here are some hyper-polluting individuals:

  • the Rolling Stones’ Boeing 767 (5,046 tonnes of CO2)
  • Lawrence Stroll (1,512 flights)
  • Thirty-nine jets linked to 30 Russian oligarchs – (30,701 tonnes of CO2)

relevant quote:

But I will say this, a movement can’t get along without a devil, and across the whole political spectrum there is a misogynistic tendency to choose a female devil, whether it’s Anita Bryant, Hillary Clinton, Marie Antoinette, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, or J.K. Rowling [or Taylor Swift]. And there’s always gonna be people who seize on any opportunity to be misogynistic. So I would advise trans people and our allies [or environmentalists] to keep in mind, that J.K. Rowling [Taylor Swift] is not the final boss of transphobia [anti-environmentalism]. She’s not our devil. The devil is the Republican Party, the Conservative Party.

Natalie Wynn (emphasis and bracket text mine)

edit: if you can’t respond to this without using the c*nt expletive it is not helping your case lmao. mods are we okay with this? in any case, please don’t feed the trolls.

edit 2/FAQ: “but why did she threaten legal action against that college kid though?” still shitty, but refer to this comment for a good explanation of the context behind that decision.

She only threatened legal action since those memes started before when her flight movements got the attention of the right in an attempt to make her less credible of a voice speaking out against trump. And knowing how batshit insane trump cultists can be and how she’s basically the single most hated person of his base I’m not surprised that she feared for her security. Those records were public for years but the legal action only happened after someone created that meme and even fox news suddenly cared about plane emissions…

and another good comment

[…] For Swift, this is legitimate fear. I don’t know if you’ve ever experienced actual fear for your life, but it’s crippling, and it effects your psyche. To experience that on a daily basis because of an app? You bet your goddamn ass I’m going to talk to my lawyers about what my options are.

sources/timeline for the above:

        • @[email protected]
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          1 year ago

          So you blame her for being successful? Why not blame the government for not taxing the rich 100% on money recieved over 100 million or some other number so they can’t be billionaires?

          Edit: damn… people are pissed for all the wrong reasons.

          • @[email protected]
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            61 year ago

            The corpo bootlicking is insane

            You do not gain that much money being a good person, but Im sure she loves you dude

          • Red Army Dog Cooper
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            221 year ago

            Being sucsessful doea not equate to being a billionaire, to be a billionaire requires mass exploitation. If you think success requires others to be exploited than I truly feel sorry for you, and you have my pitty

          • @[email protected]
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            171 year ago

            There is no such thing as an ethical millionaire. Let alone a billionaire. Any person that is fine with having a wealth well beyond what they could even spend is not a good person.

      • @[email protected]
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        1 year ago

        “Nothing to do with her being a woman” -uses word that has historically been used as a slur against women-

    • deaf_fish
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      61 year ago

      Yeah, that was an analysis fail in my opinion. I am sure being a woman has something to do with it, but I think it is way more about the big polluters looking for a scape goat and finding one in T Swift.

        • deaf_fish
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          41 year ago

          Ok, so first off, it is impossible for it not not at least a little bit that she is a woman. Sexisim is a thing and we could argue about how much it is affecting things, but your dumb if you think it has 0 effects. Multiple things can be true at the same time. Check your brain worms before they eat you alive.

          Yes, billionaires are a problem, but jetting around is tiny damage compared to large scale manufacturing, which is where the real money and environmental damage is. And the real money loves what your doing. They love that everyone is shitting on T Swift, because that means, they get some time that they aren’t public enemy number one.

  • Uriel238 [all pronouns]
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    491 year ago

    I assume the jet thing is just an excuse because Taylor Swift is the target du jour of the MAGA movement. They don’t care about the jet use of anyone else but are actively making up shit about Swift.

    This isn’t about principles. It’s just about othering.

  • @[email protected]
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    541 year ago

    It’s a valid criticism, I’m just wondering where 90% of those folks criticizing were the last 10 years, when it would have also been a valid criticism against her, but only a select group of people called it out and I recall precisely zero memes on this specific topic. Curious, that this has only become a mainstream meme now that there is a defamation campaign actively being conducted against her by right wing media.

    • @[email protected]
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      1 year ago

      Because most people don’t give a shit about her until she’s in the news and she was recently all over the news?

      I remember people making jokes about it last year on reddit too, so they only come up when she becomes relevant to most of us.

      I find the whole “you’re just criticising a billionaire because she’s a woman” angle or “it’s because right wing smear campaign” to be much more sus. Obvs some PR firm working overtime to frame negative remarks about her as something more sinister.

