I cannot say that I have ever been a fan of Taylor Swift. This is not from any great dislike of the young woman. Indeed, I am nor aware of even having listened to her sing, unless accidentally when I was out and about. No, I am just pretty much indifferent.
However, the Guardian seems to have printed an article about her, wondering why she has not tweeted anything about President Trump. I am afraid I have not read the article in full either but here is a link to it.
I only became aware of it when I came across some letters criticising the Guardian for printing the article. The paper was criticised for “wasting ”editorial space printing that story when more time and space should have been devoted to that instead of talking about the NHS. Here’s an excerpt from one of the letters:
“In the article, you portrayed Swift as embodying the values of Trump because she: has written songs about her life; is adept in the use of social media; has the temerity not to give her music away for free on Spotify; wishes her biggest fans to get tickets to her concerts; has a friendship group from a similar social and ethnic background; and fails to explicitly condemn President Trump and all his works.”
Another letter writer pointed out that nobody expected Elvis to give his opinion about the Vietnam war. Indeed! So why should Taylor Swift be expected to comment on today’s political situation?
Mind you, back in the day they tried to pin down Dylan and persuade him to express political views. After all, his songs seemed full of protest. But he wasn’t prepared to play ball.
Nowadays, of course, everyone is an expert. And yet it seems as if you are criticised if you tweet (especially if you retweet other people’s racist stuff - more somif you tweet the wrong Theresa May!) and also if you don’t.
Once again I grow nostalgic for simpler times!
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