F you, Taylor Swift!” shouted Megyn Kelly, “and f all of the people who want to see these children have body parts chopped off.”

For those not fluent in Republican crazy-speak, Kelly’s meltdown was triggered by Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Kamala Harris the night before, barely one hour after Trump all but face-planted on the debate stage. Kelly was especially triggered by Swift highlighting her appreciation for vice presidential nominee Tim Walz’s support of LGBTQ+ rights.

Other right-wing commentators, like Ben Shapiro, took another approach: making fun of Swifties. “Note: if you vote for a particular candidate because your favorite singer is doing so, please don’t vote. You are too stupid to vote,” wrote Shapiro on X. Meanwhile, Elon Musk, the richest man on the planet, threatened to impregnate her.

    • Billiam@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      It’s not about them. It’s about the ones who weren’t going to vote at all. Republicans lose when people turn out to vote.

      • Kalkaline @leminal.space
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        2 months ago

        Yep, we can make them go away by showing up and doing the minimum necessary to keep our democracy functional.

      • whoisearth@lemmy.ca
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        2 months ago

        And so help me god if she militarized her base the GOP is fucked. They’re playing with fire. I don’t think people understand the soft power TS has. These are voting age kids, or kids of people who are voting age.

    • ThunderWhiskers@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      In less than 24 hours nearly 400k Americans registered to vote using the specific link that she provided. That’s the number that matters. If they actually go vote that is enormous.

    • mommykink@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      But I’d suspect the number of Taylor Swift fans who weren’t going to vote at all was a fair bit larger.

      Granted, there’s really no consensus on the impact of celebrity endorsements, but if anyone can affect how people vote, I’d wager that the biggest pop star in the country could be the one to do it

    • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      You’re not getting it.

      How many of them weren’t going to vote? How many will now?

      It’s not just about winning over undecided voters, you also need to convince apathetic voters and motivate lazy people to actually cast a ballot.