The woman, named Kara, who posted the now viral video of Stefani Germanotta (popularly known by her stage name, Lady Gaga) berating Vice President Mike Pence at one of her recent concerts, wrote this caption:

“We need more people like Gaga to not be afraid and to speak up. What she says here, thank you for using your voice @ladygaga #ENIGMA”

I’ve actually never been so convinced the precise opposite is true.  What we really need is more people to be thoughtful, slow to speak, quick to listen.  And particularly for those like Gaga who have an incredibly significant platform from which to influence people like Kara, we desperately need them to be guided by something more morally grounded than the dangerous combination of a sinful human nature and the fickle winds of pop culture. 

Kara lauds Gaga for “not being afraid” and for “speaking up.”  But notice that what Gaga spoke up to do was to condemn Vice President Mike Pence for “not being afraid” to “speak up” in defense of his wife and her employment at a Christian school that holds to orthodox Christian beliefs.  See how flimsy this becomes?

I understand that an emotionally exciting concert experience isn’t the place to expect sound thinking, but sadly too many of us never leave the realm of emotion to do anything that remotely resembles critical thinking.  That’s exactly how talented performers like Gaga become pseudo-philosophers for a confused culture.  It’s not that Lady Gaga shouldn’t have the right to say what she wants to say or believe what she wants to believe.  That’s not it at all.  It’s that rational people should be able to test what those voices say against some standard of logic, morality, and reason. 

They should be able to recognize that a woman like Lady Gaga who rushed from the Critics’ Choice Awards show to be by the side of her ailing horse, tweeting,

“Our souls and spirits were one. When she was in pain, so was I…She will forever be a part of me…the gates of heaven…open for you”

That same woman auctioned off a signed guitar to raise money for Planned Parenthood.  Someone who believes that the soul of a horse is sacred and sanctified, but that the soul of an unborn child is medical waste is one that is simply not morally or rationally grounded.  We can admire that person’s singing ability, but not look to them for ethical guidance.

That is a critical awareness that is desperately lacking in our dying society.

Of course I disagree with Gaga’s imprudent assessment of Mike Pence, his wife, and the morality of a school that affirms that God’s wisdom on human sexuality is better than our own. 

The real problem we have isn’t that her irrationality can’t be dismantled or intellectually conquered.  It’s that emotionally-driven, celebrity-obsessed masses wouldn’t care.