The right wing’s obsession with attacking mega pop star Taylor Swift has prompted the Department of Defense to make an official statement refuting one of the more egregious pieces of misinformation being spread: that Swift is a part of a “deep state” government conspiracy to swing the 2024 election to President Joe Biden.
Department spokesperson Sabrina Singh told Politico, “We know all too well the dangers of conspiracy theories, so to set the record straight—Taylor Swift is not part of a DOD psychological operation. Period.”
Singh’s newest statement follows weeks of right-wingers across the country catching the vapors over Swift successfully encouraging her fanbase to register to vote. Conservative terror around Swift has reached such intense levels that pundits have begun pushing the preposterous theory that Swift was groomed by our secret intelligence agencies and then somehow turned into the most successful musical act in the world, just in time to stop Donald Trump from becoming president again. (And she will supposedly do this while also rigging the Super Bowl so her boyfriend’s team will win!)
While the general psyop theory has been around for some time, the increased media din around it can be traced directly back to Fox News bottom feeder Jesse Watters, who boosted the inane “theory” during a January segment on Swift.
“It’s real. The Pentagon psy-op unit pitched NATO on turning Taylor Swift into an asset for combating misinformation online,” Watters said.
An anonymous Biden administration official told Politico that this theory’s spread among the MAGA faithful is bizarre enough in its own right.
“The absurdity of it all boggles the mind,” the official said, then joked, “Is this Team Trump’s new Comet Ping-Pong pizzagate?” Another official reportedly laughed throughout his conversation with the reporter, saying, “I really can’t believe this is a thing.”
DoD officials have fielded so many questions about this harebrained theory that they’ve been forced to make multiple statements, even though they have serious jobs dealing with serious things. “I mean, I love Taylor Swift, of course, but I haven’t spent more than two minutes thinking about this,” another senior official told the news outlet.
Meanwhile, Fox News and the right-wing seem hell-bent on radicalizing Swift, who has spent most of her career avoiding big political statements. The musician has rarely endorsed candidates (though she did endorse Joe Biden in 2020). She also backed Phil Bredesen, a former Democratic governor of Tennessee who ran for Senate against Marsha Blackburn in 2018 (and lost). Bredesen told Newsweek that her endorsement wasn’t even a planned thing; he found out about it during an interview with another reporter.
Since then, Swift’s biggest sin has been promoting voter registration—very successfully.
There are likely myriad reasons why Swift stresses out these conservatives so acutely, but claiming she is some psyop pawn and accusing her of being an environmental hypocrite are the kind of things that even a megastar could take personally. Swift might even get angry and tell her fans how she feels about those that attack successful women for promoting democracy, or Trump allies who vow to wage a “holy war” against her.
But not before she beats Vegas’ Super Bowl spread and then stands on the 50-yard line, looks directly into the camera and, instead of saying she’s going to Disney World, commands you to vote blue!
Republished with permission from Daily Kos.
Editor's note: Tom Tomorrow disagrees!
