Whether you love or hate Taylor Swift, no one can deny the pop star’s influence. Swift is making waves after giving a rare interview, and her appearance on her boyfriend Travis Kelce’s podcast already has nearly 20 million views on YouTube in just less than a week. But her resurgence to the top of people’s social media timelines has also prompted another wave of online criticism, particularly from left-wing voices on TikTok, that is nothing short of unhinged.
One of these fanatics is attacking Swift for the apparently horrific crime of being financially successful. Viral videos were quick to remind viewers that “eat the rich applies to Taylor Swift,” claiming that she “doesn’t give a shit about the global poor” and that “there’s no such thing as an ethical billionaire.” Others scolded Swift for not giving her new music away for free, seeing as she already has so much money.
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But this sentiment reveals some truly profound economic illiteracy.
First, Swift is the definition of an “ethical billionaire” if there ever was one. She amassed her wealth by creating art that adds value to millions of people’s lives. No one “loses” from any of this — it’s an economic win-win. And, as is always the case in free-market capitalism, Swift could only enrich herself by creating tremendous economic value for others, including the “global poor,” in the process.
For example, Swift’s global tour stops in Mexico City interjected roughly $60 million into the local economy, according to El País. Her tours have created thousands of jobs and brought millions of dollars to local venues, hotels, and restaurants. Ironically, this kind of entrepreneurship does more to help the global poor than these TikTok critics will ever do in their entire lifetimes combined — all of this is to say nothing of the tens of millions of dollars Swift has donated to charities helping the needy.
So, unless you are blinded by class envy and resentment, like many of these TikTok influencers clearly are, this criticism of Swift totally misses the mark. Their other main criticisms of the pop star include, of course, her “white woman privilege,” and also that she… doesn’t weigh in on geopolitics?
Seriously. One of the biggest criticisms lobbied against Swift online these days is that she is “silent” about the suffering of the people of Gaza at Israel’s hands. And it is true that Swift has not publicly commented on the conflict — we, of course, do not know whether she has privately donated to relief efforts, and she very may well have — but that’s actually a good thing, not something to bash her over!
The world does not need more pop stars’ opinions on geopolitics, especially concerning incredibly complicated conflicts that date back decades. Some of these deranged TikTok critics seem to genuinely believe that Swift speaking out on Gaza would change things. That is absurd. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not going to change his war plans because a pop star posts an Instagram story. All Swift publicly condemning Israel would actually accomplish is isolating huge swaths of the public, needlessly politicizing shared culture, and adding absolutely no new perspective or information to the mix.
Other than that, it’s a brilliant idea.
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The truth is, no matter what Swift does, influencers and internet critics would find some reason to complain. That’s how they make themselves feel better about their own inadequacies and stir up engagement to monetize. But Swift herself doesn’t seem to care or pay attention, no matter how many millions of views and “likes” these hate videos rack up.
As Swift said in the podcast appearance that sparked this wave of backlash, “something can be about me, my name can be in the actual headline, and it can still be none of my business.”
Brad Polumbo is an independent journalist and host of the Brad vs Everyone podcast.