      Her, musk, and any other billionaire deserves to be eaten. No remorse for these shitscum.

      • This is fine🔥🐶☕🔥
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        21 year ago

        Because most people don’t give a shit about her until she’s in the news and she was recently all over the news?

        Funny how fame works

    • @[email protected]
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      31 year ago

      I always criticized her and every other ultra wealthy PoS. Celebrity culture needs to die off as it is anyway

    • DessertStorms
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      121 year ago

      This is the issue, not criticising Swift in general.

      OP misses the mark in my eyes, not because the misogyny isn’t fuelling the recent wave of criticism from the right (who couldn’t give two fucks about emissions since they don’t believe in climate change), but because it lumps all criticism of Swift together, valid or not, almost feeling like it’s pro-Swift rather than being anti-misogyny, and fuck being pro Swift, and excusing any of her actions (downsizing from two jets to one isn’t worthy of any praise nor defence, it’s not like she can use both at once, and is still flying just as much).

      You can (and should) call out misogynists without defending the billionaire.

      • @[email protected]OP
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        1 year ago

        thank you for your nuanced response :)

        i absolutely hear your qualms with my post and i wish i was a good enough rhetoricist to quell them, but i’ll just say i 100% am not in this to defend Swift. when the memes kicked off over a year ago in mid 2022 i found them really funny and rhetorically useful. she deserved the eyes on her that she got because it was proportionate to the damage she is causing.

        but now it’s 2024 and she has reduced flights by over half (depending on how you count), and it’s only now that the meme has really become fashionable? this is where i see the issue, that the collective ridicule for her is now disproportionate to the damage she is involved in.

        does she deserve the memes still? yeah totally. is she the very best option to meme among the dozens of celebrities and capital owners who do almost identically awful things? i personally don’t think so, not quite. is it concerning that MAGA folks have latched on to her now as evil for encouraging votes, citing CO2 emissions as though they had ever given a flying fuck about them? absolutely.

        summary: i have zero defense for Swift or her actions. it is impossible to become a billionaire without exploitation. but the window of peak rhetorical opportunity for these memes has passed by over a year and it’s very unlikely that beating this dead horse is going to make any further positive change in her behaviors. i’m here to encourage you to just see that, and make your own decisions from there.

        • DessertStorms
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          1 year ago

          I appreciate you hearing me out and yeah, I’ve seen you around (in a non stalkery way lol) and you don’t strike me as someone who would support her, but this one meme kinda does? But then, I’m looking at it from the very far left, it would absolutely hit home with a more liberal crowd, which is probably more the target audience, so it might be just right for that. 🤷‍♀️

          I guess it just feels icky to me to have to use she only uses one jet 3 times a day now as a positive thing, plus I have a very low tolerance for lib-coddling lol… 😂(E: nothing against those who can take it for the sake of educating them, I just can’t do it anymore, I’m blunt, and it’s up to them to take it or leave it)

    • @[email protected]
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      151 year ago

      I think it more coincides with the legal threats against a person who was keeping track of her flights

  • @[email protected]
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    341 year ago

    It’s funny because she is not a plane or made of planes, or brushes her teeth with airliners, but the funny pictures say that she is lol

    • @[email protected]OP
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      211 year ago

      the memes are funny! you’ll never catch me discounting that. i just think it’s good to question who is benefiting from the disproportionate coverage in 2024, and if a stronger case could be made to direct our meming at others. :)

  • @[email protected]
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    1 year ago

    Yeah, criticizing the Rolling Stones in 2024 is totally equivalent to criticizing Taylor Swift, yeah let’s pivot right to that. Ignore the fact that she’s arguably the most popular musician on earth right now, just played a major cultural event, and all recent events… no, let’s go back to a washed up classic rock band and meme on them instead. Yeah, that’ll work.

    Fucking Swifties dude…

    • @[email protected]OP
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      1 year ago

      honestly, for me personally? the fact a “washed up classic rock band,” as you put it, is outputting more CO2 than an actually-relevant Swift? that’s a huge difference and reason to be all the more critical of The Rolling Stones. like what are they even doing all that for lol.

      i criticize both and defend neither.

      • @[email protected]
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        271 year ago

        Yeah it sucks they seem to get a free pass, there certainly is an element of truth in this post. However, I still think the post is fighting the wrong battle. Memes will pass and Swift has certainly caused this shitstorm herself by threatening to sue a regular joe over public accessible information.

        It’s a general accepted truth rich people and companies have been spewing the majority of CO2 emissions, and this post is just a whole load of “whataboutisms”.

