“Just let it blow over,” is what I always say. Lay low, let it blow over. People will forget about it. And, indeed, people usually do. But it’s 2021 now and we have to deal with this polluted environment of self-aggrandizing hypocrites who latch on to whatever cause du jour, all in an effort to publicly pat themselves on the back.
Currently what’s going on, at least in my circle of things, is the public flagellation of Jon Schaffer, guitarist and main songwriter from the metal band Iced Earth.
Jon Schaffer was allegedly photographed at the storming of the Capitol in DC on January 6th. And of course, the internet sleuths of today have to pour over every photo and video to see who they can dox and call out to make themselves feel morally superior.
But do we really know what Jon Schaffer did at the Capitol during its storming? Not really. The only thing I see is an angry guy pointing at someone and possibly yelling, “Yoooooo…”
Did he hurt anyone, throw a brick, bring Molotov cocktails, brandish a gun? I don’t know. I certainly can’t find any evidence of that. So far, as of today, he hasn’t been charged with anything. But people are falling over themselves to say how they’ll never support Iced Earth again.
Really? It’s been 17 years since Iced Earth released “The Glorious Burden,” an album about military history, the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and the American Revolutionary War, and you’re just now surprised that Jon Schaffer might have some inclination towards American patriotism? Way to stay tuned in, metal community.
In 2009, Jon Schaffer formed a political side-project band called Sons of Liberty and at one point he even owned a store called Spirit of ’76. He gave an interview back in 2011 with Alex Jones where they talked about their mutual political beliefs. So, it should be no surprise where Jon Schaffer falls on the political spectrum.
Now, none of that is bad in any way shape or form. He believes in what he believes; he’s into what he’s into. To each their own.
Only in recent times (especially the 2020-2021 era we’re in) can the word “patriot” be used in the pejorative. But that’s not why Schaffer is being dragged across the coals. People are pissed because he participated in the January 6th, 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol building. It is here that 5 people ended up losing their lives:
Brian Sicknick – a Capitol Police force officer since 2008. He died the day after he was overpowered and beaten by rioters from the mob at the Capitol. It’s been reported that he was struck in the head with a fire extinguisher.
Ashli Babbitt – an Air Force veteran from Southern California, unarmed at the time. She was shot and killed by Capitol Police as she tried to climb through a broken window leading to the Speaker’s Lobby inside the Capitol.
Kevin Greeson – suffered a heart attack. He was talking to his wife on the phone at the time. This was not during the siege on the Capitol.
Rosanne Boyland – her death is unclear. Some report that she was trampled within the Capitol siege but others say she collapsed while standing in the Capitol Rotunda.
Benjamin Philips – died of a stroke but the exact circumstances of his death are unclear.
Indeed, it is a tragic event and one that I’m not trying to condone or justify in any way. After all, the impetus for this siege was inspired by two things: the voting fraud conspiracy theory as well supporters in the QAnon circle.
So, before we start jumping Jon Schaffer’s shit, let’s take a look at the two big reasons why people were so riled up that they decided to push their way into the U.S. Capitol building to have their voices heard.
After all, I don’t believe this was a realistic insurrection or coup attempt. I believe these people felt that what they truly believed in was not being taken seriously and they felt no other recourse. That’s what I think they believed and here’s a brief overview on how they may have arrived at that point:
First up is the voting fraud conspiracy theory. And I use the phrase “conspiracy theory” in this case because it is apt. It would entail a large group of people to pull something like wide-spread voter fraud and then keep it quiet amongst themselves. It’s hard for me to believe, but the case that can be made is pretty convincing.
I first came upon this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ztu5Y5obWPk&t=1s
In short, it’s a statistical analysis on how the voting went for the 2020 election and how the voting points didn’t quite make sense. In essence, it shows how many states that were voting Republican officials and representatives into office were somehow not showing the same Republican fervor for Donald Trump. It also shows a timeline where it appears that the voting records hit a point then start shifting to one side of the spectrum in a strange, dramatic way.
In an effort to be transparent and fair, here is a rebuttal to the numbers and findings in the above video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aokNwKx7gM8
It should be noted that the exchange and rebuttals go on from there as well. So, if that’s a rabbit hole you want to go down, then by all means you’ve got several hours of content to explore.
Keep in mind that a physicist and cancer researcher at Oxford University came up with a mathematical model which gives the probability of success for different conspiracies factoring in the number of conspirators, the length of time, the possibility of a leak and even the effects of conspirators dying. In essence, if you want a conspiracy to last a century, you need fewer than 125 people involved. For example, let’s take the moon landing in 1969. Some people think that was a hoax. Well, back then there were about 411,000 employees at NASA that would have to keep this supposed hoax a secret. By the equation put forth by David Grimes, the conspiracy would unravel and get leaked somehow by 1973.
Just keep that in mind if you’re going down the voter fraud conspiracy path.
