System of a Down’s John Dolmayan Continues to Criticize Black Lives Matter
System of a Down drummer John Dolmayan has carried on with his opposition to the Black Lives Matter movement while showing his support for law enforcement, even though the musician's opinions seemingly often come at odds with those of his bandmate and System of a Down vocalist, Serj Tankian.
Last week (July 24), Dolmayan again aired his thoughts via Instagram. Alongside photos of a police badge and related medallions that he received from a member of the New York City Police Department, the drummer added to his critique of the social movement that he called a "propaganda tool" earlier this month.
"Very proud to have received this gift and will always support the men and women who put their lives on the line to help protect society," Dolmayan said. He then admonished Black Lives Matter while sarcastically censuring the pro sports leagues that have helped publicize the movement's mission.
He continued, "I'm also thankful to the NBA, NFL and MLB for kneeling in solidarity with BLM and showing that major sports franchises much like most corporations are all about the look and keeping the dollars rolling in and much like the BLM movement itself could care less about black people."
Three weeks ago, Dolymayan said Black Lives Matter "have shown themselves to be the enemy of the people of the United States and have adopted lawlessness emboldened by a sensationalist media." In response to a comment on that post, he claimed that "there is no systematic racism in the United States."
The musician's ideas appear to have a couple of communication snags. Were Dolmayan's recent posts stringently precise grammatically, he likely meant to convey his belief that BLM "couldn't care less" about Black people. Likewise, his comment about "systematic racism" probably refers to systemic racism.
Still, the comments line up with the System of a Down drummer's previous remarks. Over the last two months, Dolmayan has called President Trump "the greatest friend to minorities," said the movement to defund the police was "the stupidest thing," and he deigned liberals as cowards who "need to be herded."
Notwithstanding his political leanings, the musician has also countered that "System of a Down is for all of you and always will be," regardless of fans' possibly opposing views.
In June, Tankian came to the defense of Dolmayan, as he said he still loves and respects his bandmate "irrespective of our extremely polarized political commentary and differences."
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