Ed Sheeran tried. He really did.
The singer saw the maelstrom engulfing his tour in the wake of MacklemoreGate. He attempted to thread the cultural needle, neither attacking the concert venue owners who insisted he ditch his pro-Palestinian opener nor Macklemore himself.
I'm Switzerland, the "Shape of You" singer cried. Can't we all just get along?
Not. Good. Enough.
His other openers bailed on him. Irish radio stations ditched his music. Even Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez cancelled him.
All for saying ... nothing controversial or upsetting. He simply failed to take a side. So the Left sent out its marching orders.
Get him! He should have seen this coming.
Consider Taylor Swift. The pop super-duper-star sat out the 2016 presidential election. Her silence was simple and straightforward. I'm a singer, not a pundit.
Not. Good. Enough.
Reporters hounded her. The media took seriously accusations that she was white nationalist-adjacent for staying quiet on political matters. And, after a while, Swift bent the knee and embraced the Democrat Party. She even made a movie about her political coming out party.
In recent years she's downplayed her political posturing. Sure, she endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024, but she hasn't been nearly as vocal before or after. She said just enough to get the media and the Left, but I repeat myself, off her back.
Sydney Sweeney is another matter.
The "Housemaid" star courts controversy with two basic strategies. Show some skin. Avoid political opinions. Both potentially enrage the Left. Progressives don't like beautiful women flouting their beauty - beware the Male Gaze. To them, she's neither stunning nor brave.
And celebrities must take a stand on politics. And it has to be the "right" stand, not right-right, naturally.
That explains why the Left savaged her for that instantly iconic American Jeans ad last year where she playfully confused "jeans" with "genes." Sweeney survived the dustup, in large part, by refusing to apologize.
To paraphrase the late, oh-so-great Andrew Breitbart, apologize for what?
Now, she's back in the news for being nearly naked to market a sports betting app ad. Once again, it's a non-troversy, but the Left insists she's insulting female athletes with the spot.
Make it make sense. You can't. No one can.
Once again, Sweeney has been silent on the matter. Mostly.
She did share a social media post with images of female athletes appearing nude or darn near nude. Her point? Female athletes happily show off the hard work that makes them fit for their respective sport. It's not new. It's not weird. It's not political. And it's not insulting.
Yet the usual suspects are savaging Sweeney for proving what we've all known since we hit puberty. Sex sells.
The Left insists silence is not an option in Trump's America. And you must speak out against OMB (Orange Man Bad) or face its collective wrath.
