Juno News - November 21, 2024Is this mass formation psychosis？
Episode Stats
Words per minute
155.67029
Harmful content
Misogyny
7
sentences flagged
Hate speech
7
sentences flagged
Summary
Taylor Swift is currently holding a series of shows in Toronto, and it seems to be the only thing Canadian media are able to actually talk about right now. Politicians, the police, the media, the institutions in this country are pushing Taylor Swift and pushing this popularity at a rate and at a pace that is completely strange to me.
Transcript
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Am I the only person that finds the craze surrounding Taylor Swift to be completely
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bizarre and not organic at all? Now for those of you that are living under a rock, Taylor Swift
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is currently holding a series of shows in Toronto and it seems to be the only thing Canadian media
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are able to actually talk about right now. It is dominating life in the city. Politicians,
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the police, the media, the institutions in this country are pushing Taylor Swift and pushing this
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popularity at a rate and at a pace that is completely strange to me. I find it very bizarre.
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The city has quite literally come to a standstill for Taylor Swift because the police decided to
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provide a motorcade for Taylor Swift to drive down the Don Valley Parkway in the middle of rush hour.
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Not only that, for the past several days the Toronto police have essentially been providing
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free advertising for Taylor Swift. They won't be able to stop you from having your car jacked but
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they will stop you on rush hour to drive Taylor Swift into the Rogers Centre. Furthermore, the city of
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Toronto actually renamed City Streets to Taylor Swift Way during her concert. Oh and get this,
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they actually were able to forcibly remove homeless encampments near the Rogers Centre during the
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Taylor Swift concert just so that all the people that would be coming into the city don't have to
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see the homeless people who live outside the Rogers Centre every day. They've put them up in hotel
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rooms at our expense and we'll bring them back as soon as all the Swifties leave town. Surely I'm not
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the only person who thinks all of this is just a little bit strange for a pop singer who, let's be
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honest, does not really produce top-tier music. Alright, before we get into the show be sure to
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drop a like on this video, help us out by subscribing to the True North YouTube channel and the common
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question for the episode is this, why are Canada's institutions pushing Taylor Swift so much? Let me
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know your answer in the comments below and let's get into it. I'm afraid I have to show you these clips
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you're about to see in order to bolster my argument so my apologies in advance but this bizarre and very
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strange Taylor Swift craze begins back in July, begins several months ago when the city decided to
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rename City Streets to Taylor Swift Way and just look at this video from a grown adult, a grown woman
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who represents people in this city, a politician speaking in the City Hall chambers announcing this
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motion to rename City Streets. Firstly, I want to say welcome to Tayloronto and it's been a long time
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coming and we are ready for it. As we know all too well, Taylor Swift is coming to Toronto for a fortnight
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for the Eros tour. Swifties will shake it off at six concerts this November and it is an opportunity
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for Toronto to show off our great reputation and our place in this world. Uh, I'm guessing all of
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those were references to Taylor Swift songs because this woman is behaving like a child but she's
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actually supposed to be the deputy mayor of Toronto. After Taylor Swift makes sparks fly and the whole
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place shimmer at the Rogers Centre in a concert that Swifties will remember forever and always, fans will
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need to calm down and walk along the honorary Taylor Swift way to have their photos taken with the
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Toronto signs seven letters lit red in her honour. It's our way to show Taylor she's the one we've been
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waiting for, that she has brought us much happiness and that we will love her ever more. And the motion
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also asked the general manager to report back on the Swiftonomics of the event.
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The Swiftonomics. The Swiftonomics of the event. We're going to have the city general manager waste their time
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to produce a report about the Swiftonomics of the Taylor Swift concert. Including the tax revenues that
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are generated to the municipal, provincial and federal government. I have a shirt to welcome her to
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well that says welcome to Toronto A and I'm hoping she'll be inspired and wear this during the song 22
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because she always changes the logo on her shirt. This is not like a normal person. Can we all agree
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with that? This person has been, you know, swept up in some social contagion regarding Taylor Swift.
