Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Humiliatingly small and eclipsed by the derision of millions.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

Our messy unity will be our strength.

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

You cannot shame the shameless.

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

“A king is only a king if we bow down.” – Rev. William Barber

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. do not touch it.”

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

We still have time to mess this up!

Trump should be leading, not lying.

People are complicated. Love is not.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

You are here: Home / Music / Saturday Evening Open Thread: Time‘s Person of the Year Has All the Right Enemies

Saturday Evening Open Thread: Time‘s Person of the Year Has All the Right Enemies

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Taylor Swift, proud Democrat!



Of course, no way the other leg of the horseshoe is letting the right wing out-crazy them…

Reader Interactions

79Comments

  3. 3.

    Tony G

    Jesus, these right-wing operatives are dumb.  There are millions of swifties out there, and this is a good way to convince many of them to register to vote and then vote for that old Grandpa Joe guy so that Trump won’t win.

  4. 4.

    Brachiator

    Taylor Swift on re-recording her old albums: “I’m collecting horcruxes. I’m collecting infinity stones. Gandalf’s voice is in my head every time I put out a new one. For me, it is a movie now”

    Okay, now I am impressed. Taylor Swift could kick Thanos in his butt and make him yield.

    I didn’t realize her net worth was $1.1 billion. Doubly impressive for someone who had her early music stolen from her.

    And I respect how she helped rescue some movie theaters by bringing her movie out.

  5. 5.

    Hungry Joe

    One MAGA dude ranted online about how sad it is that a “hyper-promiscuous, childless, aging woman who is alone with a cat” is Time’s Person of the Year. Translation::

    Hyper-promiscuous: Has sex, but not with me

    Childless: Only parents deserve this recognition

    Aging: Not in her teens or 20s

    Woman: Not a man

    Alone: Hunky NFL superstars don’t count

    Cat: Not a dog

  7. 7.

    geg6

    The sexual desperation and incel vibes are strong among these MAGAs.  They sooooo wanted her to be the Aryan, blonde tradwife of their dreams, but no such luck for them!

    I only really got into TS this year through my younger niece, Caitlin.  Caitie has been a huge Swiftie since she was 8 or 9 years old (she’s now 22).  We’ve spent a lot of time together this year and she plays a lot of TS music when we do.  I am quite taken with her Folklore album.  Really great songwriting.  I liked a few TS songs over the years, but I have grown to really appreciate her talents the more I am exposed to her.  Gotta say, the Eras Tour movie was truly spectacular and you can see why her fans feel so connected with her.  She shows that she is connected to them in return.  It’s quite impressive and feels very genuine.

    And it’s a great bonus that she triggers these assholes so hard.

  8. 8.

    WaterGirl

    The red lipstick in the Time cover, and her hairstyle, makes her look like a 1030s or 1940s movie star.  (The Lana Turner era, whenever that was.)

    In all these years of hearing about Soros, I am finally unhappy with something he has done.  Well, besides not sending me my monthly checks.  EVER.

    edited

  10. 10.

    Jeffro

    @Tony G:Jesus, these right-wing operatives are dumb.  There are millions of swifties out there, and this is a good way to convince many of them to register to vote and then vote for that old Grandpa Joe guy so that Trump won’t win.

    yup!

    She could literally negate the whole stupid “Biden is old” thing (and all that money and all those hours spent pushing that ‘narrative’) with a tweet.  But please proceed, MAGAts…

  11. 11.

    Ken

    I’ve noticed this before: There are some very witty people writing those “readers added context” comments. They find clever ways of saying “you are a moron and here’s why” but keep it entirely in the subtext.

  12. 12.

    Ken

    @Frankensteinbeck: women have cats to fill the emotional void left by not having a husband

    Ignores you except when it wants to be fed or petted, crawls all over you at night when you’re trying to sleep, misses the litter box half the time… Yes, I can see the similarities.

  13. 13.

    sdhays

    I’m amazed that anyone in 2023 even pretends to give a shit who Time thinks is the “person of the year”.