        I genuinely can’t believe I’m the first one to actively press the downvote button on this post, what a load of bullshit.

        • @[email protected]OP
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          111 year ago

          this instance has downvotes disabled which is why you are seeing as though you are the first to downvote.

          i hear and understand your position, and fear not you are not alone in your opinion :)

    • @[email protected]
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      81 year ago

      I only know Taylor Swift from Americans talking about her. Presumably she’s “the biggest in the world” just like the Superbowl is the biggest TV or sports event in the world, which it isn’t.

  • @[email protected]
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    31 year ago

    Natalie Wynn is cringe AF her outfits are just the petit bourgeoisie version of the TayTay private jet and her theatrics are annoying and do more damage to the credibility of progressives than the soviet union ever could.

    • @[email protected]OP
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      141 year ago

      bro is comparing some clothes to the imprisonment and execution of millions of people 💀

            • @[email protected]
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              31 year ago

              You’re comparing a youtuber who makes questionable fashion choices to totalitarians who murdered millions, and want people to believe the youtuber is worse.

              Do you really not see the absurdity in that?

        • Sybil
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          31 year ago

          i think she has done good pol-ed. i don’t know if she’s really done activism, though she does seem to construct her videos in a way designed to appeal to more than the choir.

          i dunno. i just think shitting on her is wrong unless she’s done something… wrong.

          the OP quote is the correct nuance, but also, we shouldn’t overlook rowling’s bullshit.

    • @[email protected]
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      161 year ago

      The best way to make it easy to commit crimes against other humans is to turn them into non people.

      I however see no problem in this instance. Carry on.

    • AbsentBird
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      81 year ago

      Corporations aren’t people, billionaires literally are; that’s the problem, no single human should have such an out sized share.

  • LeadersAtWork
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    1 year ago

    I’m going to point out something else that, unfortunately, will feel like an attack to some, though I hope my viewpoint is sound:

    Taylor Swift is a product of an industry supported by us. Maybe not you, the reader, specifically, though by a couple billion around the world, across often only dozens of artists. That is entertainment. That is the industry. A byproduct and need of this career is travel and you certainly aren’t taking a sailboat across the Atlantic to meet deadlines. Now, I am not blaming us. As always it is the industry and those expectations that should be blamed. We are a tiny part of a larger, global issue, though discriminated against and blamed due to our lack of individual authority. Gaslighting is a hell of a drug.

    So while I can question Swift’s initial amount of private flights, I will also point out that her hopping in a plane is likely akin to us driving a car, in the essence of usage of resources. We all use in excess to some degree and she did dial it back. That alone is important. Finally, I want to call out the bandwagoners and the envious.

    I haven’t knowingly listened to a single Taylor Swift song. Not sure I could name one tbh. Though for all the energy those of you who are envious put into criticism of what I can tell is one of the lesser evils amongst the many billionaires ruining this planet, you could be doing more and better. I’ll admit, many of the memes were rather funny and dunking on someone with the wealth to afford a team of private therapists can be enjoyable, it has bothered me that we leaned so hard on seemingly (so far) the one wealth enjoyer with a bit of empathy.

    Anyway, on the toilet at work. So if you need a reason for this there you go. lol I recognize that I probably don’t have all the info. Plenty of people will likely come out with some nitpicked story or article or claim. On the scope of actual problems though? Taylor isn’t one of them, I feel. At least not yet. Hopefully not ever.

    • BringMeTheDiscoKing
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      81 year ago

      Seems to me it is when we are on the toilet that we are at our most reasonable.

      I also know next to nothing about Taylor Swift, but if her “Swifties” want it, I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s one of the first jet-setting celebs with a hydrogen or electric aircraft.

      I think it would be smart PR, as well as ‘the right thing to do,’ for her to invest in some companies to help herself (and the rest of us) get to that point.

  • JJROKCZ
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    121 year ago

    Let’s not forget that at least 50 of Lawrence’s flights are F1 races scattered around the globe in a horrible order for environmental concerns and are increasingly hosted in oil barren countries because F1 loves blood/oil money more than anything

  • Flying Squid
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    441 year ago

    I’m really of two minds on the private jet thing, because she undeniably was doing it way too much and for way too short distances, but for longer distances, I can see someone of her level of fame needing to fly privately for security reasons. I doubt Taylor Swift walking through an airport and getting on a Delta flight would be especially safe for her.

    I do not like the idea of celebrities traveling in private jets overall, but when you’re at Beatles-level fame? The Beatles chartered private flights too. Maybe she should charter, but I can see why flying commercial is a bad plan.

    Let the mass downvoting commence.