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Clearly this is not the behaviour of an adult. And my favourite part about this video is the, is the,
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the mayor's staff member in the background. This guy in the back corner who just, his reaction gets
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progressively worse as this woman's swifty screed continues to get worse. It's just unbelievable
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stuff. Pathetic really. And sure enough, you know, that was, that was back in July. So we knew the
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Taylor Swift concert was going to be a complete disaster and cringe fest for everyone living in
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this city who has to put up with this nonsense. But then on the first night of the concert, we learned
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actually that the eastbound DVP at rush hour, one of the busiest highways in North America was going
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to be shut down for Taylor Swift. It was going to be shut down just so Taylor Swift could get to her
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bloody concert. And the Toronto police gave her a motorcade. Taylor Swift happens to be the world's
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largest celebrity polluter. And it's pretty clear why not only does she fly around the world in her
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private jet, but she also shuts down the DVP at rush hour so she can get to her concert on time.
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But leading up to the concert, we learned that the city of Toronto actually can clear homeless
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encampments when it wants to. It can clear up the homeless people when it wants to on behalf of
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Taylor Swift, a foreign entertainer, not of course, for the people of Toronto who have to put up with
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it every single day. The city of Toronto cleared out homeless encampments around the Rogers Centre
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and put the homeless people up in hotel rooms for the duration of the concert series. And they'll be
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left back out to go right back on the street. Hey, isn't that exactly what Gavin Newsom did in
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California for Xi Jinping? He cleared out the homeless people in San Francisco so Xi Jinping's
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motorcade could drive through San Francisco and not see all the homeless people. So we're giving Taylor
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Swift the Xi Jinping treatment. Okay. Okay, totally normal. Totally normal stuff, right? Look, it just
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keeps getting more bizarre. During the actual concert series, the Toronto police were basically putting
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on a show. Their horses, which are ceremonial. I'll give them that. They're not really used to enforce
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the law. The horses were wearing these friendship bracelets. That's not really that important. And
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you know, it is what it is. But what was very strange was that they kept tweeting about the Toronto
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police chief handing out friendship bracelets at the concert. What is the police chief doing
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at a Taylor Swift concert when violent crime in the city is out of control? When people are having
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their homes broken into and cars broken into? Like I said before, they're not going to stop you from
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having your home broken into by burglars, but they are going to stop you on the DVP in rush hour.
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Thank God we know that Myron Demke is doing a good job promoting the Toronto police at the Taylor Swift
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concert for a bunch of 16 and 17 year old girls. Like, is this normal that on a flight from Edmonton
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to Toronto, a flight full of Taylor Swift fans, the flight attendant plays Taylor Swift music over
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the speaker system. Can you imagine if you're on that flight? I mean, I would, I would lose my mind.
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I think I would, I would lose my mind. I don't think they'd let me off that flight actually. Okay,
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come on, but can we admit that that is not normal? This is what I think was described as mass formation
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psychosis back during the pandemic. The idea that people are swept up into this, uh, into this craze
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and it acts as a social contagion. This is exactly the kind of thing we saw during the pandemic. And
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another thing that just shows you how ridiculous this Taylor Swift craze really is, is the number
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of people really not smart people. Let's just call them that falling for ticket scams and spending
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tens of thousands of dollars for Taylor Swift tickets from scammers. So desperate to see this
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35 year old middle-aged childless woman perform on stage that they lose their critical thinking skills
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and end up buying tickets from some shady website, which any normal person, any smart person would
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know is fake. One Taylor Swift ticket scam artist made $70,000 off of idiots trying to buy tickets from
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her. One Burlington mother spent $3,000 on four tickets only to find out that it was a total scam.
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And she's now created a, uh, a contact form for potentially other victims, other people who
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are not very smart. Let's just call them that. I don't want, I don't want to kick them when they're
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down, but come on, uh, over this, uh, Taylor Swift ticket scam. And she estimates that close to
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$300,000 has been taken by scammers over these swift tickets. And six buzz is reporting that an Ottawa family
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has been scammed out of $22,000 after trying to buy Taylor Swift tickets. Call me a conspiracy
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theorist. Call me a tinfoil hat wearer. I don't care. Something about this Taylor Swift craze just
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doesn't seem right to me. It screams mass formation psychosis. It reminds me a lot about living through
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the pandemic it would be one thing if the music was actually good. If the songs were memorable,
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if they made a, an important cultural impact, but they're not, it's just classic pop music nonsense.
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This is not the Beatles, although they're certainly not the best either. It's not Zeppelin. It's not
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Rush. But for whatever reason, the mainstream institutions in this country just can't seem
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to get enough of her. All right, everyone, that's going to do it for us today on the show. Thank you
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so much for tuning in. My name is Harrison Faulkner, and this is Ratio.