Hey, everyone. Anthony Fantano here, the Internet's busiest music nerd. I hope you're doing well.

Let's talk about everyone's favorite pop star at the moment, Ms. Chappell Roan, who is in hot water again this week. This time, political hot water, which I think in one breath could have been avoided, but in another is also undeserved as it's just annoying to see how uncharitably people are reading her words, which we will get into.

If you guys remember, it wasn't too long ago when Chappell was the point of a lot of polarizing discussion around fame and boundaries with very passionate, very obsessive fans who maybe take things too far with their parasocial behavior, with their favorite pop stars and artists and influencers and so on and so forth. We did a video about that on this channel where I was very much in support of a lot of what Chappell was saying.

There wasn't necessarily anything wrong, technically, with Chappell's statements in that video, but maybe to a slight degree, the way she went about stating it or delivering it wasn't necessarily the most flattering look or maybe wouldn't yield the best her most preferred result. Again, not because anything she was saying was wrong or bad or incorrect, but unfortunately, a message or a video stating something as simple as like, 'Hey, guys, this might just be a bit too much', is going to take as a sign from those parasocial freaks that, 'Oh, my God, she's noticing me'.

And then beyond that, as we saw, there's going to be a very loud reaction from a bunch of people that honestly are just not going to read what you're saying very charitably because they have no experience with the lifestyle that you're leading as somebody who has millions and millions and millions of listeners across the world right now.

The type of very intense, fast-growing fame Chappell is currently in the midst of, is a very tough, unique thing to contend with that your average person is never going to have to deal with in any way whatsoever across their lifetime. Right now, Chappell is smack dab in the middle of that hurricane and is obviously having a difficult time navigating that, especially during an election year, where even without her having said anything, her music, her image, her likeness, her lyrics are often being used to make political points and references and memes and even TikToks.

I even recently saw one on Cory Booker's account where it started off in that typical format like, 'Oh, I hope they play "Hot to Go!"' And then it cuts to Hillary Clinton being like, 'Cory, you idiot, you moron, Cory, you stupid dumbass. This is a Hillary Clinton book event. Why would they play "Hot to Go!"? You stupid, stupid guy.' If you've paid even a little bit of attention to the handful of public political statements and positions that Chappell has stated either on stage or in interviews, you probably already know she's likely not a big fan of Hillary Clinton or the Joe Biden administration, specifically how it's been dragging its feet on everything going on in Palestine right now.

So yeah, Chappell has made her positions on all of this very clear. Still, though, there is a lot of pressure and expectations given that it is an election year, that everybody fall in line behind the lesser of two evils candidate. Currently, right now, that is Kamala 'Mamala' Harris, who some big music celebrities have endorsed, some haven't. Chappell just happens to be one of those people who at this point hasn't. And she was talking about exactly that in a recent interview that caused a lot of people on Twitter to completely and utterly melt down.

As a result of this, a lot of people started dogpiling on Chappell, giving very uncharitable takes, making it seem as if she's just a fence sitter who has sympathies toward Kamala and Trump or is just trying to completely both sides this thing. And I mean, in the defense of a lot of those people, she did literally use the phrase "both sides" in highlighting issues that she has in the political duopoly that we exist in right now. However, I would argue that Chappell is technically correct here. Both of the two major parties that our political system operates through, for the most part, do have really big problems.

Now, in the wake of the controversy that spilled out as a result of these interview comments, Chappell did her best, I think, to try to respond in some TikToks and clarify some points and just divulge more information about her point of view. We could play a little bit of that here.

"No, I'm not voting for Trump. And yes, I will always question those in power and those making decisions over other people... That's why I can't endorse. That's why I can't put my entire name and my entire project behind one because there is no way I can stand behind some of the left's completely transphobic and completely genocidal views. Fuck Trump for fucking real, but fuck some of the shit that has gone down in the Democratic Party that has failed people like me and you." - Chappell Roan

And while I don't think these videos are the most salient pieces of content out there when it comes to political commentary or thought, they're not wrong or bad or incorrect in terms of their reasoning. It's just that releasing these thoughts in the fashion the Chappell is just bad strategizing, not only for her career but also for the hypothetical leverage that she's trying to use here in order to give Kamala this endorsement.

One thing I would stress for people who are angry and confused about these videos from Chappell is that endorsing someone and voting for someone is not the same thing. Never at any point was Chappell discussing whether or not her vote was up in the air as somebody who plans to be involved in this upcoming election. But the thing is, when it comes to the idea of a celebrity endorsement of a political candidate, that is just a discussion that the normies and the NPCs and every other regular-degular motherfucker on the planet should just not be subjected to.

That is a dialog, that is a discussion for you and your team, because by making the public aware of your withheld endorsement, you technically take the wind out of it. In a way, you've already voiced to the world, technically, 'Oh, this is the candidate I would vote for if he or she would do this or that or this other thing.' If that's a change you actually hope to make, all you can really effectively do as somebody in Chappell's position is continue to try to lobby that person behind the scenes.

Now, going about it that way, there's no guarantee that you'll actually see that change or get that result. But going about it in that way is certainly strategically smarter and more effective than what Chappell is going about here. I'm not trying to say that Chappell should be editing or withholding all of her political opinions and perspectives. I truly think it's amazing and based as fuck that she has not been holding back when it's come to queer rights and issues, when it's come to the genocide going on in Gaza.

And personally, I didn't think it was a bad thing for her to be taking Joe Biden to task over that or even continue to do that with Mamala because, hell yeah, these motherfuckers, while they may be the lesser of two evils in this instance, they are still falling short in a lot of respects. It's our job as citizens to make sure that they're putting in the effort to actually earn our votes. We shouldn't just be handing them over automatically because they've managed to suck less. That's obviously a pretty low fucking bar.

And honestly, not having higher expectations of these bastards and falling in line with all the liberal pieces of crap who just think you shouldn't be asking questions and just shut up and vote blue no matter who, those votes and that political support still should come along with pressure and expectations to improve things and fix things and do things. No massive generational life-threatening problem in our politics and in our society ever got solved through just voting in a new administration and just sitting back and waiting for them to do something about it. Every important social and political change of the past century has always entailed direct action and involvement from the citizenry.

And because of that, Chappell is well within her right to use her platform to tell everyone what she thinks fucking sucks. There's nothing wrong with that. In fact, I would say that's one of the more morally preferable positions here. Voice distaste, voice dissent. Let the political party that you are supporting or hoping to vote for know what you expect of them.

But when it comes to any discussion of endorsements or how you strategically use your profile and your platform to influence or impact certain things, this, unfortunately, is a topic of discussion that most people, because they're not on your level of fame, they don't have the experience that you do, they're not going to get it. They don't wield that power or influence, so they're not going to understand where you're coming from on that front.

And that's my take on that. Let me know what you guys think in the comments. Is Chappell Roan doing too much? Should she rely on the PR team more, or is she fine the way that she is? Let me know.

Anthony Fantano. Chappell Roan. Forever.