The swiftie in me kind of died writing that. But it’s true. She can’t.
To be clear, Taylor has saved my world many times over. I vividly remember hearing ‘Abigail gave everything she had to a boy who changed his mind’ in my childhood/teenage bedroom, and being forever changed.
And yet, as powerful as Taylor’s music has been for me, she alone cannot save the world, and we have to stop acting like it.
We have to stop acting like Taylor could end wars and genocides with social media posts, rallies, donations, and whatever else you think she isn’t doing.
We criticize celebrities for being too self-important. And then we criticize them for not being our saviors.
She was vocal about the 2024 election. It didn’t change the outcome.
And yet, people are still truly convinced that pressuring her to “speak up” is the solution.
I am not saying that she or anyone is perfect. Many people could be doing many different things with their platforms. That’s not actually a critique, it’s just a fact. Everyone could be doing more. Even the people posting on social media.
Everyone could be doing more.
Speaking of doing more — there are lots of resources at the end of this post!
And unfortunately, we never know exactly what will turn the tide and start a revolution that actually makes a difference.
But you know what is 1000% not going to make a difference?
Using your precious time and energy to criticize Taylor Swift, or any other celebrities, for not posting about world crises.
Taylor Swift is an archer, a mirrorball, a tortured poet. She has been a Brit, a New Yorker, a Kansas City girl — and now, a showgirl. But she is, by her own admission, an anti-hero. And anti-heroes cannot save the world. So why do we act like she could end a genocide with a single post?
Why do you want someone who boldly declared, “It’s me, hi, I’m the problem, it’s me,” to be the solution?
Why are people SO obsessed with pressuring her to speak up for the world’s crises when they could be directing that energy towards people who actually have the power to effect the change we’re seeking? (SO many resources at the end by the way.)
Probably for the same reason that people are paying hundreds of dollars to protest at Kamala Harris’ book tour. The woman they didn’t elect for President, because they didn’t think we had any good options. Remember?
I’m not here to convince you to be a Swifie. You have your taste, I have mine.
But this thing we do where we loudly criticize people we’ve never met, like we have all the facts, and we’re the judge and jury? And we act like these people deserve our scrutiny because they chose to be in the public eye?
I’m sick of it.
Taylor isn’t seeing your posts about everything you wish she was and wasn’t doing.
Glennon Doyle also isn’t seeing all of your posts about why she should never have started a Substack. (That whole thing? Insane. I have so much to say, but I truly will not go there.)
The universal truth I keep coming back to is that our reactions to people have more to do with us than them.
In some cases, we can and should loudly react to celebrities doing objectively horrible things. But even then, our reactions will still point to something specific inside us that has nothing to do with them. We get upset about certain things more than others for a reason. It’s our heart talking. It’s past experience talking.
But if you’re furious with a celebrity who left his wife for someone else, and you make a ten-minute TikTok talking about what we all have been led to believe happened, you’re having that strong of a reaction for a reason. I’m not criticizing you for having that reaction. I’m just saying that your reaction has more to do with you than that celebrity.
So to be clear, it’s completely fine if you’re mad at Taylor Swift for not posting about one or all of the world’s many atrocities. But if you’re so mad that you’ve convinced yourself she is doing nothing whatsoever? You’re having a really strong reaction that’s causing you to make up a narrative that fits the scope of your rage.
You have no idea what Taylor Allison Swift has or hasn’t done. Neither do I. There are plenty of people in this world who quietly educate themselves, donate, and even influence the people around them, without posting on social media about every single thing they’re doing. That’s a perfectly fine thing to do.
You know what’s not fine, though? Making angry, cavalier posts about how much Taylor Swift sucks just because she has not done this one thing that you think would change the tides of a literal war.
It’s not fine when your middle school cousin, who looks up to you, reads your post and is heartbroken that you hate one of their personal heroes whose music helped them get through 5th grade when they were being bullied.
The same people who are screaming Tortured Poets Department at the top of our lungs, and proudly wearing friendship bracelets —
We’re the same people who are absolutely heartbroken by the tragedies of this world. We’re doing everything we can to turn our heartbreak into action.
We raised millions of dollars in a Swifties for Harris Zoom fundraiser in like 90 minutes. We speak up and do everything in our power to show our solidarity and support for all kinds of crisis relief.
We’re not wasting our energy villainizing a celebrity for not making a social media post.
Again, you can feel however you want to feel about this! You’re allowed to think I’m wrong. You’re allowed to think that the revolution should happen a certain way. You’re allowed to want it to happen one way.
I’d LOVE to live in a world where posting online could end a war.
But it can’t. It literally can’t. And that’s not actually what you want to happen.
You want these social media posts to galvanize people. You want the whole world to be inspired, care, and take action.
Me too.
Instead of expecting one person’s entire fanbase to magically do that, what if we focus on what we can do and what’s productive and what we KNOW will help?
What if we encouraged our friends to make donations to impactful organizations? What if we spread factual information from reputable news sources, so that genuinely confused people can understand what the hell is going on?
What if we stopped wasting our precious, limited, valuable energy being mad at Taylor Swift?
I am so deeply over the era of loudly hating women, by the way— but that’s another post.
If you’re unhappy with how someone’s behaving, you have freedom of speech (for now) and you can say whatever you want. But with all of the truly atrocious, heartbreaking tragedies in this world, maybe we could just focus on loudly criticizing the people in power?
Maybe we could loudly amplify the people who are already doing something to help?
Maybe we could remember that 2025 has been hard for everyone at every level of life, and that being nasty online is literally not helping you or anyone in the slightest?
On that note, the comments for this post might eventually be turned off. This took a lot of courage to write and post. I’m going to exercise some self-compassion and give myself the kindness of not subjecting myself to the opinions of every single person on the internet. Democracy is important. Free speech is important. But this is my comment section, and I’ll be damned if I deal with every single troll who wants to come after me.
If you can disagree and be respectful, go ahead and sound off. But if not, I’m not dealing with the keyboard warriors. It is not worth my energy. Or yours.
Oh — and one last thing.
When you see me losing my mind over The Life of A Showgirl, and feel tempted to remind me of what Taylor Swift is or isn’t doing —
If you feel the need to call me a hypocrite, or say vile things about me or our *lord and savior Taylor Swift —
In the words of Renee Rapp, “leave me alone **** I wanna have fun.”
*Yes, I know I upset “the Christians” with that one. They’ve been upset since Cynthia Erivo played Jesus. They’ll live.
