Right-wing lawmakers continue to misuse buzzwords like "socialist," "Marxist," and "communist" to strike fear—and action—among their base. All too often, these words are used with little or no attention to what they actually mean.
Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee employed this tactic yet again in a recent interview with white nationalist disinformation outlet Breitbart.
There, Blackburn warned against a "socialistic government" and how it would affect the entertainment industry.
Watch below.
Marsha Blackburn: Taylor Swift Would Be "First Victim" of "Marxism," "Socialistic Government"www.youtube.com
Blackburn said:
"When you talk about country music, and I know the left is all out now and trying to change country music and make it woke. When I'm talking to my friends who are musicians and entertainers, I say, 'If we have a socialistic government — if we have Marxism — you are going to be the first ones who will be cut off because the state would have to approve your music.'"
She then invoked pop music star Taylor Swift, who relocated to Blackburn's home state of Tennessee in 2004 to pursue country music. Swift famously described Blackburn as "Trump in a wig" in her 2020 documentary Miss Americana.
Blackburn said of the singer:
"Taylor Swift would be the first victim of that because when you look at Marxist socialistic societies, they do not allow women to dress or sing or be on stage or to entertain or the type music that she would have. They don't allow protection of private intellectual property rights."
As Rafi Schwartz of Mic notes, country singers—and singers across a vast array of genres—have been blacklisted already. Most notably, the career of country music band The Chicks was cut short in 2003 for speaking out against the Iraq War and then-President George W. Bush. It wasn't until recently that the band made a comeback.
The stupidity of Blackburn's argument was on full display.
Just dumber than a bag of hair.https://twitter.com/ronfilipkowski/status/1413213162753638402\u00a0\u2026— Kevin M. Kruse (@Kevin M. Kruse) 1625834709
The One Where Marsha Doesn\u2019t Know the Difference Between \u201cSocialistic\u201d Countries and Theocracieshttps://twitter.com/ronfilipkowski/status/1413213162753638402\u00a0\u2026— Rachel Vindman (@Rachel Vindman) 1625792624
Normally, I warn all of you not to fall for the idea that the Republicans are all stupid. But in this case, Blackburn is just plain stupid. I mean, this is Louie Gohmert, Lauren Boebert levels of stupid. Cinder-block stupid.https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1413213162753638402\u00a0\u2026— Tom Nichols (@Tom Nichols) 1625793024
Blackburn trying to contend with Ron Johnson for \u2018dumbest comments uttered by a Republican Senator in 2021\u2019https://twitter.com/ronfilipkowski/status/1413213162753638402\u00a0\u2026— Mehdi Hasan (@Mehdi Hasan) 1625838916
They believe the USA is going to be a socialist country because we rejected a conman from leading here. Hah.https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1413213162753638402\u00a0\u2026— JustAnotherManic2020 (@JustAnotherManic2020) 1625847933
This is such a stupid time to be alive.https://twitter.com/ronfilipkowski/status/1413213162753638402\u00a0\u2026— Miranda Yaver, PhD (@Miranda Yaver, PhD) 1625852082
They called out her hypocrisy on the issue as well.
Here's Sen. Blackburn co-sponsoring a bill "disapproving" the teaching of something that is not even taught in k-12 schools curriculum and threatening the withholding of federal funds from local school districts. https://www.blackburn.senate.gov/2021/6/blackburn-cotton-mcconnell-colleagues-introduce-bill-to-defund-1619-project-curriculum\u00a0\u2026https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1413213162753638402\u00a0\u2026— Sherrilyn Ifill (@Sherrilyn Ifill) 1625848510
This is funny considering that the #GOP are the driving force behind attempted stripping of women's rights.\nAlso: If we had continued down the road the GOP tried so violently to achieve on Jan. 6th, that's exactly what would have happened & TFG admitted/planned for it. #WompWomphttps://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1413213162753638402\u00a0\u2026— JadedB (@JadedB) 1625818523
Pretty hilarious given that Marsha Blackburn is an authoritarian wack job who would absolutely love to control what we read, listen to, and watch.\n\nShe has literally endorsed forcing broadband providers to delete whatever the govt calls \u201cfake news\u201d \u201coff the web.\u201dhttps://twitter.com/ronfilipkowski/status/1413213162753638402\u00a0\u2026— Dell Cameron (@Dell Cameron) 1625795470
Taylor Swift has yet to respond.
