# Time Person of the Year 2023 **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 22, 2023, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-person-of-the-year-2023/988925 "2023-08-22T15:31:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2023, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-person-of-the-year-2023/988925/141 "2023-12-07T12:13:35Z")
I was dragged to the Eras film by the offspring who is a big fan. While I find her music largely forgettable, she’s a talented lyricist and puts on a great show. She’s also a remarkably shrewd businesswoman, using the tour to effectively regain copyright on a number of her own songs that had been sold out from under her. She’s the first woman to become a billionaire on her music alone (Rihanna is also a billionaire but a lot of that is from her cosmetics lines). Also, she seems to be a generally nice person, paying out bonuses to lower level staff. Her concerts literally bend the local economies around them, like a bowling ball on a rubber sheet. The concert film model to pick up the money left on the table left by viewers who couldn’t attend the concerts in person is a gamechanger; Beyonce openly followed Swift’s model and I suspect there will be more. Musically she’s not that influential, but she’s influenced the entertainment business globally in a big way. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2023, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-person-of-the-year-2023/988925/142 "2023-12-07T12:55:21Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > And was that Ellen Degeneres in a scene? I did recognize RuPaul. Yes. And I think every character (except the morans) in the video is someone from the LGBTQ+ community. I saw another video that deconstructed and named everyone. Taylor knows exactly what she’s doing. > [@saje](#): > > Gotta say, that song and video might have changed my mind a bit! My daughter is a Swiftee and she convinced me to actually listen to her music. I did and now I appreciate it. I’m not a fan of _all_ of it, but Taytay is both talented and competent, and very much worth consideration. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2023, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-person-of-the-year-2023/988925/143 "2023-12-07T20:15:54Z")
[quote=“That\_Don\_Guy, post:121, topic:988925”]I have a feeling King Charles is there mainly because his predecessor was the first Time Woman of the Year when she became Queen. [/quote] And before thst Auntie Wallis was the first woman to be Man of the Year. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2023, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-person-of-the-year-2023/988925/144 "2023-12-07T21:32:12Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > What does a student care about copyright when his AI generated paper satisfied their teacher/prof and they got a good grade? Everything I’ve ever seen written by an AI looked like it was written by an AI. Teachers aren’t paying much attention if they let that slip past them. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2023, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-person-of-the-year-2023/988925/145 "2023-12-07T21:41:20Z")
If it was done well enough, how would you know? But yeah, there’s an uncanny valley to what I’ve seen. I suspect it would be easy enough for a student to get a first draft from AI and use it as a template to re-write into something reasonable or to get ideas. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2023, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-person-of-the-year-2023/988925/146 "2023-12-07T21:49:34Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > I was dragged to the Eras film by the offspring who is a big fan. While I find her music largely forgettable, she’s a talented lyricist and puts on a great show. I hear this from a lot of the parents-of-teens that I know. No one’s really in to her music but their kids are ga-ga for her and so far everything she has done with her music and her career has been looked upon favorably by the parents. Her taking a political stance will no doubt help sway elections. For people who poo-poo her, they’re just not familiar with the huge number of young people who she will hopefully be influencing for the good. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2023, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-person-of-the-year-2023/988925/147 "2023-12-08T01:51:26Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > Okay, so the Person of the Year selection has done some good. As an example, her voter registration message had quite the impact. > **[More than 35,000 people register to vote after Taylor Swift post](https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/taylor-swift-encourages-voter-registration/)** > > A Taylor Swift Instagram post drove thousands of young people to register to vote this week. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2023, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-person-of-the-year-2023/988925/148 "2023-12-08T02:29:58Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > You seem to be in this universe; what don’t you understand? Plenty. Myself, for starters. As for Swift, I’m not exactly the target demographic for her music, but I have a lot of respect for her. She’s smart, savvy, and has successfully worked a system designed to screw over people like her to un-screw herself. She’s built up an enormous amount of influence, and is using that influence wisely and for good causes. I have no objection to millions of teenagers making her a role model. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2023, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-person-of-the-year-2023/988925/149 "2023-12-08T15:11:05Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > I think every character (except the morans) in the video is someone from the LGBTQ+ community Well, them, and Katy Perry. ---
**Author:** ![SmellMyWort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SmellMyWort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmellMyWort)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2023, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-person-of-the-year-2023/988925/150 "2023-12-08T17:12:30Z")
Watching [this clip](https://youtu.be/bhjSEkkZ2aA?si=q2HCSR1hIVh4Ejql) of Taylor Swift discussing her decision to come out against Trump and Marsha Blackburn in 2018, it’s clear that she didn’t take her decision to show her blue side lightly. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2023, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-person-of-the-year-2023/988925/151 "2023-12-08T22:20:17Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > > [@Pleonast](#): > > > > someone from the LGBTQ+ community > > Well, them, and Katy Perry. Who sang “I kissed a girl” ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2023, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-person-of-the-year-2023/988925/152 "2023-12-09T07:50:04Z")
