cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/49053959

Fans of Taylor Swift have been shocked after it emerged that a contractor for the controversial Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) was in attendance at her wedding.

It appears that Steven J. Demetriou, the Executive Chair of a company called Amentum Services was also among the crowd gathered to see the happy couple say ‘I do.’

Amentum Services is currently the sole contractor for ICE’s Camp East Montana, a detention centre in El Paso.

The artist has faced swift backlash for her choice of guests, including online commenters who have shared their dismay on social media.

  • Jax@sh.itjust.works
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    8 hours ago

    I dated a swiftie a few years back.

    One of the most clueless individuals I’ve ever met. Stanned both Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj then turned around and called herself a leftist.

    Fans are fucking dumb.

  • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    11 hours ago

    I saw an article about how fans were excited that they were giving out leftover food from MSG… Here I’ll just find the quote:

    With more than 1,000 guests in attendance, there was naturally plenty of food. A Krispy Kreme truck carrying doughnuts was seen leaving the venue, along with boxes from Sweet Baby Ray’s, the barbecue sauce brand, and Butterball (known for its turkey products).

    She’s a fucking billionaire, and her wedding food is all (likely free) product endorsement, brand name bullshit.

    Zero class. Zero taste.

    Article: https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/celebrity/articles/taylor-swift-food-swifties-wild-172713270.html

  • Fmstrat@lemmy.world
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    11 hours ago

    OK, but…

    One moment at the ceremony has sparked outrage after Girls star Lena Dunham reportedly left fellow attendees shocked.

    According to Daily Mail, her speech described football as ‘just straight guys reenacting gay porn.’

  • rmrf@lemmy.ml
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    4 hours ago

    To the swifty: there’s nothing wrong with liking an artist, and there’s also nothing wrong with liking an artist’s music. You can also like the idea of someone, whether or not that idea is accurate. It’s hotly debated, but I believe these things can also exist independently of each other, and it’s important to recognize they are different.

    It is important to recognize that the public figure of Taylor Swift is a business enterprise that is different from the person, the idea, and the music. It is important to recognize that the same enterprise, much like other celebrity enterprises, maintain teams of full-time staff for topics like PR, upon which the entire enterprise is dependent.

    They do things that seem good the economically optimal amount to maximize the ROI on those things. If Taylor Swift the person gave a shit about the stuff the enterprise claims she does, she wouldn’t have $1,000,000,000

  • BigMacHole@thelemmy.club
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    22 hours ago

    You mean the Woman who Printed thirty DIFFERENT copies of her Expensive albums so her Fans would HAVE to get ALL of Them despite the ONLY difference being the album Color isn’t a Good Person? I’m SHOCKED!

  • ExtremeDullard@piefed.social
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    1 day ago

    Taylor Swift is a billionaire. Those who had the illusion that a billionaire can be anything other than a disgusting member of the unelected ruling elite just got a reality check.

      • rozodru@piefed.world
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        1 day ago

        yes, thus the reason she’s famous. she bought her way to fame to provide the masses with her mediocre music. and if anyone tells you it ISN’T medicore, they’re lying to you and themselves.

        • stoly@lemmy.world
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          24 hours ago

          Although I am sure that I have heard them in passing, I have never knowing listened to a Taylor Swift song.

          • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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            23 hours ago

            Almost all of my exposure to recent pop music is either from late-night grocery shopping or from the swim club a block from my house that has a DJ three or four nights a week during the summer. Unfortunately that’s enough for all of it. I can even sing along to fucking Imagine Dragons.

          • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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            22 hours ago

            My theory is she went with bangs early in her career to hide the wrinkled forehead that she didn’t even have yet. Cheaper and more effective than botox.

        • BillyClark@piefed.social
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          1 day ago

          I don’t listen to a lot of her music, but the stuff I have heard was good enough. People really have a difficult time separating their opinions of a person from their opinions of that person’s work.

          • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca
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            1 day ago

            Her look, stage show, music is all the efforts of many people in a large, profitable corporation.

            Every notice how female singers need to look like fashion models??

          • ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world
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            23 hours ago

            I don’t listen to a lot of her music, but the stuff I have heard was good enough.

            Yeah, that’s about where I am with it as well. After the umpteenth time someone was like, “No! It’s genius! You haven’t given it a chance!” I listened to a handful of what they said were her top picks. And yeah, it’s not bad. In fact there’s a lot to like about it: incredibly good production, use of all the things that make a song interesting (varied tempo and use of speeds, chord changes, dynamic volume, etc) but beyond that I found it kind of meh, maybe even just a tiny bit formulaic, and they started to blend on me.

