Spyke
politics·politics byMicroWave

Pentagon to MAGA world: You need to calm down over Taylor Swift

National security officials are used to shaking off absurd conspiracy theories, but the latest rumor that’s gripped MAGA world just hits different.

The claims by Fox News and far-right influencers that pop star Taylor Swift is part of a Pentagon “psychological operation” to get President Joe Biden reelected, and somehow rig the Super Bowl to benefit Kansas City Chiefs tight end (and Swift’s boyfriend) Travis Kelce, has been met with forehead slaps in the national security world.

“The absurdity of it all boggles the mind,” said one senior administration official, granted anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly on the matter. “It feels like one of those ‘tell me you are a MAGA conspiracy theorist, without telling me you are a MAGA conspiracy theorist’ memes.”

Pentagon to MAGA world: You need to calm down over Taylor Swifthttps://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/02/pentagon-to-maga-world-you-need-to-calm-down-over-taylor-swift-00139292Open linkView original on lemmy.world
dmv.social

MAGA crowd, what you have just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

189

It should be set to music and become anthemic for them (or us i guess 🤣)

If we're being super loose with it (and "we" are) you could literally use the opening theme for Billy Madison and it could sort of work out lol

How amazing would it be if they could get Biden or Dems in one chamber to say this to their repub terrorists?

13
sh.itjust.works

These people just can’t handle anything, just anything, not being exactly as they like it, and if it isn’t, it has to be some sort of conspiracy.

103
lemmy.ca

That’s my dad. Trump is a god to him, and anything negative said about him is a liberal plot to stop him from his patriotic duty. The cognitive dissonance that man shows is baffling!

62
lemmy.world

My stepfather is like that. I even tried to use his own logic to help him see most of these conspiracies are dumb; "you said yourself that the gov't is incompetent. So how can they pull off a conspiracy at this scale if they can't run the country?" - stuff like that.

It doesn't matter, he's fully drank the Kool-Aid, so I just keep him at arm's distance now.

46

Rules of fascism

#3: “Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, any previous reflection. Thinking is a form of emasculation.”

#4: Disagreement is treason.

#8: The enemy is both strong and weak.

28
aussie.zone

Thank goodness my Dad never went down that path, but honestly if he did I might just punch him straight in the face.

13
lemmy.world

Violence is bad and you should rethink your attitude towards people on the Kool-Aid. Anyway go ahead and explain me the paradox of intolerance like I haven't seen it a thousand times, I don't care.

-48
Taleyareply
aussie.zone

I need to advise you sir that your half-arsed attempt at virtuous shaming has utterly failed. Please return to your seat

9
nolannicereply
lemmy.world

Guys the best quarterback in the league made it to the superbowl again, it's a conspiracy against us. No other way to explain this.

31

Also some of them say, "the 49ers need to win to save the country"...but like the big conspiracy is that Taylor is supposed to make a half-time endorsement of Joe Biden.... So like, how would either team eventually winning the game have any impact on the half-time show?

16
tburkholreply
lemmy.world

And now that there's a denial, from a "senior administration official," it's proof-positive of a vast conspiracy. "Why would they deny something that's not real?"

23

At this point it almost seems like more than that. It's like they need to manufacture some outrage to keep everyone angry about something.

18
reddthat.com

Remember, a lot of young conservative men were convinced Taylor Swift was a white nationalist who posted with them on 4chan.

When she started telling people to go vote (she didnt even say for a specific party, but just telling people to vote is enough to convince them you're a democrat) they took that as Taylor Swift betraying them.

So much of what conservatives engage with is completely made up and exists only inside their own heads.

89

These are some of the same rocket surgeons that believe(d) that Hillary was using a pizza parlor with no basement to run an international pedo ring out of the basement of the pizza parlor.

Not really known for their application of reason and logic.

49

I mean, those same young conservative men are convinced that Taylor Swift and Lorde both have nudes posted on 4chan, because of the “tits or gtfo” rule.

Note that the speculation has existed since Swift and Lorde were both like 16.

