For the most part, Taylor Swift makes the wise business decision to stay out of politics, but it doesn’t stop her rabid fans from trying to force her into a particular stance online.
Yesterday, #SwiftiesForPalestine started trending on X, attempting to strong-arm the singer into making a statement. Over sixteen thousand posts were made during the hashtag’s peak trending hours, with many of the posts being calls for boycotts of companies like Starbucks and McDonald's and others falling into the realm of the ridiculous, accusing others of misogyny for not supporting the hashtag effort.
A large number of posts regarding a suspended account, @LegitTayUpdates, has been circulating in the #SwiftiesForPalestine community as well, chronicling how the account claimed to be in Israel and has allegedly been arrested for refusing to join the IDF.
taking a moment to be thankful for this updates acc, hoping they’re doing well #SwiftiesForPalestine pic.twitter.com/yrgc8qGf1Q
— styl (@filmstylls) October 29, 2023
Before X suspended the account, Vogue interviewed the person behind the tweets, who claimed she was a nineteen-year-old girl living in Southern Israel.
The focus of the hashtag, however, appears to be to try to get Taylor Swift to condemn Israeli action in Palestine and call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Several different accounts have been posting the same image, which implores Swift to “stay on the right side of history,” a reference to the first time the singer waded into the political realm to endorse a Tennessee Democratic candidate for the Senate. This move turned off many of her non-activist fans and proved useless as Republican Marsha Blackburn cruised to a landslide victory.
#SwiftiesForPalestine #CeasefireNOW #FreePalestine
— cherry (@le58ian) October 30, 2023
Join us in calling Taylor Swift to sign the open letter @ https://t.co/oKvzzbKX4A.
Use your voice. Take a stand. Free Palestine.@taylornation13 @taylorswift13 pic.twitter.com/to5yZxbYq1
Swift also endorsed Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in the 2020 election, citing their friendliness to the LGBTQ community as one of the reasons for the move.
So far, Swift has been silent on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as taking a stand for either side has proven to be a disastrous cancel situation for left-leaning celebrities. The Democratic party has been fracturing over support of either side, with in-fighting being greater than any topic we’ve seen in recent history.
Selena Gomez, who recently claimed to be Swfit's best friend, was bullied into deleting her Instagram account after her post regarding the Hamas attacks, merely stating, “We need to protect ALL people, especially children, and stop the violence for good. I’m sorry if my words will never be enough for everyone or a hashtag. I just can’t stand by innocent people getting hurt. That’s what makes me sick.”
Selena Gomez shares statement on Israel and Palestine:
— Pop Base (@PopBase) October 31, 2023
“I'm sorry if my words will never be enough for everyone or a hashtag. I just can't stand by innocent people getting hurt. That's what makes me sick. I wish I could change the world. But a post won't.” pic.twitter.com/vH8rojpVx9
Page Six reported, however, that Swift dined out at Keith McNally’s restaurants after he made his tone-deaf post urging his followers to listen to the terrorists, saying, “The More Utterly Repugnant The Facts, The Greater The Responsibility Becomes To Listen To The Other Side.” His controversial statements don’t faze the singer.
Meanwhile, The Jerusalem Post reported on brave Israeli girls venturing out to the theater amid all this chaos to see Taylor Swift’s new film, The Eras Tour, a full-length concert experience recorded and made for cinema. As of this writing, the film has grossed $231 million worldwide.
With such big dollars at stake and such a divide on the topic across the globe, Swift is smart not to wade into the political waters and divide her audience as she did in 2018 and 2020. Her words would do nothing to aid either the Israelis or Palestinians and would only serve to divide her audience.
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