The Internet Thinks Travis Scott and Live Nation Sacrificed Astroworld Attendees to Satan

As our civilization continues its inexorable devolution back into the Dark Ages, there are now lunatics on the Internet who believe that last week’s Astroworld tragedy was part of a deliberate Satanic sacrifice performed by Travis Scott and/or Live Nation.

Furthermore, they think that Scott went to fairly substantial lengths to broadcast this information.

For the three of you who somehow didn’t hear about it: on Friday, November 5, there was a crowd surge during Scott’s headlining set at the Astroworld music festival in Houston, Texas. Eight people, ages 14 – 27, were crushed to death, and hundreds more were injured. Scott, who founded Astroworld, and Drake, who also appeared during the set, are now both being sued by one of these injured parties for having “incited mayhem.” That’s likely just the beginning of the fallout from the tragedy.

Even though Astroworld wasn’t a metal event, this news hit home — or at least should hit home — for anyone who loves live music. I’m sure we’ve all been at shows where it certainly felt like we could be crushed to death. Although far fewer people were killed in this instance, the news reminded me of The Station Fire in 2003 — there’s very much a “There but for the grace of God go I” quality to these horrible events.

Now Mel reports that a bunch of clever Internet sleuths are trying to tie this entire disaster to Satanism, which should intensify the metal community’s sympathy for those killed or injured at Astroworld.

Unsurprisingly, the brain surgeons behind QAnon are heavily involved in this nonsense; others, though, don’t identify as Q believers… just Christians.

Here are some fun examples, each more patently ludicrous than the last:

The most batshit crazy ones, of course, are those where the conspiracy theorist posits that Scott and/or Live Nation, who produced the event, were openly advertising their evil intentions right from the get go. Because if there’s one thing we all know about criminal masterminds, it’s that they love to broadcast their guilt. These people must think The Riddler is a real person or something.

Mel naturally notes that “These are… the same tropes that characterized the 1980s moral panic over heavy metal rock, which critics tried to censor by tying to the supposed eruption of satanic violence across the country.” They also call attention to the fact that Satanic panic now seems to be the purview of hip-hop, with Lil Nas X’s “Montero” also getting roped into this circus.

You can read the entire Mel piece here.