10

High voter turnout typically means Democrat victory, as the only people who make sure to vote EVERY election is the paranoid "Keepin' up with the Jonesses" suburban America types

2
lemmy.world

This feels like one of those things /b/ started as a joke, and a few echo chambers took it seriously, and the media assumed or "assumed" it was far more widespread than it was. At least, I hope so

85
lemmy.world

At work I have a regular that comes into the office and she spouts conspiracies like these and started talking about Taylor Swift vaccines and the deep state in the last week or so, so there are definitely a few true believers.

30
lemmy.world

Oh no doubt, no matter how insane sounding there will be believers. It's almost always related to undiagnosed or unmedicated mental disorders with delusions as a symptom. It's really sad that we don't prioritize mental health more in this country.

10
lemmy.world

This woman is like 75 years old, lives in a van from '89, gets healthcare from her father being in the military or something based on what she says. She definitely has undiagnosed schizophrenia based on the way she acts and the bits of past she gives out. I feel bad for her, but she comes in, destroys our bathrooms to take a shower, then when she gets barred from using our restrooms, gets upset claiming she has no memory of causing the mess and tells us she will have to inform her doctors if that's the case. It seems all the more tragic that she lives this way but has access to the things that could help her, but chooses not to. She says she lives in the van to save money, but she has a full retirement account. There's a military base with her father's name on it.

Everyday, someone new is out to get her. Government, vaccines, Democrats, CNN, George Soros. The right has effectively weaponized mental illness on a national scale.

15
DogWaterreply
lemmy.world

The entire alt right movement was exactly that. It was a joke on b that did this.

Like I used to think that enders game was stupid when it came to the weird internet forum starting a movement and influencing politics but that has literally happened in real life lol

23
lemmy.world

Except that in Ender's Game they used weird internet forums to actually improve public discourse and awareness.

11
DogWaterreply
lemmy.world

Sure but what's your point? I'm saying it was weird to me that the author thought that was realistic or possible. And it happened in real life, proving that it was possible lol

1

Oh, I read Enders Game in high school and took the opposite view from you. I believed that the Internet would raise public discourse by elevating intelligence and empathy over our baser instincts. Then we all, including me, proved that wrong.

Optimist, I guess. Not sure what to do with that side of me now.

1
bAZtARdreply
feddit.de

Right? I remember when the_Donald started on reddit, I thought it was hilarious and just people making fun of Trump and behaving like over the top cultists. And in the beginning it obviously was only just a joke. And then it got real and people really thought what was written there was the truth. People for banned and an echo chamber formed.

Was it the same on /b/? Did anyone experience the same as me back then? I really wanna know if all of this came from dumb internet humour...

2

I know people used to post the updates for Q on there. That's why its called Qanon. Because the were from 4chan and the posts were anonymous.

1
TurtleJoereply
lemmy.world

There have always been sports fans who think that when their team loses, it's because the ref is on the take. Now you have legalized sports gambling everywhere, with non-stop ads, and official NFL partnerships. Combine that with dozens of hyper slo-mo cameras covering every angle when a ref misses a call, and the conspiracy that the NFL is rigged has become more common the last two years.

Without getting into how absolutely stupid that is, it's only a few more leaps in logic to get to where they seem to be: they keep showing Swift during games, because her fans tune in to see her, ergo, they'll want her to be on screen during the biggest have of the year! The NFL wants the Chiefs to go to the super bowl. (I bartend, and I've had non-maga people saying this to me.) Add in the paranoia that comes with facism, and boom, a new MAGA grand conspiracy is born.

17

There have always been sports fans who think that when their team loses, it’s because the ref is on the take.

It doesn't help that this has actually happened though like with the NBA in the late 90s/early aughts.

12
S_204reply
lemm.ee

Listen, I'm a lifelong football player, coach and fan. If you're trying to tell me the game isn't rigged for the Chiefs to be in the Superbowl I'm telling you you're the conspiracy Nutter!

Signed Your biggest Baltimore Ravens fan.

7
flickerreply
lemmy.world

Woof. I felt so bad for Flowers on 1/28. They kept zooming in on him when he was rattled and you could see how bad it was getting to him.

