Conservative Twitter Is Having A Meltdown Because Lizzo Played James Madison's 200-Year-Old Flute, And Like, Are Y’all OK???

Hell hath no fury like conservative talking heads on Twitter.

Conservative Twitter Is Having A Meltdown Because Lizzo Played James Madison’s 200-Year-Old Flute, And Like, Are Y’all OK???

If you’re on Twitter, you’ve probably seen a LOT of chatter about Lizzo’s recent concert in which she played a 200-year-old flute that was gifted to James Madison, a founding father. The star posted a clip of the moment with the flute on stage, shown below:

Before her concert, Lizzo practiced a few songs at the Library, which has the largest flute collection in the world. A video of the practice session was posted on Twitter, as shown below:

Library of Congress @librarycongress A flute @lizzo played in the Main Reading Room Monday (with permission from some lucky researchers who were there!) looks similar to the crystal one she had at her concert, but is actually plexiglass. It is also very rare & was manufactured when the material was first invented.?
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Library of Congress

As you can probably guess, some people — mostly conservatives — on Twitter were not too happy about the centuries-old flute being played.

Ben Shapiro @benshapiro This Lizzo-flute controversy is a perfect example of what I have termed Face Tattoo Phenomenon™: the phenomenon whereby someone does something deliberately controversial in an attempt to draw attention, and then acts offended when you notice.
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Twitter: @benshapiro

Someone who identified themselves as “President Trump’s favorite author” tried to say that Lizzo “isn’t talented enough.”

Nick Adams @NickAdamsinUSA Lizzo isn't talented enough to play music on a $20 Yamaha Plastic Recorder off Amazon let alone a crystal flute once owned by James Madison.The Biden Administration is making a mockery of the country.
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Twitter: @nickadamsinusa

One other person even went as far as to say that the flute-playing “degrade[d] our history.”

Greg Price @greg_price11 The Library of Congress really took out a 200-year old flute that belonged to James Madison just so Lizzo could twerk with it.They degrade our history and then call you racist if you actually value it. https://t.co/i5cHjl5RXX
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Twitter: @greg_price11

However, there were many others who pointed out the racist undertones of the criticism.

le petit hoot ?? @hoot_little Lizzo is such an interesting person for right wing content creators to moralize about because she’s so squeaky clean. She makes catchy songs about positivity and plays the flute. There’s no plausible deniability that they hate her for any other reason than being black and fat.
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Twitter: @hoot_little

People shed light on how flawed right-wing Twitter was in their takes on the matter.

George Takei @GeorgeTakei If you wouldn’t have a problem with Taylor Swift playing Ben Franklin’s piano, you shouldn’t have a problem with Lizzo playing James Madison’s flute.If you do have a problem, stop and think about why that is.
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Twitter: @GeorgeTakei

And one person brought up another salient point — did y’all even know this flute existed before Lizzo played it???

Ricky Davila @TheRickyDavila Fabulous superstar singer Lizzo is living rent-free in the empty minds of racists today for masterfully playing a 200 year old crystal flute they never even knew existed until she played it. Must be exhausting to live with such hate day in and day out.
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Twitter: @therickydavila

Someone else subverted the comments by saying they thought Lizzo should be cast as a mermaid in her own movie. Talking to you, Hollywood!

Amber Sparks @ambernoelle Personally I think Lizzo should be in a movie where she’s a beautiful flute-playing mermaid who lures sailors to their watery doom
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Twitter: @ambernoelle

And finally, another person spotlighted the fact that Lizzo playing this flute was a moment of history being made, since James Madison was the proposer of the three-fifths compromise.

Tami Sawyer @tamisawyer James Madison was the author of the 3/5 compromise. He’s lucky @lizzo didn’t break that flute into five pieces and throw it off the stage. Stay mad.
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