If only Taylor Swift gave a simple statement denouncing white supremacists and the alt-right movement, all rumors would cease.
According to blog writer Meghan Herning, Taylor Swift, allegedly a racist, has readily embraced the alt-right, white supremacist movement.
Analyzing clues supposedly hidden in her tracks, especially in her latest single, Herning wrote on PopFront.us,
“In other words, [the singer’s] lyrics [have become] the voice of the lower case kkk, and Taylor’s sweet, victim image is the perfect vehicle and metaphor for white supremacists’ perceived victimization.”
Once Herning published her piece, the singer and her legal team demanded that the article be removed. The move has backfired for the singer, as the ACLU has now accused the singer of suppressing free speech.
Yet, one simple statement from the singer could put an end to the controversy. So why hasn’t she done it?
An obscure claim from an obscure website.
PopFront.us is a relatively obscure online magazine. The website and its writers claim to focus on “re-centering the national political conversation and bringing together the left.”
Prior to the piece, very few people knew about Meghan Herning and PopFront. It’s doubtful that many read the piece until Taylor Swift’s lawyers stepped in.
According to digital market intelligent company SimilarWeb, PopFront has a global ranking of 6,484,699. In the United States, the site is ranked at 1,353,545.
PopFront has billed itself as “the first outlet [to notice] the connection between Taylor Swift and the alt-right.”
Herning wrote that Taylor Swift has purposefully built herself up as a “good girl unjustly wronged,” just like alt-right sympathizers and white supremacists. Focusing on Swift’s single, ‘Look What You Made Me Do,’ Herning compares the music video to Adolf Hitler.
“At one point in the accompanying music video, Taylor lords over an army of models from a podium, akin to what Hitler had in Nazi Germany. The similarities are uncanny and unsettling.”
Herning implies that the music video serves “as indoctrination into white supremacy” for young girls.
The ACLU steps in.
A day after the piece went live, Taylor Swift’s legal team threatened to sue PopFront if it failed to take down Herning’s article. A redacted version of the letter posted online reads,
“This firm is litigation counsel for Taylor Swift. On behalf of Ms. Swift, we demand that PopFront immediately issue a retraction of a provably false and defamatory story about Ms. Swift, as well as remove the story from all sources and cease and desist from publishing or disseminating it.”
For threatening to sue the website, the nonprofit ACLU slammed Taylor Swift’s attempt “to protect [her] reputation.” ACLU of Northern California attorney Michael Risher said,
“This is a completely unsupported attempt to suppress constitutionally protected speech.”
The ACLU also criticized the singer in a public letter posted on their website.
“The blog post is a mix of core political speech and critical commentary; it discusses current politics in this country, the recent rise of white supremacy, and the fact that some white supremacists have apparently embraced Ms. Swift, along with a critical interpretation of some of Ms. Swift’s music, lyrics, and videos.”
In an interview with Variety, Meghan Herning lambasted the singer’s legal threats.
“The press should not be bullied by high-paid lawyers or frightened into submission by legal jargon. These scare tactics may have worked for Taylor in the past, but I am not backing down.”
But, does Taylor Swift readily support the alt-right, white supremacist movement?
The piece in question over at PopFront.us isn’t all that great. Reading through the lengthy and convoluted article, Meghan Herning rehashes many previous claims.
People have long accused Taylor Swift of supporting the white supremacist movement.
Four years ago, Pinterest user Emily Pattinson overlaid Adolf Hitler quotes over Taylor Swift images. Swift’s lawyer, J. Douglas Baldridge, then sent a letter demanding that the social media website take down the images. They didn’t. What’s worse is that no one noticed that they were Adolf Hitler quotes until Baldridge stepped in.
Last May, controversial far-right website Breitbart News claimed that Taylor Swift was an alt-right pop icon. Columnist Milo Yiannopoulos wrote,
“The Daily Stormer, home of the alt-right’s ultra-radical and race-preoccupied “1488” contingent, has an entire category devoted to Swift. One post praises her as the “Nazi Avatar Of The White European People.” Another worries that she may have “Succumbed To the Merchant.” (They mean Jews.)”
In fact, as with the PopFront piece, the legal threats only served to fuel the alt-right movement. Yiannopoulous noted months earlier,
“Swift is covertly ‘red-pilled,’ concealing her secret conservative values from the progressive music industry while issuing subtle nods to a reactionary fan base.”
As a major star in the music industry, Taylor Swift obviously has more things to worry about than rumors on obscure websites. Yet, today, the alt-right, white supremacist movement has become so big (and dangerous) that it’s necessary to touch on the topic, even so lightly.
As the ACLU wrote, even jokingly referencing the singer’s past songs,
“Criticism is never pleasant, but a celebrity has to ‘shake it off’, even if the critique may damage her reputation… ‘not even in your wildest dreams’ could [these claims] constitute defamation.”
To put an end to years of rumors of racism, both in the past and in the future, all Taylor Swift has to do is issue the following statement.
“I completely disagree with the alt-right. I do not support white supremacy.”
That’s all Taylor Swift would need. No more legal threats. No more fuel to fan the flames of alt-right racism and white supremacy.