5
S_204reply

He made rookie mistakes after not playing like a rookie all season. The offense shit the bed the second half, wasn't just one guy Flowers doesn't deserve as much hate as he's getting. Deserves a good share though.

3
dhorkreply
lemmy.world

There actually is a confirmed government plot to keep the Bills from winning the Super Bowl, though. It was confirmed in that documentary from the 90s, "The X-Files".

4
S_204reply

Oh fuck watching that FG go wide right the other week gave me flash backs to nam.

1

You took the words right out of my neurolink embedded keyboard...

This really is one of the most amusing panics they've had in recent years.

17

Well sure if you want to take morbid reality into account. Yet they wonder why people call for gun laws when nutcases pull things like that.

4

"They are trying to take away our right to shoot up a concert!" -Q cultists probably

4

I feel like this is how a lot of stuff starts these days. I wouldn't be surprised if it was a "psy op" (possibly created by actual children).

7
lemmy.world

"They add that she's not, in fact, part of a psychological operation to sway voters to Joe Biden."

MAGA - "Yeah, but that's just what they WOULD SAY! THIS PROVES IT!!!"

67

This is completely sarcastic but it's so, so, SO dumb that this is in fact the sentiments of the ppl on the new the_donald website. Smh

4
lemmy.world

The Qtards should be treated like Al Qaeda or ISIL operating in the United States. All their communications should be monitored. They should be infiltrated and any time one of them make threats or start making plans to do anything illegal, as many as possible are arrested, locked up and embroiled in the justice system as much as possible - prison time, time in court, etc.

62
GladiusBreply
lemmy.world

There are more incidents of them killing innocents over dumb conspiracies. Like that son and his dad being beheaded.

21
phxreply

Some of them very likely are foreign intelligence operatives attempting to influence locally.

17

Or just declare them as the Clear And Present Danger that they are and treat them exactly how union labor was treated by the military and East Indian Fruit Company

10
lemmy.world

Just count any retweet, thumbs up etc to the threats and you'll round up thousands at a time I bet.

6
lemmy.world

Why not just give them the Al Qaeda or ISIL treatment and send a drone to blow up their house?

0

Some would say "what about innocent bystanders in the house?" but the chances of others in the household not being exactly the same are miniscule

3
lemmy.world

I love that the Pentagon is referring to dank memes.

Reality really is stranger than fiction.

50
lemmy.world

Just think of all the tax dollars wasted paying law enforcement to surf 4chan... It's funny because you know that's a real job...

5
jkrtnreply
lemmy.ml

I don't think it's a waste of money. There's plenty of pedophiles sharing CSAM on 4chan and probably a terrorist or two as well.

11
lemmy.world

Yeah, at least 4chan pretends to moderate posts these days. Back when it first started, it was the fucking Wild West of the internet. You’d be scrolling, and see naked 13 year olds getting pounded by sweaty old dudes with their faces blacked out, right below terrorist beheading videos and memes about triforcing. It was like if LimeWire had a stream of consciousness.

3

I mean, people who grew up on the internet can get up in high-ranking positions too, especially as we all get older.

4
lemmy.world

Fuck if I know dude. I thought we had hit a low with bush. Then we went and elected a black man and holy ever living fuck did that break right-wing people. Just absolutely broke their fragile little minds and here we are.

59
Leviathanreply
lemmy.world

You guys need to elect a black man with a heavy inner-city accent who enacts serious change so you can break them all the way once and for all.

28
Leviathanreply
lemmy.world

Fuck, if only! Or a gay black man who does drag as a hobby.

21

If they can negotiate on foreign policy and domestic policy, then they can work it.

7

Disagree! Caffeine enema days could mean leaps and bounds in policy foreign and domestic!

3
lemmy.world

I was about to make a joke about President Camacho but then, I remembered, that fucker, that HORRIBLE PARODY OF A PRESIDENT, is so much better then what we got with Trump. Camacho saw some serious shit was going on and said 'holy fuck lets let the smart guy fix this.'

He recognized and openly admitted to his own shortcomings.

