Taylor swift finally broke her long-standing silence about politics on Sunday night when she endorsed Democratic Tennessee Senate candidate Phil Bredesen in a lengthy post on Instagram.

“In the past I’ve been reluctant to publicly voice my political opinions, but due to several events in my life and in the world in the past two years, I feel very differently about that now,” Swift wrote. “I cannot vote for someone who will not be willing to fight for dignity for ALL Americans, no matter their skin color, gender or who they love…. I will be voting for Phil Bredesen for Senate and Jim Cooper for House of Representatives. Please, please educate yourself on the candidates running in your state and vote based on who most closely represents your values.”

Taylor Swift just posted on Instagram than she will be voting for Tennessee Democrats Phil Bredesen and Jim Cooper in the #Midterms. pic.twitter.com/ONvRAaDpOo — Ashley Alese Edwards (@AshleyAlese) October 7, 2018

Swift’s endorsement of a Democrat in deep-red Tennessee drew some predictable backlash from conservative fans who said that Swift should just “shut up and sing” a la the Dixie Chicks. Former Arkansas governor and failed comedian Mike Huckabee tweeted that the endorsement would make zero difference unless “we allow thirteen-year-old girls to vote.”


More amusingly, however, Swift’s leftward pivot caused extreme rage among a less well-known section of the singer’s fandom: The internet of Nazis.

Members of the far-right have long been infatuated with Swift, partly because of her supposedly “Aryan” looks and partly because, as a 2016 Broadly article explains, they believe she is a means by which America can be subtly “red-pilled” into believing their racist, misogynistic, and fascist agenda. “Taylor Swift is a pure Aryan goddess, like something out of classical Greek poetry. Athena reborn. That’s the most important thing,” Andrew Anglin had previously written on the white supremacist blog the Daily Stormer. “It is also an established fact that Taylor Swift is secretly a Nazi and is simply waiting for the time when Donald Trump makes it safe for her to come out and announce her Aryan agenda to the world.”

The brilliant minds at work on 4chan dot org.

So when Swift announced her endorsement of a Democratic candidate, it left users on 4chan’s /pol/ enraged, and wondering where they could find their next far-right muse. Many, as is natural on 4chan, blamed the Jews for somehow masterminding Swift’s liberal shift, while others angrily replied that Swift was still an Aryan goddess and playing 5th-dimensional chess so that she could better own the libs further down the road.

The discourse has also migrated over to the far-right cesspool that is Gab, and has picked up by the fake-news peddling Gateway Pundit.

The Tennessee Senate race between the Trump-backed Representative Marsha Blackburn and Governor Phil Bredesen is currently classified as a toss-up by 538. However, according to a recent poll, Blackburn has surged into a eight-point lead, partially due to the fall-out from the Kavanaugh nomination.