It’s hard not to imagine that, for around 140,000 people over two nights at Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium last week, a sort of collective willful amnesia took place — as if the man onstage had never declared “Death Con 3 on Jewish people,” had never said “I love Hitler,” “I’m a Nazi” and “Jews were better as slaves,” had never worn and sold T-shirts emblazoned with a swastika. There were Lauryn Hill, Travis Scott, Ceelo Green and Don Toliver joining that man — Kanye West, now known as Ye — onstage; there was Chloe Bailey, posting videos of herself joyfully singing along.

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Apparently, at least for those whose support for him had wavered, a full-page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal was all it took to wipe the slate clean: In January, West took out an ad in which he apologized for the above and other comments, blaming them on mental illness and a recently diagnosed head injury. Furthering the rehabilitation, his new-ish album “Bully,” which belatedly has an established record label as a partner, debuts at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 albums chart this week.

How did he come back so quickly, after so many years of divisive behavior and three years of hate speech? Yes, he made great music earlier in his career — in fact, he’s the most important and influential popular musician of this century. But........

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