Getting back to the matter at hand, and aside from the statistical analysis, there’s also been hundreds of sworn affidavits alleging all sorts of suspicions about fraudulent vote counting, backdating, and transporting of ballots. White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany claims to have over 234 pages of sworn affidavits with real allegations of voter fraud. We see videos of poll watchers being denied access to poll data. However, I don’t believe any of that would come close to flipping an election in a national Presidential campaign. The bigger issue was whether or not Dominion voting machines were rigged to change votes from Trump to Biden. So far, there’s been no evidence that Dominion voting machines were actually rigged to flip votes.
That being said, many people believe that any seized Dominion voting machine that passes the certification test would have only been switched back to clean, legit format.
So, the conspiracy theory persists.
Personally, I find it hard to believe that a company like Dominion would take the chance to rig their software to flip votes, running the risk of being caught, then facing federal charges, resulting in everyone losing their jobs and receiving jail time. And if it wasn’t Dominion, then it would have to be individuals hacking into the systems to alter the software for their benefit. Again, this would suggest that there were scores of people willing to risk federal prosecution just to win an election for someone else.
However, that being said, there are indeed right-wing and left-wing zealots that hold a fundamentalist belief in their political cause. And what we see is that anyone holding a fundamentalist belief are SURE they are on the side of righteousness.
Having said that, on the other side of this issue are the QAnon people.
Now, most people don’t know what the fuck QAnon is. I’ve tried finding an objective view on this group but really, all I’ve found is that QAnon is a group of people that believe Donald Trump is solely fighting this political cabal involved in sex trafficking, blood libel, and satanic practices. QAnon believes that there is this anonymous person named “Q” that has been sending out coded messages in emails and through the media which details the abhorrent practices of the Democratic party. I’m glossing over it, but that’s the basic gist.
I believe this really gained steam with the Pizzagate conspiracy which resulted in a man from Salisbury, North Carolina showing up with a rifle to “rescue” children he believed to be held at this particular pizza restaurant.
There were no children being held there.
QAnon is an example of a modern conspiracy theory that has been thoroughly debunked yet still has its supporters. For example, it was believed children were being held underneath this one particular pizza joint when in fact, the building had no basement at all.
So, those are the two main reasons I believe people showed up to protest at the Capitol. These people saw that all claims of fraud were being kicked out of court and not being heard. They saw and believed in their hearts that the Democrats were successful in rigging an election and, in addition, some believed a secret group of evil, child predators were about to take charge of the country.
Not all of the people at the Capitol believed that though.
I believe the majority of people simply walked over to be part of the protest to show solidarity to President Trump. Some people probably showed up just to be part of a historical event.
Let’s be clear. For the sake of argument—just to give an example of what I’m talking about here—let’s say you’ve got a group of a thousand people dedicated to an ideal, it’s easy to assume that at least a hundred of those people are going to be complete fucking assholes.
I don’t believe everyone at the Capitol building that day wanted to do any real harm to anyone. I believe that most of them were there to have their voices heard because they believed there was some form of wide-spread voter fraud.
There were, indeed, some real jackasses there. Without a doubt. There’s no question; there’s no debate about that.
But I don’t believe Jon Schaffer deserves the type of ire he’s receiving from many in the metal community.
After all, I believe this truly reveals the hypocrisy, short-sightedness, and selective outrage displayed by many in the public forum today.
So, you’re pissed at Jon Schaffer and you never want to listen to Iced Earth again, right?
What about Varg Vikernes of Burzum fame?
In 1994, he was convicted of murder and arson and ended up spending 15 years in prison. He stabbed his friend (or former friend) repeatedly and was also responsible for burning down churches. Now that he’s out of prison he continues to release albums and has had several personal channels on YouTube. These channels have gained thousands of subscribers even though YouTube has taken them down on occasion due to “hate speech.” [By the way, I think it’s so insulting that any company would feel the need to be the moral gatekeeper for our own sake. As if they think the rest of us are too stupid to see racist, intolerant speech for what it is. Thank you so much for babysitting us]. Ebay and Facebook started censoring Burzum content as of 2014. Was it because Vikernes killed a guy? No, it was because of his political views and racist comments. So, not having the right opinion is far worse than actually murdering a guy.
Burzum albums are still available on Amazon.com and he still has a channel up on YouTube.
And what about Bard “Faust” Eithun?
Eithun stabbed a man to death after being solicited for sex back in 1992 (arrested in 1994). He spent nine years in prison and continued his drumming career upon release in 2003. Eithun was best known for his time in the black metal band Emperor from 1992-1994. Upon his release from prison he’s been involved with bands such as Zyklon, Blood Tsunami, Aborym, Djevel, and played with Emperor again in 2014.
No boycotts for Emperor? No outrage over supporting bands with a guy that killed a gay man in a park and kicked him repeatedly in the head? He stabbed the guy around 37 times. It’s not like he slipped and fell on him. Thirty-seven times, people.
