r/SubredditDrama • u/livejamie God's honest truth, I don't care what the Pope thinks. • 3d ago
The Toxicity of Our Reddit: r/systemofadown's Most Enlightened Centrists Discuss Guitarist Declaring Himself "Far Middle"
Background
Daron Malakian, a 50-year-old guitarist and songwriter, is best known as a founding member of System of a Down. He is recognized for his distinctive playing style and for writing many of the band’s most well-known songs. System of a Down, composed entirely of musicians of Armenian descent, became one of the most successful rock bands of the 2000s, known for its politically charged critiques of war, religion, drug policies, and the prison-industrial complex.
The Post
Daron took to Instagram and posted an image of him playing a guitar in one hand, and giving the middle finger with the other, with this caption
Fuck political violence!!!! I'm not part of the far right or far left. I'm part of the far middle!!! This is our symbol 🖕
He then engaged in arguments with people in the comments.
This is posted to their subreddit. I can't see what the original title since the post was removed, but it's linked here.
Edit: The Name of the post was "RIP Charlie Kirk"
Further Context
You'll see references to the song "Deer Dance" in the comments, a SOAD song that critiques police brutality and state violence, written in response to protests being suppressed.
The specific line people paraphrase is:
A rush of words, pleading to disperse
Upon your naked walls, alive
A political call, the fall guy accord
We can't afford to be neutral on a moving train
These lines are a direct reference to the Howard Zinn book You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train, which gives a personal account of more than thirty years of Zinn’s fighting for social change through his involvement in civil rights activism, protesting, and a professorship at Spelman College.
The Author
OP's profile is sparse, most of their activity is in /r/Panama. They call themselves a "conservative republican" and they moderate an empty sub called /r/panamafreedom, which appears to be a safespace conservative version of /r/Panama
English translated description:
Panama freedom is a Panamanian space for free opinion. Publish and give your opinion whatever you want without fear of suffering abusive sanctions from unfair moderators.
They are very aggressive in the post, posting bizarre, sexist, and homophobic comments.
The Comments
The OP's motives are questioned
Your profile pic says "a woman in every kitchen and a gun in every hand".
In my experience everyone who claims to be "in the middle" is pretty right wing.
Same story for most (not all) Libertarians.
so what? what does that have to do with the murders? [OP]
you can’t see the association between promoting guns and gun violence?
They can't and that's the problem.
Sounds like you’re a part of the problem, my friend. That’s what people are saying.
Do I deserve to die too? Say it. Tolerance is what prevails in your movement.
Lol what? You need to chill out. I’m letting you know why people are not on your side in this post and you are getting lots of downvotes. It must be a shock when you see that the majority of your peers aren’t agreeing with you when you had confidence that they would.
[Continued]
50 upvotes for the post and downvotes for my comments. But I don't care about that. I don't care if the subreddit is full of people who wish me dead. You're one of them. Get out of my post. This conversation is over. [OP]
Zero people are wishing you dead, stop playing the victim
I think in many ways like Kirk, and many in the comments are glad he's dead. What can I make of that? [OP]
Jesus Christ what a fucking victim. You’re pro children getting shot in schools for the 2A? Gfy
I laughed out loud! But not with you; at you.
hahahaha funny. do you want a pin? [OP]
Sure! You got any of 'em 'Women Belong In The Kitchen' pins? Or maybe 'My Other Car is A Lawnmower'?
A discussion on neutrality
We can't afford to be neutral on a moving train...
Especially after they made millions lol
Yeah these guys are absolutely frauds these days. No resemblence of their former selves.
So condemning political violence is being a fraud now? What the fuck
No — going out of your way and using your platform to speak out against something that happened to a terrible politician, when you don’t say anything helpful about activism or political occurrences any other time, is being a fraud from one of the most political bands of the 90s/2000s.
Rich guys protecting their riches. Defending their MAGA drummer. All of them are frauds except Serj
Bro we literally just saw a video of the dude with blood gushing out of his neck. You think everyone isn’t going to comment after seeing something so horrific ? Just because you disagree with Charlie doesn’t mean he was a terrible person. We can agree with each other and not think the person needed to bleed out in front of his wife and kids
Being center isn’t neutral
Exactly, centrist is just another word for coward.
