russian-American computer scientist Lex Fridman, netizens were left impressed with the latter’s response to the rapper.
During the interview, Fridman asked Ye if anyone has called out the rapper on his “bullsh*t.” He then mentioned that he is trying to call out the rapper because he is someone Ye can trust:
“I'm trying to call you out on your bulls**t because I hope I'm somebody you can trust.”
When Ye replied that he could not trust Fridman, the latter said that the musician should find someone trustworthy in his life:
“Well you should find somebody in your life you can trust.”
Fridman also said he was hurt when Ye told him he did not trust the podcast host. He also assured the rapper that he does not care about views or clickbait:
“People should not doubt Ye. I gotta tell you, I have to be honest. This is silly because you don't know me but it hurt when you say you don't trust me. You kind of lost me. I don't care about views, or clickbait, or any of that bulls**t.”
He also added that he considers Kanye West “one of the greatest artists ever” and feels the rapper is “working through” pain:
“I thought you were one of the greatest artists ever and it'd be cool to talk to you. I just feel like you got pain you're working through. I've never had anyone say that to me. I'm just being a mess about it I guess. That's f**ked up though, but maybe it's not. Maybe you shouldn't trust anybody.”
In the wake of the interview, social media users took to Twitter to react to Lex Fridman’s response:
In addition to the antisemitic remarks scandal, Lex Fridman and Kanye West also spoke about the latter’s comments on George Floyd’s death, his opinion on schooling and engineering, and his relationship with ex-wife, Kim Kardashian.
Lex Fridman is a lecturer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Lex Fridman is a Russian-American podcast host, computer-scientist, and AI researcher. He reportedly teaches at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is best known for The Lex Fridman Podcast.
The 39-year-old garnered media recognition following the launch of his podcast in 2018, and his appearances on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. Fridman was born in Chkalovsk, Russia, on August 15, 1983, and raised in Moscow.
The scientist is of Jewish-Ukrainian descent as his father Alexander Fridman was Jewish and was born in Kiev, Ukraine. His grandmother was also born and raised in Kharkiv, while his grandfather served as a machine-gunner in the Soviet Army in Ukraine.
Fridman immigrated to the United States in 1994, and attended high school in Naperville, Illinois. He graduated from Neuqua Valley High School in 2001, before earning a BS and MS degree in computer science from Drexel University in 2010.
He completed his PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2014 from the same university. Fridman began his career by working on machine learning at Google. He then joined MIT as a research affiliate and lecturer.
Lex Fridman’s podcast was launched in 2018 as Artificial Intelligence Podcast. The name was later changed to the Lex Fridman Podcast and featured notable guests like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jordan Peterson, Jack Dorsey, and Ray Dalio, among several others.