I guess murder is cool but wanting to hold over-reaching, government officials accountable is not.
What about Hoest of Taake?
Taake has been a controversial band over the years. For starters, the vocalist has appeared on stage with a swastika on his chest. He did claim that this was just to be provocative since symbols like the pentagram have lost their shock value these days. Yet, the band still releases albums to critical acclaim even though they have “anti-Islamic” lyrics. Note: Islam is a religion, not a race. Though there are racial components to Islam, criticizing the ideas of Islam should be looked at the same way as criticizing the ideas of Christianity… which black metal music has been known for and virtually founded upon.
Taake albums are still available on Amazon.com. You know what’s not on Amazon, Parler.
Has anyone read Motley Crue’s “The Dirt”
The book is rife with examples of how this band completely lost respect for women and were basically just awful people. One example from the book was how they had a groupie put the receiver end of a phone inside her vagina and then had a conversation with her mother in that very position.
Charming lads, right?
.
Let’s not forget Gaahl from Gorgorth.
Back in 2002, Gaahl was fined a little over twenty-six thousand dollars and sentenced to one year in prison for assaulting and torturing a 40-year-old man for several hours at a party. During the sentencing, the court wrote that Gaahl’s use of violence was “extremely raw and brutal.” And, again, in 2006 he was fined over thirty-two thousand dollars for torturing a man for six hours. Gaahl is still consistently releasing albums with different bands with little to no signs of contempt from others.
All these albums are still available on Amazon.com
And then there’s Tim Lambesis of As I Lay Dying
Lambesis was arrested back in 2013 for attempting to hire a hitman to murder his wife. The hitman turned out to be an undercover police officer. He pleaded guilty in 2014 and served six years in prison. Since his release, he has reunited with As I Lay Dying and released a new album. Virtually no high-profile musician took to social media to condemn As I Lay Dying.
All albums still available on Amazon.com.
But Jon Schaffer is being vilified above all others. I’ve seen more negative metal news reports about him than I had seen about dickbag Ian Watkins of Lostprophets. And Watkins is by all accounts a true piece of shit. So this begs the question, why the vitriol towards Schaffer?
He didn’t beat that police officer, he didn’t shoot anyone, and we don’t even know if he brought any weapons with him that day at the Capitol. As far as I can tell, there’s no realistic or literal calls for violence towards a political side in Iced Earth’s music. As far as I can see, his songs are about things that have happened in history, his over-arching viewpoint on certain themes in life, or fantastical topics dealing with comic book characters, demons, or movie monsters.
He’s a guy that’s pissed off at the government and, like so many people, is tired of being told to shut up about their belief in a rigged election. Remember back in 2016 when the Democrats thought that the Russians hacked the voting system? Years were spent investigating this in an effort to try and determine to what extent the Russians played in the 2016 election. The Russians hacked DNC servers and emails but there was never any proof of voting machine hacking despite what the Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC, and Twitter would have you believe.
But now, in 2020, we have a very similar situation, very similar claims, but if you dare question the outcome you’re told to shut up, go away, you’re crazy, you’re a conspiracy nut, go home. We’re told it was the most perfect election ever.
On the majority of news channels and all over social media, we hear the same thing over and over again, “baseless claims, baseless claims, conspiracy theories, right-wing lunatics.” And the media has gone so far as to say that if you side with the Right on this, not only are you wrong, but you’re on the wrong side of history, you’re stupid, you’re a hillbilly, you’re uneducated, you belong to what is tantamount to a cult, and your views are archaic.
And you wonder why the Capitol mob was so angry.
I’m only trying to speak for what the people that stormed the Capitol building may have perceived. I think it’s important for people to take a second to get into the mindset of these people and look at why they were there and why they did what they felt needed to be done.
Ethically, no man should initiate the use of physical force against others. The only time physical force is necessary is in retaliation against those who initiate force.
To me, and I’m only playing devil’s advocate here, I believe they think that the government was being taken over by corrupt politicians and since the normal means to get these corrupt individuals out of office, i.e. voting, had been distorted and subverted, then the only other recourse was physical retaliation.
In his own words:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIvjGg3RFyg
This retaliation wasn’t aimed at a Starbucks, or an Autozone, or some random batch of cars on the street. It was specific.
So, for me, I don’t view this event as this “national embarrassment” that the mainstream media is trying to make it out to be. Not when you compare it to the over 200 days of consistent rioting, looting, and mayhem across 49 cities, resulting in hundreds of journalists being injured, thousands of arrests being made, at least 19 people having died, and scores of police officers being injured or killed as a direct result from this widespread chaos that the Democrats have all agreed to play down and minimize in the public eye. It’s all a “summer of love” or “mostly peaceful” as they want you to believe.
No, I don’t think Jon Schaffer is nearly as off-putting as the other metal musicians out there who have done far worse and received a fraction of the negative press in comparison.
So, please, spare me your self-righteousness while you still spin those Burzum albums.
