Lady Gaga and the unfortunate case of the 'don't ask, don't tell' double negative

Having dozed off during the fifth or sixth or 337th minute of earnestness in Lady Gaga's YouTube appeal Friday in support of the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell," the Ministry was shocked awake by the news that the pop phenom was as of that night apparently lobbying against the abolishment of the armed forces' policy on gays in the military.

In a reminder that the meat-wearing, chart-topping marketing genius formerly known as Stefani Germanotta is also a 24-year-old college dropout, the folks at the Twitter Fail blog noticed Sunday that via her Twitter feed, Lady Gaga was in fact urging people to sign a "Twititon" -- that'd be a Twitter petition -- with a big title asking fans to take a stand against the abolition of DADT.

"Support @ladygaga and fight against the abolishment of the 'DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL' law ... http://twitition.com/vzkp6," the message read.

By double negative, we're not referring to DADT containing the word "don't" twice. As those who finished English 101 know, a stand against the abolition of something is in fact ...

... a stand in support of the continuation of that thing. Now, we can't imagine that's really the message Gaga meant to send to her nearly 6.4 million followers.

That said, as of Sunday night, almost 9,000 fans had added their names to the list.

Don't think, don't read?

-- Christie D'Zurilla

Image credit: Twitter.com

Related dispatches from the Ministry of Gossip:

Lady Gaga video asks fans to lobby Senate for repeal of 'don't ask, don't tell'

Yes, Lady Gaga's meat dress was made of real meat

Speaking of meat dresses, Lady Gaga signs a fragrance deal

Lady Gaga wears a meat dress — need we say more? [poll]

Larry King and Ryan Seacrest brutalize Lady Gaga

Comments

[devon]

wow, journalism. great job. =s

[lapadite]

Yeah that was an unfortunate mistake, all fans know this, let's move on now. btw, she didn't actually write that tweet, a fan of hers tweeted her that, and she RETWEETED without the official "retweet".

Tha fan, as well as coutless other fans, then realized his mistake and urged everyone to disregard the message.

[RickG63]

All those that are perfect can criticize the rest of us make mistakes.We her fans and Lady Gaga know what she means.

[bettylion]

Gaga is usually a well spoken lady. She is very intelligent and articulate. However.... the tweet in question was sent at nearly 4 in the morning after she had finished up a concert several hours before in Hartford. She was very tired, and probably at least a little tipsy. That's the beauty of twitter.... it's not a term paper, it's something you can shoot off in the wee hours of the morning if you feel like it. A minor oops on her part. If we were going to jump down throats every time someone made a spelling or grammatical error, my local newspaper and TV station would be out of business, because even so-called professionals make those kinds of mistakes.

[Mike in Kansas City]

Get off her back! What a waste of time this was to point out. The whole world knows what Lady gaga is trying to help accomplish right now. Remember the meat dress? -The awards show that everyone talked about for two weeks straight? -Showing up with 4 discharged gay service people as her dates? You would have to be living under a rock to not know that Lady Gaga is a huge LGBT activist AND her position on DADT. You are being petty - get a life!

[chris]

haha wow, i can't believe people actually defend this manufactured moron.

[LolaRamona]

Oh yes of course.. Gaga fans are so ::special:: they ::knew:: exactly what she really meant by magical telepathy. lmao.

[hijk]

Wow, that's some investigative journalism... The guy who wrote the petition isn't even an American anyway. So the so called petition means nothing.
Get off her back and write a real story next time, pal.

[Reg-olution]

Such a non-issue on so many levels. Spelling police, apologetic yet naive fans, and slavish devotion to a person who is uncomfortable in their own skin. Who cares about all that? It’s not the real message. Now I agree the message GaGa is sending is a good one, but instead of pushing a button in support of repeal, why not do the footwork and protest? Why not actually write to your congressional representative about DADT. Notes and messages from hundreds if not thousands of people will have more impact that some pop princess well-meaning yet calculated publicity stunt.

[dak]

for this particular section of the online la times, this is news -___- crazy telepathic gaga plebians.