Thanks, Taylor Swift! We Thought 2017 Was Pretty Great, Too!

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Submitted by RJ Carter on Mon, 12/18/2017 - 06:58

In case I've never mentioned it before, I'm old. So my playlist doesn't often reach out to include Taylor Swift in its lineup.

That doesn't mean I'm insulated, though. I know who she is, I remember when she was on my country stations...and I'm aware that, for whatever reason, her opinion on politics is highly sought after, and her silence on it seems to be infuriating to the pop culture media HMFICs. Yes, why is a twenty-something pop-star not weighing in on where she stands on matters of international diplomacy or perceived social inequities? How can we move on without knowing this information?

Part of the answer lies in the fact that Taylor Swift is not stupid. She pretty much knows how the media would run with any opinion she might give on weighty issues, because she's seen how they treat her opinion on frivolous ones. Case in point: the singer turned 28 years old a few days ago. So she posted a photo to Instagram with the message: "I couldn't have asked for a better year, all thanks to you. Thanks for all the birthday wishes. Can't wait to see what 28 will be like. See you on tour."

Seems pretty run-of-the-mill for someone to say on their birthday, right? But no, Lady Taylor had given an utterance, and it was time for the journalism aristocracy to clutch their pearls.

At Jezebel, Rebecca Fishbein retorted, "Shut Up, Taylor Swift. Everybody Hated 2017," noting that the year had given her "nightly panic attacks." Over at The Cut, Madeleine Aggeler bemoans 2017 as horrific because Donald Trump became President of the United States. She bolsters her arguments with the perennial headlines of hurricanes and California wildfires, and includes the "crushing, seemingly endless wave of sexual-assault allegations...has forced many women to relive their own trauma on an almost daily basis."

Aggeler seems to overlook the fact that Taylor Swift herself was in court this year, testifying in her own sexual assault case, where she had to relive what was done to her -- this year, this same year that she looks back on as having been great.

There's a lesson to be had in all of this -- a couple of them, at least. First, but not foremost, is that no good deed goes unpunished. The more important lesson is that young people in the world like Taylor Swift can still have an exuberant, positive attitude on life even after the soul-crushing nightmare of not getting the candidate they wanted in the Oval Office. So pardon me if I find her attitude refreshing, her outlook inspiring, and now I'm off to go download "Reputation" onto my iPhone. Anyone this positive deserves a listen.