Ireland Baldwin is speaking out against cancel culture while seemingly sticking up for Travis Scott amid the aftermath of Friday night’s Astroworld Festival tragedy.
As we’ve been reporting, Travis’ hometown show in Houston turned into a mass casualty event when an apparent crowd rush took the lives of eight concertgoers and injured hundreds. And in response, in since-deleted Instagram posts, Ireland compared the very “predictable and preventable” event to her father Alec Baldwin’s fatal Rust shooting! Whaaaat???
On Saturday, the model took to her IG Story to argue:
“Y’all are really killing me these days. You believe everything that you see on Twitter and TikTok and completely bandwagon on spreading misinformation.”
While calling out social media users for jumping to conclusions amid tragedies, she referred to her father’s on-set shooting that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins last month, continuing:
“First, you were armory/stunt coordination pros when it came to the horrific tragedy involving my dad … and now Travis Scott is demonic because he ALLOWED people to die at his show?”
Right off the bat, this comparison seems odd. Since Alec’s prop gun landed two crew members in the hospital, he has insisted that the ordeal was a “one in a trillion” accident. And nobody is blaming him, as an actor, at this point (except for Donald Trump and his cronies). Baldwin is taking heat as an executive producer on the western film for allegedly allowing corners to be cut that contributed to this fatal shooting, while inexperienced armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed and assistant director Dave Halls have faced the most backlash for their involvement in the tragedy. An investigation is still ongoing to determine who is at fault.
Related: Revisiting The Crow Tragedy & More: A History Of Accidental Shootings In Movies
Meanwhile, fans of Scott are legitimately upset because his desire to create chaos at his shows has repeatedly resulted in concertgoers’ injuries — something Ireland has witnessed herself! People don’t have to be experts to see that.
So no, this wasn’t the same kind of completely unpredictable accident as Alec’s Rust shooting! Yet, the 26-year-old seems to be lumping the stars into the same cancel culture club…
Before getting too far ahead of herself, the Grudge Match actress did show sympathy for the victims, noting:
“I’ll start by saying I am heartbroken for the families who lost a loved one. Everyone should feel safe when they are going to enjoy live music.”
But after that she went out of her way to defend Travis Scott, saying:
“But it’s not Travis Scott’s fault. Any actual musician would validate that you can’t see or hear anyone up there. Especially when wearing in-ear monitors.”
Obviously the stages at these concerts are set up so that everyone in the audience can see and hear the performer, not the other way around. But that doesn’t mean artists can’t see the crowd at all!
And in this situation, Travis was caught ON CAMERA noticing an ambulance attempting to get through the crowd to help a hurt fan. His reaction?? He stopped performing for a few minutes, but then acted as if nothing happened and promised he was going to “make this motherf**king ground shake.”
Ignoring videos from the horrifying show — or perhaps not doing as much research as she was telling others to do — Baldwin added:
“C’mon people … do a little research before you go spewing cancel culture bulls**t. People lost their children at this show and you’ve got say is that Travis Scott’s music is demonic and he belongs in prison? Jesus.”
We don’t know who she’s referring to saying “Travis Scott’s music is demonic” — obviously those folks have their own ludicrous views and aren’t going to listen to reason. But as far as Travis’ culpability? Well, it’s actually not looking good.
Mixed Signals
In another post, the frustrated celeb suggested:
“I have a pretty solid idea … maybe we should stick to what we actually know, stop making assumptions, stop spreading misinformation, and educate ourselves on things we know nothing about.”
After standing up for Scott, Ireland hopped back on social media to claim she was “in no way defending” him, which… huh??
“Ok… I’m done reading s**t on the internet I think forever. I am in no way defending Travis Scott because honestly, I don’t know him or care personally and the only aspect of this i care about is that people died because this brand new festival neglected to have the proper safety protocols in place.”
Then Ireland went on to admit that she had seen him “incite” rage and witnessed concertgoers get injured at two different shows. Speaking of her past experiences, she noted:
“I’ve been to two of his shows. I watched people get carried out on stretchers with head injuries and from ODs. I’ve experienced this at maybe 10 other shows I’ve been to in my life where other punk band or rap artists played.”
The LA native also recalled:
“He incites the rage. No doubt about that. But I refuse to fall into this twisted cancel culture bulls**t when it’s coming from people who have no idea how anything works.”
Look, we get that people are quick to jump on bandwagons and join mobs online without knowing anything — but the fact that Ireland is ignoring her own evidence, the way Scott repeatedly “incites the rage” at his concerts, seems less like she’s waiting to see the facts and more like she’s defending him in spite of them.
The idea she’s lumping him in with her father and other canceled celebs is just so baffling. People were killed while trying to enjoy a music festival — those in charge are going to need to face some consequences for that! That’s not some hollow outrage!
Ireland concluded her emotional post by saying:
“I ask a bunch of questions before forming any kind of opinion. Also, people on the internet saying it’s the kid’s who died fault and they knew what they were getting into … Um no. There should have been so many protocols in place to keep kids safe.”
As we said, she later deleted the controversial posts and shared a link to a GoFundMe page set up in honor of the victims instead. A way classier move, TBH. Baldwin explained:
“Deleted my posts for one reason – people on the internet are scary and so misinformed. All that matters are the families of those who died in the Astroworld tragedy. My heart breaks for them. The point I was trying to make was stop rage-blaming. Make informed opinions and posts. So many people are at fault. Not just one person.”
Well, we certainly agree with that. Make informed opinions!
On Monday, she added even more clarification to her contested comments, making it clear she does think Travis is likely to blame and was just trying to make a point about backlash. Though, to be honest, it’s really starting to sound like what she’s reacting to are fringe, ludicrous takes like saying “Travis Scott planned this.”
Check out her final words on the matter (below).
So true, and yet, why did she feel the need to bring up her father’s shooting in all of this? Thoughts?? Sound OFF in the comments (below)!
[Image via FayesVision/WENN/Avalon/MEGA]
The post WTF?? Ireland Baldwin Compares Astroworld Tragedy Backlash To Dad's <i>Rust</i> Shooting -- Calls It All 'Cancel Culture'?? appeared first on Perez Hilton.