I hope you’re not squeamish, because we are about to journey into the murky depths of the rightwing mind where brain worms abound.

First up is the Republican preoccupation du jour: the Taylor Swift election-interference psyop rumours. According to a recent poll, nearly one in five Americans (and one in three Republicans) believe the pop star is part of an elaborate deep-state conspiracy to help Joe Biden win re-election in 2024. Fox News has naturally helped to amplify those rumours. Last month, host Jesse Watters told viewers that “around four years ago, the Pentagon’s psychological operations unit floated turning Taylor Swift into an asset”. (There’s no doubt, of course, that Biden’s team would love Swift’s extremely valuable endorsement, but chasing celebrity support is not exactly some sort of nefarious plot.)

Despite thinking that Swift is somehow brainwashing us all into getting Biden re-elected, an increasing number of Republicans also seem convinced that Michelle Obama is actually going to be the next president. There have been misogynistic rumblings about this for a while now in conservative circles. Last May, for example, Kurt Schlichter at Townhall said that Republicans are “right to dread” the idea that we might see another Obama in the White House. “The kind of Chardonnay-swilling, overly credentialed and undereducated, sexually unsatisfied suburban wine women who adore Michelle Obama are going to be a key demographic in 2024, and Michelle owns them lock, stock and Häagen-Dazs,” Schlichter proclaimed in a stunningly sexist speech.

Ted Cruz also said last September he thinks the “odds are very significant” that Biden will be thrown off the ticket at the Democratic national convention this summer and Obama will be parachuted in as the nominee instead. And in January, far-right congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene told The Benny Show she thinks Democrats will........

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