I am not a doctor

Kanye explains how lack of male role models and lack of exposure to "male power" led him to embrace MAGA which gave him power and "balls" and also helped him make a ton of money with Adidas. pic.twitter.com/4q7n44vfNB

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) October 11, 2018

...nor do I play one on TeeVee.  I simply feel very, very sorry for Kanye West.  He is suffering in public, and we interpret it as some sort of contact Trumpism.  It isn't, apparently:

Psychosis: Sometimes, a person with severe episodes of mania or depression also has psychotic symptoms, such as hallucinations or delusions. The psychotic symptoms tend to match the person’s extreme mood. For example:

Someone having psychotic symptoms during a manic episode may believe she is famous, has a lot of money, or has special powers.

Someone having psychotic symptoms during a depressive episode may believe he is ruined and penniless, or that he has committed a crime.

That's from the NIMH site for "bipolar disorder" (f/k/a manic depression, for the elder of us with long memories).  One could also identify these symptoms:

Both a manic and a hypomanic episode include three or more of these symptoms:

Abnormally upbeat, jumpy or wired
Increased activity, energy or agitation
Exaggerated sense of well-being and self-confidence (euphoria)
Decreased need for sleep
Unusual talkativeness
Racing thoughts
Distractibility
Poor decision-making — for example, going on buying sprees, taking sexual risks or making foolish investments

I'm not trying to diagnose Mr. West; he's the one who said he's been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.  I'm trying to understand his actions something other than an overload of "dragon energy" or egoism.  Ali Velshi said Mr. West was "weird, just weird."  No argument here, but he was weird for a reason; and the reason is, he needs treatment, treatment we can't force on him, however.

The difference between Mr. West and the homeless guy muttering on the sidewalk is that Mr. West is rich and can command public attention because he is rich and famous.  But he's not "eccentric"; he's ill. He's suffering from a disease process.  We don't need to mutter about how strange he is, or take note of what he said, except to realize he needs our sympathies for his illness, not our laughter or our anger.

This is not the behavior of a well person:

He just asked to give a “keynote” on top a table.

He’s doing it. pic.twitter.com/y30F1bU9aj

— Jack Jenkins (@jackmjenkins) October 11, 2018

He’s announcing he made a hat for Trump that says “made an updated hat that says ‘make America great’ without the ‘again’...and Trump wore it!”

Shows a picture on his iphone of Trump wearing said hat.

Says the “again” part of the original slogan “hurts back people.” pic.twitter.com/mt2vO3Sl86

— Jack Jenkins (@jackmjenkins) October 11, 2018

After all, we don't want to treat him the way Trump did.

Trump's expression when he thinks "holy shit what's up with this dude" pic.twitter.com/NDGUxPj7PY

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) October 11, 2018