A.k.a. Vincenzo Luvineri (real name)
Vincenzo Luvineri, or Vinnie Paz, formerly Ikon the Verbal Hologram, is an Italian American rapper for the hip hop group Jedi Mind Tricks (JMT) and frontman of the supergroup Army of the Pharaohs. JMT is primarily known for some pretty outspoken bigotry and crankery, and in the case of Paz it doesn’t seem to be all for show. Paz likes to write lyrics that are rather explicity about how much he enjoys punching faggots in the teeth and – this being a striking case of lack of self awareness – how homosexuality equals savagery. There is a fine list of quotes here. A Muslim, Paz also likes to compare himself to Mussolini (“we like to quote fascists,” says Paz) and Ayatollah Khomeini, and has claimed to find Iran’s regime preferable to the US one.
More importantly for our encyclopedia is JMT’s promotion of 9/11 conspiracy theories, AIDS denialism, anti-fluoridation conspiracies, and deranged antivax lunacy. Paz has for instance claimed, in an InfoWars interview, that polio vaccines killed more people than they cured – this is not correct. In another striking example of lack of selfawareness, Paz also urged us to “not believe the fearmongers”.
Diagnosis: Ok, so another celebrity loon. But Paz is awfully dumb, so it’s hard to avoid him. How much his audience actually buys into his nonsense is unclear, but he is certainly not helping.
Hat-tip: Rationalwiki