It’s hard to fault a man for defending his family, even if he comes across as a jerk while doing so. With that said, Alec Baldwin’s decision to lash out at all Americans in response to a mean comment from an internet troll is still rather bizarre.
His decision to deactivate Twitter, however, makes a lot of sense.
Here’s what happened:
The actor and his wife Hilaria shared a picture to Instagram welcoming their 6th child together. The internet being the cesspool that it is, some people then posted cruel comments in reply, including one person who pointed out that Hilaria could not have given birth to the child.
“Who’s the mother? She wasn’t pregnant. She gave birth six months ago. If it was a surrogate just say that. If the baby was adopted just say that. If the baby was a product of an affair and you’ve decided to raise it with your wife just say that. If you don’t want to say anything – why don’t you both stop constantly posting and begging for click-bait. Just raise your 100 children in private.”
Baldwin responded by writing, “You should shut the fuck up and mind your own business.”
Then, in response to another person who questioned why some people are so mean, Baldwin wrote, “because, basically, they’re not very smart. Americans are people who know less about how to live a peaceful, healthy life than most of the civilized world.”
That’s a weird take. But it’s understandable that the actor is lashing out given that Baldwin still seems to be smarting over the recent brouhaha involving his wife and accusations of cultural appropriation.
Again – it’s hard to fault someone for defending their spouse.
Soon after, the actor got into another internet dust-up for pointing out that the actress Gillian Anderson (of “The X-Files” and “The Crown”) switched between her American and British accent. The ensuing hullabaloo prompted Baldwin to explain why he deactivated his Twitter account.
“Of course you can’t do any irony on Twitter. You can’t do any irony in the United States because the United States is such an uptight, stressed out place. Such an unpleasant place right now,” Baldwin said. He added that Twitter is “where all the assholes in the United States and beyond go to get their advanced degree in assholiness.”
Baldwin said that he had used Twitter as a news aggregation site, but that it’s one-third interesting posts, one-third tedious, and one-third “abject hatred and malice and unpleasantness.”
Fair enough. Baldwin is drinking from a fire hose of criticism, and it’s unhealthy. Of course, these complaints are coming from a guy who said that former President Trump should be buried in a Nazi graveyard. So hopefully these incidents help Baldwin recognize his own contributions to the climate of negativity, and he works to elevate the discourse going forward.
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