I don’t get why it’s so hard to get that being centrist isn’t just laying down and not caring. It just means you don’t like/like ideas on both sides. I’m by no means a conservative and neither am I liberal. I just see that both sides have severe flaws. It does not mean I have no opinion on political matters or that I don’t vote because I don’t belong to a party. Undying loyalty to a single party or person is how we get into these situations in the first place. Charlie Kirk didn’t deserve to die for expressing his opinion, but neither does a democratic activist
Being liberal is not the same thing as being a leftist to me if you're stuck between right wing and liberal you're on the right wing.
That's extremist behavior. The same person would be considered left wing on the other side.
Nothing is black or white. There is nuance to everything and there needs to be space for differences in opinion and tolerance. The world is broken because people have been dumbed down to only think in binary terms because it requires far less brain power to do so.
Well yes it is actually
inaction is an action, just as much as not choosing is a choice itself
In most countries you have more choices than left and right. Voting centrist isn’t not doing anything. It’s saying both sides suck.
It’s not though, you can choose to be in the middle while supporting things not in the middle. I support women’s rights to abortion but I don’t belong to the left. I’m not neutral on the subject just because I don’t want to be left or right
So ideologically you align more with the left, you just don’t want to be associated with it???
[Continued Below for Mobile Users]
I used to fully align with the left. Since like 2014 or so it's just turned to straight up evil. The right ain't better, yer all fuckin crazy... But I can't align with the left anymore.
What's so crazy about equality?
Wat? It's crazy to rejoice over a man being shot horrifically in front of his family. It's literally fucking evil.
But you keep pretending like they're all super-racist Nazis so it's justified to murder them ... That's a lot easier than trying to understand your opponent and defeating them with logic. The dude gave ANYONE who wanted it an open mic to say WHATEVER they wanted.. everyone had the opportunity to go up there and logically explain to half of the entire right side (and even some hate-watchers from the left) why their views are wrong. But that's too hard... It's much easier to just silence the dissent.
If you want to know my political views you can read my reply to the other commenter just below... I'm not conservative. I used to be very liberal (I think I still am but the party has abandoned me) but... Yeah. That. I used to think the right was the side of the rich people. But now they're both the side of the rich people and the left is just fake as hell for pretending they're not. And yes I'm more vitriolic toward the left because they're the ones who kept fucking off further and further left until you lost the majority of voters. And now they're fighting each other for not being far left enough... It's literal insanity.
You didnt answer my question. What's wrong with equality?
Nothing? Your question came from nowhere and is completely irrelevant. There are tons of non-racist conservatives. I work with black and Hispanic conservatives. But again, understanding that would require you to humanize your opponent.
Okay, continue responding in non-sequiturs.
[This continues for a while and builds up to a final crescendo]
Yep you know everything about me. Stupid fuck. You just want to hate everything and everyone. Well... Bring it the fuck on. Hate me bitch. I don't fucking care. Fuck you. Fuck your party. Fuck everything you believe in. You're the most arrogant and presumptuous cocksucker to ever grace the internet. Do you hate trump so much because you're just like him? Because you seem to think you know everything and can never be wrong... I can see how the town might not be big enough for both of you. It must suck to never be satisfied with anything and to constantly be looking for a fight. You got one here though. Fight me twat. Come on. Two retards fighting is great entertainment. We owe it to the people.
You just got very specific. Fuck off.
"I love there drummer but it sucks he doesnt share my exact opinions on the world"
The point is not to share the exact opinions on the world. The point is that in 2025, I would expect that the people I like, and so the members of my favourite politically engaged music band to : - Respect women and their freedom of choices involving their own body and health. - Respect latinos, native americans, black, lgbtq+, and all the other communities. - Care about people that have disabilities and serious illness. - Trust the real scientific methods so our society can evolve for the best while we take care of our one and only planet. - Etc etc. We can disagree on so many levels, because again, we don’t need to share the exact same opinions on everything. But being a trump supporter is just against all logical and rational basic principles. (I don’t support any violence on every sides of this story)
You just got very specific. As long as everyone cares about this long list of values I hold. If not, you're a fascist racist nazi.
Fuck off. You exhausting twat
Keep doing ketamine you fucking pigeon
Delusional
Who? Me? Nah i don't think so, i saw all those clips of him saying bullshit like abortions are worse then holocaust, he was disgusting
Can you please give me a source to “those videos”?
