Joshua Tyler | renew
In the glittering universe of pop culture, few stars are as consistent as Taylor Swift. And some things are very strange.
Being a fan of someone or something means you have a passion for it. Passion has waves, peaks and valleys. The stars rise on enthusiastic fans, and then the passion eventually becomes dim and the stars fade away. The franchise rises to popularity, then falls, and sometimes rises again on another day.
Except sometimes they don’t. Organic fanaticism should mean rising over time. If not, it means something is wrong.
Thanks to Google Trends, we can now track those passionate peaks and valleys. Here is a chart showing the rise and fall of Beyoncé’s passion for Beyoncé during her career.
Beyoncé’s charts are typical of almost every celebrity. This is Kim Kardashian’s…
They rise, peak and then fall. For the biggest, most successful, luckiest, most talented people, such as Beyoncé, it happened in 10 years and never completely disappeared, just died.
Then there is Taylor Swift. Her reputation nearly 20 years ago never disappeared. Here is her chart…
It doesn’t contain what you expect from the ebbs and flows of legal, organic fan passions. Her reputation was stable and only reached its peak. It never drops significantly. Taylor Swift is not the only example, it is just the clearest one.
These people’s enthusiasm is more like an algorithm than an emotion? Who seems to like everything Star Wars does, no matter how bad it is? Or someone who jumps out of every latest trend for no reason and sticks to it?
Some of them are standard slope diners or unsafe airport readers. But some of them are not. Some may be sociopaths.
What is a sociopath?
A sociopath is a person with personality disorder characterized by a lack of empathy, conscience and remorse. They manipulate, deceive and exploit the personal interests of others without introspection, often hide behind charming, calculated facades, integrate into society and avoid being discovered.
Clinically, 4% of the world population is defined as a social disease. This means that of the 8 billion people on Earth, 350 million are sociopaths. This is equivalent to the entire population of the United States. Among these 350 million sociopaths, it is safe to assume that Taylor Swift has many fans.
Taylor Swift fanatic
I’m not saying that all Taylor Swift’s fans are sociopaths, far from that. Most of them seem to be kind-hearted, usually friendly middle-aged women. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with Taylor Swift. Her music is good enough, she is beautiful, talented and thoughtful about the business. But the consistency of her reputation is unusual, and sociopaths may be the answer.
In her pioneering book on dealing with sociopaths The social perversion next doorDr. Martha Stout studies the ways sociopaths hide themselves among ordinary people. One of their key tricks, she explained, is the tendency to join non-dispute groups and pretend to be part of them to make people think they are like them.
Here is an example. Former FBI director James Comey recently released the video, announcing his Taylor Swift Fandom. If someone is a sociopath who pretends to be himself, that’s what it looks like…
Taylor Swift’s appeal as a safe, neutral, mainstream pop star is marketable, accessible, and unrivaled. This makes her the most ideal person on earth to hide behind. Being a tired person is so safe and positively normal that it almost becomes boring.
Fanatics invade sociopaths
Sociopaths don’t experience emotions. They have no passion. They have nothing, but pretend it and are really good at it. Sociopaths are usually the most fascinating, seemingly passionate people in our society. They are always lying.
Fans infected with social perversion will not be affected by the normal ebb and flow of passion, emotional fan behavior. A sociopath decides to take some way to disguise their feelings and compassion, and there is no reason to change their work, so they won’t change. And if you map this fanaticism on the chart, it might look exactly like this…
Swift’s popularity (such as the 2023 Eras Tour explosion) is exactly in line with her sales surge and trend spikes, but is the consistency of the baseline? That doesn’t look organic; it’s backed by the core of unwavering supporters who don’t burn like typical fans.
People without emotions create robot trends
Sociopaths can provide a stable engine due to lack of emotional fatigue. They buy albums in large quantities, play them relentlessly, and promote what others will give up without the ups and downs of real passion, all of which can be cast normal. Unlike the avant-garde artists who occasionally can’t help but alienate controversy, Swift’s wholesome atmosphere prevents them from red flags, maintaining her empire through pure, unwavering calculations.
Swiftys are not the only group that can be invaded, but the largest group. Next time you see an unusually supportive response online, take a step back and ask yourself if you are witnessing an organic passion or the collective work of sociopaths hidden in sight.
