Wednesday, May 25, 2022

"This was just a heavy metal wildman saying wild things, right?"

How to react when a beloved musician with some eccentric lyrical preoccupations falls down a conspiracy theory rabbit hole and emerges a crank no longer merely idly entertaining outlandish ideas but (apparently) actually believing them? Grayson Haver Currin's NPR article on Matt Pike of Sleep and High On Fire is exemplary as the work of a long-time fan attempting to process what's happened.

Currin's suggestion, essentially, is that there's been a "social sea change" that might have left Pike high and dry even if pandemic lockdown and personal circumstance hadn't hardened his convictions to a point that they're practically indistinguishable from those of David Icke and far-right free speech advocates.

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