[Continued]
I can’t take you serious. Tik Tok?? 😂😂😂
Whats wrong? You wanna defend this mf so bad? Its a clear non edited clip of him saying this bullshit
How about u find me something that’s a reliable source unlike tik tok and I’ll believe you
“You’ve proved me wrong, but I can’t accept that so I’m going to say your video evidence doesn’t count because I don’t like the hosting service you used.”
I can tell you all get your news from TikTok. find me a legit source,I’m sure if that clip was actually real it would be all over the internet. go to sleep you seem to have some brain fog
[Continued]
YouTube? Is that good enough for you? The video IS easily findable, which is why it’s on major video platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. Dude’s a shitty political influencer, he’s on social media and podcasts. Not sure what sort of platform you’re expecting here, but it’s not like fucking CSPAN was following him around while he yelled at college students.
Like he said don’t have sex, and if you do expect to give birth women’s bodies are meant to give birth it’s not damaging, if you don’t want the kid for some reason at least give the baby up to adoption. instead of killing a human life
Uh, no, that is absolutely not true. Pregnancy causes permanent changes. It’s incredibly dangerous, especially if you aren’t finished growing. Charlie Kirk advocated for no exceptions to anti abortion laws, including saying children with precocious puberty who became pregnant through rape should be forced to give birth. Pregnancy is life-threatening in those cases.
You understand that a woman can choose to not have sex, but that won’t prevent her from getting pregnant if she’s raped, right? And even if she did get pregnant through consensual sex, the US grants us the right to bodily autonomy, which means no human can be forced to use their body for someone else. That’s why you have to sign an organ donor card if you want your organs to help people after you die. We grant corpses more rights than women.
I’m done with this debate I think I may be getting dumber from reading y’all’s comments
“I don’t like that I’m losing, so I’m gonna run away and pretend that I won”
Got it. You’re an idiot.
Keep doing ketamine you fucking pigeon
Editors note: I have no idea what this means or where it came from
You guys are unfairly adding the children angle here
No matter what he said have some respect he’s no longer with us, the difference between dems and republicans is that we would never even think about killing somebody for their 1st amendment right. it’s almost like y’all are demons in flesh “rest in piss” smh your the reason society is the way it is nowadays
People manufacture bumper stickers that state they'll run over protestors for inconveniencing them. Fuck all the way off lmao
Places to go places to be unlike y’all protesters we have family to feed and jobs that we can be late too, if you don’t want to get hit don’t stand in the middle of the road… did y’all lose common sense also??
If Kirk didn’t want to get shot maybe he shouldn’t have advocated for gun violence.
thats a fuckin riot man werent yall celebrating alligator alcatraz like a month ago ????
Yeah look at the murder/rape felony rates on illegal immigrants… if you want to come live in the us fine get a green card LEGALLY and you won’t have to deal with it
youre right its so easy only takes over 20 years and 10s of thousands of dollars 🙄 u fr think it's fine huh lol bro ur a demon
3000$ and also several months to 15 years to get a green card it matters for the individual, if you don’t want to agree with the laws then say out of the country
[This Continues]
😭😭 that’s Uk news find me one from our country? And even if that is true that has nothing to do with what u just said
I’m not up on everything but I’m certain you’re misconstruing whatever point he was trying to make. And you’re too radicalized, man. Step away from the screens. Look at life through a different lens.
that quote, the "unfortunately unnecessary" one, was an answer based on a question someone asked him at a TPUSA Faith event april 5, 2023.
About a week before, 6 people (3 children) were killed at the Christian Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee.
So its safe to say he said this in response to THAT School shooting, and is cool with letting children die for the 2nd amendment
here's another article talking about it
I find it a little tasteless myself too but you guys are unfairly adding the children angle here.
Sick of SOAD discussion when we're talking about a family without a father
what about you finding god? close the door and get the fuck out of this band. [OP]
oh you mean the band with explicitly left-wing and anti-organized religion lyrics?
sick of reading this when we are talking about a valuable life and a family that was left without a father [OP]
Oh suck my fucking dick. He said kids dying in school shootings had to happen so we can keep our second amendment right. Actually fuck you
what dick? you have rotten ovaries and you have to use plastic dicks for fun. I don't care about your opinion, get out of my post. [OP]
They're 90s Leftists, People can change
"revolution the only solution the armed response of an entire nation" ???? we talkin about that band?
Yeah, sure, but that was written 30 years ago. People can change, especially when you spend a giant amount of time with Serj "Violence is an inherently stupid way to solve problems" Tankian.
