The Best, and Worst, Celebrity Responses to Manchester Terror

Katy Perry doesn’t understand why many recoil when stars get political.

Perhaps she hasn’t heard herself speak.

The “Firework” singer spoke out in the hours following the terrorist attack in Manchester which left 22 dead and more than 60 injured. The attack occurred outside a concert where pop star Ariana Grande had just wrapped her live set.

The terrorists targeted fans at a pop concert, which certainly connects to Perry’s livelihood. Only what the singer said following the attack didn’t just sound immature. It represents the kind of Kumbaya thinking that won’t stop future attacks.

“You know I can’t really tell anyone else how they should feel but I just feel devastated,” she said on “The Elvis Duran Show” Tuesday when asked about the attack. “The thing of it is, you know, besides all the weird stuff that goes around on the internet, which is, you know, sometimes a great place, but an absolute you know underbelly mob pit of horribleness, I think that the greatest thing that we can do now is just unite as people, as fan bases, all of it, you know?”

“Cuz I think like, there, like,” she continued, “as much you know, whatever we say behind people’s back, cuz the internet can be a little bit ruthless as far as fan bases go, but I think that the greatest thing we could do is just unite and love on each other, and like, no barriers, no borders, like, we all need to just co-exist.”

Perry later backpedaled on Twitter, saying she was addressing online fan culture. Who cares about fan culture when 22 people are now gone? No matter how you slice it, her comments were childish.

And then there’s Morrissey.

The outspoken Brit doesn’t always get conservatives rallying to his side. This time, though, was different. The former Smiths frontman shared a potent, politically incorrect messages to the masses.

And it left a mark.

Here’s a key part:

In modern Britain everyone seems petrified to officially say what we all say in private. Politicians tell us they are unafraid, but they are never the victims. How easy to be unafraid when one is protected from the line of fire. The people have no such protections.

For that, Spin magazine assailed Morrissey without actually disputing anything he said. “Predictably dumb,” the magazine snorted. Meanwhile, the comments section torched the writers for that description.

Not every celebrity is dense when it comes to geopolitics. Angelina Jolie is often well reasoned, and she typically backs up her statements with action.

In short, we’ll start giving more credence to celebrities talking politics when they do so in an informed, mature fashion. For Perry, that means she better start hitting the books.