This isn’t a thing I want to post about. I don’t like needing to write this and it has almost nothing to do with my usual work. But, on rare occasions such as this, I have found that I can’t get away with silence. My conscience makes me do things. It just does.
I like accountability. I like being an asshole who still regards personal honor, honesty and integrity as things one can never cease aspiring to or for.
I do not have a sponsor. I have no income from my site, and would refuse any that was offered to me. I have no control over any ads which accompany my content. I am not compensated in any way.
I know that I am an old man. An asshole. Broken. Disabled. Sick. Full of regret and Remorse. If I am ever regarded as an influencer, nothing will change in me. I seek not fame nor notoriety. I’m just a blogger with stories to tell and the mission to help anyone who might find something useful in my experiences with abuse and mental illness. I will not know it if that has ever or will ever happen. I just write. If you think that makes me feel the weight of responsibility for my words, you’re absolutely right.
The tragedy at last Friday’s Astroworld show featuring rapper Travis Scott is something you’re bound to be at least passingly familiar with. Scott has been know to, in short, encourage crowds to become fervently disorderly. Last week, eight people died. Trampled, shoved over, smothered, there’s no way to know what exactly happened. They’re dead, and of dozens injured, there’s this heartbreaking article on PerezHilton.com.
The boy will likely die. The story wrenched my gut like all tragic news about children do, except this one seems to have an extra quality of hopelessness. In an induced coma, he has probably already had the last thoughts his wounded brain will have. How sad is that? I cry for him. I’ve wept for many years for many people over too much senseless suffering, none more than the little ones. If you can read this story and not cry or, at least, be enraged, I’m sorry, but you’re as bad as Scott.
Scott went to celebrate after the concert. A concert he continued after pleas for him to stop. Only later did he claim he was horrified at the news of deaths and serious injuries, saying he would pay all funeral costs.
How very kind of him.
How very sympathetic.
Sure, Scott: write a fucking check, because that always absolves guilt and that’s what you care about.
Whatever else he has done, his reputation preceded him to Astroworld. The trouble began before he even took the stage. That tells me he has no regard for the personal safety of his own fans. And can that be, in a million years, forgiven? Reckless endangerment. A callousness I cannot understand. I know what has happened at soccer games. I’ve heard of the incident when the Rolling Stones hired the Hell’s Angels to be security guards at at a concert. I know that people make bad decisions or lose control. I also happen to be all too familiar with evil. I’m not going to call Travis Scott evil, but he’s not going out of his way not to be.
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What started me on this post was a casual perusal of news on Google trending stories. I didn’t want to read about it. Or even think about it. What caught my attention was a headline about the punishment the Kardashians and extended family were taking on social media. Whereas the writer on PerezHilton wrote that it was harsh and somewhat undeserved, I disagree. Crickets would have been preferable to the selfish crap they were posting. One had a new line of clothing debut. One published one of millions of titillating photographs. It’s staggering. I’m not a fan of written abuse, but of the responses I’ve seen, I have to say, at least, that fans do draw the line somewhere. It’s reassuring and refreshing.
I’ve never been a fan of Kardashians, I never will be, but they have to take the responsibility of being influencers much more seriously. That goes for everyone from television to YouTube to social media and the music industry. They can’t say otherwise and can’t hide behind continuously adoring, unswerving fans in whose eyes they can do no wrong. People are dead. The lack of sympathy and compassion expressed should not be mistaken as being on a “business schedule” or anything else. These people couldn’t care less about the suffering of others. Pray for and pity the victims and their families.
The Kardashians and their lot are probably well beyond help. I don’t pity them.
That’s not in my power.
Memoirs of an American Asshole 