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An “amalgam of incentives?” Whatever that’s supposed to mean, the only obvious fact is that something about Swift sparks irrational fear and anger among some of Trump’s highest-profile and most vocal acolytes. And it’s clear that her relationship with Kelce makes that reaction ever more intense.

In December, after Time magazine named Swift its person of the year, right-wing commentator Jack Posobiec posted a MAGA yawp on X. “The Taylor Swift girlboss psyop has been fully activated,” he wrote. “From her hand-selected vaccine shill boyfriend to her DINK lifestyle to her upcoming 2024 voter operation for Democrats on abortion rights.”

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There’s a lot to unpack in those two sentences. Calling Swift a “girlboss” communicates misogynistic resentment of her success and popularity. Claiming that she is participating in a “psyop” conjures the existence of shadowy puppet masters who are somehow controlling her every move (which would seem to contradict the whole “girlboss” thing). The bit about the “vaccine shill boyfriend” refers to television and digital ads Kelce has done for Pfizer, urging viewers to get vaccinated against the coronavirus. “DINK” is short for “double income, no kids,” a nod to the far-right view that childlessness at Swift’s age — she and Kelce are both 34 — is somehow unacceptable.

It would be one thing if these delusions were being spewed only by click-seeking online blowhards. But Stephen Miller, the radically anti-immigration former Trump administration official — who would probably be one of Trump’s most influential advisers if he became president again — is onboard. “What’s happening with Taylor Swift is not organic,” he mused darkly.

But it’s totally organic. Swift is in the middle of the biggest and most lucrative worldwide concert tour in history; to make it to the Feb. 11 Super Bowl in Las Vegas, where the Chiefs will play the San Francisco 49ers, she will have to hustle from a scheduled show in Tokyo. She is a self-made billionaire because of her genius for writing pop songs with earworm melodies and stiletto-sharp lyrics that connect with legions of “Swifties” around the globe.

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Kelce is the best tight end in the National Football League, one of the two brightest stars — along with Patrick Mahomes — on the best team of our era. He already has two Super Bowl rings and is a lock for the NFL Hall of Fame. Why wouldn’t anyone who is vaguely interested in celebrity couples be interested in this one?

I don’t know anything about Kelce’s politics. Swift has endorsed a couple of Democrats in the past and advocates for women’s and LGBTQ+ rights, but so far she hasn’t spoken out about this year’s election.

I think what’s driving folks on the right so crazy is that they want to claim football as their sport — macho, regimented, nationalistic, violent. They see Swift as the antithesis of those things. They see her as an interloper, an invader. Even a 10-second cutaway shot of the “girlboss” cheering at a Chiefs game is unbearable.

Chillax, dudes. Don’t be such snowflakes. Sit back and enjoy the game, and you can cover your eyes if there’s another kiss.

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Trying to demonize two of the most beloved phenomena in American culture — Taylor Swift and the Super Bowl — is an insane political strategy. Which must mean that the MAGA-addled far right has lost its collective mind.

How else to explain the way some of Donald Trump’s most fervent supporters have reacted to Swift’s very public romance with Travis Kelce, the Kansas City Chiefs’ star tight end? When cameras showed the couple kissing Sunday after Kansas City’s victory in the AFC championship game, I could almost hear the pop-pop-pop of MAGA heads exploding like bubble wrap.

As one example, former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who has endorsed Trump, went so far as to embrace a tinfoil-hat conspiracy theory: that the fix is in to guarantee that Kansas City wins the Super Bowl, and that Swift and Kelce will then announce their support of President Biden.

“I wonder who’s going to win the Super Bowl next month. And I wonder if there’s a major presidential endorsement coming from an artificially culturally propped-up couple this fall,” Ramaswamy posted on X, formerly Twitter. And when some replies accused him of being paranoid, he stood his extremely shaky ground: “What the [mainstream media] calls a ‘conspiracy theory’ is often nothing more than an amalgam of incentives hiding in plain sight. Once you see that, the rest becomes pretty obvious.”

An “amalgam of incentives?” Whatever that’s supposed to mean, the only obvious fact is that something about Swift sparks irrational fear and anger among some of Trump’s highest-profile and most vocal acolytes. And it’s clear that her relationship with Kelce makes that reaction ever more intense.

