Tag Archives: Taylor Swift

“They” Have Good Reason to Fear Taylor Swift

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The 'Taylor Swift Psyop' Freaks Need to Go Outside | National Review

I don’t think it’s my imagination. I really don’t. Not when every day it gets tougher and tougher to believe today’s Republicans have an ounce of respect for the intelligence of the average rube. Their average rubes. Not when in the course of a single week we had …

1: A dozen Colorado Republican congressional candidates — including “Beetlejuice” groper Lauren Boebert — being asked how many of them had ever been arrested? And half of them proudly shot up their hands … to the delight of the crowd that commenced hootin’ and hollerin’ in delight … at the sight of, you know, such bona fide maverick Wild West independence … or something.

2: Minnesota’s 8th District Congressman “Coach Pete” Stauber, a guy sent to D.C. solely because he can talk hockey to the marginally literate of the far north, boasting to his fellow puckheads about how he “advocated” for the billion dollars of federal money to rebuild the giant Blatnik Bridge to Superior. When in fact he … oh damn, you already knew the punchline … he caved to MAGA group think and voted against all those high-paying construction jobs.

And 3: And now, a whole host of once-upon-a-time Republican presidential candidates, (pseudo-intellectual/inflamed hemorrhoid Vivek Ramaswamy), Fox, NewsMax and OAN anchors and pundits plus … plus! … the guy who did so well selling the story of Hillary Clinton eating babies in the basement of a pizza parlor … that has no basement … freaking out about Taylor Swift rigging the the Super Bowl and the next election.

I freely concede I live in a bubble where this kind of stuff strikes me as … mmmm, what’s the word I’m looking for? … well how about “stupid” until I can come up with something better? (“Batshit” has been worn thin describing this crowd.)

But the Swift thing, besides so vividly demonstrating how afraid the MAGA-nauts are of one cute, fabulously wealthy young lady, is interesting because her influence over her fans, most of them young to young-ish women is both extraordinary and immense. Any of us who have followed pop culture for decades have to admit we’ve seen nothing — nothing — like her Eras tour or the devotion her fans have to her.

The still on-going tour has been a campaign across the globe that made her a billionaire because in large measure she was selling joyful community via high professional standards. (Ok, and high prices, too.) Point being, all her songs about relationships gone wrong withstanding, her affect is of someone who respects her audience and holds herself to standards respectful of truth (sometimes hard truths) and decency towards others. Fans may shriek and sing along and wave their flashing Swiftie bracelets without giving a lot of explicit thought to such virtues, but they feel it … and in Swift’s case, based on what we and the MAGA crowd can see, she lives the virtues she sings about.

Including the virtue of not being a sap for the bastards of the world.

Therein lies the fear she strikes into the (mmmmm, gotta come up with a new word) cynical thought leaders as they contemplate what she might be able to do with a political endorsement later this year.

Being a (very) shrewd businesswoman, Swift no doubt calculates the impact of “coming out” for say Joe Biden might have on her remarkably unblemished celebrity. Sure, there’s a percentage of her fan base that would react negatively. Certainly to an overt endorsement. But what percentage would you put that at? 10%? 15%?

She has 534 million social media followers. She can lose 50 million and still be a goddam force of political nature … if she wants to be.

The sense she’s giving at the moment is less about doing something as heavy-handed as popping up on the Jumbotron at the Super Bowl and telling all Swifties everywhere to “Vote for Joe”. It’s more — and this is savvy and wise in so many ways — simply making the persistent case to, “Vote and vote for the right thing. Vote for racial justice, gender justice, honesty and intelligence and respect for everyone, including yourself.” Presented that way, the average Swiftie — a lot of them smart young ladies — has very little difficulty discerning who of the two strange old geezers running for The Big Job embodies those virtues best.

Ms. Swift is an unprecedented phenomonon, in no small part due to her masterful manipulation of social media. She gets her message across. Instantly. And by virtue of her … well, professional virtues … her message has startling credibility with her millions of fans, (unlike, say Ted Nugent or Kid Rock), a large portion of whom may never have voted before and wouldn’t now other than she — their gold standard for fun and decency — says it’s important.

And for that reason Sean Hannity and the usual collection of incel folk heroes are rightfully terrified of her.

Heh.

