What within the hell are you folks even speaking about anymore?!
It appears more and more clear the right-wing punditry machine has no thought rationally reckon with the ability of Taylor Swift. (Oh, additionally they actually don’t need folks to vote!)
On Fox News Tuesday evening, host Jesse Watters amplified a very bonkers conspiracy concept that appears as determined as it’s demented: Taylor Swift is a Pentagon psyop.
Video: Even Jesse Watters’ MOM Told Him To Chill Out On Conspiracy Theories!
He requested his viewers in the event that they “ever wondered why or how” the I Knew You Were Trouble singer “blew up like this?” He then platformed the ludicrous notion it was a authorities conspiracy:
“Well, around four years ago, the Pentagon psychological operations unit floated turning Taylor Swift into an asset during a NATO meeting. What kind of asset? A psyop for combatting online misinformation. Yeah, that’s real. The Pentagon psyop unit pitched NATO on turning Taylor Swift into an asset.”
So… they pitched utilizing Taylor Swift in opposition to misinformation? What the eff is that this, misinformation preventing again?? Watters then insinuated the pop star was “a front for a covert political agenda” — although he admitted he “obviously has no evidence.”
First off, no, we by no means questioned why Taylor Swift bought so well-liked. We’ve questioned why the Minions bought so well-liked. With Tay, it’s really fairly apparent. She simply retains releasing catchy, relatable, shifting songs. And her battle to regain her rights to her music with the Taylor’s Versions of her previous albums really did her an enormous favor, serving as a reminder to the world simply what number of bangers we are able to thank her for. See? Simple. Maybe if Watters knew some ladies to ask he wouldn’t must surprise…
Is Taylor Swift a Pentagon PsyOp asset? pic.twitter.com/yHp8WywKh8
— Jesse Watters (@JesseBWatters) January 10, 2024
Second, your complete foundation for the supposition is improper. It wasn’t some Pentagon psyop unit that steered utilizing Taylor Swift — the footage Watters pulled this from is definitely from a chat by a analysis engineer at Johns Hopkins University. At the International Conference on Cyber Conflict in August 2019, Alicia Marie Bargar (who now works for Shopify, not the US authorities) was speaking about potential methods to fight misinformation with reliable voices. She used Taylor for instance of somebody trusted by thousands and thousands, saying:
“The first one, and the most common [example of influence], is working with famous people or influencers to share information of a particular message. I include Taylor Swift in here because she’s a fairly influential online person, I don’t know if you’ve heard of her.”
Seems cheap. And this was a researcher mentioning a hypothetical celeb for a hypothetical technique that wouldn’t even be a trick, as is being steered right here. It would simply be using a reliable celeb to go on data. AND Bargar famous the issues with doing this in any respect — like celebs may not say issues precisely, solely inflicting extra confusion. But it was all hypothetical. So yeah, nothing like what Watters is suggesting.
Especially when he introduced on a former FBI agent named Stuart Kaplan who mentioned:
“It is possible that Taylor Swift doesn’t realize she is being used in a covert manner to swing voters.”
They’re actually suggesting Taylor is a puppet for Joe Biden. Such a gross, condescending approach to seek advice from a superb businesswoman and pop icon. As if Taylor doesn’t know precisely the picture she’s placing out always.
So the query is, why would Fox wish to paint Taylor and her fame as some form of faux authorities conspiracy? Oh, as a result of she offended them by… telling folks to get on the market and vote. See, Bargar used for instance in her speak how Taylor as soon as inspired her younger followers to vote in an Instagram publish, and it labored — there was an enormous surge in voter registration. Taylor didn’t even say in that publish whom to vote for. She simply mentioned to vote. That’s one thing we must always all be in favor of, proper? More folks voting? Since it makes democracy work higher?
Well, not Republicans. As we’ve seen repeatedly the previous few years, they really HATE when extra folks vote. They make voting places fewer and farther, they attempt to purge voters, they do every thing they’ll to make voting as inconvenient as potential. Why? Because when everybody votes, they have a tendency to lose. Their concepts simply aren’t very talked-about with society as a complete. They wish to energize their base with nonsensical concepts like “the government is trying to mind-control you with Taylor Swift” — and get them to vote. But you? They’d actually quite you keep house.
So… who’s the “psyop” once more??
[Image via Fox News/Twitter.]
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