Yeah, but the motivation from hatred can often come in handy when revealing valid controversies.
I think it was Morrissey's refusal to clarify or provide nuance to his escalating imagery, and comments that was the breaking point.
When you play that game with the press, they're going to go down their own alley if you don't defend yourself. This is why celebrities have publicists to counsel them, and head off controversies. They know the dance, and the power the media has.
Morrissey thinks its beneath him to defend himself; as if he's giving in. Plus, he enjoys the cat, and mouse power play that being coy provides. Still, the media knows he's playing a game with them, and if you want to play the game, then prepare to be pressed and baited, just like you do. Refusing to clarify rarely works out. Morrissey's career lost a lot of momentum, and good will at the end of that period that lasted quite a while.
Morrissey played a game that he did not have the power to be playing because he knew he was a Brit pop darling, and he had got away with so much before. This was just a culmination of the line stretching that he was used to profiting from. The media had enough, and demanded he explain himself, and he refused.
If you think about it, Morrissey is basically the Donal Trump of pop. He speaks flippantly about important topics; claims there are conspiracies against him; holds strict nationalistic stances, and manages to always destroy whatever momentum he has gained at the moment.
It's a kind of self-sabotage that sustains the persecution complex that we all know is purely about ego. If you don't have enemies, then you don't get attention.
Cluster B Perosnalities.