Taylor Swift, Alt-Right Anthem Queen

The ACLU exists to protect the civil liberties of about half the residents of the country, based upon political and demographic affiliation. They used to do it for everybody but resources got stretched thin and if you’re not partisan in this day and age, you’re not doing well at fundraisers.

The civil liberties organization fired off a letter to Taylor Swift this week, demanding she call her legal dogs off of a small, leftist blogger. Meghan Herning wrote an article decrying Swift’s music and persona being embraced by alt-right groups. Not implying that Swift’s intentionally generating neo-Nazi fanfare, but that she ought to publicly call out the alt-right all the same. The Charlottesville chanters were apparently channeling Swift’s “Look What You Made Me Do”. Herning insisted Swift publicly declare her hatred of White Supremacy:

“silence in the face of injustice means support for the oppressor.”

Followed to its logical conclusion, this means you must call out every injustice in the world or you support it. Sewing farms in Myanmar. Tribal clashes in the Sudan causing forced starvations. Island of floating plastic. Actively call them out or you obviously support them. That seems a bit idiotic. No matter how much you dislike Taylor Swift for all the valid reasons.

Swift’s legal team threatened to sue Herning and her culture blog for implying Swift tacitly endorses neo-Nazis if she didn’t retract the article. A bit heavy handed. On the other hand, the article seems plainly libelous. The ACLU chose this moment to step in by supporting Herning, who bravely noted:

“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.”

How brave. You basically took the same article you wrote about Trump and the alt-right, re-fashioned it with Taylor Swift and a cute clickbait title, now you’re claiming journalist-under-attack privileges. 

There are no winners in this story. Save maybe for me who noticed a weird Nazi-esque connotation to Swift’s song over two-and-a-half months ago when it was released. Though there’s no real connection to Swift in the motivation. You can’t charge a mannequin with a crime. 

_{Photo credit: Instagram / Backgrid USA}