21
lemmy.world

Yeah but... ummm...you're on the OTHER end of all our guns. No one is safe from our craziness.

14
Retrogradereply
lemmy.world

As a half Brit half American, Britain really hasn't been really pulling many Ws recently either

12

It's paradoxical, I throw the tea and it just spins in place in mid air

Also it's obviously spelled C̴͉͎̘̱͙̙̣̱̜̲̖̎̂̋̔ȍ̶̻͕̬̞̰̫̙̩̯̤̳́͊̒̚͜ͅl̷̨̹̺̳͔͉͇͎̻̐̐͌̽̾̀̉͐̈́̆͗̎̚̕œ̸̢͉̜̽͛̅̚ư̸̪͍̂͐̀̀̍r̶͈̮̲͉̀̓̏̋̈́͑̌̔̽͊́͘͝͠

2

Doesn't stop me being able to laugh at America. If you're half British you should know one of our defining traits is self-deprecation. Britains Ls are eternal and everlasting and I will laugh at them all. But Americas - oh fuck yeah. They gimme a hearty laugh too!

How does someone be half American? Where do you pledge your allegiance?

4
lemmy.world

Until it reaches you in the form of a global economy collapse.

Of course, China could be the savior, but would that really be a win?

6
jabjoereply
feddit.uk

You should. We all need an at least semi-democratic country at the top. We need the non-democratic authoritarian kind of governance to be seen to fail. Again. If American fail, we need Europe to start punching it's weight even more. And unfortunately the crazy right (no doubt helped by enemies of freedom) is on the rise across Europe. Least in Britain, it looks like the nightmare might be over this election. It will take years to undo the economic and social damage they have done though.

Edit: English

0

Fine, I'll be explicit. Russia, China, etc. The authoritarian powers. They do want success democratic countries as it gives their citizens ideas.

4

Except if the Cheeto Benito starts some shit somewhere in the world due to his excellent diplomatic skills god forbid he gets elected again, pretty sure we are all in the shitter.

5

until we drag the whole western world into a real fucking shit show. lets not forget how close tony blair and george w bush were when it came to handling iraq

4

Yeah, except most reality TV is 99% made-up bullshit that just impacts nothing outside the “participants” and water cooler gossip.

Except Love on the Spectrum. Thats just wholesome AF.

4

40 years of crippled public education and a media landscape owned by the wealthy elites that use it to push anything to distract us from the fact that our greatest enemy are billionaires.

5
lemmy.world

When we look back on this era what are we going to say drove them to this? Like, we explain the Salem witch trials by saying that there was ergot in the water which likely had them hallucinating.

What is it now? Is TikTok this much of a problem? Is there ergot in the water? What the hell is happening...

43
Xbeamreply
lemmy.world

Maybe lead and micro-plastics? But that's just a guess.

36
foggyreply
lemmy.world

Plausible. It seems apparent that this is something that's been introduced into basically all humans water supply in the last 50 years. I'm sure it's been getting worse and worse as time has gone on, and it could be that we are at a critical mass where it is starting to affect behaviors en masse.

9

Yeah "deliberately making ourselves too stupid to survive" sounds about right for some shit we'd pull off.

4
foggyreply
lemmy.world

I mean, bro, we had fucking witch trials.

Witch trials.

We actually believed in witches and we burned people at the stake.

This is not the most lunacy humanity has ever seen. Not by a long shot. It's just the most lunacy that we've seen with modern tools to help suss that lunacy out.

There is certainly an explanation for what's going on. We just haven't identified it.

20
lemmy.world

We actually believed in witches and we burned people at the stake.

Only a matter of time before the cult starts talking about publicly executing LGBTQ+ people and women who have had abortions or miscarriages. Possibly by burning them at the stake.

7
lemm.ee

Or federal employees...they're also called the deep state.

Where'd I hear that in the news recently?

7

A deranged MAGA cultist recently CUT OFF HIS DAD'S HEAD and posted about it online because of the dad apparently being a federal employee 😬

I'd find you a link to an article about it but frankly I dread what other search results I'd get for THOSE keywords!

