John Dolmayan says that he tries to “present an opposing viewpoint” for SYSTEM OF A DOWN fans “who aren’t necessarily ideologically in line” with the views of the band’s frontman, Serj Tankian.
Dolmayan, who has praised Trump in past months, took to Instagram to share popular libertarian meme with the text: “Did you know? That it’s entirely possible to disagree with BOTH liberals and conservatives? It’s called thinking for yourself and we highly recommend it.”
Then one of the followers asked him, “Then why do you seem to only share right wing talking points? If you were truly a free thinker, you’d be offering more than one perspective on the issues you post about, but you only ever post the right wing perspective. Just an observation.”
To which Dolmayan responded: “That’s generally true. Serj has the left leaning perspective on most issues so I present an opposing viewpoint for system fans who aren’t necessarily ideologically in line with Serjs views. So people know there’s different mindsets.”
Tankian previously addressed his differences of political opinion between him and Dolmayan writing on his Instagram on June: “My drummer and brother in law John Dolmayan 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,” Tankian wrote.
“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,” he continued. “Remember irrespective of the stance, only artists that truly care and are impassioned will risk alienating their base for what they consider the truth.
“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 SYSTEM OF A DOWN what it is today. Thank you all for reading. We should all do more non-online reading.”