Sons Of Liberty - Thought Crimes (Volumes 1 & 2) [Compilation]

It is infuriatingly tone-deaf of Jon to make such a ludicrous release. When this material was first released in 2010/11, it was a laughable collection of sophomoric slogans and entry-level national hagiography that smacked of histrionic nationalism. Reiterating this exact rhetoric in this exact register today demonstrates an incredible degree of ignorance, hypocrisy, and moral bankruptcy on Jon’s part. It proves that he has made no adequate effort to reflect on the consequences of his actions. I say "incredible" because I'm genuinely somewhat surprised by this, and even though I had no conscious expectation that he would ever learn from his mistakes or seriously reconsider his philosophies, I'm realizing now just how much I wanted that to be true, or at least to see him fade into nothingness without ever darkening the threshold of my mind again.

This material was written and recorded from the perspective of an embattled patriot who possesses secret knowledge and sees through the lies and corruption inherent in the system that rules over him. It was designed to be the soundtrack for a fringe movement whose own corruption and prejudices have since grown to rule the country. The people who spouted this ideology then are now the very establishment they still use the same rhetoric of fighting against, and now Sons Of Liberty is reinforcing the status quo, not fighting against it.

If Jon Schaffer truly believed in the freedom, justice, truth, and equality that he so fervently sings about, that he rages against “the system” for denying people, he would not be promoting this with the imagery he’s using or the statements he’s releasing. He would be criticizing the United States government for kidnapping and murdering its own citizens, casually invading and threatening sovereign nations, illegally interning and abusing asylum seekers, censoring and assaulting sitting members of its own democratically elected organs, closing ranks to protect wealthy pedophiles in every elite circle of society, and engaging in the very fascism that he apparently makes it his brand to fight against. Instead he lets his Trump affiliation stand unchallenged and buys into the government's very same assertion that the United States is fighting a war against some indeterminate very powerful/very weak enemy. This is ICE theme music. It's the kind of bullshit I expect to hear blaring from the stereo of an obscenely oversized F-150 with American flag taillights and a star-spangled Punisher skull that double-parks in the handicapped zone.

Jon has absolutely no idea who is treading on whom anymore and his woefully benighted ass would have fired the very first shot at the Boston Massacre. He needs to seriously examine his values and where exactly he sees himself in relation to the system and the people around him.

It genuinely pains me to say all of this, because Jon was one of the musicians I most idolized and identified with when I first started getting into metal. He was one of my heroes and to this day I still consider him one of the quintessential metal guitarists and one of the coolest songwriters. But I can't listen to Iced Earth or Demons & Wizards anymore without being reminded of what he did, what he contributed to, what he thinks. The very idea that he would refer to this as "Thought Crimes" when he was imprisoned for real crimes is just heinously stupid. Cherry on the bloody sundae.