I Haven't Seen A Ton Of Stuff On Tumblr About The Astroworld Fatalities, Which Is Awful Because It Was

I haven't seen a ton of stuff on Tumblr about the Astroworld fatalities, which is awful because it was such a tragic disaster and people in power are trying very, very hard to sweep it under the rug (see this removed video). It's also being grossly misinterpreted.

I refuse to believe that Astroworld demonstrates that we are all animals at heart or that celebrity culture corrupted every person. First, this was not a stampede-- it was a crowd crush. Someone in a crowd crush has no idea what is happening towards the front and is helpless to move. Crowd crushes are largely the fault of poor crowd organizing/management. Some of the people in the crowd were assholes-- those who stormed the gates, danced on ambulances, etc. Most of them were just caught up in a press of bodies.

Travis Scott is not an innocent party here. He encouraged fans storming the gates and has been charged twice before in 2015 and 2017 for inciting hysteria at his shows. He encouraged violence against a kid in 2015 while crowd-surfing for allegedly trying to steal his shoe and at another show told fans to jump from a balcony-- fans later suffered serious injuries. He encouraged fans to flip off security trying to break up to the crowd and get to injured people. He has a history of being awful to security. I hate cops as much as anyone, but security guards aren't cops. They're just some guys who are getting paid a shit wage to prevent people from getting hurt. You're not standing up to the "man" by being a dick to security at a concert any more than you would be for getting tossed out of a bar by a bouncer for being drunk and disorderly. You're just being an asshole.

Travis Scott encourages people to "rage" at his shows with no care for the consequences. Well, that's just a mosh pit, right? Except, punk/heavy metal shows are famously focused on a sense of community and social responsibility. There have literally been scientific studies that demonstrate how focused heavy metal fans are on helping people who fall during shows. However, if you co-opt the goal of a mosh pit as a stress-reliever and/or a way to release anger without the rules of etiquette or citizenship, then you might be Travis Scott you've created an incredibly dangerous situation.

Travis Scott saw an ambulance trying to get through and he didn't stop playing. He saw a fan's lifeless body being carried away and he didn't stop playing. There is no way he couldn't have heard the crowd chanting to stop. This is not normal behavior. Side note: Here are some examples of responsible examples of crowd control behavior from artists who stopped their shows to stop people from getting hurt in no particular order that I found on Reddit in no particular order: Adele, ASAP Rocky, Avenge Sevenfold, The Killers, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against the Machine, KSI, MCR, this entire compilation).

These artists aren't heroes. They just know that crowd crushes have happened before and are practicing basic human decency.

And there were people who tried to help. If you haven't seen the video of the girl who climbed up on a camera platform or read her account, it's brutal, terrifying stuff. People were chanting to stop the show. This ICU nurse tried to help and documented the severely undetrained staff. Concertgoers did their best to pull others to safety, but the people who were in charge simply did not care.

Remember how when Squid Game came out and people who completely missed the point were talking about how it showed that people were awful and would turn on each other? It's a similar situation here. There were some assholes, but ultimately Travis Scott simply does not care about his fans. He's built his brand on being mysterious and edgy-- he doesn't care who dies for him. And that’s the story, not the entirety of the crowd, but one out-of-touch millionaire celebrity who doesn’t care.