This week, elements of the political Right, especially some of its very online factions, have claimed to uncover a plot to secure President Joe Biden’s reelection. That plot consists of the NFL fixing games to ensure that the Kansas City Chiefs made it to the Super Bowl and wins the game on Feb. 11. It did so in order to ensure that Travis Kelce, a Kansas City tight end, is a Super Bowl champion.
Kelce, meanwhile, is dating Taylor Swift, by far the biggest pop star in the world. It seems, so the plot description goes, that these two are dating for one purpose on the cusp of fruition. Once the Super Bowl is won, this super couple will then use the tsunami-like cultural influence they combine to endorse, and even campaign for, Joe Biden.
This week also marks an important anniversary in the history of film. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb appeared in theaters on Jan. 29 60 years ago. It has become possibly the most acclaimed political satire ever made. The movie provides a fictional account of the onset of active nuclear hostilities between the U.S. and the Soviet Union amid the Cold War.
The two stories might seem to share no affinity except dates on the calendar. However, one character in the film bears a painfully comic resemblance to those who have “uncovered” the Super Bowl “plot.” In Dr. Strangelove, the active nuclear war is begun by an American general, not so subtly named Jack D. Ripper, who unilaterally orders U.S. planes to commence nuclear bombings of Soviet targets.
Gen. Ripper starts the nuclear war to stop communist “infiltration” and “indoctrination.” These communist “plots” mostly consist of putting fluoride into the water supply, a “conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.” Moreover, Gen. Ripper shows a paranoia toward women, whom he accuses of tempting him to try and “seek the life essence” in him. In his manly wisdom, he has learned to deny them “his essence.” He clearly was meant to be a mocking caricature of anti-communist conservatives.
If the Right really wishes to indulge the Swift/Kelce/NFL/Biden conspiracists, then Gen. Ripper is less a fictional caricature and more a spot-on portrayal. If real and alive now, he would be capable of building a large and loyal online following, peddling alleged diabolical designs across the country and the world. A number of online grifters fill this role now.
As others have observed, this conspiracy-theorizing shows an utter unwillingness, or even incapacity, to simply be normal. It exhibits a posture that does not oppose popular culture only when societal expectations clearly violate common sense, long-standing morality, or religious beliefs. Instead, it opposes popular culture as a principle. To vehemently oppose sex change operations on children, for example — or anyone, for that matter — is one (correct) thing. But to rage against a football star and his musical artist girlfriend, both wildly popular among the general public, smacks of simple (and foolish) contrarianism.
The elements of the Right buying into or indulging in the Swift/Kelce/NFL/Biden conspiracy theories should get a grip. They need to act more like the neighbors Americans wish they had rather than the tinfoil-hat ones we’d rather avoid.
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A shame in all of this is how unnecessary a distraction it is. There is plenty of foolishness, depravity, and corruption on the Left in general and within the Biden administration in particular to bring to light and protest against. The crisis on our southern border, continued economic hardship after record inflation, the bureaucratic expansion of the sexual revolution, the collapse of media credibility on issues such as coverage of Hunter Biden — these and more are ripe for engagement. Articulating them not only uncovers truths that need to come to light; they are truths perfectly normal Americans can and should care about as we seek the best future for our country in 2024 and beyond.
Don’t encourage the Jack D. Rippers. Drop the Super Bowl, and similar, conspiracy theories. In 2024, let’s focus on the real things that matter.
Adam Carrington is an associate professor of politics at Hillsdale College.
