System of a Down drummer John Dolmayan recently commented about the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine through his social media page. Specifically, he stated that the pandemic “has always been about money.”

In an Instagram post on Sunday, the musician wrote, “And just like that covid will slowly go away. This is and has always been about money , covid was about money, Ukraine is about money. Resources equal wealth , stability , and power. Theres a game of chess being played by those in the real positions of power and we’d like to think we’re the pawns but the truth is we’re not even on the board.”

The same Instagram post mocked COVID-19 with a Pokémon meme.

 

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A post shared by John Dolmayan (@johndolmayan_)

The drummer has historically been skeptical of COVID vaccine mandates, calling them “self-imposed tyranny and mental slavery.” Even further, Dolmayan publicly defended former president Donald Trump multiple times, calling Democrats “the true bigots” who “fought to maintain slavery” and were “directly responsible for 70 plus million abortions, a large majority of whom were black.”

Fellow band-member Serj Tankian spoke on his relationship with Dolmayan and their conflicting political views.

“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,” he said. “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. 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.”

Tankian continued, “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. And it’s really just that. Have we talked about it? Yeah. But do we talk about it often? No, because there comes a point where when you don’t see eye to eye on something, you just rather talk about something else.”

Photo Credit: Mauricio Alvarado