If Taylor Swift would simply decry the white supremacist movement publicly, none of this would’ve ever happened.
She didn’t. She hasn’t, and she probably won’t.
But, why not?
Featured image by Eva Rinaldi (CC by 2.0)
this is getting boring now… you need to get a real job
Inside the music industry , Taylor Swift , is lily white and eXalted supreme–: A-Number-One. She’s the
epitome of what ‘ White Supremacy ‘ strive for world wide ; wildly successful , in control and unequal to the
peers inside her class. . .
Sounds good fam
‘Far right Breibart news’ is as far right as MSNBC is far left…. but no one calls MSNBC that….. love the double standard… it’s so tiring the left wing stance your articles take… Maybe you should actually write articles on Music News and leave the left wing bs to MSNBC and CNN.
lololololollolol
yea….not even close dude…Nice try, though
can’t stop laughing hahahahaha
im not saying there arent political issues in this country..but like…can we…. talk about………music…….? …..please..?
Wow. Really Daniel Sanchez? I just lost so much respect for you. Unlike every libtard out there, Taylor Swift realizes she is a musican and that’s what people love her for. I highly respect her for not stooping to the low-blow liberal level of thinking that, because she is famous, she has to get involved in politics. You liberal shit starters are so pathetic. Taylor makes music to make people happy. It’s not her place to entertain your personal politics by confirming or denying allegations that she supports white supremecy. Y’all really do see everything through the eyes of politics. Relating her latest music video to Hitler?! Are you fucking kidding me? I sincerely hope you lose your job for libel. Oh wait, liberals don’t lose their job for crazy political allegations, only conservatives…
Maybe she should call out the truly racist and violent groups like Antifa and OnlyBlackLivesMatter. You know REAL terrorist organizations actually KILLING people today, bot half a century ago. Taylor is at least 100 IQ points smarter than this author.
Vegas shooter – member of Antifa
TX shooter = member of Antifa
You guys sure love to kill people
Like the klan and others have done for hundreds of years in this country…??? I am white and I will tell you this, some of our people have been torturing in torment and others for hundreds of years and now that it’s turning around some of us cry wolf. How can black people be prejudice when they have no power to use it against anybody…? So you’re saying words hurt…??? Smh. Some of us whites are in denial and when they call it privilege I have to believe it…. And no I am NOT a liberal. I am a registered Republican for 25 years from Alabama…
stop being such a damn pathetic cuck. please!. black gangsters commit more hate crimes – including violence and rape – against white people in a month, than the kkk did against them for 200 years. also, whatever white people may have done that is negative in the past, we make up for a thousand times with out positive contributions. we created the modern world and consequently is saving billions of people from an early death, due to starvation, disease etc. etc.
“Not a century ago”. Lol. Smh. Nice try. Chickens do come home to roost you know…. You sound so stupid to think that wrong doings half a century ago will not catch up with you… That’s all some of YOU have left. Smh. Too funny…
Taylor Swift is nothing more than a corporation, she is seeing it is best to “toe the line” on this White supremacist thing, maybe even giving her a boost in popularity with her white dominated audience
I’m a lifelong liberal mostly because of the war mongering, and economic stupidity of Republicans, taxes, and a lack of gun control, handing criminals firearms on an ongoing basis for profit motives, BUT….
Tell me how many young white women have killed black men, and how many young white women have been killed by black men in the last twenty years, and it’s real easy to become a racist real quick. Look up Eve Carson just to see one ugly story of murder not too far from Taylor Swift’s home base.
Kanye was a total racist aggressor to Taylor Swift. He practically threatened to rape her in a song, implying it was his right unless she was nicer to him. That kind of crap should NOT be tolerated by liberals, and yet people just say – ‘oh he’s a rapper, he has a right to be pissed off.’ There’s a lot of double standards flying in the mass media. I get that maybe blacks and women get payback for all the years of oppression, but the fact is that equality has to be equality, and that means EVERYONE gets called out for their behavior, not just white men and women.
Looooooooooool!!!!!!!
Daniel Sanchez probably supports the alt-left. Or ANTIFA.
But hey, bad publicity is good publicity. Isn’t that what Ricky Ricardo said?
He must be loving it. =)
musicoverlord.com
“Just sign the confession, and the interrogation will stop…”
You guys aren’t even trying to hide it anymore. You want eight years of Trump? Because this is why we’ll give it to you.
they should ask a whole lot of the hiphop artists to decry the black supremacist movement. that would be more relevant. also, considering gigantic number the anti-white hatecrimes – rape, murder, robberies etc – committed by blacks, that movement is obviously far more dangerous. as it is now, all the “anti-racist” stuff simply mean anti-white.
Bad writing, stupid headline, ridiculous conclusion based on the facts. I will agree Taylor’s people should not have messed with the “journalist,” but everything beyond that is bordering crazy and delutional.
She doesn’t want to talk because she doesn’t want to enter into politics; that simple and if she says what they want, that means she started to hold sides and be biased; since she didn’t say what they claimed her to be, that will relieve her from any nonsense claims.
What if she says it to fool both sides! that will be the best.