Althouse: Does Taylor Swift sound like Hitler?

August 30, 2013

Does Taylor Swift sound like Hitler?

Take the Taylor-or-Hitler test. I did. I only got 60%.

Do not compare yourself to others. If you do so you are insulting yourself.

21 comments:

Steven said...: 8 of 10. Some are pretty easy Taylor Swift, because nobody used vocabulary like that back them.; 8/30/13, 5:10 PM
Sigivald said...: "Does anyone sound like Hitler if you cherry pick your quotes diligently enough?"

Yes.; 8/30/13, 5:11 PM
Oso Negro said...: It would be really nice to see an Obama vs Lenin quiz.; 8/30/13, 5:17 PM
gadfly said...: I am nor sure why I took the test since Taylor Swift is an unknown to me. I guess I wanted to beat Althouse's score - but I got 60% right as well.; 8/30/13, 5:18 PM
Big Mike said...: You could get 60% just be thinking about the words we use in the 21st century vice the words in use 70 years ago.

The only one I got wrong was "Long live the barriers we crashed through."; 8/30/13, 5:21 PM
The Godfather said...: Have you ever seen Taylor and Adolph together? Think about it.; 8/30/13, 5:29 PM
YoungHegelian said...: Got 8 out of 10. I know jack-shit about Taylor Swift but have been reading up on the ideological foundations of fascism for the past few years, and that may have something to do with it.; 8/30/13, 5:35 PM
Jon said...: 80%. The "do not compare yourself" quote was one of the two I missed.; 8/30/13, 5:38 PM
Michelle Dulak Thomson said...: 60% here, which is f'in' embarrassing.; 8/30/13, 5:44 PM
traditionalguy said...: "Great liars are like great magicians." That sums up Hitler and Obama.; 8/30/13, 5:49 PM
missred said...: 8/10 I scare me....; 8/30/13, 5:55 PM
Anonymous said...: I got 60 percent. That Taylor Swift is one scary biatch.; 8/30/13, 5:59 PM
Megaera said...: 100%. I gather I scare someone.; 8/30/13, 6:54 PM
RAH said...: Funny I have no idea who is Taylor Swift other than she is a woman and an actress. However I picked 10 out of 10. Most could tell due to the insecurity of the statements. Those could not be Hitler.; 8/30/13, 7:05 PM
Austin said...: This is goofy. You can perform the same exercise comparing the statements of David Duke and Abraham Lincoln on the subject of race-relations and African-Americans.Duke, btw,comes off less hateful and racist than Lincoln.; 8/30/13, 7:21 PM
Paco Wové said...: I guess I'm not keeping up on pop culture. So why is Taylor Swift the Alinskyan hate-object du jour? Did she say something mean about Obama?; 8/30/13, 8:23 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Ha ha. i got all of them right. I know nothing about Taylor Swift. I decided based purely on, "Does this sound like the phrasing of a young, female singer songwriter or a middle-aged, male political leader?"; 8/30/13, 8:53 PM
The Godfather said...: Context, context, context. It's all a matter of context.

And if you had them each sing their lines you'd know immediately.; 8/30/13, 9:49 PM
SukieTawdry said...: I answered them all "Taylor Swift." That gives you a score of 50. Who is Taylor Swift?; 8/30/13, 10:06 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: DON'T READ THIS until AFTER you take the quiz. Spoilers ahead...

Here are the Taylor Swift ones:
"I know my flaws before other people point them out to me."
"I am an over-achiever, and I want to be known for the good things in my life."
"I'm intimidated by the fear of being average."
"All you need to do to be my friend is like me."

You can figure out that these must be Swift because (a) young-ish (b) female-ish (c) introspective modern age-ish.

"Long live the walls we crashed through."

You can figure out that this is Swift because it's one of those modern, nonsensical, us-power bits of phrasing.

These are Hitler's:
"Do not compare yourself to others. If you do so you are insulting yourself."
"I use emotion for the many and reserve reason for the few."
"Great liars are also great magicians."
"Words build bridges into unexplored regions."

When would Swift have occasion to say these things? Also, the phrasing is much more formal than the phrasing people use these days.

"Hate is more lasting than dislike."

The tip off here is the use of "more lasting" instead of "lasts longer" and the fact that it sounds like a sentence that has been translated from another language and lost some bit of meaning or shade in the process.; 8/30/13, 11:02 PM
Almost Ali said...: It seems everywhere you turn on the internet, there's Taylor Swift. Her PR operation is second to none. Put her in charge of the RNC, it'll be a Republican rout.; 8/31/13, 8:29 AM