System of a Down’s John Dolmayan: Political Beliefs Preventing My Comic From Becoming a Movie

System of a Down's John Dolmayan was quite vocal over the past year in his support for former President Donald Trump and the drummer stated during an appearance on the "Cancelled With Bob Rosen and Desma Simon" podcast that by expressing his beliefs, he's seeing a backlash concerning his business interests in Hollywood.

In addition to playing with System of a Down, the musician has maintained a presence in the comic book world over the years opening his own comics store and launching his own comics series Ascencia. During the chat Dolmayan revealed that he's had difficulty trying to get the comic series adapted and feels that his publicly expressing his right-wing views has had a role in that.

During the discussion, Dolmayan stated, "Let's just say that Ascencia could easily be made into TV show or a movie and I had an agency working on that with me and that agency had to take a step back … It's no different and no better than what happened in the '50s with McCarthyism."

He went on to add, “The agency I’m working with, they’re really good people, and they have a big company to think about. I probably shouldn’t be talking about this, but I always do this to myself. At the end of the day, we may end up working together, and if we don’t we don’t, but I understand where they’re coming from. They have to protect their interests, right?”

The drummer also spoke about the heightened sensitivity concerning political views in today's culture. "People are so easily offended today and have such thin skin that anything you say can be looked at in any way you want. The benefit of the doubt is gone. People are hypersensitive and it's to the detriment of all of us really," says Dolmayan.

He later added, “I will fight to the death for a communist’s right to say what they want to say here in the United States. And I couldn’t be more opposed to the ideology. But I would say this, anybody that is thinking about being vocal, be weary. We are in a society that is hypersensitive right now. And cancel culture is a real thing. And it can really hurt you.”

You can hear more of the chat at this location.

Dolmayan has been instrumental over the past year in System of a Down's musical return, starting the conversation rolling for the band to record new music as a way to raise attention to the current conflict in Artsakh. The Armenian government have controlled the region since war broke out in the '80s, but Azerbaijan have attempted to take back the region over the past year.

On Saturday, System of a Down will play a special livestream show in order to raise funds for Armenian soldiers wounded in the conflict. The show will take place at 12N ET / 9AM PT via System of a Down's YouTube channel. The group will also premiere the video for "Genocidal Humanoidz" as well.