    Bravo, Time, for generating another spark of relevance. Personally, I’ve treated them as a not very funny “The Onion” ever since they declared all of us were the “person of the year”.

  15. 15.

    kalakal

    I see the GOP plan to address the problem of their aging voter demographic is off to a good start

  16. 16.

    bbleh

    So how do we know it isn’t a DOUBLE double false-flag, with the Soros-Biden Junta just pretending they’re pushing MAGA influencers to attack her to make her go full Democrat, while all along they’re REALLY targeting the MAGA influencers themselves, so MAGA Americans lose confidence in them?

    Ohhh, those Demon-rats are sneaky!  It’s wheels within wheels here, people!!!

  18. 18.

    Ivan X

    Taylor Swift seems like she’s perfectly a perfectly fine pop star and decent enough person, and she makes my nieces happy, and I obligitorily respect her as an artist and businessperson and all that, but, man, that shit is not for me.

    (With that said, if she gets even one kid to vote D who otherwise wouldn’t have, I’m happy to put up with it.)

  19. 19.

    Suzanne

    I am just glad that she has gotten Kelce to clean up his facial hair. He looked like an utter meatball before. Now he looks, well, it’s a step up.

    Spawn the Elder and I were just talking about this: the fact that so many men are surprised by Taylor Swift’s world domination is a pretty big indicator that lots of men have no idea about women and their interior lives. It’s Main Character Syndrome on a societal scale.

  21. 21.

    Suzanne

    @kalakal:

    I see the GOP plan to address the problem of their aging voter demographic is off to a good start 

    LAWL.
    “You can’t break up with me, because I break up with you FIRST!”

  22. 22.

    SpaceUnit

    Taylor Swift isn’t really my kind of music.

     

    Dead end MAGA boomers crying about Talyor Swift being a Dem is my kind of music.  Turn it up.

  23. 23.

    Geminid

    Nice to see Dr. Samantha Hancox-Li (@perdricof) featured in a post. She’s a very penetrating and succinct analyst. Serious, but with a dry sence of humor; calls herself a “neonliberal.”

  27. 27.

    kindness

    What drive conservative men mad about Taylor Swift is they will never ever have any chance at having her.  In the world they wished existed, women wouldn’t have that choice.  Gilead indeed.

  28. 28.

    Montanareddog

    Miller’s absurd TS conspiracy-mongering is just another case of right wing throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks. It is relentless, boring and emblematic of their total lack of anything positive to contribute.

  31. 31.

    WaterGirl

    @kalakal: Well, we all know who isn’t in the running for that one!

    Totally OT, I watched the final episode of Life on Mars.  And half of the first episode of Ashes to Ashes.

    Kind of bummed about Ashes to Ashes, I thought I would like it, not at all sure I do.  I will give it more than half an episode, though, to win me over.

  32. 32.

    Suzanne

    @kindness:

    What drive conservative men mad about Taylor Swift is they will never ever have any chance at having her. 

    AND they are frustrated that she is hugely successful and famous and rich, while making art that isn’t for them. There’s a privilege in having art made for you. It tells you that your life is important and your struggles are valid.

    The trope is old: men make art, women make crafts. Men’s stories are universal themes about The Human Experience, women’s stories are a “special interest”. Like her or not, Taylor Swift is a serious songwriter. She — and Beyoncé, too, I think — have kind of coalesced a cohort of women who expect quality popular art made for them, and about them. That threatens the meathead types, who don’t want to have to actually care about women and their interests.

  33. 33.

    gene108

    Take it off! Take it off! Fool, take it off! Take off the Ring!

    If only Gandalf hadn’t clarified his pronoun, when his voice was in Frodo’s head, as Frodo sat atop Amon Hen, Ms. Swift’s quote would take on interesting connotations.

  34. 34.

    gene108

    @kindness:

    What drive conservative men mad about Taylor Swift is they will never ever have any chance at having her.

    Same can be said about AOC.

  35. 35.

    Matt McIrvin

    @kindness:

    What drive conservative men mad about Taylor Swift is they will never ever have any chance at having her.

