“The absurdity of it all boggles the mind,” said one senior administration official.

National security officials are used to shaking off absurd conspiracy theories, but the latest rumor that’s gripped MAGA world just hits different.

The claims by Fox News and far-right influencers that pop star Taylor Swift is part of a Pentagon “psychological operation” to get President Joe Biden reelected, and somehow rig the Super Bowl to benefit Kansas City Chiefs tight end (and Swift’s boyfriend) Travis Kelce, has been met with forehead slaps in the national security world.

“The absurdity of it all boggles the mind,” said one senior administration official, granted anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly on the matter. “It feels like one of those ‘tell me you are a MAGA conspiracy theorist, without telling me you are a MAGA conspiracy theorist’ memes.”

  • Untitled4774@sh.itjust.works
    102·
    9 months ago

    These people just can’t handle anything, just anything, not being exactly as they like it, and if it isn’t, it has to be some sort of conspiracy.

    • GilgameshCatBeard@lemmy.ca
      60·
      9 months ago

      That’s my dad. Trump is a god to him, and anything negative said about him is a liberal plot to stop him from his patriotic duty. The cognitive dissonance that man shows is baffling!

      • TurboDiesel@lemmy.world
        46·
        9 months ago

        My stepfather is like that. I even tried to use his own logic to help him see most of these conspiracies are dumb; “you said yourself that the gov’t is incompetent. So how can they pull off a conspiracy at this scale if they can’t run the country?” - stuff like that.

        It doesn’t matter, he’s fully drank the Kool-Aid, so I just keep him at arm’s distance now.

        • SlopppyEngineer@lemmy.world
          28·
          9 months ago

          Rules of fascism

          #3: “Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, any previous reflection. Thinking is a form of emasculation.”

          #4: Disagreement is treason.

          #8: The enemy is both strong and weak.

      • Tristaniopsis@aussie.zone
        185·
        9 months ago

        Thank goodness my Dad never went down that path, but honestly if he did I might just punch him straight in the face.

        • OlPatchy2Eyes@lemmy.world
          956·
          9 months ago

          Violence is bad and you should rethink your attitude towards people on the Kool-Aid. Anyway go ahead and explain me the paradox of intolerance like I haven’t seen it a thousand times, I don’t care.

          • JimmyBigSausage@lemm.ee
            5·
            9 months ago

            I had to block my dad’s emails for awhile. I just couldn’t believe they just kept coming and coming. And while trying to be a good son and available should he need me, I just had to risk going no contact for awhile. Now I basically gray rock everything. 🫤

              • JimmyBigSausage@lemm.ee
                9·
                9 months ago

                “Gray rocking, or the grey rock method, is a tactic people may use to deal with abusive or manipulative behavior. It involves becoming as uninteresting and unengaged as possible so that the other person loses interest.

                Some people anecdotally report that it reduces conflict and abuse.”

    • nolannice@lemmy.world
      31·
      9 months ago

      Guys the best quarterback in the league made it to the superbowl again, it’s a conspiracy against us. No other way to explain this.

      • aesthelete@lemmy.world
        16·
        9 months ago

        Also some of them say, “the 49ers need to win to save the country”…but like the big conspiracy is that Taylor is supposed to make a half-time endorsement of Joe Biden… So like, how would either team eventually winning the game have any impact on the half-time show?

    • tburkhol@lemmy.world
      241·
      9 months ago

      And now that there’s a denial, from a “senior administration official,” it’s proof-positive of a vast conspiracy. “Why would they deny something that’s not real?”

    • leclownfou@sh.itjust.works
      18·
      9 months ago

      At this point it almost seems like more than that. It’s like they need to manufacture some outrage to keep everyone angry about something.