Never Surrender

Taylor Swift has been a fixture in the news since her recent breakup with Calvin Harris AP PHOTO

If there’s anything we, as a nation, absolutely abhor doing, it would be to admit we were wrong. This past week made that clear in about 90 different ways.

First, we had the continuing saga of The Implosion of Taylor Swift.

The biggest of an explosion of celebrity gossip is her conflict with Kanye West over lyrics in his song Famous: “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that bitch famous.”

Kanye said he got Taylor’s approval. Taylor said that didn’t happen; she was as blindsided and shocked as America was.

Kanye’s wife, Kim Kardashian, dropped a partial recording of the phone call on Snapchat. Whether you want to argue semantics or not, the truth is this: Kanye did call Taylor, and she did express approval.

Caught in the lie, her story changed. She was protesting all along that she got called a “bitch” (in fairness, that word never gets mentioned in Kim’s recording) and that her privacy has been rudely violated.

Taylor could’ve just apologized. Say she misrepresented the situation in her initial remarks. Change the conversation back to her music or her new relationship with Tom Hiddleston. But the victim narrative lives on.

Another interesting case: Melania Trump’s plagiarized speech. More than a few phrases in her Republican convention address were lifted from a 2008 Michelle Obama speech. Compare the passages and there’s really no question.

So all they had to do was admit it, right?

Initially, various officials offered reasons ranging from “what’s important is that 93 percent of the speech was original,” to “everybody has those same positive thoughts anyway, you can even find similar words expressed in My Little Pony. ”

Thankfully, a staffer did come forward and accepted blame for the error several days later. It was humble and sincere. The fervor quickly died shortly after.

Apologies are boring; drama is exciting. The better man is never in the spotlight. (A lot of politicians could stand to learn this lesson, honestly.)

Somewhere along the line, we have decided that being blameless is better than being honest. We exist, untouched, wholly ourselves, without concession to anyone else.

It can be an admirable trait. It can also be a foolish one.

Just remember: Even Kanye knows how to say he’s sorry.

PTAKEYA@MIDWEEK.COM
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