In December, after Time magazine named Swift its person of the year, right-wing commentator Jack Posobiec posted a MAGA yawp on X. “The Taylor Swift girlboss psyop has been fully activated,” he wrote. “From her hand-selected vaccine shill boyfriend to her DINK lifestyle to her upcoming 2024 voter operation for Democrats on abortion rights.”

There’s a lot to unpack in those two sentences. Calling Swift a “girlboss” communicates misogynistic resentment of her success and popularity. Claiming that she is participating in a “psyop” conjures the existence of shadowy puppet masters who are somehow controlling her every move (which would seem to contradict the whole “girlboss” thing). The bit about the “vaccine shill boyfriend” refers to television and digital ads Kelce has done for Pfizer, urging viewers to get vaccinated against the coronavirus. “DINK” is short for “double income, no kids,” a nod to the far-right view that childlessness at Swift’s age — she and Kelce are both 34 — is somehow unacceptable.

It would be one thing if these delusions were being spewed only by click-seeking online blowhards. But Stephen Miller, the radically anti-immigration former Trump administration official — who would probably be one of Trump’s most influential advisers if he became president again — is onboard. “What’s happening with Taylor Swift is not organic,” he mused darkly.

But it’s totally organic. Swift is in the middle of the biggest and most lucrative worldwide concert tour in history; to make it to the Feb. 11 Super Bowl in Las Vegas, where the Chiefs will play the San Francisco 49ers, she will have to hustle from a scheduled show in Tokyo. She is a self-made billionaire because of her genius for writing pop songs with earworm melodies and stiletto-sharp lyrics that connect with legions of “Swifties” around the globe.

Kelce is the best tight end in the National Football League, one of the two brightest stars — along with Patrick Mahomes — on the best team of our era. He already has two Super Bowl rings and is a lock for the NFL Hall of Fame. Why wouldn’t anyone who is vaguely interested in celebrity couples be interested in this one?

I don’t know anything about Kelce’s politics. Swift has endorsed a couple of Democrats in the past and advocates for women’s and LGBTQ+ rights, but so far she hasn’t spoken out about this year’s election.

I think what’s driving folks on the right so crazy is that they want to claim football as their sport — macho, regimented, nationalistic, violent. They see Swift as the antithesis of those things. They see her as an interloper, an invader. Even a 10-second cutaway shot of the “girlboss” cheering at a Chiefs game is unbearable.

Chillax, dudes. Don’t be such snowflakes. Sit back and enjoy the game, and you can cover your eyes if there’s another kiss.

QOSHE - Relax, MAGA bros — Taylor Swift is not the enemy - Eugene Robinson
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Relax, MAGA bros — Taylor Swift is not the enemy

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02.02.2024

Follow this authorEugene Robinson's opinions

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An “amalgam of incentives?” Whatever that’s supposed to mean, the only obvious fact is that something about Swift sparks irrational fear and anger among some of Trump’s highest-profile and most vocal acolytes. And it’s clear that her relationship with Kelce makes that reaction ever more intense.

In December, after Time magazine named Swift its person of the year, right-wing commentator Jack Posobiec posted a MAGA yawp on X. “The Taylor Swift girlboss psyop has been fully activated,” he wrote. “From her hand-selected vaccine shill boyfriend to her DINK lifestyle to her upcoming 2024 voter operation for Democrats on abortion rights.”

Advertisement

There’s a lot to unpack in those two sentences. Calling Swift a “girlboss” communicates misogynistic resentment of her success and popularity. Claiming that she is participating in a “psyop” conjures the existence of shadowy puppet masters who are somehow controlling her every move (which would seem to contradict the whole “girlboss” thing). The bit about the “vaccine shill boyfriend” refers to television and digital ads Kelce has done for Pfizer, urging viewers to get vaccinated against the coronavirus. “DINK” is short for “double income, no kids,” a nod to the far-right view that childlessness at Swift’s age — she and Kelce are both 34 — is somehow unacceptable.

It would be one thing if these delusions were being spewed only by click-seeking online blowhards. But Stephen Miller, the radically anti-immigration former Trump administration official — who would probably be one of Trump’s most influential advisers if he became president again — is onboard. “What’s happening with Taylor Swift is not organic,” he mused darkly.

But it’s totally organic. Swift is in the middle of the biggest and most lucrative worldwide concert tour in history; to make it to the Feb. 11 Super Bowl in Las Vegas, where the Chiefs will play the San Francisco 49ers, she will have to hustle from a scheduled show in Tokyo. She is a self-made billionaire because of her genius for writing........

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