John Dolmayan recently took to his official Instagram account and revealed that he holds no regrets about losing System of a Down fans due to his political views.
The drummer wrote the following, with a caption saying he would share his thoughts again:
“I lost people that I thought were friends over the last few years primarily due to my unwillingness to accept the narratives they are now questioning the validity of. Not to mention hundreds of thousands of fans who couldn’t handle my opinions here on Instagram. When you endeavor to help those in peril or guide those that are being duped, sometimes you lose because of it. You do it anyway.”
Dolmayan gained attention for his political remarks, such as his statement that Donald Trump is ‘the greatest friend to minorities.’ He also opposed the idea of defunding the police and criticized Democrats, referring to them as ‘the true bigots’ who cannot tolerate free speech.
However, his bandmate Serj Tankian previously stated that he disagreed with Dolmayan’s expression of various right-wing views. He still respects the drummer and values their friendship, as the singer revealed to Consequence of Sound in 2021:
“We’re very good friends, we’re family, and he’s my drummer in my band, so of course, we’ve talked about many, many different things, including political views. When you don’t agree with someone after a while about a certain topic … look, it doesn’t mean that we don’t agree about other stuff. We agree a lot about Armenian stuff, for example, a lot about family stuff, a lot of other things, a lot of personal stuff.”
He continued, further sharing their differences of opinion on political matters:
“But when it comes to American politics, we happen to be on the polar opposite ends of it, and we’re both very passionate and vehement about our views, which is fine. I love and respect John very much, but I don’t love and respect his American political views. And that’s fine. And I can live with that, and he can live with that because we respect and care for each other.”
Dolmayan also admitted in a 2022 chat with Sona Oganesyan that he lost many followers on his social media accounts due to his right-wing political views and support for Trump. The drummer still said he’s fine with people disagreeing with him as long as it’s done respectfully.
You can see his Instagram post below.
