It hasn’t been too long since the Astroworld tragedy when Travis Scott’s negligence killed ten people and injured thousands more that night. He blatantly ignored the blood-curdling screams of his fans suffocating and getting trampled to death and kept performing. And what did Scott do to pay for all the damage he caused? He released a mediocre Instagram story apology and disappeared from social media. That response for his dangerous actions and lack of accountability is a result of his fans putting him on a pedestal.

Our society has an unhealthy obsession with celebrities and painting them to be these perfect beings that has graced us with their talents. These celebrities know this and understand the influence they have on the public, so therefore they use it. You see it with Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj especially; their fan bases worshiping them at their feet and doing just about anything for them. The Barbs and Swifties are known for going to extremes to protect and defend their idols.

I mean, Swifties harassed and doxxed the writers and some actors of the Netflix show “Ginny and Georgia” for a joke made about Swift that upset her. Swift saw what her fans were doing on her behalf, yet refused to use her influence to put a stop to their unacceptable behavior. She has a responsibility as an influencer and an enabler to think about and control what she puts out because whether she likes it or not, she has the power to have people do whatever she wants. How do you think these celebrities get people to buy their albums, watch their movies, or purchase their merchandise? Through power and influence.

It is up to fans to hold their favorite celebrities and influencers accountable for their actions.

David Dobrik, a YouTube vlogger, is a more recent and prevalent example of this. During quarantine, Dobrik was under fire for some problematic behaviors relating to underage girls he had filmed in a vlog, assaulting his friend Seth, and causing another one of his friends, Jeff Wittek, to get a serious eye injury from a dangerous stunt. From those incidents, some people started to realize just how toxic and problematic Dobrik’s vlogs really were, as even members from his “Vlog Squad” were coming out with videos exposing David for his terrible behavior, including rape allegations. 

His fanbase became torn: on one side, people were holding him accountable and stopped supporting him, while the other side defended him and his actions. They did not care about all the pain he caused fans and his own friends. The situation came to an end when Dobrik released an apology and left YouTube for a few months. But when he came back, his subscriber count barely dipped and his vlogs still received an average of six to ten million views per video. He was never really canceled or held accountable by his supporters, allowing him to still make the same content and not learn from his mistakes. 

But what these fans fail to realize is that it’s all fake. How a celebrity acts when the cameras are on is nothing more than a persona created by themselves or their management to appeal to certain audiences. They will be what their fans want them to be so they continue to get support from them. However, these fans don’t understand and truly believe that these influencers and celebrities truly care about them, especially young, teenage fans. Celebrities know and understand how naive and impressionable teenagers are, so that is the audience that they target rather than adults who are a lot more educated and aware of these manipulative tactics these people use to gain and keep their supporters. So, in return, they will defend these people no matter what, even when they are in the wrong. 

They can get away with things because they tell their fans that it is okay.

As for Scott, he has created a culture within his fanbase for concerts that have been dangerous and problematic to begin with. Having fans create mosh pits in the crowd, encouraging aggressive behavior, and even storming into venues without tickets was normal for a Travis Scott concert. But this time got too out of hand and resulted in the unthinkable. But fans have deemed it appropriate to use this concert culture as an excuse, that “all his concerts are like this.” This is the primary reason why so many families are having to bury their loved ones. 

And the more disturbing part of all of this to me is that these people actually like the amount of power they have over their fans, and choose to use it for evil. They are manipulative because their supporters are naive. They can get away with things because they tell their fans that it is okay. And no one comes after them because they have created a cult-like following that will protect and defend their image at any cost. 

It is up to fans to hold their favorite celebrities and influencers accountable for their actions. Fans have a lot of power too, as they are the ones who are giving these opportunities and money to these celebrities. So it’s time to use the influence that they have as supporters and set clear boundaries on what is acceptable and what is unacceptable and hold these people to those standards, or these celebrities and influencers will never learn.