12

I do not disagree. But we are not there yet, it has been crazier before. It does appear that we are on track, that's why I'm so concerned and curious as to what the fuck is causing this shit, but we're not there yet. Probably because of those modern tools that we have, I feel like if whatever is going on right now is going on in the 1700s we would be done for.

2

They joined the war on disease on the side of the disease. There's nothing else to say, at that point. They are bereft of joy, logic, life, survival instinct, humanity, anything good you name it.

7

"He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you. "

Basically : tread carefully on your crusade lest you become the thing you hate

5
lemm.ee

Nietzsche has some broad appeal, well, amongst those that read philosophy. You can't get past the post-modernists without summiting that intellectual mountain. I suppose existentialism is somewhat Niche-ey...but what do I know, I read Zarathustra at 16. Ymmv

2

we explain the Salem witch trials by saying that there was ergot in the water which likely had them hallucinating

Witch trials were ways for powerful people to get rid of those who challenged the established system. These conspiracies are the same as they've always been.

Fox News leaders aren't pushing these stories because they're high. It's because they're billionaires who don't want to lose their power and control. Just like in the time of witch trials, these powerful people are spreading fear, doubt, and confusion in order to distract the masses from giving too much attention to meddling people making troublesome arguments against the current system.

10
lemmy.world

Possibly how all the different crises like inequality, climate, capitalism, pollution all converged. People sought quick solutions and some leaders gave them solutions that were ready, quick and wrong. Blaming others went to cult like heights. Until it all collapsed.

10
foggyreply
lemmy.world

All of these things contribute to it, yes, but I do think that there is a level of absurdity to what we are witnessing that is not adequately explained simply by coercion. Perhaps I'm wrong.

4

Humans do whacky shit on a regular basis, certainly if they don't really understand what's going on. Cargo cults come to mind.

3
lemmy.world

Tiktok? If you find someone who isn't a swifty on Tiktok, they probably won't survive long.

This nonsense comes from Fox and truth social.

5

I think he was YouTube. Tiktok is very short form content.

That said, the only time I've ever seen that guy's face is in a mugshot, so I could be wrong.

5
lemmy.world

I've worked in the newsroom. And yeah, they do love a pun more than is healthy..

6
lemmy.world

I’ve always known maga people are dumber than shit, but now they’re just running the world’s worst D&D session online and on Fox.

28

I'm gripped by a strong urge to start anonymously sending some Taylor Swift / KC Chiefs merchandise to family members and acquaintances who have been guzzling the red-hat Flavor Aid for the last decade. It's probably not the most productive use of time and money but this whole thing is just goddamn ridiculous.

26

Anonymous remailers exist, I'd just have to ship it to them in a package they could open and reseal before sending it on. There are some other rules involved as well, turns out there's some risk of those being used for less than savory purposes.

3

Dark Brandon gives their supersolders the hardest battles.

Agencies has so many stories and gossips of coups, secret weapons and psychological experiments like MK-ULTRA, and they used Taylor telling people to vote as their psy-op?

Big scary government that can hear every your word and can even say them for you, can track and kill you at any time - uses a pop-star to make a point?

Who buys that bullshit? Is it, again, the weak but strong enemy? That's a story even Onion wouldn't publish.

25
lemmy.world

Wait for it. Win or lose, once they realize how embarrassing this episode should be, it'll become something that none of them actually believed and besides, it was all started by some lefty trying to make fun of them. The real conspiracy turns out to be (in hindsight with the benefit of selective memory and heavy retconning) a push to drive up merchandise sales. They'll make a reference to globalists, lizard people and something about "controlling the media" without a specific J-word for plausible deniability.

23
sh.itjust.works

You can't say jewelery without a J-word, don't you? They are stupid rich and are out to get you. Hide your kids, hide your wife, as they'd come to you to take them, and dance Hava Nagila over your cold dead body. Stupid leftists think I'm insane now, but who'd they ask to help, when jewish reptiloids would take their children and farm them for adenochrome? Not me, I'd shoot them on sight as any other trespasser. God bless America.

9
Neatoreply
ttrpg.network

The tragedy of our age is that this could totally be posted in all seriousness.

