System of A Down drummer John Dolmayan has been very outspoken lately on political issues, much like his frontman, Serj Tankian. But it seems like Serj and John very much disagree politically. After sharing that he thinks Donald Trump is "the greatest friend to minorities," Dolmayan doubled down on the opinion in a new video address this weekend, while also slamming the ongoing protests to defund the police as the "stupidest thing he's heard."
First, speaking of his difference of opinion with Tankian, Dolmayan states “We have differing opinions in System of a Down. That shouldn’t be a shock to anybody, because you have four individuals — we’re not always like-minded and don’t always agree on everything. But you’d be surprised at how civil our conversations are, especially between me and Serj, who seem to have the most diverging opinions on things.”
Dolmayan made it clear that while they have differing political opinions, they still respect each other. “I have a lot of respect for Serj and his opinions, although I don’t agree with them very often these days. And that’s okay. We expand each other’s horizons — I like to think that he learns from me and I learn from him.”
Dolmayan went on to say he supports peaceful protests but denounces the violence and looting that has broken out in several cities. After a moment talking about disagreeing with Colin Kaepernick’s kneeling protest during the national anthem at football games, Dolmayan added that the NFL should have allowed him to continue to peacefully protest.
Then, the topic changed to the ongoing "Defund the Police" movement. Many current Black Lives Matter protesters are calling for slashing police budgets and reinvesting that money into social services like education and mental help programs. Some are calling for police forces to be abolished completely (as has successfully been done in Camden, NJ – they canceled their police union contract and formed a new force). Dolmayan isn't about to hear it and says “I think that the movement to defund police is probably the stupidest thing that I’ve heard.”
He elaborated in another post the following day:
“Any celebrity or politician who is behind the defund the police movement is doing one of two things 1. Showing you, who they consider the peasant class, how woke they are and how in tune they are with social injustice. In other words look like they give a shit but continue to live lavish well protected lives while you bang your head on a wall. 2. (Mainly politicians) Say anything to maintain their positions because the stupidity of defunding the police hasn’t fully been comprehended by the people advocating for it, they will cut budgets to show how they agree with the ‘movement’ and move the money into social programs, later once people have forgotten about this injustice and are on to the next issue they will cut funds to those programs and funnel the money right back into police department budgets. In fact they will increase those budgets because at the end of the day there can be no society without them, we are not civilized enough and probably never will be. You are being agitated into a frenzy, divided, and then placated. No real changes will be instituted except that many of you will be even more dependent on the government you so adamantly oppose. They take away your freedoms give you a few scraps and you thank them for it, wake up and think for yourself.”
When fans started calling for Dolmayan to be removed from the band, he joked “Please, please don’t kick me out of my band. I’m sorry I think differently, I’ll change, I’ll conform, I promise!”
Needless to say the next band meeting will probably be interesting.
[via CoS]