Taylor, Barbie and Another Rough Summer for Boys

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So what exactly makes Taylor Swift so great? – Harvard Gazette

The mind tends to wander in the face of something as grim, dystopian and toxic as last week’s Republican “debate” in Milwaukee. I mean, even at this point in the collapse of Ye Grande Olde Party into a shreiking variation of The Real Housewives of The Villages, you expect something a tad more uplifting than, “This country is in decline” and “We are in a dark moment” from the same brand that perpetrated doddering ol’ Ronnie Reagan on us.

Jesus, what a collection of bummers.

Ron DeSantis' Key West anti-migrant missions raised pilot safety concerns

But as I endured the polished ravings of far right wing America’s flavor-of-the-month, Vivek Ramaswamy, the pious nattering of Mike Pence, the cruelty-is-the-point jeremiads of Ron DeSantis and so on, I kept toggling back to … Taylor Swift and “Barbie.” And who young men in 2023 America have to take their culture cues from.

Whatever else this summer will be known most for, the truly remarkable tour of Ms. Swift across the country, filling gigantic football stadiums with adoring legions of (mostly) young women paired with the billion dollar success of “Barbie”, again mostly thanks to the delight it inspired in young women, makes a case that 2023 has been The Summer of Babs and Taylor.

Being just a wee bit of a curmudgeon I can make a modest case that the overwhelming appeal of Ms. Swift and “Barbie” is not without some concern.

For example, there’s something a bit mercenary in Swift’s incessant extraction of disposable income from her fans. Never mind the sky high ticket prices, how about the re-re-release of her various albums in … different colors of vinyl … at $30+ a pop? And the vast array of “Taylor approved” merch? And … . Well it goes on and on in ways that I’m sure Mick Jagger kicks himself for never thinking of back in the early ’70s.

Beyond that, on an artistic level, I do wonder what Ms. Swift’s pervasive indulgence in personal relationship melodrama signals to impressionable young women? What lovelorn 16 year-old doesn’t listen to any of 50 of Swift’s songs and presume that that cute guy she’s developed a crush on is in fact a rat bastard? (Which of course they could well be.)

Similarly, fans of “Barbie”, and I’m one on a clever filmmaking level, argue that it’s real message is how both genders are locked into counterproductive stereotypes, not just all the doofus Kens strutting around. I guess I can see that, given some reflection. But I seriously doubt the majority of “Barbie’s” fans register much beyond, “Wow! Are boys dumb.”

Which, again, they most certainly are. Especially if you pay attention to modern American politics and watched even 10 minutes of last week’s debate.

There’s a new book out titled, “Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male is Struggling” by a Brit named Richard Reeves.

It’s received a middling amount of attention for its thesis — backed up by abundant data — that today’s males are fairing quite badly in comparison to their female counterparts. The fact that 57% of college degrees are now being awarded to women tells you something about how significantly young men in particular are falling behind in terms of higher education. After that you get into truly grim trend lines on addiction, various other forms of self-abusive behavior and suicide. Point being the picture isn’t encouraging … for men … and us, when you consider how all this anti-intellectual, overly-aggressive, self destructive behavior affects society at large.

You can see where I’m going with this.

Niggles aside, the over-arching cultural message from Taylor Swift and “Barbie” is something positive, community-enhancing based in a deeply enriching sense of gender pride and possibility. By the starkest of contrasts you listen to … Vivek Ramaswamy and Ron De Santis and of course He Who’s Name I’m Trying Damn Hard Not to Say for Fear of Spoiling My Lunch … and your reaction is basically the same as if confronted by a rabid carnivore in a dark alley. Lacking an escape route you want to find something with which to beat it over the head. It’s so goddam ugly.

It seems to me there’s an indisputable direct line from the self-pitying, sullen, greivance-soaked animosities discussed by Reeves in his book and on various podcasts and the predominately under-educated male’s identification with The Orange God King and all those — Ramaswamy — shamelessly trying to out-dystopia him. (Gotta love the Dickensian name on that dude, btw. An obnoxious peddler of magical, mystical thinking: Rama – swami. Can’t make it up.)

Young women can look on Taylor Swfit and think how wonderful and fun it would be to be her. But let’s imagine young men this summer — or over the past long eight years — looking at DeSantis, Ramaswamy and Him. What is their takeaway from the behavior they see there?

My hope is that one takeaway from this moment is that young men in particular, males who took their culutural dominance for granted as some kind of god-given biological right, come to understand that they have genuinely failed to keep pace with the Summer of Sunny Girls and the 21st century.