Neo-Nazis choose Swift as their online icon

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This article was published 27/05/2016 (3726 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Taylor Swift is not a white supremacist. She doesn’t identify as a neo-Nazi, and there is no evidence to suggest that, behind closed doors, she might.

That hasn’t stopped some white supremacists from the “alt-right,” a fringe group of the movement that often uses humour and online message boards to spread its ideology, from reportedly choosing her — ironically or not remains unclear — as an icon for their movement.

In much the same way Cher or Barbra Streisand can be seen as “gay icons,” a series of Internet memes, articles, and message board posts have dubbed Swift an “Aryan goddess.”

It appears to have begun in 2013 when a teenager named Emily Pattinson began overlaying quotes by Adolf Hitler on Pinterest photos of Taylor Swift as a joke, Buzzfeed reported. Swift’s lawyer, J. Douglas Baldridge, sent Pinterest a stern letter, asking for the images to be removed. Pinterest refused to take them down, citing parody laws. But those same images now appear on the Daily Stormer, which bills itself as “the world’s most visited alt-right website.”

The site was founded by white supremacist Andrew Anglin after he realized Internet users were more interested in quick-hit, meme-type content than long essays. “My ideology is very simple,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “I believe white people deserve their own country.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center dubbed it a “neo-Nazi website” and one of the two most popular “hate sites” online. The idea of Swift as an alt-right pop icon seems to have percolated there.

Along with the memes, the Daily Stormer has become home to several pages of articles praising Swift that bear titles such as “Taylor Swift, Avatar of European Imperialism.”

“Taylor Swift is a pure Aryan goddess, like something out of classical Greek poetry,” Anglin told Vice.

Columnist Milo Yiannopoulos explained in Breitbart the alt-right thinks “Swift is covertly ‘red-pilled,’ concealing her secret conservative values from the progressive music industry while issuing subtle nods to a reactionary fan base.”

Yiannopoulos wrote Swift presents a perfect storm: she’s white, blond and doesn’t speak about her politics. Meanwhile, she’s drawn criticism regarding race in recent years.

In Pacific Standard, writer Aaron Bady accused Swift of being “nostalgic for a time when you could be nostalgic for white supremacy” after her Africa-set video for Wildest Dreams was released. Camille Paglia referred to her as a “Nazi Barbie” and a “fascist” in the Hollywood Reporter. And, in 2009, a photo circulated the web showing her dancing with a man in a white T-shirt bearing a sloppy red swastika.

These are isolated incidents, but white-supremacist websites have taken them out of context. For example, in the photo, Swift wears a shirt with the letters “JH,” which someone on the neo-Nazi forum Stormfront claimed means “Jew hater.”

The line between purported comedy and drop-dead seriousness is blurred throughout the Swift memes. Take one Facebook page, which includes many of those aforementioned memes. Liked by more than 19,000 people — and once removed by Facebook — it’s titled “Taylor Swift for Fascist Europe” and is tagged “comedian” but includes comments such as “Not all races are equal.”

Its anonymous curator told Vice that Swift’s perceived innocence is partly what makes her an icon in the fascist world.

“Take Kim Kardashian or Miley Cyrus as examples of this: both began their lives with the same Nordic blood that Swift did, but what makes these two degenerates unfit for consideration as fascist icons?” the curator said. “It is because, although Aryan in blood, the two are not Aryan in spirit. To be Aryan in spirit is what completes the fascist.”

Swift has not responded to these claims.

— Washington Post