Pentagon to MAGA world: You need to calm down over Taylor Swift
National security officials are used to shaking off absurd conspiracy theories, but the latest rumor that’s gripped MAGA world just hits different.
The claims by Fox News and far-right influencers that pop star Taylor Swift is part of a Pentagon “psychological operation” to get President Joe Biden reelected, and somehow rig the Super Bowl to benefit Kansas City Chiefs tight end (and Swift’s boyfriend) Travis Kelce, has been met with forehead slaps in the national security world.
“The absurdity of it all boggles the mind,” said one senior administration official, granted anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly on the matter. “It feels like one of those ‘tell me you are a MAGA conspiracy theorist, without telling me you are a MAGA conspiracy theorist’ memes.”
When we look back on this era what are we going to say drove them to this? Like, we explain the Salem witch trials by saying that there was ergot in the water which likely had them hallucinating.
What is it now? Is TikTok this much of a problem? Is there ergot in the water? What the hell is happening...
Maybe lead and micro-plastics? But that's just a guess.
Lead in the water, micro plastics in the food, Reagan in the air.
Plausible. It seems apparent that this is something that's been introduced into basically all humans water supply in the last 50 years. I'm sure it's been getting worse and worse as time has gone on, and it could be that we are at a critical mass where it is starting to affect behaviors en masse.
Yeah "deliberately making ourselves too stupid to survive" sounds about right for some shit we'd pull off.
Ive stared into the abyss. Ive studied history to try and understand this. Recently Ive studied cults and sought out reformed maga heads (know your enemy) to try and understand this lunacy. What Ive learned? The deeper you go the less it makes sense. Shit gets completely surreal in a heartbeat. Trying to apply logic to something specifically illogical will drive you insane. There is nothing to be understood here beyond pure animal rage and toddler level emotions. Theyve discarded all reality and subsist wholly on toddler level emotions and instincts in the moment.
What to do? Look inward I guess? Covid wrung out the last bit of faith I had left in humanity. I mean this cult literally overrode their very survival instinct. I didnt think that was possible. They killed themselves by the hundreds of thousands to impress the in-group, to own the libs, to prove devotion and fealty to....................................Donald fucking trump!!!! This cant be real, right? If this was a movie script people would walk out because it was so unbelievable.
Careful staring too long into the abyss for the abyss stares back into you
I mean, bro, we had fucking witch trials.
Witch trials.
We actually believed in witches and we burned people at the stake.
This is not the most lunacy humanity has ever seen. Not by a long shot. It's just the most lunacy that we've seen with modern tools to help suss that lunacy out.
There is certainly an explanation for what's going on. We just haven't identified it.
Only a matter of time before the cult starts talking about publicly executing LGBTQ+ people and women who have had abortions or miscarriages. Possibly by burning them at the stake.
Or federal employees...they're also called the deep state.
Where'd I hear that in the news recently?
A deranged MAGA cultist recently CUT OFF HIS DAD'S HEAD and posted about it online because of the dad apparently being a federal employee 😬
I'd find you a link to an article about it but frankly I dread what other search results I'd get for THOSE keywords!
I do not disagree. But we are not there yet, it has been crazier before. It does appear that we are on track, that's why I'm so concerned and curious as to what the fuck is causing this shit, but we're not there yet. Probably because of those modern tools that we have, I feel like if whatever is going on right now is going on in the 1700s we would be done for.
They joined the war on disease on the side of the disease. There's nothing else to say, at that point. They are bereft of joy, logic, life, survival instinct, humanity, anything good you name it.
Is staring into the abyss similar to staring at an eclipse? Are these things related?
It's a Nietzsche reference
Nah, I'd say it has broad appeal.
Nietzsche has some broad appeal, well, amongst those that read philosophy. You can't get past the post-modernists without summiting that intellectual mountain. I suppose existentialism is somewhat Niche-ey...but what do I know, I read Zarathustra at 16. Ymmv
it’s a pun, son
🤣🥰
"He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you. "
Basically : tread carefully on your crusade lest you become the thing you hate
Witch trials were ways for powerful people to get rid of those who challenged the established system. These conspiracies are the same as they've always been.
Fox News leaders aren't pushing these stories because they're high. It's because they're billionaires who don't want to lose their power and control. Just like in the time of witch trials, these powerful people are spreading fear, doubt, and confusion in order to distract the masses from giving too much attention to meddling people making troublesome arguments against the current system.
Possibly how all the different crises like inequality, climate, capitalism, pollution all converged. People sought quick solutions and some leaders gave them solutions that were ready, quick and wrong. Blaming others went to cult like heights. Until it all collapsed.
All of these things contribute to it, yes, but I do think that there is a level of absurdity to what we are witnessing that is not adequately explained simply by coercion. Perhaps I'm wrong.
Humans do whacky shit on a regular basis, certainly if they don't really understand what's going on. Cargo cults come to mind.
Tiktok? If you find someone who isn't a swifty on Tiktok, they probably won't survive long.
This nonsense comes from Fox and truth social.
Didn't Andrew Tate rise on TikTok?
I think he was YouTube. Tiktok is very short form content.
That said, the only time I've ever seen that guy's face is in a mugshot, so I could be wrong.