Taylor Swift has some fans in the most unlikely (and disturbing) of places.
Breitbart was the first to report on Swift's neo-Nazi fanbase in a post earlier this month. Some vocal members of this corner of the internet's underbelly believe the blond-haired, blue-eyed "Aryan goddess" -- as she has been called -- who grew up on a Christmas tree farm in Pennsylvania is actually helping to convert the masses.
"The alt-right can be given to conspiracy on occasion — hardly surprising, given how often they are lied to and about — and the thought that Swift is covertly 'red-pilled,' concealing her secret conservative values from the progressive music industry while issuing subtle nods to a reactionary fanbase, delights them," Breitbart reporter Milo Yiannopoulos writes.
Swift has refused to talk about politics, but some think she is just waiting for Donald Trump to become president to make her true political leanings known.
"Firstly, Taylor Swift is a pure Aryan goddess, like something out of classical Greek poetry. Athena reborn. That's the most important thing," Andre Anglin, who writes for the white supremacist blog the Daily Stormer, told Broadly. "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. Probably, she will be betrothed to Trump's son, and they will be crowned American royalty."
Um ... ok.
The origins of this radical fan base apparently root back to Pinterest user Emily Pattinson, who posts under the handle @poopcutie and pinned images attributing Hitler quotes to Swift. The teen's memes were then used by the actual neo-Nazi online community, New York Mag notes.
Swift's team has pushed back against Pattinson's activities. Pattinson provided the following letter to Broadly sent by Swift's lawyer, J. Douglas Baldridge:
The association of Ms. Swift with Adolf Hitler undisputedly is 'harmful,' 'abusive,' 'ethnically offensive,' 'humiliating to other people,' 'libelous,' and no doubt 'otherwise objectionable.' It is of no import that Ms. Swift may be a public figure or that Pinterest conveniently now argues that the Offending Material is mere satire or parody. Public figures have rights. And, there are certain historical figures, such as Adolf Hitler, Charles Manson and the like, who are universally identified in the case law and popular culture as lightning rods for emotional and negative reaction.
A representative for Swift was not immediately available for further comment, but it's safe to say the singer is not amused.
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