System of a Down singer Serj Tankian has taken to his Instagram to give a statement on drummer John Dolmayan’s recent political comments.
Tankian began, “My drummer and brother-in-law @johndolmayan_, whom I love and respect irrespective of our extremely polarized political commentary and differences, has always been my stalwart ally in efforts for recognition of the Armenian genocide within SOAD.”
He continued, “The amount of online hate and stupidity against him and I are unjustifiable. Social media has created an erroneous digital society that partially thrives on this reality. Remember irrespective of the stance, only artists that truly care and are impassioned will risk alienating their base for what they consider the truth.
He concluded, “Our dilemma and possible fallacy is that we have two in one band. Some may consider that a weakness but the artistic, political and social dichotomy if not quadrichotomy (not a word) has made @systemofadown what it is today. Thank you all for reading. We should all do more non-online reading.”
Dolmayan has made headlines as of late with various posts on Instagram including one calling President Donald Trump “the greatest friend to minorities” and another calling those who identify as liberal “the true fascist, the true bigots hidden in plain sight.”