Reminder: Just Because Taylor Swift Got “Bot Bombarded” With Negative Commentary About “Promoting Nazi Ideas” Doesn’t Make The Life of a Showgirl Any Less, Well, Schlocky

The Swifties probably haven’t had this much of a field day with feeling validated since it was revealed that Kim Kardashian “doctored” the recording of Swift talking to Ye about approving the lyrics referencing her on 2016’s “Famous.” This emboldening Kardashian to tell GQ in the July 2016 issue, “She totally knew that that was coming out. She wanted to all of a sudden act like she didn’t. I swear, my husband gets so much shit for things [when] he really was doing proper protocol and even called to get it approved.”

Swift’s spokesperson had a different account of the events, asserting that Swift never denied the call took place, but that, “much of what Kim is saying is incorrect. Kanye West and Taylor only spoke once on the phone while she was on vacation with her family in January of 2016 and they have never spoken since… It was on that phone call that Kanye West also asked her to release the song on her Twitter account, which she declined to do.” And for good reason. After all, hadn’t she already done enough for him by agreeing to present him with the Video Vanguard Award at the 2015 VMAs and make a big production about burying the hatchet by even going so far as to call him “my friend, Kanye West”? Apparently not. And apparently Ye wasn’t done having his “fun” toying with Swift and her emotions. So it was that the public “turned against” Swift in the wake of Kim K calling bullshit on her “innocent” act with the so-called receipt to back it up.

The effects of the “revelation” prompted enough social media backlash (complete with use of the snake emoji that Swift chose to later “take back” for her Reputation era [but Jesus Christ, that makes it sound like she did something as valiant as turn the “n”-word into a term of endearment the way Black culture has]) for Swift to later reflect on this period in her 2023 Time “Person of the Year” profile as “getting canceled within an inch of my life and sanity.” In truth, it wasn’t that serious. From Swift’s perspective, however, it was serious enough to go into hiding for about a year and totally dip out on saying anything about the Orange One taking over the country—even though one word from her might have made a difference.

Alas, she was much too caught up in her own bubble of woundedness to do much on the political front. The same goes for the present moment, with Swift not even bothering to comment at all, let alone passionately à la Olivia Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter, about the Trump administration using three of her songs from The Life of a Showgirl (“The Fate of Ophelia,” “Father Figure” [oof] and “Opalite”) for certain videos on the White House’s social media accounts. Or, for that matter, to comment in any stance-oriented way at all about the Orange Creature and his diabolical second term. Instead, her husband-to-be, Travis Kelce, is happy to make declarations about how it’s “a great honor” to have the Orange One watch his Super Bowl game and that America is “the greatest country in the world.” In short, his views might not be “Nazi,” per se, but they’re certainly conservative enough to kowtow to a fascist like The Human Cheeto. And this is the kind of man Swift swoons over throughout the atrocious and cringeworthy The Life of a Showgirl (let’s not even get started on “Wood” or “Honey”)—reminding one of the adage, “You are the company you keep” (which, surprisingly, hasn’t cropped up in a Swift lyric yet, considering she likes to repurpose “old” sayings [e.g., “Familiarity breeds contempt” on “Bejeweled”]).

Not to mention her audacity in trying to come for Charli XCX on “Actually Romantic,” which “coded” or not, seems like a clear (but just “vague enough”) dig at the Brat legend, if for no other reason than alluding to XCX’s own still recent song, “Everything is romantic.” And then mentioning how Charli “high-fived my ex [read: Matty Healy] and then you said you’re glad he ghosted me” and “wrote me a song saying it makes you sick to see my face” (read: “Sympathy is a knife,” though “dissing Taylor” is not the intent or message behind the song at all). These examples, of course, only scratch the surface of all the ways in which The Life of a Showgirl is, quite frankly, unlistenable shite—Max Martin-produced or not (clearly, he’s always still saved his best for Britney Spears and maybe Ariana Grande).

And, in the weeks and now months since the album was released, the reaction has gone from all-out vitriolic to people mostly letting its existence fizzle out entirely from their memories—try as Swift might to keep it fresh with the release of yet another variant (the “Acoustic Collection”) in November. But now, The Life of a Showgirl is due for a resuscitation (despite still being new) thanks to Swift releasing a six-episode docuseries on Disney+ called The End of an Era. Milking The Eras Tour one last time (maybe), it’s a glimpse into the behind-the-scenes of what went into the show, and ostensibly meant to remind fans and non-fans alike that Swift has earned her stripes as a “showgirl” and, thus, being able to supposedly speak on it for an entire album (though, again, what she’s mostly speaking on is the majesty of her white bread fiancé [no sourdough pun related to Swift’s bread fetish intended]).

To add to the notion that The Life of a Showgirl is somehow already due for a “reassessment,” two days before The End of an Era’s release, it was revealed by Gudea, “an AI-driven behavioral intelligence platform” (which isn’t a description that necessarily instills faith) that, per The Guardian, a “coordinated online attack sought to suggest Taylor Swift promoted Nazi ideas.” This done in a manner similar to what happened to Swift’s supposed ex-friend Blake Lively during the Justin Baldoni/It Ends With Us debacle. The research went so far as to unearth that, per The Independent, “3.77 percent of accounts drove 28 percent of discussion of Swift in the period, namely the conspiracy theories about her supposed ties to the MAGA movement, or allegations that she was promoting trad-wife gender norms and white supremacy.”

But honestly, bot attacks or not, most of those “conspiracy theories” (or what some merely call a “close read”) aren’t without their merit. And while Swift might believe she’s not racist or representative of hyper-conservative ideals—at least not willfully so—her ignorance and out-of-touchness continues to shine through more than ever on The Life of a Showgirl (though one didn’t think that was possible after hearing a verse like, “My friends used to play a game where/We would pick a decade/We wished we could live in instead of this/I’d say the 1830s but without all the racists” on The Tortured Poets Department). This is coming, uncoordinatedly, from a non-bot, so take it for what it’s worth: as a gentle reminder that, “hit job” or not, the bots that “came for” this album weren’t totally off the mark. Nor is it to say that this suspiciously well-timed revelation is conveniently due to vindicate Swift right when she has another new project out. In effect, not too shabby of a “birthday gift” for her.