Not a song universally loved in the lesbian community, to put it mildly. Queerbaiting’s not why she’s in the video. It’s more about [making up after feuding](https://www.etonline.com/taylor-swift-dishes-on-burying-the-hatchet-with-katy-perry-and-humiliating-kim-kardashian-feud). ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2023, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-person-of-the-year-2023/988925/153 "2023-12-09T12:43:01Z")
Don’t know much about Swift, but it sounds like she’s getting young people to vote. I kinda wish it had been the prosecutors, just to piss Trump off. But that might throw a wrench in the works. Jury influencing or whatever it’s called. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2023, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-person-of-the-year-2023/988925/154 "2023-12-09T22:11:27Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > If it was done well enough, how would you know? But yeah, there’s an uncanny valley to what I’ve seen. I suspect it would be easy enough for a student to get a first draft from AI and use it as a template to re-write into something reasonable or to get ideas. Agree completely with the first sentence. But we’re not there yet. For a competent office worker or creative to use it as a power-tool to quickly generate plausible emails or rather ordinary ad copy to be slightly touched up, it’ll be super helpful. As to a student who can’t write but just wants to pass the class in the least effortful way possible, handing them a pre-written piece that a bit uncanny stilted awkward and asking them to improve it seems to me to be an impossible task. They would not know where to begin to identify what’s wrong, nor how to put it right. Even more so for them trying to edit it to sound like their own writing. You may as well ask someone to tweak Hemingway a bit so it sounds like “See Spot run. Run Spot run.” ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2023, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-person-of-the-year-2023/988925/155 "2023-12-10T03:36:44Z")
Teachers usually can identify when something isn’t a student’s own work. Usually. And then what? If you give the student an F, you can be sure that the student and their parents are going to complain to the administration, and the administration is going to ask you how you know the student was cheating. And if your answer is “well, it just sort of seems off, somehow, you know?”, that’s not going to go over very well. This has always been the case, but in the past, a student who wanted to cheat on an essay has had to either use a pre-written essay, which is likely to be in the databases teachers use, and hence we can say “I know you’re cheating because I found your essay somewhere else”, or the student had to get someone to write a custom essay just for them, which is expensive and rare. Now, though, custom-written essays are easy to come by, for anyone, for free. And yes, they don’t look right, but we can’t easily prove it. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2023, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-person-of-the-year-2023/988925/156 "2023-12-10T05:14:05Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > It’s more about [making up after feuding](https://www.etonline.com/taylor-swift-dishes-on-burying-the-hatchet-with-katy-perry-and-humiliating-kim-kardashian-feud). Yup, Katy & Taylor dressed as Burger & French Fries = BFF = Best Friends Forever. There are so many easter eggs, references both overt and subtle packed into that video. > **[Everything You Missed In Taylor Swift's 'You Need To Calm Down' Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7ccg1nIE_c?=list)** > > Taylor Swift has released a playful music video for “You Need To Calm Down”, the second single off her upcoming seventh album “Lover”. The video features cou... ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2023, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-person-of-the-year-2023/988925/157 "2023-12-10T12:13:14Z")
I alao suspect people are going to start writing more like ChatGPT over time. Ive heard voice instructors say that kids now sing like autotune: they are replicating what they hear. As people read more and more chat-generated text, they will copy the style, making it harder to be sure. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2023, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-person-of-the-year-2023/988925/158 "2023-12-10T21:05:03Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > Don’t know much about Swift, but it sounds like she’s getting young people to vote. > > I kinda wish it had been the prosecutors, just to piss Trump off. But that might throw a wrench in the works. Jury influencing or whatever it’s called. Well she got young people to go to a website and click a couple boxes. Not the same as voting. As the father of young adult women who are registered and liberal, it’s almost impossible to drag them out of their lives and actually vote. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2023, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-person-of-the-year-2023/988925/159 "2023-12-10T21:19:25Z")
She has cut out the middleman in the music industry and now the film industry. She should just do the same thing in politics and run for president herself in a few years. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2023, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-person-of-the-year-2023/988925/160 "2023-12-11T15:07:20Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Well she got young people to go to a website and click a couple boxes. Not the same as voting. As the father of young adult women who are registered and liberal, it’s almost impossible to drag them out of their lives and actually vote. Guess you don’t have mail in voting in your state? We do in Colorado. The county actually will have busses set up outside of polling places (for those that choose to vote in person) so they have a place to sit and keep warm. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-person-of-the-year-2023/988925.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-person-of-the-year-2023/988925.md?page=9)