It was a weird weekend for rock icons flirting with right-wing ideology and terminology. First, Danzig came out in support of Donald Trump’s travel ban. Then, Maynard James Keenan of Tool gave his take on police-public relations in the United States, throwing in the favorite term of the more palatable internet right for good measure.
During Tool’s performance at Boston Calling, Keenan said that it’s law enforcement’s job to protect snowflakes and that those snowflakes should act accordingly.
“As artists, we interpret and report, that’s our job,” he said. “We are merchants of emotion. We have the privilege to do that because of active and former law enforcement and military defending our right to do so. Those of you who are law enforcement and military, your job is to defend our right to act like whining, entitled snowflake assholes, myself being one. Snowflakes, your job is to respect them f*cking doing that for you. Divided we fall. Don’t believe the hype dumb-dumbs, we’re all in this together.”
That’s certainly a nice sentiment, but it’s possible that Keenan missed the part where most anti-cop sentiment comes from a lack of respect for the personhood of snowflakes and others. Most people are on board with treating respectable law enforcement with respect, I’d wager. But when that argument for respect used to silence legitimate grievances, things go sideways.
Still, have to give Keenan props for the least offensive argument to ever include the term “snowflake.”
