(DON THOMPSON / iNFOnews.ca)

OPINION

Most of us will never know what it feels like to sink hopelessly into insanity. The mere thought of being unhinged - marked by thought and action that defies reason - gives new definition to unnerving.

Consider, however, not just a single person slipping into unreality…but millions of people…more or less simultaneously. Unnerved yet?

Those of us still firmly living in the real world are aware of the romance of musical superstar Taylor Swift and NFL football player Travis Kelce, who plays tight end for the Super Bowl’s Kansas City Chiefs.

Only truly perverse minds could give birth to the conspiracy theory percolated by the MAGA Trump crowd in recent weeks. I give you today’s Republican Party.

What you’re reading is true…100 percent accurate…factual. I introduce this example of irrationality because…truly…it defines both insanity and how hopelessly lost people can become.

Let’s start with the premise…which like the virus it is…mutated countless times over social media. One should remember that the MAGA crowd - more than any other group - looks not for truths or facts, but narratives that fit their often perverse beliefs. They find those narratives on Fox and NewsMax, as well as social media like X (formerly Twitter)…the mother of most conspiracy births.

Thousands then millions of MAGA folks shared the baseless rumours that Taylor Swift - long disguised as a music superstar - was actually an agent for the Pentagon’s psychological operations unit.

Boyfriend Travis Kelce - number 87 on his uniform but number one in Taylor’s and Chief fans’ hearts - is an asset of the Deep State, as well. Of course, the MAGA crowd has hated him since he got his first COVID-19 shots, and then did a public service announcement in support of vaccinations.

Together, Swift, Kelce and President Joe Biden formulated this secret plot - MAGA conspirators claimed - to ensure Biden gets reelected in 2024. All three were to appear at the Super Bowl halftime show, they said, where President Biden was to receive his official endorsement from two of America’s most popular people. Yeah, it sounds nuts…but not too nuts for Trump supporters who shared the disinformation millions of times on social media.

I have planned events, but truly the hardest part of this one had to be getting 15 other NFL American Football Conference Division teams to agree that Kansas City should go to the Super Bowl. That Biden must be one fast talker.

You’d think that fairy tale simply couldn’t survive long…but MAGA Republicans - bless their hearts - took up the banner and shared the conspiracy millions of times.

What kind of alternate universe and reality of grievance must consume you to fully lose your mind and choose as your primary enemies the two people with perhaps the most ardent followers in all of America?

Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour has already raked in $1 billion…with more than half the concerts remaining on five continents. I’m sure MAGA parents are wringing their hands over the Swifties among their adolescent children who simply adore Tay Tay…and wondering if it was the damn COVID-19 vaccines.

Jesse Watters, a part-time Fox host and full-time propagandist, said he had proof of Swift’s being an agent for the Pentagon…showing a selectively edited presentation by Alicia Marie Bargar at the 11th International Conference on Cyber Conflict, organized by NATO in 2019. Watters sold it as a secret military meeting.

It was a conference where an academic presented research about the flow of information and one speaker gave Swift as an example of someone with influence because she’s literally the biggest musician on the planet right now.

Of course, there’s absolutely no evidence that the U.S. government or anyone else is using Swift as a tool of spreading misinformation, as Watters continually suggested. Watters then brought out an ex-F.B.I. agent who posed all kinds of spooky hypotheticals about how Swift might indoctrinate the country’s youth to vote for Joe Biden.

I believe America and its youth will overwhelmingly vote for Biden in November…not because they’ve been indoctrinated…but because the other side is, well, mostly insane.

— Don Thompson, an American awaiting Canadian citizenship, lives in Vernon and in Florida. In a career that spans more than 40 years, Don has been a working journalist, a speechwriter and the CEO of an advertising and public relations firm. A passionate and compassionate man, he loves the written word as much as fine dinners with great wines.

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