            And they all sound like Taylor Swift, which is objectively NOT a bad thing for an artist to create, but compare and contrast artists and bands that evolve so much they constantly have songs and albums that don’t sound like themselves, not just over time but from one album to the next. This is my own preference and taste, and I think I got it from listening to a lot of jazz and/or jazz-inspired music created by musicians that take every limit and push it just a hair farther or in a different direction than expected.

            No shade to Taylor fans at all, and I mean no disrespect. It’s NOT bad music. I’m even a tiny bit jealous they have the fan community that they do because it sounds like a lot of fun. But the music just doesn’t appeal much to me.

          • tburkhol@slrpnk.net
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            1 day ago

            People know that listening to music supports the creator, and they don’t like supporting shitty people. There’s tons of people making really good music, so you can satisfy both the desire to enjoy good music and support good people.

          • realitista@lemmus.org
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            1 day ago

            Thats just because you haven’t heard the 100 better musicians who’s daddy couldn’t buy them into the business.

            • BillyClark@piefed.social
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              1 day ago

              I don’t think the existence of better musicians means other musicians are objectively bad, though. There may be hundreds of people who can write better comments than me, but that doesn’t mean my comments are bad.

              • realitista@lemmus.org
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                1 day ago

                I think if you heard all the objectively better stuff given the treatment it deserves, you wouldn’t have any interest in the stuff that’s being crammed down your throat. Not that it would be worse than it is today, it just wouldn’t get the money and attention and production it gets due to far better things being available on the market.

                • BillyClark@piefed.social
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                  1 day ago

                  I already have no interest in Taylor Swift, though. I just have heard some of her music and I don’t think people have bad taste in music if they like it. I’m already an older man, and there’s only so much I can permit myself to become a stereotype.

                  Anyways, I mostly listen to Japanese music, to try to help me learn/maintain Japanese, and Japanese music I think is even more corporate than American music. If I had it in my heart to dislike corporate music, I wouldn’t have any room to dislike things like 6-7, which is far more important.

            • hitmyspot@aussie.zone
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              21 hours ago

              She didn’t take any one person’s place. She just jumped the queue. The others could still try and make it without money. It’s just a lot harder.

              • realitista@lemmus.org
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                13 hours ago

                Yes they can try to be the best producer, mixer, recording engineer, mastering engineer, marketing, PR/AR, distribution, promotion, tour booking manager, in order to rise to the level of those spending millions on it.

                A few actually pull that off. But for the most part those things are reserved for acts with money to spend. Stuff like almost all large venues being owned by only 1 company with deep ties to the established record and promotion companies makes it very hard to book your show there even if you had the money to do so.

                The truth is that the vast majority of pop stars come from wealthy and connected families who can afford to buy them into the business or who are already established in the entertainment businesses.

          • XeroxCool@lemmy.world
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            1 day ago

            People whose only exposure to her music is the radio hits and people who were never a teenage girl are the ones complaining about her music. If you don’t get it, that’s fine. Its not for you. It’s not for me.

            Lady Gaga has done the same thing yet gets a fraction of the hate. Radio bangers fund the real artist.

            • CubitOom@infosec.pubOP
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              21 hours ago

              People whose only exposure to American for-profit concentration camps from FOX news and people who never had to a gun pointed at them because of the color of their skin are the ones defending inviting a modern day slaver to a wedding.

              If you don’t get it, that’s on you.

              She could be the best artist in the world but if she hangs out some of the worst human being in the world it shouldn’t matter.

          • village604@adultswim.fan
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            1 day ago

            Honestly, the majority of famous musicians aren’t that good of people. Shit, even Mozart and Beethoven were dicks.

            Some separation of the music and the artists is needed.

            • octopette@lemmy.today
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              1 day ago

              Beethoven might have been unpleasant, but he wasn’t a bad person. On the contrary, he was a hell of a leftist, he hated the billionaires of his time and supported liberty and civil rights, which back then put you at the extreme left of the political scenario. I know you just pulled two names for the sake of your argument, just please keep my boy Beethoven out of your Taylor Swift apology.

              • stoly@lemmy.world
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                24 hours ago

                To add to this: Mozart was a dick and was probably poisoned because he pissed off the wrong person. Dead at 35.

                • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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                  23 hours ago

                  Fun fact: Mozart invented a system that used dice to randomly generate music. My unprovable pet theory is that he kept improving this system but stopped telling people about it and used it to compose all of his greatest hits.

                • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca
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                  1 day ago

                  Some people made an ethical decision not to attend this event.

                  Let’s get real, 0% chance of this lasting 5 years.

              • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
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                1 day ago

                For a celeb, or anyone, to not attend a wedding for whatever reason is perfectly fine.

                But not to RSVP is rude and selfish.

                You would do better to RSVP with “I would rather be eaten by fire ants than attend your shitty wedding, and I hope your bride chokes on the cake and vomits all over you.”

            • BillyClark@piefed.social
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              1 day ago

              Hating anybody is stupid and a waste because hating them doesn’t really affect them. It only hurts you. That doesn’t stop me from hating certain famous people, though. What can I say? I guess I’m stupid.

        • mienshao@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          I agree she got where she is in no small part due to her family’s wealth. But her staying power is because—to many myself included—she’s a decent songwriter. You can hate her music, perfectly valid, but I disagree with calling her music “mediocre” as though it’s some objective fact.

          Like, I fucking hate the Beatles, not my taste, but Paul McCartney and John Lennon were undeniably talented.

          It sucks, but sometimes the rich and famous do have some talents that many enjoy. I think she’s one to a certain extent.

          • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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            22 hours ago

            she’s a decent songwriter

            Her early attempts to write songs by herself were her least commercially-successful albums. Her songs are good (if you like that sort of thing) because they’re written by a large agglomeration of professional songwriters.

          • Fluke@feddit.uk
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            1 day ago

            Everyone has talents many people could enjoy.

            Only the rich have the ability to develop those talents without having to worry about everything else. This allows even the mediocre to become passable.

      • XeroxCool@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Depends on how you define $250,000 in cash. Way more than the average American has on hand, not exactly a crazy amount to have if you don’t spend it on a bigger house and expensive car as soon as you can and save your kid’s college fund. It’s a hefty sum, but people comment like she’s a forgotten Rockefeller.

      • Canaconda@lemmy.ca
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        1 day ago

        https://www.reddit.com/r/TaylorSwift/comments/15zzftc/how_did_taylor_swift_parents_help_her_reach_the/

        TLDR her dad works in finance, moved the family to Nashville, and supported her career at every step. So she very much got carried by her parents even if they didn’t buy her fame.

        Given the Music Industry’s history of insidership and hand selecting artists for the highest level of promotion; I think the lack of “smoking guns” such as her parents mass buying her albums or paying off producers etc just shows how inorganic and corporatized popular music is.

        The fact that she’s alt-country is the smoking gun. WWE is less fake than Country Music.

    • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
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      1 day ago

      Out of 1000 people invited to the wedding, the adoptive father of Travis Kelce 's childhood friend is an objectively evil person. Has there ever been a wedding in the world without one total dick that had to be invited because of some family obligation? Does anyone do in-depth investigations of all the plus-ones? Besides the journalists searching for celebrity dirt to exploit after the fact, that is.

      • ExtremeDullard@piefed.social
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        Does anyone do in-depth investigations of all the plus-ones?

        If I was a billionaire pop-star with a reputation to preserve, I would.

        I guarantee you every single person who was invited at Taylor Swift’s wedding was personally vetted by her. Nobody there was there by mistake.

      • nickiwest@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        I’m not a pop star or anything, but the number of my husband’s friends’ parents who were invited to our wedding was zero.

        Did these people run out of actual friends and family to invite? That’s sad.

  • Courtney (she/her/they) @lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    1 day ago

    “followers of billionaire shocked to find out billionaires act like billionaires, don’t care about fans opinions”

    You CANNOT be a billionaire AND a good person. The two are not compatible. If you were a truly good and decent person who cares about others, you WOULDN’T BE A BILLIONAIRE

    • stoly@lemmy.world
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      24 hours ago

      If I were a billionaire my job would quickly be to find good ways to give away my money. Cancer research, paying for school lunches, fund libraries, found some sort of institution that makes life better for people.

      • timestatic@feddit.org
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        40 minutes ago

        If you were I billionaire most of your money wouldn’t be cash on your bank account in stocks/shares most probably. If you try to sell these shares all at once you won’t find enough buyers and would have to sell at a way lower value. You could try selling them off bit-by-bit over time to gain liquid capital that you could use to invest in helping people

      • ChunkMcHorkle@lemmy.world
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        23 hours ago

        Yep. That’s exactly what Mackenzie Scott (Bezos’ ex-wife) did when she got her divorce settlement, got busy giving it all away. More power to her.

