Swift for President

A surprising Pop Star twist in this week's Camino a Ítaca. Taylor Swift now rules the world. I'm only wondering if her message will settle among everyone. Click over to read the originally published article in Spanish in the HOY or read the English translation below. (PDF en castellano abajo)

There are few things that Americans do better than sell themselves. Substance and quality aren’t necessarily what concerns them. In their case, size does matter. From wild west snake oil salesmen to former presidents, they’ll guarantee what they have to offer is bigger and better than anything else.

Their particular carnival last Sunday was no different. In a country known for navel-gazing, they proudly tout their Super Bowl as the world’s largest sporting event. Granted, it is watched by more than 100 million Americans, but it’s an event that barely registers a blip on people’s radars outside of North America.

But this year was different. There was something new in the mix of barely concealed violence and slow-paced boredom that usually make up the game. It was even showing up on the leading pages of El Pais. Something that had nothing to do with the game itself was drawing more interest and attention to the match than ever. The woman whose recent tour grossed more than a billion dollars in ticket sales was added to the mix. America’s sweetheart, Taylor Swift was dating one of the players.

This wouldn’t have been strange had she just been a wallflower hanging off the arm of a popular sports personality. In fact, it would have seemed as stereotypically American as proms and cowboy movies.

But the case is that Taylor Swift isn’t your average shrinking violet, but instead a strongly independent businesswoman with a global army of fanatical followers unmatched by anyone else. And she’s someone who isn’t afraid of expressing her progressive views on LGBTQ+ and women’s rights, racial justice and climate change.

And this had the right in panic.

In the twisted carnival of American politics, where reality and absurdity collide like runaway rollercoasters, one might not expect to find the ethereal presence of a pop sensation. Yet, in this tumultuous era, the enigmatic force known as Taylor Swift has emerged as an unexpected puppeteer, pulling strings in the shadows of Washington like a maestro orchestrating a symphony of chaos.

In the hallucinogenic landscape of contemporary politics, where truth is elusive and conspiracy theories flourish like wildflowers in a fever dream, Swift has become an unwitting symbol of influence. One whose voice can sway hundreds of millions of voters and one that could influence an election.

Terrified speakers on the right prophesized worst-case scenarios of her boyfriend proposing to her during peak viewing time and then her announcing her support for Biden in the upcoming election. It was a potentially progressive silver bullet in the penurious heart of the conservative world of professional sports. It was their worst nightmare.

The reptilian retrogressive right greatly fear the power of those who imagine, those who create. It contrasts dramatically with their instinct to deconstruct. They will sing along to their songs but when it comes time to politics, insist on them staying inside their lane. As if the world of culture was somehow divested from everyday life.

From the Grammys to the Goyas, artists have been speaking out. Now I just hope that Taylor’s Swifties translate and adapt her speech and stem the tide of the ultras amongst the youth here in Spain.

Lest We Forget

Elvis (or Franco) is not dead

The growth of forgetfulness, or willingly not remembering, in this week's Camino a Ìtaca. Revisionism on the right of some of the past's worst atrocities and what they may lead to. Click over to read the originally published version in Spanish in el HOY or read the English translation below. (PDF en castellano abajo)

What hit me most wasn’t the room filled with shoes or the shorn hair of the victims piled up in the next. Nor was it the infamous sign above the entrance cynically stating that work will set you free. What I remember having an impact on me most was the sheer size of the place.

It was enormous.

The lone railway line that led to the guard tower gave it the impression of a city and in fact that’s what it was, a city of death. The work camp at Auschwitz was brutal and brought on a sense of tremendous sadness, but it was the dimensions of the extermination camp down the road at Birkenau that actually made me feel nauseous.

It also raised doubts and questions within me. Why was this place still here? Why had they chosen to create a museum around a place where more than a million people were killed, a place of such desolation and grief.

And then I realized, as unpleasant as the experience can be, it was essential that it remained visible so that we don’t forget. Memory is crucial in order not to repeat the atrocities of the past. Without it we are damned to repeat errors gone by, a frightening prospect indeed.

What is even more terrifying than forgetting though is when attempts are actively made to whitewash and even deny the horrors of the past. Holocaust deniers, white supremacists and fascist sympathizers are no longer a small, fringe slice of the population, but a growing international phenomenon.

From the Trump supporters claiming that slavery wasn’t such an awful thing, to Milei challenging the reality of state terrorism under the fascist dictatorship in Argentina, to Meloni supporters openly displaying busts of Mussolini and Abascal’s fondness for the national catholic dictatorship here in Spain, these new political neofascist archetypes aspire to destroy democracy from within democratic institutions.

These new strains of populism differ slightly from country to country, but they also share many of the same traits. They are marked by attacks on the checks and balances, intolerance of a free press, disbelief in science and a cult of personality. These new far-right populists make intolerance the center of their politics and an ideological legitimation of dictatorships.

In the communities that the ultraright have been welcomed into coalitions with the PP, one of their first moves is invariably to try and overturn the historical memory laws, laws that were precisely set in place in order not to forget.

Extremadura is no different. At the behest of their extreme right coalition partners, the PP is promoting a new law of concordance that will dilute and whitewash the coup d’etat and ensuing crimes of the dictatorship.

Fascist ideology is grounded on the notion that some people in society are better than others. At its core is the belief that there is a select group, or race that sits above the rest. In Nazi Germany it was the Aryans while here their adherents glorify a mythical Hispanic race.

Left unchallenged, this whitewashing and normalization of fascist ideas becomes terribly dangerous. Those who rode down that lone train track in that camp scream at us to never forget.