A PNW rhetoric expert believes the latest conspiracy theory about Taylor Swift has captured the public’s attention because it is ridiculous.
“As we grow older [most people] come up with a more sophisticated understanding of how things work,” said Thomas Roach, a Communication professor who studied rhetoric, the art of persuasion. “Some people have not come up with reasonable explanations of why things happen, and so they gravitate towards easy explanations that if they thought about them would be ridiculous, and this theory is an example of that.”
The Swift conspiracy theory revolved around allegations that the singer was part of a secret government plot to influence the outcome of the 2024 election by endorsing President Joseph Biden after the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl win. Reports by some right-leaning media and social media even suggested that Swift might swoop in at halftime and make a public endorsement.
A related conspiracy theory asserted that the Chiefs – who have been to the Super Bowl four times in the last five years – only made it to this year’s contest through special intervention by the NFL.
Swift did not endorse the president and the Chiefs went on to win their third Super Bowl since 2019.
But that did not dampen enthusiasm for the rumor.
A recent poll found that one in five Americans believe the Swift conspiracy theory and 71% of those who believe this identify with or lean toward the Republican Party and 83% indicate they are likely to support Donald Trump in the fall. The poll by Monmouth University also found that nearly half of U.S. adults had heard that Swift was part of a covert plot to reelect Biden.
Roach said the public’s fascination with the media is partly to blame.
“We’ve been preoccupied with media since the beginning of the 20th Century, and everyone understands that when messages get sent through mass media, they have a different effect than when messages are sent through word of mouth,” he said. “There is this fear that mass media is going to manipulate us in some way as there is a history of mass media being used to manipulate people.
“We then get this theory that Taylor Swift, with the media attention she has, is trying to manipulate us to vote for a particular candidate. Anytime someone makes a story about mass media trying to manipulate us, it gets attention.” Roach said.
“Whenever there is a media event, there are three different reactions,” he said. “Some people say, ‘This is silly and I will ignore it.’ Some people choose not to ignore it, either because they believe it or are amused by it. And I think a lot of people who are repeating this Taylor Swift conspiracy theory are talking about it because it is so silly.”
