by Hatred makes people gullible and foolish. That’s a key lesson from the MAGA right’s deeply strange turn against Taylor Swift and her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs star tight end Travis Kelce. Indeed, that is a key lesson of this entire sorry era of American political and cultural life.
There is nothing new about partisan anger against celebrities. And Swift has ventured into politics. In 2018 she endorsed Tennessee Democratic Senate candidate Phil Bredesen against Republican Marsha Blackburn, and in 2020 she endorsed Joe Biden for president. Kelce, for his part, appeared in advertisements for the Pfizer Covid vaccine. According to MAGA calculations, between them the couple expresses the most infernal combination of affiliations: Democrats and vaccines.
Furthermore, “shut up and sing” (or, in Kelce’s case, shut up and listen) has been such a constant theme in right-wing cancel culture that it was the title of the Fox News host. Laura Ingraham’s 2003 book and from a 2006 documentary about the Dixie Chicks (now only the chicks). But Republican opposition to celebrity involvement has always been highly selective. Even as he condemned Swift, a prominent MAGA figure recently boasted that his “side” still had Kid Rock, Ted Nugent and Jon Voight. And after all, it was the Republican Party that elected a movie star (Ronald Reagan) and a reality TV celebrity (Donald Trump) to the presidency.
But while traditional partisan pettiness may explain the knee-jerk negative reaction to Swift, it can’t come close to explaining the incredible weirdness of the recent theory emanating from people with some of the biggest platforms in MAGA America. According to them, Taylor Swift’s extraordinary popularity is not the organic result of the bond of a talented and attractive superstar with her fans. No, according to them, Swift’s rise is a op or a psychological operation designed by the deep state to benefit Biden.
A central part of the plot, of course, is Swift’s fake, deep-state-invented relationship with Kelce. So when the Chiefs struggled early in the season, it was a source of right-wing schadenfreude. But now that they have secured a spot in the Super Bowl, everything has been revealed as part of the Plan.
Once again, it’s all so silly and strange. But silly and weird is normal in MAGA. If we imagined conspiracy theories as movies, we would say that “Taylor Swift: Psyop” was brought to you by the same studio that produced cult classics like “Pizzagate” and “The Seth Rich Conspiracy,” not to mention popular franchises. QAnon” and “Stop the Steal.”
All of these conspiracy theories are deeply strange. Who can forget that the effort to steal the election included claims that bamboo on the ballots Suggested evidence of Chinese interference? Or that Italian military satellites Had he somehow interrupted the count? Or that a The strange dreams and visions of a woman. had revealed wrongdoing on the part of Dominion Voting Systems?
The MAGA right’s relentless villainization of Democrats (so-called Demons in some parts of the religious right) has created a substantial population of people who believe that the left is miraculously powerful, operates without any moral restraint, and is dedicated to destroying their way of life. And if you believe your opponents are capable of anything (in every sense of the phrase), it’s a short journey to believing almost anything about them.
The political strain that MAGA conspiracy theories have placed on our democratic system has been widely documented. Less documented is MAGA’s cultural threat to American pluralism. Some days, it may seem like MAGA is engaged in a kind of cultural secessionism in which it turns against popular products and institutions (Bud Light, Target, the military) and tries to create alternatives. Has been MAGA Coffee, MAGA Banking, MAGA Beer and magician rapFor example.
By themselves, parallel economies can be an element of pluralism rather than a threat to it. Creating a business that sells a product and promotes a particular set of political or religious values is nothing new, on the contrary. good or the left.
But combine parallel economies with a boycott culture and you get something completely different. It is a cultural manifestation of an old legal temptation: freedom of speech for me, but not for you. For Swift, it’s shutting up and singing. But for Jason Aldean and Aaron Rodgers, the calculation is completely different. MAGA believers want them in that scenario. They need you on that podcast.
And then we are trapped in a vicious cycle. Relentless hostility opens the mind and heart to the worst stories about your opponents, no matter how incredible they may be. Once convinced, you double your hatred: can you believe What are they doing now? And then the cycle repeats itself with another story, just as wild, if not more so.
So once conspiracy theories are fully embraced, alienation is inevitable. I strive to be very tolerant of opposing points of view and have always enjoyed sports and the arts, even when athletes and artists disagree with me on issues of religion or politics. But I confess that my tolerance would be tested if I really believed that I was not watching a football match but a elaborate government manipulation designed to maintain its power.
This era of American politics will end, one way or another. And when he does, historians are likely to debate whether his defining characteristic was stupidity or malice. I’ve been going back and forth in my mind, but now I realize that the two traits have almost completely merged. Malice creates stupidity and stupidity creates malice.
If there is any silver lining to this dark cloud, it is that perhaps MAGA has finally revealed itself too completely. One can dream, but perhaps targeting the world’s most popular pop star can finally help expose what the nation’s political observers have long known: MAGA is not only deeply angry; It has become deeply strange.