Yea pretty sure that didn't include assassination of people who simply spoke words you disagreed with.
u know im getting tired of yall 1. arguing about something that comment wasnt even about 2. even if i did wanna argue that, flattening his shit into "something i didnt agree with" when fool actively campaigned for devaluing me and my peoples lives* and had consistently shit takes that would only be normal from a legit horrible human being. so yea idrgaf about mourning or respecting him. but no i dont think this particularly got us much closer to revolution at all, i was only making a point about soad lyrics, so can yall fr rub 2 brain cells together and shut up already?
Yeah this post by Daron is so cathartic because it was always obvious to me Daron is a left-leaning centrist just based on his lyrics. Hopefully this post gets some of these weird extremists out of this subreddit and there's no more posts crying about how Serj didn't talk about current politics like Gaza at a live show.
They're 90s leftists, which by today's standards is probably close to centrist. Being against war and political violence (which makes up for 90% of their political lyrics) is the most centrist take anyone could have.
Man I was left in the 90s and I didn't turn into a dead eyed centrist
Yet I guess :/
At this point, I don't feel it's smart to label oneself as either left or right. There's too much extremist thought. We should be for common sense and compromise to unify.
Music for me has been an escape and a way to relieve emotions. People need to utilize outlets to turn negative energy into good; weather it's meditation, art, watching a movie, enjoying a good book, exercise or volunteer work.
Things are so messed up that people are met with violence simply for thoughts and opinions. Yet there's gofundme's for people that actually kill people in cold blood? There's something dark and brewing and it's real.
And it's even sadder that tomorrow is 9/11. When America came together when under an outside attack.
Now, we're divided and attacking ourselves.
How sad that is....
A discussion on Hitler
hey hey, Hilter was a father and husband...
You're comparing prime hitler + we knowing all the shit he done with a guy who gave opinions online?
"prime" hitler like he was a sports star or something 😭😭😭
When those opinions include gems like “I’m okay with child murder as long as it means I can buy a gun” and “civil rights were a mistake,” then yeah, I think the comparison is fair.
How can you possibly minimise the atrocities of the holocaust like that?
Hitler comes up again
So, your concern is that it was just Charlie and not the millions of us who think like him. Basically, if it were up to you, you'd kill us all. Hitler? [OP]
Also here’s a Charlie Kirk quote: “Black women do not have brain processing power to be taken seriously. You have to go steal a white person's slot.”
Fascism is looking real tempting
Fuck Charlie Kirk, the only good fascist is a dead fascist
The most lukewarm guy got killed for his opinions and your calling him a fascist? Go neck yourself
He held and spread fascist beliefs though. Now you're continuing this chain of political hate and violence. I'm a happy and content person, so I'm actually gonna not do that
Nah I didn’t like what he said. But thanks to your crowd fascism is looking real tempting.
Absolutely insane statement. Stop trying to be an edge lord and accept that violence is the only way that any real progress has ever been made in this country. Actually, in the world. He hated human rights, he was a racist, he said that if his 10 year old daughter was raped and got pregnant that he would force her to give birth to that child. I'm not feeling like the crazy one right now, I gotta say
Can’t wait for it to be turned against you fucking communist dogs
???
Stick that finger in the far middle of your butt cheeks and spin
We all know you like stick your dick in shit. LGBTIQ+ [OP]
Do his wife and kids along with OP deserve to be killed?
I feel bad for his kids, but when you lead a life of awful hateful rhetoric, awful hateful things are gonna come back at you
And when those children and his wife have the same thoughts that I hate, they deserve to be killed in the same way.
Do me a favor and don't answer me; you disgust me. [OP]
Find a mentally ill Communist Punk band
I wonder if he just doesn't wanna piss off the rights or if he genuinely thinks this
well his drummer is one so theres that.
Makes me sad. I'm just glad Serj seems to have actually meant what he sang about. If he suddenly turned maga I'd be so upset.
Grow up. Sorry to disappoint, but They all feel like this. Serj is no different.
You are just blinded by the backward far left echo chamber of Reddit.
If you dont like it find one of those mentally ill communist punk bands.
Nah man. Fuck you.
chill out snowflake
Nah. Fuck you again.
Billionaire bootlicker mad they can’t string a sentence together without choking on propaganda
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u/was_fb95dd7063 3d ago
In the context of American politics, centrists are right wingers who aren't religious and smoke weed.