SYSTEM OF A DOWN's SERJ TANKIAN Says He And JOHN DOLMAYAN Are Subjected To An 'Unjustifiable' Amount Of Online Hate

June 23, 2020

SYSTEM OF A DOWN singer Serj Tankian says that "the amount of online hate and stupidity" he and his bandmate John Dolmayan are subjected to is "unjustifiable."

Earlier today, Tankian took to his Instagram to write: "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.

"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. 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 :)"

Last week, Tankian implied in an Instagram post that fans who listen to SYSTEM OF A DOWN music and support U.S. president Donald Trump are "hypocrites."

Tankian's views are in sharp contrast to those of Dolmayan, who has praised Trump in recent weeks.

Earlier in the month, Tankian called for Trump to resign and described him as "completely useless" over his handling of the coronavirus outbreak.

Other members of SYSTEM have also been outspoken in their criticism of the U.S. president, with guitarist Daron Malakian telling The Independent: "[Trump is] not careful with his words, and he doesn't seem to realize that everybody's listening to him. He does things that would have got another president impeached. Because we live in the social media world our attention spans are so small and so brief... that's why Trump works, because he makes himself the biggest conversation, and the biggest news, every day."

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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. 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. 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 :)

A post shared by Serj Tankian (@serjtankian) on

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