11

We live in some form of post-reality where whatever our sci-fi visionaries said years ago as a precaution gets picked as an instruction to action. I hate that, and I'm happy someone picked it without a cowardly added s/.

8

I'm in my mid-40's and i cannot recall a time when this wouldn't have been the case.

3

And hide yo husband cuz they rapin' everyone out here

6

I mean, if agencies theoretically wanted more dem votes, there are worse ways than getting a mega superstar to ask her fans for them. But if they were in the business of controlling US elections we probably wouldn't have the entirety of the shitshow that is existence right now.

2

Are you thinking of the fairness doctrine? That only ever applied to broadcast TV, not cable TV like Fox News.

The reason for the distinction is that broadcast TV is over radio waves that anyone can receive with off the shelf equipment. The FCC has a lot of jurisdiction over that and can regulate what can be shown. Cable TV is relatively free of that oversight. Legally speaking, they could show hardcore porn at 5pm. They won't because their advertisers would hate it, but they legally could.

5
Mamertinereply
lemmy.world

Fox news classified themselves as entertainment so that law didn't apply to them.

3
Phoenixzreply
lemmy.ca

News cycle, NEWS cycle, not Jews cycle. It's a typo and I'm rather amazed that nobody thought of this.

My auto correct keeps changing news to Jews now btw, no idea why. I am not anti-Semitic, I have nothing against Jews or Palestinians or Mexicans or Caucasians or African Americans for God's sake. It's just a random auto correct issue. I'll try and fix it, can you undelete this?

3

If that were your only problematic comment, I'd ALMOST buy that excuse. But it's not your only problematic comment.

2
lemmy.world

I'm waiting for one of them to call for a protest of the 2024 election because it's rigged, convincing thousands of MAGA to not vote. We're nearly there....

22

Be the change you want to see in the world.

1
lemm.ee

Really? You couldn't come up with something like that yourself?

-3
lemmy.ca

I didn't realize how much Fox News was involved with this. I guess Fox is back in with the MAGA crowd?

What they're doing is very dangerous.

11
Empricornreply
feddit.nl

Uh... what? Fox News is the biggest right-wing propaganda platform in the world and it (still) exists to influence opinion. They've hosted him and his sycophants and election-denyers, etc multiple times. They might have briefly looked into how to insulate themselves after paying out almost a billion dollars for lies, but they're still all-in for Trump and the MAGA crowd, believe it...

7
lemmy.ca

Well, I'm not American and I don't watch Fox News, so I didn't realize that they were the ones pushing this Taylor Swift conspiracy narrative. Also, it feels like it wasn't that long ago that I heard MAGA was going to boycott Fox.

5

That was a thing for a bit because Fox walked back some of the more extreme narratives they pushed to shield themselves from legal liability. Some of the more extreme MAGA conspiracy nuts still swear off of Fox News in favor of Newsmax and OAN. My grandma is one of them; watched Fox News religiously all her life until 2021, when she switched to Newsmax, OAN, and various "prophets" who claim to have a direct line to God who tells them Trump is the second coming of Christ.

3
zalgotextreply
sh.itjust.works

Pitcher

Catcher

Hooker

Back door slider

Clean and jerk

Five hole

Pole position

Double team

It's not just American football that has the funny sexual innuendos

6

Sadly they'll take the "Suspiciously specific denial" (How they'd see it) as confrimation

8

Of all the violence, media manipulation, lies, a LITERAL coup attempt, and what the pentagon decides to crack down in is Fox slandering A FUCKING POP STAR?!

This world is insane, it has been for a while now.

edit: to stem the hate. I have nothing against Taylor Swift, good on her for telling people to vote. I don't get her music but then I'm not her target demographic.

7

And here we again run into the fundamental problem with the alternative facts crowd:

Whats being said here is factually true, and not really controversial...

...Unless youre a Q Brained MAGAtard.

When you look at it from their point if view?

This is more evidence they are correct.

These people are violent, anti democratic, basically cannot be reasoned with, and there are a /lot/ of them.

This situation does not have a comfortable solution.

