There are three things guaranteed in life: death, taxes, and Selena Gomez pissing off the internet.

The latest instance occurred on Jan. 27, when Gomez posted (and quickly deleted) an Instagram Story of herself crying in response to President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, including increased ICE raids and mass deportations. “I’m so sorry,” said Gomez, who’s half-Mexican and whose paternal grandparents came to the United States undocumented. “All my people are getting attacked, the children. I don’t know what to do. I’ll try everything. I promise.”

It wasn’t an uncommon sentiment to see online at the time, or from Gomez, who has advocated for DREAMers and better immigration policies. She was also a co-executive producer in the 2019 Netflix docuseries Living Undocumented. Still, from one of the internet’s most unlikely but repeatedly controversial figures, the emotional outpouring didn’t quite land — even among those who might have shared the same feelings. Some critics claimed Gomez, a heavily followed billionaire, could’ve done more to help at-risk immigrants than post a video. Others suggested she was a hypocrite for acting in the controversial Oscar-nominated film Emilia Pérez, which has been lambasted for its sensational depiction of the Mexican border.

MAGA, including two Trump-appointed officials, inevitably joined the chorus of boos, denouncing Gomez’s sympathy for so-called criminals. A former Republican Senate candidate tweeted that she should be deported.

It’s an unusual feat, making polar-opposite sides of the internet equally furious over the handling of an issue like deportation. And yet it’s the kind of fury Gomez repeatedly inspires.

In the peak of her career, Gomez is a successful multihyphenate, tabloid fixture, and reported billionaire. Her public persona, calcified through her character on Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building, is a fairly reserved millennial, introspective, and often struggling with mental health or even confidence issues. At the same time, Gomez has earned a bizarre reputation for her incendiary social media presence. It’s not that she has a notable track record of offensive tweets (a la her Emilia Pérez co-star Karla Sofía Gascón) or getting into nasty fights with other people online — although, her name has been caught up in some silly beefs. Nor can she be classified as a nefarious or provocative celebrity. Her online activity is mostly nothing more than messy; a relatively benign disaster.

It’s partly the result of a very strange and scattered career that’s been prone to scrutiny since she was a child star, but Gomez also has a unique penchant for stepping........

© Vox