edric

I don’t think anyone is discrediting her continued success. People are just pointing out that she wouldn’t have been able to do that in the first place without the financial backing she had to get into the industry. IIRC (and I’m happy to be corrected), her dad literally created a record label to sign her. How many people get that luxury? There are a lot of artists who got big (either by accident, by money, or pure luck) but were never able to sustain it, so her being able to continue making “successful” songs isn’t a criticism. There are many great artists and musicians with wonderful music that never make the light of the day because they never got the opportunity to showcase it. In the current industry, talent can only get you so far. A lot of luck and/or money is needed to break through. Not to mention how greedy the record labels are. Look at how Taylor herself had to fight to get back the rights to her own songs. A smaller artist won’t have the resources to do that.

No, that is an important distinction. People have different threat models. For most people, privacy without anonymity may suffice (i.e. I don’t mind that you know it’s me, I just don’t want you to see what I’m sending). For others (i.e. journalists, whistleblowers, more privacy-centric individuals), anonymity may be equally important.