So they have replaced Chester Bennington, a rape survivor, with Emily Armstrong, a rape apologist? They waited 7 years from Chester’s death to piss on his grave with this replacement? Seriously?
So they have replaced Chester Bennington, a rape survivor, with Emily Armstrong, a rape apologist? They waited 7 years from Chester’s death to piss on his grave with this replacement? Seriously?
100%. It’s made me rethink all of my support for the remaining members of the band. This choice aside: if they truly respected Chester’s legacy, why not rename the band? You can still play a Linkin Park song or two at shows for your new band, no one will care. To me, all of this just smacks of “Mike Shinoda and friends didn’t want to set aside the fame and album and ticket sales that come from having the Linkin Park name.” It feels like they spent seven years honoring Chester’s legacy so fans wouldn’t revolt when they replaced the irreplaceable.
I’m not saying any of that is necessarily true, but the air of deception around this move makes one start to wonder if they have been deceived in other ways.
Definitely for me the specific choice they made here does make me see in in a cynical light. I don’t know these people and mayybe there could have been some nuanced or respectful ways to keep the band going in some sense, I really don’t know, but this sure as shit doesn’t seem like that. Like damn, this really is how every single group of people acts when someone is a survivor, or when someone else is a rapist, huh? Just wow. Every single group of people, complete self interest and disregard. I can’t think about it in any other light. Similar kinds of situations have played out over and over again lately and I am so disheartened. I’m bracing myself for some awful comment to come out next. The whole thing is just queasy the more i learn about it.
There’s nothing that I can point to definitively, but watching videos performances after Chester’s death, and seeing Shinoda speak about it all, I honestly got the vibe that he’s resentful that everyone focuses so much on Chester in a “this is actually my band, why can’t you just let him go” type of thing.