Entertainment

Popular Leftist Singer Claims She ‘Sees The Good’ In Hitler

Photo by Rich Fury/Getty Images for FYF

Jena Greene Reporter
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Erykah Badu, the award-winning R&B artist and social cause activist, has found herself in some hot water after she made comments about Adolf Hitler and Bill Cosby in a recent interview with Vulture.

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This has been brewing for some time. In 2008, she visited the Middle East on a concert tour. While she was in Palestine, the Israeli press accused Badu of anti-semitism for voicing her support for Nation Of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, a vocal anti-Semite

So when Badu was given the opportunity to clear her name in a recent interview, she doubled down. “Sure I do [believe in Farrakhan],” she said. “I’ll follow anyone who has positive aspects. He single-handedly changed half of the Nation of Islam…I’m a humanist. I see good in everybody. I saw something good in Hitler.”

Her interviewer was clearly confused so he asked Badu to clarify. “Yeah, I did,” she said, doubling down. “Hitler was a wonderful painter.”

Badu elaborated by saying she has “empathy” for Hitler because her astrological sign is Pisces.

She also referenced her deep love for Bill Cosby and admitted she felt bad for him. “I love Bill Cosby, and I love what he’s done for the world. But if he’s sick, why would I be angry with him? The people who got hurt, I feel so bad for them. I want them to feel better, too,” she said.

Now listen. I get it. Musicians can be weird. A lot of artists are loopy and out of touch. But this gives the entire progressive entertainment industry an even worse reputation than it already has. Erykah Badu is said to be one of the faces of the black female resistance. On paper, she should be the poster child for the far left. She’s African-American, staunchly feminist, vegan, vocally anti-war, atheist and her songs are hailed as ballads for female revolutionaries.

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But these recent comments are something else. You can’t preach love and peace out of one side of your mouth, then send praises to Hitler out the other. It exposes leftist ideology for what it truly values — emotion over logic.

It’s becoming increasingly difficult to square the popular progressive touch-points, e.g. that Islam is peaceful and Trump is Hitler, with the call for increased secularization. The values don’t jibe.

Erykah Badu should serve as an important reminder to all the progressive artists out there who claim to be morally and intellectually superior. Be careful selecting your revolutionaries. If somebody claims to be tolerant, make sure they’re tolerant to everybody. Cherry picking interest groups based on color, gender and religion alone can be a very slippery slope.

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