Taylor Swift and the profound weirdness of MAGA

Hate makes people gullible and foolish.

This is a key lesson from the strange right turn MAGA (Make America Great Again) vs. Taylor Swift and her boyfriend, the Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce.

Indeed, this is a key lesson of this whole sad era of American political and cultural life.

Partisan anger against celebrities is nothing new.

And Swift ventured into politics.

In 2018 he supported the Democratic candidate for Senate in Tennessee, Phil Bredesenagainst Republican Marsha Blackburn and in 2020 supported Joe Biden for president.

Kelce, for his part, appeared in commercials for the COVID vaccine Pfizer.

According to MAGA calculations, between the two, 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 grab it) has been such a constant theme in right-wing cancel culture that it was the title of both the host’s 2003 book Fox News Laura Ingraham as per a 2006 documentary about the Dixie Chicks (now just the Chicks).

But Republican opposition to celebrity involvement has always been highly selective.

Even as he condemned Swift, a leading MAGA figure recently boasted that his “side” still had Kid Rock, Ted Nugent and Jon Voight.

After all, it was the Republican Party that elected a movie star to the presidency (Ronald Reagan) as a reality TV celebrity (Donald Trump).

“Operation”

But while traditional partisan pettiness may explain the knee-jerk negative reaction to Swift, it can’t come close to explaining the incredible strangeness of recent theory coming from people with some of the biggest platforms in MAGA America.

According to them, Swift’s extraordinary popularity is not the organic result of the connection of a talented and attractive superstar with her fans.

No, according to them Swift’s rise is a”operation” or a “psychological operation” designed by the Deep State to benefit Joe Biden.

A central part of the plot, of course, is Swift’s fake relationship with Kelce, concocted by the Deep State.

So when the Chiefs struggled early in the season, it was a source of schadenfreude (Pleasure in the misfortunes of others) of rights.

But now that they have reached the superbowlit was all revealed as part of the plan.

Again, it’s all so silly and strange.

But silly and weird are the norm with MAGA.

If we imagined conspiracy theories as movies, we would say that “Taylor Swift: Psyop” was produced by the same studio that produced cult classics like “Pizzagate” and “The Seth Rich Conspiracy,” not to mention the hit “QAnon” franchises. ”. ” and “Stop the steal.”

All these conspiracy theories are deeply strange.

Who can forget that the attempt to steal the election included claims that the bamboo on the ballots suggested evidence of Chinese interference?

Or that Italian military satellites had somehow interrupted the counting?

Or that a woman’s strange dreams and visions had revealed her misdeeds Domain voting systems?

The MAGA right’s relentless evil toward Democrats (the so-called “Demon-crats” in some parts of the religious right) has created a sizable population of people who believe that the left is miraculously powerful, operates without any moral constraints, and is dedicated to destroying their way of life.

And if you think your opponents are capable of anything -in every sense of the phrase- it’s a short trip to believing almost anything about them.

Effects

The political pressure that MAGA conspiracy theories have placed on our democratic system has been well documented.

Less documented is the cultural threat that MAGA poses to American pluralism.

On some days, it may seem that MAGA is engaging in a kind of cultural secessionism, turning against popular products and institutions — Bud Light, Target, the military — and trying to create alternatives. For example, there has been MAGA coffee, MAGA banking, MAGA beer, and MAGA rap.

In themselves, parallel economies may represent an element of pluralism rather than a threat to it.

Creating a company that sells a product and at the same time promotes a certain set of political or religious values ​​is nothing new, either for the right or the left.

But if you combine shadow economies with boycott culture, you get something completely different.

It’s a cultural manifestation of an ancient legal temptation: free speech for me, but not for you.

For Swift it means shutting up and singing.

But for Jason Aldean and Aaron Rodgers the calculus is completely different.

The MAGA believers want them in that scenario.

They need you on that podcast.

And so we are trapped in a vicious circle.

Incessant hostility opens your mind and heart to the worst stories about your opponents, no matter how unbelievable they may be.

Once convinced, you double your hatred:

Can you believe what they are doing now?

And then the cycle repeats with another story, equally crazy, if not more.

Propaganda

Once conspiracy theories take hold, alienation is inevitable.

I strive to be very tolerant of opposing opinions and have always enjoyed sports and the arts, even when athletes and artists deeply disagree with me on religion or politics.

But I confess that my tolerance would be tested if I truly believed that I was not watching a football match, but rather an elaborate government manipulation designed to maintain its power.

This era of American politics will end, one way or another.

And when it does, historians are likely to debate whether its defining characteristic was stupidity or malice.

I went back and forth too, but now I realize that both traits have almost completely merged.

Malice creates stupidity and stupidity creates malice.

If there’s a silver lining to this dark cloud, it’s that perhaps MAGA has finally revealed itself too fully.

One can dream, but perhaps targeting the world’s most famous pop star can finally help reveal what the nation’s political observers have long known: MAGA is not only deeply angry, but has become deeply queer.

c.2024 The New York Times Company