    • @[email protected]
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      221 year ago

      Maybe we all need to stop subsidizing the airline industry so that these rich assholes who want to fly around all the time for their convenience can pay the entire price themselves. Airlines and airports are publicly funded and utterly unsustainable without massive infusions of government cash and protection at every step along the way.

      The fact that we pretend these airline companies and airports are in any way actual businesses Is just a way for the wealthy who get to fly all the time (private jets or not) to offload the cost of their convenient transportation onto the American people.

      • @[email protected]OP
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        51 year ago

        wait, airline subsidies also go toward private jets? TIL if true.

        i would love a source for further reading if you have one :)

      • Flying Squid
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        71 year ago

        I’m fine with government-run airlines, but I don’t think that would change the security issue I’m talking about.

        • @[email protected]
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          81 year ago

          I think the security issue is a non-issue, and there’s no way to “solve” it without creating greater problems and degrading other people’s rights.

          The truth is, she doesn’t give a flying fuck about the consequences of her wealth getting. In some ways she is opposed to the right wing noise machine, but she is still acting as though she’s entitled to special treatment from the government including extra rights just because she’s rich.

          She only decreased the number of private jet flights she was taking, and decrease the number of private jets she owned because of the public pressure. Her security is not more important than the environment.

          She volunteered to take the heat off of Elon. I don’t know why she would do that, but she definitely volunteered for a lot of negative attention when she decided to target a private citizen doing something they are legally entitled to do and use her money to intimidate them out of exercising their rights.

          That’s who she is deep down inside, entitled.

          • Flying Squid
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            51 year ago

            A non-issue? You think she doesn’t get mobbed wherever she goes? I’d call that a huge issue. Unless you think it’s okay for fans to paw at her, tear at her clothes, etc. That is what they do.

            • @[email protected]
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              61 year ago

              I think her getting mobbed is not my problem.

              She’s rich enough that she can afford private security. She’s a private citizen who can decide where she goes and where she does not go.

              Nothing about anything you’ve described justifies stripping other people of their rights.

              If she’s being assaulted in public, that’s an actual crime, and she should invoke the legal system then.

              The legal system does not entitle her to silence people sharing publicly available information. The person who shared the movement of her private jet is not to blame for her lack of security when she gets where she’s going. No one’s mobbing her on the tarmac, no one’s crowding into the airport past security without a ticket.

              She is not special. She’s just an American, she’s entitled to absolutely nothing extra. Her attempt to use the law as a weapon of intimidation simply because she has money to push it around is exactly why she deserves negative attention right now.

              • Flying Squid
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                41 year ago

                I didn’t say anything about her trying to silence people. This is purely about keeping her and others safe. Her presence in a public airport could literally cause a riot. You must know that.

                • @[email protected]
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                  21 year ago

                  It literally wouldnt, this handwringing is unneeded for someone who does not care about you and is not doing this for security reasons

                • @[email protected]
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                  31 year ago

                  Yeah I’m not really sure what your point is in all of this. It’s entirely reasonable to resent publicly funding this private luxury.

                  Maybe we publicly should not be subsidizing the private jet industry, private jet infrastructure, and teeny tiny little airports for ultra wealthy people.

                  If she wants to fly private then she has to accept what goes along with that. It is a very inefficient, environmentally harmful, selfish way to travel. Private jet flights are another great example of wealthy people leaching off the public.

                • @[email protected]
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                  31 year ago

                  If that were true, there’d be a riot every time a very famous person goes outside for any reason.

                  I’m sure she’d be approached and photographed and her privacy violated as much as people can get to her in a private lounge, but unless they were to advertise she is going to a certain airport at a specific time, it’s incredibly unlikely she’d be mobbed. Ironically, flying publicly would make her movements harder to follow.

                  She can certainly afford to pay for 10 extra first class tickets for her staff, it’d most likely be much cheaper than owning her own jet. I’m sure the airports would also be thrilled to offer a private entrance and area for her/other famous people to be able to avoid even walking to her VIP lounge. Maybe they could help subsidize the airports instead of average people’s taxes paying for their private airports in part.

            • @[email protected]
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              71 year ago

              Exactly, she’s a victim. A victim of the life she chose and worked really hard to achieve. I bet she cries herself to sleep every night on her Scrooge McDuck style piles of cash.

              • Flying Squid
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                71 year ago

                No, she’s not a victim, she’s a security risk. Are you not reading what I’m writing? Do you think she would be the only one hurt if there were a riot?

                • @[email protected]
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                  71 year ago

                  I think Paul McCartney is/was a much bigger star than taytay and has been taking busses his entire career