      • zarkanian@sh.itjust.works
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        23 hours ago

        Yes, but you would’ve started doing this long before you became a billionaire, which would’ve precluded you becoming a billionaire in the first place. Unless you had a change of heart after being visited by three ghosts or something like that.

        • Omgpwnies@lemmy.world
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          23 hours ago

          I think Stoly is more implying an incredibly unlikely event in that they are suddenly in possession of a billion dollars, kinda like the Adam Sandler movie “Mr Deeds”

          • stoly@lemmy.world
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            21 hours ago

            That is correct and very charitable on your part. There is a way in which sometimes the machine starts churning and suddenly the person is a billionaire.

            • Omgpwnies@lemmy.world
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              7 hours ago

              I’d seen I think it was Powerball jackpots reaching close to a billion, I know it’d be like half or less after taxes (silly thing that US taxes lottery winnings), but even half a billion is pretty much “fuck you” money for most people

              • stoly@lemmy.world
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                4 hours ago

                I genuinely think that a million dollars is enough for most people to live well. Use it responsibly, buy a house, invest the rest. If you work a job that you like on the side, then that’s all straight savings.

                • Omgpwnies@lemmy.world
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                  4 hours ago

                  That really depends on where you live. A million dollars where I live is enough to buy a house and start a retirement investment that might be enough to retire on in 10-20 years if you keep contributing to it and the yields are good.

                  Granted average house price for a modest house (1300sq ft) went from 200k to 800k in the last 10 years here…

      • zarkanian@sh.itjust.works
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        22 hours ago

        I can believe that Taylor is a trash person. Lots of rich people are. I still don’t understand the seething hatred some people have for her, though. (I mean that I don’t understand it if I forget about misogyny.)

        • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
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          21 hours ago

          What really seems hypocritical to me is a lot of the ones here are all “seize the means of production” but shit on her, after she re-recorded her entire catalog to earn the money to buy back the rights to her own original work from the producers who were exploiting her. Badassery without violence threatens their manhood I guess.

          Yes she’s self-interested, even self-centered. But they act as if she’s in the Evil Billionaire Top Ten when there’s mere millionaires who are more evil than her.

      • YoureHotCupCake@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        They are a couple and they both share the responsibility of how their wedding went. Your right to point out Travis’ part in this but ultimately she isn’t helpless and is willing to associate herself with these people too.

      • dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net
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        1 day ago

        Gee, maybe she should have pushed back on that invite. Or maybe they could have had their wedding in private rather than making it a spectacle that shut down a chunk of Manhattan, where the guest list would be a little less open to critique.

        • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
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          23 hours ago

          I didn’t, but I gave my best friend a plus-one invitation. He chose not to bring anyone but if he’d brought his mom I wouldn’t have known until she arrived.

  • Glytch@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    The artist has faced swift backlash…

    Writer just couldn’t resist, could they?

        • Malyca@lemmy.zip
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          1 day ago

          What a fucking letdown that is, I didn’t know. I knew he was Jewish of course but I didn’t think he’s the kind of person to support this much horror. Guess he goes the way of Andy Samberg.

          • tamal3@lemmy.world
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            5 hours ago

            Please tell me this isn’t true or I’ll start to worry about my love, Joanna.

          • Maeve@kbin.earth
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            1 day ago

            I’m not particularly surprised. A lot of people conflate family origins with personal identity.

            “Kiss me, I’m Irish!”

            “You’re either with us or against us!”

            “Axis of evil.”

            Race biases. Class biases. Gender biases. Etc etc etc, and most of it is unconsciousness and subjective.

            Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.

            Carl Jung

  • the_riviera_kid@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    The amount of morons who think billionaires care about them is staggering. You have to be willfully ignorant to not see the pure contempt they have for the rest of us.

    It’s takes a special sort of idiot to believe that someone who hoards wealth would give a fuck about anyone else.

    • Swordgeek@lemmy.ca
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      1 day ago

      MacKenzie Scott may be the exception to that rule.

      Or she may be shitty in ways we don’t know yet.

      • ORbituary@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 day ago

        She married Bezos. I’m willing to allow anybody a redemption arc, and she appears to be doing the right thing… But she lived with that and accepted it until it didn’t work to her liking.

    • Maeve@kbin.earth
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      1 day ago

      The class traitors that fund socialist revolution, if there were any, but IDK how long they’d be billionaire.