Chappell Roan isn’t endorsing Kamala Harris. She’s taking a stand for critical thinking instead

'No, I'm not voting for Trump and yes, I will always question those in power," Chappell Roan said in a recent TikTok video clarifying why she is not stumping for Kamala Harris in the forthcoming US presidential election. As she had explained to the Guardian last week, she doesn't "feel pressured to endorse anyone" - having previously denounced the Biden-Harris administration's failure to robustly defend queer rights against hundreds of anti-LGBTQ+ bills tabled by Republicans, and their ongoing support for Israel during the assault on Gaza that has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians.

It's refreshing to hear a pop star talk about politics with conviction and nuance. If only her recent comments had been received that way online. The year's breakout pop star went viral this weekend when a popular X account that aggregates pop culture titbits cherrypicked a quote from Roan's Guardian interview in which she said of Democrats and Republicans: "there's problems on both sides".

While some users supported Roan's stance, many others called her "cowardly", criticised her supposedly "neutral" stance, and accused her of being "uneducated". The backlash suggests that the majority of those pillorying Roan never read the full interview (which wasn't linked in the original X post), hence Roan hitting out about "being completely taken out of context".

What happened to Roan is emblematic of two things. The first is the parasitic, reductive way that Pop Crave-style news aggregation accounts on X extract quotes from articles in a way that prioritises engagement over substance. Would the outcry have been the same if the account published Roan's full quote, in which she encourages people to use "critical thinking skills" and "vote for what's going on in [their] city", along with her vociferous support for trans rights? I doubt it.

The second is that many musicians' fanbases are now often admirably politically conscious and demand stars speak out against injustice, meaning they will make it known if they are unhappy with an artist's position. The difficulty comes when those fans expect stars to fit a particular way of performing their politics.

Pop stars weren't always expected to be as politically literate as they are today. The worst of 80s pop was well meaning but wince-inducingly shallow. Later, being political could often be detrimental to mainstream success: in 2003, the Chicks were blacklisted from the country music industry after Natalie Maines said she was ashamed that then-US president George W Bush was from their home state of Texas.

But the rise of social media in the early 2010s created an ecosystem of liking, following and sharing, where a user's tastes reflected back on them and could be used to signal their own political morality. The Tumblr blog "your fave is problematic" documented celebrities' perceived moral transgressions. Celebrities, particularly pop stars, quickly adapted accordingly.