The core fact is not in dispute: Taylor Swift, a wildly popular singer, actually got booed at the Super Bowl. While other such incidents have been the occasions of heated dispute as to whether the boos were louder than the cheers or vice versa, in this case, both leftists and patriots have admitted that Swift got booed. Why exactly she was booed, however, is a matter of considerable dispute, and now the far-left Glamour magazine has come up with a theory that is as bizarre and ridiculous as it was predictable: it’s all the fault of one Donald J. Trump of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C. If you didn’t see that coming, you’ve been asleep since 2015.
On Monday, I published an article entitled “Taylor Swift Summed Up What the Left Is Thinking After Three Weeks of Trump,” about how the booing of Swift, an enthusiastic backer of both Old Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, was just another indication of the weakening of the left’s stranglehold on American popular culture. Many commenters, however, insisted that Swift was only booed because she is linked romantically with Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs, and the New Orleans Superdome, where the Super Bowl was played, was filled with many more fans of the Philadelphia Eagles (or “Elgses,” as Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker spells it) than of the Chiefs.
That may be all there was to it, but as I showed in that article, a poll showed that Swift suffered a clear decline in support after making her far-left views overtly known, and now Glamour magazine, approaching the issue from the opposite side of the political spectrum, has agreed that the booing of Swift had at least something to do with her politics. Glamour, however, goes much further than that and claims that the whole incident is yet more indication of the baneful cultural influence of Orange Man Bad.
Yes, it’s absurd. Of course, it’s absurd. This is the left we’re talking about.
Full of the left’s usual presumption, arrogance, and hysteria, Glamour entitled its article, which came out Monday, “Why Taylor Swift Getting Booed at the Super Bowl was Even More Chilling Than You Think.” Now, wait a minute. Taylor Swift getting booed was “chilling”? And Glamour is so certain of that fact that it assumes that its hapless readers will undoubtedly agree?
That’s only the beginning of the craziness. “Since Donald Trump took office,” writes author Stephanie McNeal, no doubt daubing the tears from her cheeks all the while, “there have been several times I felt chilled by the rapid increase in misogyny seeping in our culture. But watching Taylor Swift at Super Bowl LIX booed by a crowd of thousands on Sunday night was a new low.” And you thought it was all because she was a Chiefs fan. Come on, man!
McNeal pulls rank, saying: “I was there at the game. When Swift’s face appeared on the Jumbotron, an almost instant—and distinctly male—dissent erupted from around me. Swift, of course, was there to support her boyfriend, and was far from the only celebrity in attendance. In fact, the screen showed a new famous person—from Paul McCartney to Anne Hathaway and Lady Gaga—nearly every time there was a break in the play with virtually no response from the crowd.”
Well, sure, because none of those people are so closely identified with one of the teams, and while they’re all likely to be leftists, none of them were touted as possibly making a difference in the presidential election with their endorsement. Also, McNeal doesn’t bother to explain why booing Swift is evidence of rising Trump-inspired misogyny, while the crowd staying quiet for Anne Hathaway and Lady Gaga was not evidence against that misogyny.
McNeal adds that in contrast to the booing of Swift, “as an image of the president, stonefaced and standing in a salute, was shown to the crowd during Jon Batiste’s national anthem performance, the roar of approval and cheers was deafening.” And: “To me, the disparate reactions felt like a message. That the Super Bowl, one of the biggest cultural events in the country, has been reclaimed by Trump and the type of toxic masculinity he appears to be the beacon of. And he and his supporters seem to be living for it.”
Related: Taylor Swift Summed Up What the Left Is Thinking After Three Weeks of Trump
Oh, brother — sorry, McNeal, make that “Oh, sister.” The Glamour article goes on to lament Trump’s supposed misogyny at length, without ever even attempting to understand why Trump would be popular with the Super Bowl crowd and why that popularity would have nothing whatsoever to do with hating women.
Instead, we get more of the same old same old: “In an era where Trump is singlehandedly dismantling decades of diversity, equity, and inclusion that generations of women, people of color, and queer people have fought for, the Super Bowl felt like a microcosm of a larger problem.”
Yes. The problem is that people might actually start getting judged by the content of their character, instead of wearing their race, sex, perversion, or delusion as a badge of preferment. Anyone who genuinely believed in the equal dignity of all people would be applauding.
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