Why The Right Believes It Owns Taylor Swift
The answer is skin deep.
The right-wing echosphere is having a collective freak out over pop star Taylor Swift.
explores the wackiness in detail over at but what specifically stands out to me is the unhinged stalker vibe from the Right. They act like a spurned lover, especially the incels posing as political commentators. They’ve dismissed her as an ugly, dried-up hag with no “eggs left.” Swift is 34 and childless, sure, but this is 2024 — she can probably safely reproduce if she chooses. However, this idiot below is skeptical.
Owen Benjamin, whose male opinion we absolutely must hear, shared a deranged theory about why NFL player Travis Kelce, who’s also 34, would date a gorgeous, multi-talented billionaire: He’s totally gay because having sex with women is obvious homosexual behavior.
“Why would a rich famous guy marry a 34 year old woman? If you started immediately you MIGHT be able to have two kids. And she’s publicly had sex with a ton of guys. Despite her wealth she’s very low quality for any successful male. Just seems weird and almost like he’s a gay guy.
Why would a successful man want a middle aged woman who’s always on tour? Is it…could it be…because he’s gay?”
These are not rational points worth engaging, but Benjamin does provide some junk stats about how Swift is definitely in the lower range of “middle aged.” (Unfortunately, there is no known treatment. The condition just progresses until the patient eventually dies or people are asking, “Whatever happened to Cameron Diaz?”)
MAGA is paranoid, hateful, and resentful of other people’s joy. Political strategist Steve Schmidt wrote, “Taylor Swift occupies a place in American culture that is antithetical and oppositional to Trumpism. She is big, while Trump is small. She is kind, while he is cruel.”
I agree, but that doesn’t explain all the vitriol and goofy conspiracy theories directed at Swift. Former President Klan Robe’s goons have declared a “holy war” against Swift when even normal, non-holy water would make their cult leader melt. Fox News was in full panic mode because Swift might publicly endorse and campaign for President Joe Biden (again), which is not unprecedented behavior for a major pop phenomenon.
Beyoncé also occupies a place in American culture that is antithetical and oppositional to Trumpism. Queen Bey is big, while Trump is small. She is kind, while he is cruel. So is Lady Gaga for that matter.
Swift’s support for Biden would simply align her with 81 million other normal American voters, but I think truly understanding the Right’s sense of betrayal in this instance requires digging deeper into the 2020 election results.
Despite a botched pandemic response that resulted in needless deaths, Trump still won white people overall (58 to 41 percent). He won Christians 60 to 39 percent, carrying Protestants at 72 percent. He won white women (55 to 44 percent). He even won young white voters between the ages of 18 to 29 (53 to 44) and white voters between the ages of 30 and 44, Swift’s age group (57 to 41).
No, Swift is a demographic outlier politically, a “minority” in a sense, but she’s not Colin Kaepernick or even LeBron James, who Laura Ingraham once told to “shut up and dribble.” She’s certainly not Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. However, I think the distinction the Right makes between Swift and Beyoncé is exactly skin deep. Kaepernick and James were “uppity” and ungrateful. Ocasio-Cortez, like Barack Obama, is inherently an “other” and scary for that reason alone. Taylor Swift, though, should’ve been one of them, and they act as though she was.
MAGA isn’t alone in prejudging Swift. Author David Austin Walsh responded to a post on social media that showed an image of Kanye West interrupting Swift’s acceptance speech at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. He wrote, “Imagine traveling back in time to 2009 and explaining to people which one of these people would become a liberal icon and which one would become a neo-Nazi.”
There’s no reason anyone in 2009 would find it shocking that Kanye West is now a anti-Semitic MAGA dolt and Swift is someone worth a damn. Swift was always considerate, thoughtful, and bright, and West was always a gross incel — as evidenced by his literally storming the stage and spoiling Swift’s moment. If 2009 you is actually surprised by how things turned out with Swift and West, then you probably made some brash assumptions based on their backgrounds: West is a Black rap star. Swift lived in Tennessee and started out as a country music artist. She’s had Miss Teen Jesus hair. Case closed! West should’ve never embraced Trump, and Swift should’ve posted angry Instagram videos where she railed against mask mandates and lockdowns.
Over on Fox News, Laura Ingraham seemed almost distraught that Swift wasn’t a Republican. It just didn’t compute with her Aryan-bot programming. Sean Hannity had an on-air break down where he insisted that Swift should hate Biden and love him, damnit!
“Maybe [Swift] just bought into all the lies about conservatives and Republicans —that they’re racist and sexist and homophobic and xenophobic and transphobic and Islamophobic. That conservatives and Republicans want dirty air and water and a total ban on all abortions without exceptions. If she believes all that, she is believing a lie.”
So, apparently if Swift believes the Republican Party’s actual platform and observes with her own lying eyes the laws and policies they advance, she’s been duped. Sad, really.
Fox News is known for its insulting level of willful deceit, but this felt like an abusive spouse attempting to gaslight their partner from leaving their sorry ass. They don’t even promise that they’ll change, which wouldn’t happen anyway. They claim they were the ideal mate all along, and Swift would understand this if her eggs weren’t all dried up.
The Right believes it owns Taylor Swift and her ongoing rejection enrages them. I’m reminded of The Avengers episode, “The House That Jack Built,” in which a former employee Mrs. Peel had fired (the Brits call it “sacked”) lures her into a creepy old house he’d designed to slowly drive her insane and then kill her. In a pre-recorded message, the now dead villain gloats, “Sooner or later, you will stand in this house and HEAR ME.”
Of course, Mrs. Peel wasn’t broken and never let this small man dominate her. I think Ms. Swift is made from similar stock.
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Another thing that breaks their brains is Kelce being so secure in his manhood that being known as Mr. Taylor Swift does not upset him at all. He is in no way threatened by her wealth, success, or fame.
Stephen - Your story only needed this line to explain the Swift brouhaha : “this felt like an abusive spouse attempting to gaslight their partner from leaving their sorry ass”. I did like the rest of it though.