    I’ve kind of never understood this, though, because what chance do you have at having any celebrity? Practically zero, regardless of their orientation, available status or political ideology. You’re just some random person. They could never have Sarah Palin or any of the women of Fox News “Outnumbered” either.

  36. 36.

    karen marie

    @WaterGirl: The portfolio was up for sale. Someone was going to buy it. I don’t understand why you’d be mad at the person who bought it instead of the corporation that put it up for sale.

  37. 37.

    Jackie

    My daughter is a huge Swifty, so I ordered her the 3 Time covers for Christmas. She’ll most likely frame them. I was more than happy to help TS on her way to becoming richer and more successful than TIFG!

  38. 38.

    bbleh

    @kindness: @Suzanne: @gene108: @Matt McIrvin: and re Swift and AOC and and and, not only can they not “have” them, but they also cannot keep other men from “having” them, or otherwise control them, including very importantly keeping them from choosing partners for themselves.

    And yes yes, age old yada yada “battle of the sexes” and so on, but FFS when women having agency really gets under your skin, I’m like … dude, get a life? A hobby, maybe, at least?

  39. 39.

    kalakal

    @WaterGirl: Ashes to Ashes took a couple of episodes for me then I was hooked. The problem for me was it wasn’t Life on Mars and that’s what I was expecting. If you get past that it’s great, if you don’t it’s ok but…

  40. 40.

    Suzanne

    @bbleh: It’s more abstract. I think there’s a lot of toxicity in patriarchy, but I have to imagine that most men know that they will never get with Taylor Swift, or AOC, or whomever.

    Their success and popularity represents a shifted dynamic, tho, in which women have more cultural capital (and money) and thus have the ability to be the ones selecting their partners, rather than men being the ones to have the upper hand in that transaction. Remember that lots of men liked it when women were not able to access their own money and therefore were desperate.

    Swift being a Democrat is a sign that hot, desirable women would never pick a jerk.

  42. 42.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Suzanne: Yeah, this probably is very much of a piece with that Washington Post bit about the “problem” that young liberal women increasingly won’t date right-wingers.

  43. 43.

    Tony G

    @geg6: When I was in seventh grade (more than 50 years ago) there were some boys that reacted to girls that way.  Then (most of them) grew up.  These MAGA freaks never did grow up.

  44. 44.

    Suzanne

    @Matt McIrvin: Exactly.
    Women these days…. they get educated, make their own money, get to be picky about their partners, expect said partners to be more enlightened than past generations…. Lord. So much effort!

  45. 45.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Ivan X: It’s not really for me, either, but… I thought some of the singles I heard off the last album were pretty good, particularly “Karma” and “Antihero”. It seems like her songwriting is maturing rapidly.

  46. 46.

    scav

    Then there’s the weird detail that a hard-line conservative is complaining — Complaining!! — that something isn’t organic.

  47. 47.

    WaterGirl

    @karen marie:

    Totally disgusted that the person sold it.

    Soros is rich enough that he could have bought it and sold it back to Taylor Swift for a dollar.  Making a statement about the rights of artists.

  49. 49.

    RevRick

    Behind all the kvetching about Taylor Swift and the ridiculous attempts to somehow explain her away is a cry of absolute terror. These men are terrified that the rules are being rewritten, and not to their benefit. They have so thoroughly drunk the koolaid of white male supremacy that Taylor Swift represents an existential threat. And since they are also incapable of an ounce of introspection, they react in rage. It’s as if Taylor Swift has personally Lorena Bobbetted each one of them.

  51. 51.

    gene108

    @WaterGirl:

    In all these years of hearing about Soros, I am finally unhappy with something he has done. Well, besides not sending me my monthly checks. EVER.

    Soros did not buy the right to Swift’s masters that her original recording studio owned.

    In November 2020, Shamrock acquired ownership of the master recordings of Taylor Swift’s first six studio albums from Big Machine Records (2006–2017), which itself had been sold to media manager Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Ventures.[28][29]

    Shamrock is owned by the trust of Roy E. Disney’s family (whose father Roy O. Disney co-founded Disney studios along with his brother Walt).

