Rockers Anti-Flag, Drowning Pool Rightfully Quell Speculation About Motivating Loughner

I’ll be the first to admit that my home city of Pittsburgh has a permanent blemish on it: it’s the spawning grounds of the anti-capitalist punk band Anti-Flag. These guys function as ANSWER automatons; the first song I heard by them starts with the lyrics “Seattle was a riot they tried to pin on us / But we didn’t show up with gas and billy clubs.” And for all their anti-corporation vitriol, they were sure eager enough to get some of that sweet, sweet bloodthirsty corporation money by signing with RCA Records.

But that doesn’t mean they’re horrible people or we can’t find common ground. They’re sensible enough to know that the bank bailouts were a crock, and now, whether they realize it or not, they’re gaining empathy for Sarah Palin.

When word came out from a former classmate that Jared Lee Loughner listened to Anti-Flag in high school, speculation poured in that the band’s left-wing political message may have motivated last Saturday’s shooting. Some have also tried to implicate nu-metal band Drowning Pool due the use use of their song “Bodies” in a flag-burning video found on Loughner’s YouTube page. Both bands have responded to these insinuations. First Anti-Flag:

It has come to our attention that a purported former classmate of Jared Lee Loughner stated the following about him, “…he was a pot head & into rock like Hendrix, The Doors, Anti-Flag. I haven’t seen him in person since ’07…” This comment has led to some discussion in the media and elsewhere regarding Anti-Flag and what Anti-Flag stands for.

For well over a decade Anti-Flag has endorsed non-violent progressive change and has lobbied for peace, equality, justice, and health care (including mental health care) for all people of America and the world.

Anti-Flag unconditionally condemns the heinous actions of Mr. Loughner and our heartfelt condolences and best wishes go out to every single person affected by Mr. Loughner’s senseless act of violence. Our message is and always has been very clear, violence in any form is unacceptable.

The official statement from Drowning Pool reads:

We were devastated this weekend to learn of the tragic events that occurred in Arizona and that our music has been misinterpreted, again.We’ve performed for the troops overseas several times in places like Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait. Through our song ‘Soldiers,’ we were able to create a petition that helped pass the Lane Evans Mental Health Care Reform Bill, which we presented to then-Senator Barack Obama.



We’ve been lucky enough to have some of the biggest success of our career with our new album and we want to continue to spread positivity for the future, not dwell on negativity. For someone to put out a video misinterpreting a song about a mosh pit as fuel for a violent act shows just how sick they really are. We support those who do what they can to keep America safe.

‘Bodies’ was written about the brotherhood of the mosh pit and the respect people have for each other in the pit. If you push others down, you have to pick them back up. It was never about violence. It’s about a certain amount of respect and a code.

Our hearts go out to the victims and their families of this terrible tragedy.

Both are classy statements, and both are absolutely right. Even though we can know that Loughner apparently listened to both of these bands — which is more of a connection than can be made to him and Glenn Beck or Sarah Palin — neither band is in any way responsible for the murder and mayhem carried out by Loughner. As I noted last week on BigJournalism, when you’re listening to a media voice you agree with and that media voice is not calling for violence and is instead encouraging non-violent solutions to political or personal problems, it’s going to decrease your propensity towards violence. The situation which caused Jared Loughner to target Gabrielle Giffords has little, if anything, to do with the content of his iPod.

So, even though I may disagree with Anti-Flag’s politics as much as is humanly possible, I can’t bring myself down to the level of entertainment-industry leftists such as Roger Ebert and Patton Oswalt and use that disagreement to justify an obviously false and libelous accusation of culpability for these heinous murders. I’d like to think it doesn’t take a lot of self-awareness to concede that much human dignity to your political opponents, but these open-minded, progressive celebrities keep plumbing new depths to prove that assumption wrong.