5
aussie.zone

Does anyone actually know real people who believe any of this shit or is this just bots/media pushing a narrative

4
ganksyreply
lemmy.world

Haven't called my dad in a while but I'll give him a ring today. He's usually 100% on board with the mainstream maga garbage. I'll update my comment after.

14

Oh there are absolutely people who 100% believe this. This kind of shit is all I hear about whenever I talk to a lot of my family.

8

Yeah, and unfortunately I'm related to them. The maternal side of my family has pretty much split in two and aren't talking to the other half nowadays because of shit like this.

6

I work with a couple people that I think may believe this. I haven't specifically talked to them about this, but they believe they other conspiracy theory, so it would make sense. One is a flat Earther is that helps paint a picture.

5

No, no, keep it up, get arrested for trying to do something and lose your voting rights

3

But that's exactly what they would say if it were a psy-op, isn't it?

I'm joking and I wish that were obvious, but nowadays it probably isn't.

Seriously tho, can we go back to conspiracy theories about bigfoot? It's equally bullshit, but the worst case scenario with bigfoot conspiracy theories is that people do some more hiking to try to spot him.

3
lemmy.world

I remember remarking over the last couple months how Swift's rise to superstar this past year could have a real impact on Voter turnout. I was hoping she'd pop into the political sphere and boy, Republicans just made sure she will lol.

Edit: Okay, calm down. Sure absolutely she's been a superstar for years, but nobody can deny she jumped to whatever the next level is called this past year. She went from another highly successful pop star a la Lady Gaga or Katie Perry to literally the most successful of all time to the point where she inundates my feeds (pre-recent politics news) where no other pop star does.

3
lemm.ee

She's been a superstar a whole lot longer than this past year.

She became a billionaire in the past year. You know how hard that is to do as an artist? She's been at this a minute. Like 2 decades of superstar minutes.

10
lennybirdreply
lemmy.world

Sure absolutely, but nobody can deny she jumped to whatever the next level is called this past year. She went from another highly successful pop star a la Lady Gaga or Katie Perry to literally the most successful of all time to the point where she inundates my feeds (pre-recent politics news) where no other pop star does.

4
Zorquereply
kbin.social

I'll deny it. She's stayed pretty consistent, just because other artists have waned in popularity doesn't mean she's somehow more.

4
lennybirdreply
lemmy.world

By pretty much every metric in terms of search trends, sales, concert tickets... She's above her past average.

I've seen no evidence provided by you to suggest otherwise.

3
lemmy.world

Billionaires shouldn't exist but if one of them happens to use their ill gotten wealth to improve society, I don't see why I should be mad?

7

I don't have the capacity to stop Peter Thiel or Elon musk from doing billionaire stuff. I also don't have the capacity to stop Taylor Swift from doing billionaire stuff. I am going to feel positively toward positive social developments even if I am aware it's not perfect.

Give me a button that deletes a random billionaire and I will fingerblast it until it breaks.

4
Gosmirereply
lemmy.world

We should have her stay home and just do concerts from there. Let's instead let 1000's of fans get plane tickets and go see her instead.

3

you seem to have a very biased perspective. even if that were true, isn't she still a performance artist?

1

… broadest appeal. She's not an artist…

Do you figure she’s not an artist because she’s a broad?

Literally shaking right now from the pent up misogynist energy coming off your comment.

-2

You've narrowed yourself down to one of 50ish people if you earned the title the same year her first album came out.

0
Draedronreply
lemmy.dbzer0.com

"This past year"? Did you live under a rock? She has been a superstar for a long time now.

6
lennybirdreply
lemmy.world

In a way I have, and this proves my point:

Sure absolutely, but nobody can deny she jumped to whatever the next level is called this past year. She went from another highly successful pop star a la Lady Gaga or Katie Perry to literally the most successful of all time to the point where she inundates my feeds (pre-recent politics news) where no other pop star does.

5
Zorquereply
kbin.social

So you see a couple articles and that "proves" that now she's a superstar?

I'd say that follows as much logic as the people touting that she's part of some liberal conspiracy.

2

Tey could have just left it at "you need to calm down"

3