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamrock_Holdings#:~:text=Shamrock%20Holdings%2C%20or%20Shamrock%2C%20is,Disney.

    Edit: The X post was sarcasm about how conservatives would react IF Soros bought the masters.

  52. 52.

    Jackie

    @smith: Moskowitz is fast becoming my favorite Dem freshman out of MANY favorites!

    Edited to add that video is the first time in a looonng time I haven’t fast-forwarded through that song!

  55. 55.

    SFAW

    And (no) thanks to Tony Jay, I just bought Pandora’s Star and Judas Unchained. A thousand effing pages each. I must be nuts, stupid, or both.

  56. 56.

    ...now I try to be amused

    @RevRick:

    Behind all the kvetching about Taylor Swift and the ridiculous attempts to somehow explain her away is a cry of absolute terror. These men are terrified that the rules are being rewritten, and not to their benefit. They have so thoroughly drunk the koolaid of white male supremacy that Taylor Swift represents an existential threat. And since they are also incapable of an ounce of introspection, they react in rage. It’s as if Taylor Swift has personally Lorena Bobbetted each one of them.

    They have reason to be terrified. When women gain options, marginal men lose because women no longer have to put up with these losers. The ones yelping are marginal men.

  57. 57.

    Suzanne

    @RevRick: @…now I try to be amused: If you haven’t read this great piece by Rebecca Traister, “The Return of the Marriage Plot“, might I point you toward it.

    It’s clear that at least some of what is motivating conservatives is the threat of women in positions of power. When Roe was overturned, Ohio’s J. D. Vance, then running for the Senate, tweeted that “if your worldview tells you that it’s bad for women to become mothers but liberating for them to work 90 hours a week in a cubicle at the New York Times or Goldman Sachs, you’ve been had.” The sentiments, like Brooks’s plea to Times readers to focus more on weddings than careers, give away part of the game: the fantasy that a return to a traditional family structure would take high-achieving women out of the job market.

  62. 62.

    Splitting Image

    @Suzanne:

    AND they are frustrated that she is hugely successful and famous and rich, while making art that isn’t for them. There’s a privilege in having art made for you. It tells you that your life is important and your struggles are valid.

    The trope is old: men make art, women make crafts. Men’s stories are universal themes about The Human Experience, women’s stories are a “special interest”. Like her or not, Taylor Swift is a serious songwriter. She — and Beyoncé, too, I think — have kind of coalesced a cohort of women who expect quality popular art made for them, and about them. That threatens the meathead types, who don’t want to have to actually care about women and their interests.

    Yup. All of this.

    Lilith Fair was founded in the 1990s because other festivals had a rule that you only allowed one or two women on the ticket. Too many women would make the festival a “girl” thing and hurt overall sales. This attitude held back an entire generation of women songwriters.

    That shit won’t fly anymore. Good.

  64. 64.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Splitting Image: Sometime in the 2000s I recall some rock-criticism web page, maybe it was a magazine article posted online, chortling about some guy who was the sole male member of an otherwise all-woman band–“can you imagine how emasculating that is?” Can’t associate yourself with the girl thing, the girlyness rubs off on you.

  65. 65.

    wjca

    @Matt McIrvin: Sometime in the 2000s I recall some rock-criticism web page, maybe it was a magazine article posted online, chortling about some guy who was the sole male member of an otherwise all-woman band–“can you imagine how emasculating that is?” Can’t associate yourself with the girl thing, the girlyness rubs off on you.

    Whereas, if they really were the macho types they imagine themselves to be, their reflexive reaction would have been “Wow! He’s got all those women to himself!”  But no, in their hearts, they know that they’re pathetic.

  66. 66.

    MagdaInBlack

    @wjca: For those type, it does not even make sense that you would enjoy the company of women. Women are not people you are friends with or whose company you actually enjoy. Women have a place and it is not as a friend or someone you hang out with.

