celeb news Ex-Swifties talk "Swiftie Rehab"

[midnightdawn]

 

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For almost half her life, Martha harbored an obsessive attachment to Taylor Swift. ("Martha" is a pseudonym; like most of the sources in the piece, she asked to speak on the condition of anonymity for fear of being doxed.) She created numerous Twitter and Instagram accounts dedicated to Swift, sharing pictures of everything from her squad to her cat Meredith, tagging the star and her publicist in each caption. But the 32-year-old hit a breaking point last May when Swift began dating the 1975 front man Matty Healy. "Stuff about his past behaviors and 'edgelordness,' came out," Martha says, referencing an infamous podcast appearance in which Healy mocked Ice Spice's ethnicity. "Everything since then just felt like a veil was being lifted, and I found myself on the other side of Swiftism. Suddenly, it felt like leaving a cult."

Martha deleted her accounts, blocked Swift on Spotify, and drove her merch down to the nearest Goodwill. But disconnecting from the world of her former favorite pop singer left her feeling adrift — until earlier this year, when the Reddit homepage suggested she join r/SwiftlyNeutral, a page for questioning Swifties like herself.

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Describing itself as a "neutral sub for casual listeners to full-blown stans to discuss controversial topics about or involving Taylor Swift," r/SwiftlyNeutral, which launched last December, has since expanded its purview to become both a forum for Swift-related grievances and a kind of emotional-support group for former hard-core Swifties trying to deprogram. Four months after its launch, r/SwiftlyNeutral grew from several hundred active users to 50,000, putting it in the top 3 percent of forums on Reddit. After the release of Swift's latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, it climbed another 7,000.

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"None of the Taylor-centered Reddits allow critical debate about her," says James (also a pseudonym), the 25-year-old creator behind the page. When a fan complained about Swift's private-jet usage in one such sub, a moderator deleted their comments, prompting another fan to suggest creating a neutral forum. "I just went for it," James says, chalking up the sub's recent popularity to Swiftian cultural saturation, including her record-breaking Eras Tour and an endless supply chain of albums, both rerecorded and new. "I think a lot of people were really starting to get sick of her."

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"When we say 'Eat the rich,' Taylor is not an exception. Taylor has done many wonderful things in regards to charity, and I don't want to take away from that; however, her jet use, her blatant cash grabs, and her horrible merch quality have become a little more glaring."

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The sub-Reddit encompasses a vast range of Swift-questioning sentiments, including the products she sells on her website ("$70 for a snowglobe? Are you for real?!") and the ways her concerts have impacted lawmakers in the Philippines. In one of the sub-Reddit's early posts, a member described the forum as a "collective awakening." But some have handled the exodus from Taylor's world worse than others.

"Horrified and Emotional," one member posted four months ago, after Taylor was spotted dining with Brittany Mahomes. "I'm sobbing as I'm unfollowing her on everything. Thinking about boxing up all my merch as well. Someone tell me if I'm being overdramatic …"

"How she dealt with the death of a fan during her concert in Brazil did it for me. She really is the industry of music. Ruthless and inhumane," said another r/SwiftlyNeutral member a few days later.

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That Swift would seemingly write an album devoted to the man who helped rupture the bond for many former fans makes Martha think she made the right move. "I've seen some of the lyrics, and they seem pointed, like she's blaming her fans for forcing her out of the relationship," she told me two days before the album came out. But she said she still had no plans to listen to it: "I don't have time for anyone who has time for an edgelord rat."

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On the day of its official release, The Tortured Poet's Department was largely panned across the sub-Reddit, with members complaining that it needed "heavy editing" and that it "was made for her benefit and no one else's." Another said it reminded them of the Marvel multiverse, "full of lore and completely impenetrable if you hadn't already seen the first 17 movies." The album seemed to inspire physical reactions, too, with one member saying "the synths gave me a migraine" and another noting, "put me to sleep like an ASMR makeup video."

https://www.vulture.com/article/taylor-swift-reddit-swiftly-neutral.html

Edited April 26 by midnightdawn

[HASHTAGPOW]

[Suilen]

8 minutes ago, midnightdawn said:

But she said she still had no plans to listen to it: "I don't have time for anyone who has time for an edgelord rat."

[JO1s]

[wastedpotential]

Not r/SwiftlyNeutral users getting Vulture profiles, I guess they've got time for everyone 

[SoldierofLove]

So they went from Swifties to OTH/Neutral Swifties who still talk about Taylor all the time on Reddit? 

[Blade Runner]

1B first week. She's not needed. Neither is ATRL. 

[Cruel Summer]

r/SwiftlyNeutral is honestly kind of disturbing, and this profile really doesn't help it. 

[Apolonio ₃₄]

[GraceRandolph]

[Rep2000]

14 minutes ago, SoldierofLove said:

So they went from Swifties to OTH/Neutral Swifties who still talk about Taylor all the time on Reddit? 

Like...

That's not "rehab". That's a relapse lol. 

[Redstreak]

Weird sort of rehab to still obsess over her just from the opposite end

[JoJo]

r/swiftlyneutral is anything but neutral. It's a Taylor snark subreddit 

[bielneira]

Congrats or I'm sorry? 

[Taylor fanboy]

 

[woohoo]

Love all the manufactured outage the media is trying to pull. Sadly, Spotify and her sales are telling a different story. Are these like those Christian swifties on tiktok where lyrics in TTPD opened their eyes because of her "blasphemy" and saw the lording lifting the veil over their eyes. Give me a f**king break that's not the lord that's mental illness and hallucinations.  Religious people are not serious 

[Gladiator]

Did this person really need a publication interview? 

[Warm Blood]

I would say being cured of an obsession results in indifference but these people are just as invested, just on the opposite spectrum 

[theoghon]

Much applause 2 them for taking a step back 4rm the Mania  stanning doesn't have to be THAT srs bffr

[Vespertine]

People who actually feel they need to "deprogram" from stanning need serious help. 

[Maroonx]

lol at this mess

[Prodigal Self]

34 minutes ago, woohoo said:

that's mental illness

that's right baby

 

[TheGerm]

is this what over exposure actually is? let the girl release her boring albums with 5 good songs and have her fans eat up the rest i dont see the issue 

[Bubble Tea]

I mean that sub is way more interesting to talk about Taylor than on here. There's actually room for nuance over there. Here it's just extreme lovers or haters. No wonder y'all don't like it there lol

[Soda Pop Queen]

 

Swiftie or Ex-Swiftie, it's all parasocial as hell. It's embarrassing that these are fully grown people. This goes for any stan that let's a celebrity affect their behavior and take up their time to such an extreme degree.