OPINION: Bizarre Taylor Swift conspiracy theory paints a sobering picture ahead of election
Danny Murnin is a junior studying journalism and assistant opinion editor for The New Political.
Please note that these views and opinions do not reflect those of The New Political.
Regardless of who is playing or where it is held, the Super Bowl is always the entertainment event of the year in the United States. While on paper, it is simply a game to determine which of two worthy teams will be the champion of the National Football League (NFL) season, the Super Bowl has become so much more than that. Ridiculously high ticket prices, countless celebrity appearances, a two-week media frenzy beforehand, dozens of cringey advertisements from prominent companies and the assured appearance of an A-list musical artist for a halftime show that lasts about 10 minutes has turned the Super Bowl into a made-for-TV spectacle.
But amidst that spectacle, the main event is still a football game, and that is the reason that most people are tuning in watching. Football is without a doubt not only America’s most popular sport, but probably the most popular American cultural item, period. Indeed, the NFL completely dominates TV ratings every single year, and there is no reason to believe that will change any time soon.
Still, it wasn’t any less shocking when it was announced that the latest Super Bowl on Feb. 11, a matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers, averaged a staggering 123.7 million viewers. This makes Super Bowl LVIII easily the most watched single broadcast in American history, blowing past the previous record that Super Bowl LVII set just last year with 115.1 million viewers.
This latest game, the longest Super Bowl in history, was a truly cinematic affair, with the Chiefs winning 25-22 on a walk-off touchdown deep into overtime. Most of your average football fans weren’t surprised. The Chiefs won the big game - just last year- and also won in 2020, along with being the runner-up in 2021.
However, according to polling from Monmouth University, up to 20% of Americans might believe that the Chiefs’ most recent victory could be part of a secret effort led by the Department of Defense or Central Intelligence Agency to help President Joe Biden win re-election in November.
For those reading this who have the fortune of not knowing what I am talking about, I’ll back up a bit.
The conspiracy theory revolves around global megastar Taylor Swift and her immense cultural influence. As is well known by now, Swift is in a relationship with Travis Kelce, a popular, accomplished tight end for the Chiefs. The two began dating late in the summer, and Swift has appeared at many of his games to support him, where she was often shown throughout the broadcast and became the subject of several viral moments as a result. There is clear evidence that her presence at games has been very good for her and the league in various ways.
Swift, who is probably the most famous person in the world at the moment, has had a lot more on her popularity plate than just football games over the last 18 months or so, however. Her latest, critically acclaimed studio album Midnights shattered records everywhere upon its release in October 2022. In March 2023, she embarked on the Eras Tour to promote Midnights and the rest of her discography, her first time on tour since 2018. The ongoing Eras Tour has been a massive success, creating headlines everywhere, and is now the highest-grossing concert tour of all time. In October, the tour was given the theatrical treatment, and “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” became the highest-grossing concert film of all time, making $261.6 million worldwide. While on tour, she still found time to release re-recordings of two of her older albums, Speak Now and 1989, which broke more records.
Swift’s impact has gone beyond music and sports as well. In September, she posted on Instagram encouraging her followers to register to vote, and it led to a massive spike in voter registrations. Swift isn’t very outspoken politically at all, but she has endorsed Democratic candidates in the past and spoken up in favor of LGBTQ+ rights and abortion access, positions consistent with the Democratic platform.
It wasn’t any surprise when Swift was named the 2023 TIME Person of the Year, a coveted award for the person who has had the most influence on the world in a given year. Swift has always been very popular ever since she started her career nearly two decades ago in the country music industry as a teenager, and her popularity has only seemed to increase over time. But still, her massive run of success and fame that started with the release of Midnights is almost completely unprecedented.
So, why are a frighteningly high number of Americans, apparently including a prominent FOX News anchor, under the impression that all of her recent success is a government psychological operation or “psyop”?
I mentioned earlier that the goal of this supposed psyop is to get President Biden re-elected in November. Fair or not, the reality is that voter concerns over the economy, immigration, fighting in the Middle East, and especially his age have made Biden a historically unpopular president. As of right now, former President Donald Trump, who will likely be the Republican nominee in November, has a clear polling lead in critical, must-win states. If the election were held today, Trump would probably win fairly comfortably.
If you believe supporters of the conspiracy theory, however, Biden has a very powerful secret weapon under his sleeve that he will deploy at just the right moment: Taylor Swift. If the theory is to be believed, then all of her recent success has been engineered by the Pentagon to boost her already-high levels of fame, likability, accomplishments, and, especially, influence. Supposedly, everything from her recognition as TIME Person of the Year to her relationship with Kelce has been part of a covert effort to expand her reach and influence to the point that she could swing the election by endorsing and campaigning for Biden.
The theory that Swift is a Pentagon asset, of course, is completely bogus. The idea that she could swing the election, however, is not. Swift may endorse Biden, as she did in 2020, but I would be very surprised to see her do much more than that, even if the Biden campaign would like her to.
Espousing a bizarre conspiracy theory that is completely out of touch with reality is nothing new for conservatives nowadays. Whether it is believing that Taylor Swift is a Pentagon psyop, that the 2020 Presidential Election was rigged, that COVID-19 vaccines are used to track and control the mind, or even that the world is controlled by a “deep state” cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles, today’s conservatives seem to be in a fierce competition of how crazy they can be.
The fact that nearly one in five Americans would even entertain the notion that Taylor Swift is a Pentagon asset, never mind actually believing it, as polls show, would be hilarious if it weren’t so indicative of the path our country is headed on right now. For tens of millions of Americans, reality simply doesn’t exist anymore.
The sad truth is that if Swift ends up doing more than just endorsing Biden, the number of people who believe in this conspiracy theory will grow immensely, and it will turn from the fringe idea it is right now to a mainstream position on the right. After 2016 and 2020, most Americans probably feel that nothing about our elections and political climate can come as a surprise. I would counter by saying that most Americans just aren’t ready for how stupid everything about the next eight months is going to be, so get ready.
