Hi. I'm back for another rant. Sorry if I come across as overly negative or a doomer, but it's really hard to try to earn let alone keep a positive attitude in this social climate since Chester's passing. You'd think I'd be super enthusiastic given that I have since finally moved out of my parents' and have a place of my own and a steady paying job, but sadly it's not the case for me. My antidepressants have only kept a bare minimum for my mental state and I still get stressed out easily with no serious counselors in my town. My last one overcharged me and sent my bill to the wrong address. But getting back to the topic at hand... With the recent reunion of the band and a new frontwoman, I should be excited beyond imagination that my heroes are back, but goddamnit, there's always a catch to something good happening. All the ridiculous drama taking place regarding Emily's religious upbringing and Jaime's tirades plastered all over rock news media headlines makes me feel like I'm re-experiencing summer 2017 levels of toxicity all over again. Let me be clear, I 100% support the band carrying on and honoring Chester's memory the best way they can despite all the idiots attacking them for it, but what makes me sick is how some assholes are coming out of the woodwork seven years later to disparage Chester yet again. Every time a news outlet on Facebook talks about Jaime's Instagram rants, some dickholes feel the need to keep calling Chester "selfish" or a "coward" for taking his own life. Like seriously? Have we not learned a goddamn thing about clinical depression and how people get pushed to their breaking points of ending their own lives without childishly insulting them? I won't get into the nonsense with Jaime, but I saw a bunch of idiots on Loudwire responding to him accusing the band of "erasing" Chester's legacy (which I DON'T think is true at all) and saying awful things like "well too bad your dad abandoned you and ruined their careers!" and "you should be angry at your dad for being so selfish!" What the fuck? Do these morons still think that suicide is somehow an easy choice for people to make? Does any serious person really think someone just wakes up one day and casually decides to end their own life with no regard to their loved ones? No, asshole. It takes a lot, A LOT to be pushed to that breaking point and it doesn't mean Chester loved his family or bandmates any less. I remember ranting about all this ignorance on here seven years ago just a few weeks after it all happened, and I naively hoped that it would be a thing of the past and the stigma and shame attached to suicide and depression would be gone and people could open up safely without being judged and past suicide victims wouldn't have their memories stepped on anymore. But again, I have too much faith in humanity despite constantly saying that I don't have any. I guess I keep saying it in hopes of being pleasantly surprised. I feel even worse for Talinda since it seems like all the work she's done on mental health awareness has been overshadowed by all the craziness going on with Samantha and Jaime, and it doesn't help that we have sociopathic dickwads for public figures like Andrew Tate saying awful things about people with mental issues and spreading horrible misinformation about depression not being real, and the popularity of that prick with the younger generation makes me fear the worst for our future young people's mental health. I need to stay off social media from now on. Bottom line, Chester's suicide didn't reflect what he believed in or how much he loved his bandmates and family, and this disgusting implication that he somehow didn't care about them coming from these dicks on Facebook is making me sick to my fucking stomach. I can't stand seeing people disparaging my hero like this and using negative media stories regarding Linkin Park as an excuse to throw him under the bus and trash him and make me relive the nightmares of 2017 all over again. The band has the right to carry on with a new singer AND Chester deserves to be honored. It's not either or.
Unfortunately, that's just how things are. I can't even remember how long it's been since I last fell for any "it's time to have a serious conversation about mental health" fluff. People aren't necessarily always being disingenuous, they could just not be thinking it through, and it's not an easy realisation if it even matters to them. There is a chasm between saying you care or wanting to be an "advocate", or calling yourself a "safe space" that people can open up to ... and actually knowing what that truly entails and living that out. Any real work pertaining to mental health is going to call for serious, long-term commitment, and be very uncomfortable a lot of the time, by nature. You either acknowledge all that and be ready for it, or you just like hearing yourself talk, for all intents and purposes. EDIT: re: Chester's passing, I have always posited that it was an impulsive decision and not some plan he had long committed to and was hiding from everyone. As such, I 100% agree that the circumstances of his passing have no bearing on what his beliefs and values were. People trying to dig through lyrics (lyrics that Chester mostly did not write ) and other things, to argue/invent that he was hiding "suicide notes" or that there was anything more nefarious going on, have always been nothing more than shameless opportunists leeching onto a horrible tragedy for engagement.
Sadly, it seems like you're right about all that. I foolishly thought Chester's death would be the final catalyst (no pun intended) for serious reform in how our society handles this issue, but we seem to have regressed all the way back to square one. Just like with mental health reform, antiracist activism also has to be a long term commitment and most Americans are still nowhere close to being ready for that, as even Martin Luther King wrote in his Birmingham letter about how "white moderates" are the real obstacle to justice moreso than the overt racists and it takes a long time of painful pushing and often unpopular activism to generate even the most basic of positive change. I completely agree. People need to stop fucking microanalyzing Linkin Park's lyrics looking for some "signs" or whatever. It's disgusting. Just let him rest in peace.