Taylor Swift vs. MAGA? Trump toadies get mad and dumb over Time's new Person of the Year.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2023/12/07/taylor-swift-time-person-of-the-year-trump-maga/71840257007/

It will be hilarious if the MAGA trolls will activate the Swiftie Nation and swing the election to the Democrats. Don't mess with TayTay, fools!

 

It was an interesting article. On the one hand, it is almost unbelievable that any intelligent individual would believe the nonsense about Taylor Swift being a political danger to the right. On the other hand, 70% of Republicans believe the nonsense that Biden didn't win the 2020 election fairly. There are also strange beliefs about censoring books and all that culture war nonsense. I think that the right has lost touch with reality because of the news that they consume. Fox, Newsmax and OAN are very poor sources to base one's concept of reality on.

 

Of course she's a danger to MAGA World. Any personality cult figure that isn't the Dear Leader is a threat to any facsist movement.

 

It often needs to be pointed out that being named by Time isn't in recognition of someone's greatness. (The oft-cited example is Hitler in 1938). It is about impact.

Whatever you think of Taylor Swift, she is absolutely dominating popular music at this point. The designation from Time seems reasonable.

 

Yes! She is absolutely dominating popular music at this point. I guess the argument that she is dangerous to the political right is based on the fact that Kanye West obnoxiously went onstage when she won her first Grammy and took the Grammy award from her. Since then Kanye has established himself as a Trump supporter. I hasten to add that Kanye gave the award back to her and exited the stage as it appeared that security was approaching.

Please note that this argument is completely irrational but it is still the best that I can come up with.

 

Taylor triggers the Far Right, because they used to mistake her for one of their own (based on very Aryan looks and country genre - even though there's a fair number of country stars who are not Right in any way). Until, in 2018, she denounced MAGA Sen. Marsha Blackburn and endorsed her Democratic challengers.

I am not so sure she is not dangerous for MAGA. Tay had showed that she can cause an increase in voter registration with a short Insta post.

You just need to take several seats and then try to restore the peace
And control your urges to scream about all the people you hate
'Cause shade never made anybody less gay

 

I think we have a clear case of greatness, here. Talent, brains, hustle. TS is pretty amazing.

 

Tay/Kanye/Kim saga is longer and more involved than that. No, I don't think it's about Ye.

 

As did millions of others, I saw that moment on TV - and Ye's interruption was the worst moment I have ever seen in my life, from a music star. This thread is partly titled "mad and dumb" - I think that awful moment is where "mad and dumb" started to show. How Ye has managed to spiral further and further down from THAT low point, I have no idea -- but he has. With professional help and great personal effort, others have made it back from severe mental afflictions -- but I get the vibe Ye has absolutely no desire to do so. And he keeps on proving me right.

You got that one right, amigo!

 

Of course not. It appears to me as irrational. I suspect that trying to really understand the reasoning would involve an emotion based explanation far more than any logical reasoning though.

 

I'll stop here. Once again - this isn't Ye's moment. It's all about Taylor. And congratulations to her on being chosen as Person of the Year. Well done! Well-earned! Enjoy!

 

I agree. My proof that I can't stop thinking about Ye's "mad and dumb" Grammy incident even all these years later is that I brought up that old incident! The explanation for that would also require some some investigative psychoses analysis on me. It was the strangest thing I ever saw on live TV would be a good starting point.

 

That moment was the least disturbing part of it. Kimye orchestrated the whole bullying campaign, with much of the entertainment press joining in:

In the end, we all got a whole album ("Reputation") out of this pain, as well as, indirectly, "Taylor's Version" re-records that transformed the music industry (Kanye's manager Scooter Braun, another major villain in TayTay's mythology, was the one who bought the records off of her initial label), but this is sick.

Ultimately though, I don't think Ye has much to do with the MAGA rage towards her. It's just that, being sad misogynistic virgins, they can't deal with a woman having this level of success. Especially the one who refused to be their silent totem. As a long time Hillary Clinton fan, I'm reminded of the backlash she received for coining the "deplorables" label - and how she was absolutely right, as always. The basket of deplorables, the whole lot of them.

 

Thanks for the full story. I was not aware of most of that. While it may be true that Kanye's behavior at the Grammys was the least disturbing of this whole sad story, Ye's antics at the Grammys was still the most crazy and dumb thing that I think that I ever saw on live TV. That guy needs therapy!

 

She is prone to forgetting that a lot of people have trouble absorbing a thought expressed in a paragraph, that's true.

What is also true, though, that a lot of the kommentariat who latched of 3 out of context words and ran with it totally COULD absorb it. And chose not to. Just so they can write their little opinion pieces and play "bash a Clinton" for fun and profit. Not the first time, too.

Also, I think this whole way of covering things like a game, "did she make a right move on this chess board", rather than as substance, "is ittrue?", is screwed up and bad for democracy. Is Trump's fan base toxic? What does it mean for the country? That may be less fun that scoring the 100's gotcha on HRC, but way more important.

 

Also,


Happy Birthday to Taylor Swift!

 

"Politics" just refers to how groups of people come up with decisions. Having it the dumb way is a choice.