Taylor Swift attacked on social media following Toby Keith’s death. Here’s why

It really is starting to feel like the world is unnecessarily revolving around Taylor Swift isn’t it?

People love her, and that’s great. The Pa. native is a bona fide entertainment icon.

Other people seem to invent reasons to hate her, too, and that’s weird.

Take, for instance, the reaction in the hours since news broke Tuesday that country music superstar Toby Keith had died at 62 after a battle with stomach cancer.

Plenty of country music’s brightest stars took to social media to remember him and express their condolences. There were also plenty who did not. People grieve in different ways. People have their reasons for action or inaction.

But in 2024 that kind of stuff matters little, especially on social media.

Swift was not one of the people who posted about Keith’s death.

And Keith seems to have, at least according to multiple reports, had at least a little bit of a hand in helping her career take off. Keith was reportedly a “major stakeholder” in Swift’s former label — Big Machine Records — and reportedly helped push her early on.

She praised him, too, in an interview years ago prior to her debut album in an interview with Nashville’s WSMV.

“I don’t think I’ll ever get to a point where I won’t see him and be like, ‘Oh my God, that’s Toby Keith!’” she told the station then.

She also praised him in 2015 when he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

So, Swift has given Keith praise and shown her appreciation multiple times over. But, again, she was social media silent on Tuesday. It’s possible she couldn’t find the words.

Yes, sadly Swift is being attacked on Elon Musk’s social media platform, X.

“You want to know how much of a stuck up, washed up SOLD OUT POS Taylor Swift really is???” The Patriot Voice account, which has nearly 84,000 followers, wrote on X. “(Taylor Swift) was originally FIRST given a chance in Nashville by none other than (Toby Keith). He took her under his wing, and bet BIG on her. Let me emphasize, there would be NO TAYLOR SWIFT WITHOUT TOBY KEITH.

“The day after he tragically dies from stomach cancer, there isn’t a SINGLE reference, tribute, or post from Taylor about the man who LITERALLY MADE HER. Taylor Swift is among the LOWEST OF THE LOW.”

Not as low, though, as potentially attacking someone for not grieving on your timeline.

Anyway, again, that was far from the only attack like that.

The Patriot Voice post was viewed a million times, and reshared nearly 3,000 times.

“Taylor Swift literally sold her soul to the devil,” a right-wing radio personality wrote. “Of course she’s a POS.”

There is, literally, no evidence that Swift “sold her soul to the devil.”

“She won’t mention anything about Toby Keith because he supported Donald Trump,” another wrote. “She’s nothing but country trash.”

This could go on and on. The mental gymnastics from folks who are intimidated and/or triggered by Swift for reasons many sane folks may never understand were spectacular on X.

It will be interesting to see if Swift addresses Keith’s death or the social media attacks she has received since at any point.