    To them, if you genuinely LIKE women, then there is obviously something “wrong” about you.

  67. 67.

    wjca

    @MagdaInBlack: For those type, it does not even make sense that you would enjoy the company of women.

    Likely true.  But those types wouldn’t be thinking about company anyway.  Just availability — to their imagined charms, don’t you know.

  68. 68.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Suzanne: ​
     

    Dead thread, but I didn’t have the energy to write up a comment in the middle of the night. The Traister quote again:

    It’s clear that at least some of what is motivating conservatives is the threat of women in positions of power. When Roe was overturned, Ohio’s J. D. Vance, then running for the Senate, tweeted that “if your worldview tells you that it’s bad for women to become mothers but liberating for them to work 90 hours a week in a cubicle at the New York Times or Goldman Sachs, you’ve been had.” The sentiments, like Brooks’s plea to Times readers to focus more on weddings than careers, give away part of the game: the fantasy that a return to a traditional family structure would take high-achieving women out of the job market.

    While I expect Traister is dead on here, there’s something else going on worth mentioning: neither Vance nor Brooks is even trying to see the choice from a woman’s point of view. Even if you’re not a high-achieving woman, working those long hours in a cubicle (if that’s what it takes) means you’re supporting yourself, which gives you control of your personal life. If you find the right person to marry, then great; if not, your world doesn’t fall apart. You have your career, you have your friendships, you have a life that belongs to you.

    And focusing more on weddings and hopes of motherhood than careers – what does that mean? It means that if you don’t find the right person to marry, what are your choices? Greater disappointment at a minimum, because you placed your hopes on something you had less control over. Or you could settle for someone who is really less than what you were hoping for, which sounds like a pretty lousy life long-term.

    But I’m sure it’s what Vance and Brooks want to see: women being more available to less desirable men. Women in control of their own lives has punched a big hole in that between the time I was growing up and now.

    So (with a nod to that WaPo piece) a lot of less desirable men are finding themselves with less female companionship than they would have found 50 years ago. ISTM like the answer is that men need to up their game: first of all, they need to become men who are making the most of themselves, taking charge of their own lives rather than just drifting. And second, see women as people rather than objects of desire. That’s how you become the sort of man that a woman in control of her own life might want.

  70. 70.

    Matt McIrvin

    @wjca: That was kind of mine– but all these guys saw was that he wasn’t the leader of the band, they weren’t his harem or under his control, he was just helping them out, a part of a team of women. And that was intolerable, unbefitting a man.

  71. 71.

    Kay

    I have a ruthlessly curated Instagram account that is just gardening but a Swifty snuck her way on there at the end of last summer and they’re a lot of fun. The fandom is really joyful. I ended up watching the videos and trying to decipher their code talking – they have their own slang – because it’s cheerful and fun. The only problem now is I’m inundated with Swifties so now my IG is gardening and Taylor Swift. I may have to prune a little.

    The Right wing manosphere hate her because they are bitter and nasty people who have to find something bad and scary about everything.

  72. 72.

    Kay

    @Suzanne:

    have kind of coalesced a cohort of women who expect quality popular art made for them, and about them. That threatens the meathead types, who don’t want to have to actually care about women and their interests.

    I think that’s true – I didn’t consider that the songs are about them, but of course they are.

  77. 77.

    Tony G

    @wjca: Yup.  As a former girlfriend back in the seventies

     

    @…now I try to be amused: That’s the MAGA ideology in a nutshell.  The “Again” in “Make America Great Again” refers to a Golden Age (more than 60 years ago at this point) when straight white men were in charge of everything, and everyone else knew their place.  The irony is that a guy would have to be 80 years old or older to have an adult memory of that glorious age.  It’s a variation of the Lost Cause mythology.

  78. 78.

    wjca

    @Kay: they are bitter and nasty people who have to find something bad and scary about everything.

    Now if only they could see the (very real) bad and scary in TIFG.

  79. 79.

    Mo MacArbie

    Huh, no hits on this page yet for “Hunky Dory”. I totally saw that cover redone up there by Time.

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