By
Taylor Swift’s dalliances with politics — be it her backing of a Democratic Senate candidate in 2018 or using her tour to register voters — have earned her conservative ire over the last few years.
Just last year, I wrote on the right-wing conspiracy theorists who saw in Swift’s selection as Time magazine's Person of the Year a manifestation of psychological warfare waged by liberals to "indoctrinate" the public. And Republicans have suggested the same thing about Swift’s situation-ship with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce: It's part of a Democratic plot!! (Kelce, meanwhile, has been attacked by conservatives and anti-vaxxers for promoting Pfizer's Covid vaccine.)
So it was almost too predictable that after the Chiefs won the AFC championship and punched their ticket to the Super Bowl on Sunday, the right-wing influencer class polished up their tinfoil hats to tell their followers that the win was all part of some liberal psy-op (a military term for psychological operations used during wartime).
For example, here is conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec:
Failed GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy stoked the psy-op claims, as well:
Laura Loomer — the failed congressional candidate and Islamophobic conspiracy theorist recently seen palling around with Donald Trump — chimed in, too:
And you can read more of the angst-ridden posts here, here, here and here.
As was the case throughout the season, even during Sunday night's game, some right-wingers seemed to suggest that occasional camera shots of Swift had dubious, manipulative intent. The reality is that football games are long and have frequent breaks in the action, so it’s understandable why a production crew would want to keep viewers' attention with shots of one of the world’s most famous people every once in a while.
But the right’s politicized conniption over Swift's mere appearance speaks to the deluded, conspiracy-minded tribalism that’s overtaken the modern Republican Party and the MAGA movement's need to paint itself as the victim of a vast, sinister government plot.
From my vantage point, right-wing attacks on Swift for being a liberal plant are more calculated than impulsive, more shrewd than sincere. I see them as attempts by conservatives to A) pressure Swift from taking a political stance that might hurt the GOP ahead of this fall’s elections, and B) blunt the impact of any stance she takes in the future that doesn't align with their views.
If and when the moment comes, fully expect Republicans to frame Swift's expression of genuinely held political beliefs as the liberal psy-op they've been predicting all along.