System of a Down, the Armenian genocide, and hypocrisy.

It is quite common for artists of all kinds to use their art to denounce and protest against something. This has been happening since antiquity. We see, for example, in the Middle Ages where artists like Da Vinci showed, through their works, certain occult information that the Church did not want to be exposed to the public, such as the painting of the Last Supper which refers to the signs of the zodiac, represented by the apostles, and the sun represented by Jesus. Denunciations of a cultural and religious nature, and even political-economic ones, such as wars, poverty, social injustice, ideological persecution, etc., are themes of various artistic manifestations, in literature, visual arts, and theater. In music, we have musical styles such as rap, reggae, and rock, the best known, which are historically related to protests in general.

The artistic works of all eras, whether explicit or cryptic, with direct information or metaphors, that protest against situations, historical events, people, etc., are in fact showing the public things that are often not being disclosed by the media, or that are or have been disclosed in a distorted way, with errors, lies, whether intentionally or not, and the artist feels obligated to inform; this sense of justice is a legitimate and spontaneous characteristic of the artist, and it will manifest itself at some point in their life, even if only once.

But when this protest is carried out by people who have directly suffered from the event in question, it ends up becoming more intense and defining the course of the work, as is the case, for example, with the American rock band System of a Down. Founded in the 90s, they began to achieve worldwide success from the early 2000s onwards, with songs that mix rock and metal with elements of Arabic music. Its members are grandchildren of survivors of the well-known Armenian Genocide, mass killings organized by Turkey, still during the Ottoman Empire, with the participation of Kurds and sectors of the German government, during the First World War. The deaths of the Armenian population were organized and methodical, officially characterizing a case of genocide. This word was even coined because of this event, by the Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin, to make it clear that these were deaths caused by state power, on a large scale and directed at a specific group. The Armenian genocide also served as a model adopted by Hitler in the Jewish and Slavic genocide during World War II. The band System of a Down, in particular the vocalist and drummer, speak openly about this historical fact and have held numerous public demonstrations, events, concerts, political actions, documentaries, etc., to pressure nations, mainly the USA, England, and Turkey, to officially recognize the Armenian genocide. In the documentary Screamers (2006), the band even speaks out against fascism, a typical left-wing discourse. However, with the rise of the new right to power in the USA with Trump, things began to change in various sectors of American society, also affecting the band, particularly drummer John Dolmayan.

Looking at the drummer's statements from the early 2000s and now, it seems like he's two different people. From an anti-fascist activist, against all types of genocide and human rights violations, to a far-right activist, an open supporter of the current main leader of all fascist, Nazi, and far-right groups in the US. If there's one thing we can't disagree on, it's that this new wave of right-wingers worldwide openly talk about what they stand for and who they are, their leaders, agendas, their enemies, etc.; therefore, it's impossible to say that any educated person is mistaken about what they're getting into. Saying that a poor person, without access to books and in-depth knowledge, ends up being hypnotized by the discourse of these groups is totally understandable, but that's not the case with musician John Dolmayan. He certainly doesn't lack history books. His own family, victims of a fascist movement even before the official creation of fascism by Mussolini, is the living book itself, which relayed all the events to him, but which now mean nothing.

My theory regarding this so-called change is that he never truly cared about the Armenian genocide, or any other genocide or human rights violation anywhere in the world. He also never cared about the band's anti-fascist rhetoric when they started making millions of dollars with their protest songs. In fact, his interest in this "leftist" discourse (a term he used pejoratively to refer to his bandmate, vocalist Serj Tankian) was simply a result of something known as "pink money"—making money with products aimed at an engaged audience. This expression was coined to refer to products aimed at the LGBT community, but since one hasn't been created specifically for rock music, I borrowed it to illustrate this case. Now that Dolmayan is rich, he no longer needs to act hypocritically; his true face is free to show.

And so, with polarization, the intensifying class struggle, along with social media and the immense desire of people to speak openly about what they truly think, believe, and support, the masks begin to fall. In Brazil, we also have several similar examples of artists who previously sang against the right and who have now become fervent right-wingers. But that will be the subject of future articles in this column.