An Open Letter to a Singer in a Political Punk Band

Dear Mr. Geever,

Your band was my introduction to the wide world of punk rock.

When I first discovered you and your band, I didn’t know what to make of you and your song “Hate Conquers All”, but after discovering your other song, “Christian Nationalist”, I quickly became interested. I started listening to other songs, such as “This is The End(For You My Friend)” and “Turncoat”, my personal favourite song from you and your band. I would later listen to your latest album at the time, 2020 Vision. In fact, I would say that the title track aged very well because of how 2020 could have been a good decade compared to the 2010s.

It was from reading about you and your band that I discovered other bands such as Strike Anywhere, which has been my favourite band since I found them, and the whole hardcore punk scene. You and your band, along with my Lit and Comp teacher, were what got me interested in socialism and anarchism.

When I went to your 2022 live show in Portland, I waited all night to see you and your band. Pretty egregious, I know, but that is how much I enjoyed your music. It was my first time in a mosh pit, and it was my first concert alone. I listened to all the singles of you and your band’s next album, Lies They Tell Our Children. I even listened to some of you and your band’s back catalog. Mobilize, For Blood and Empire and The Terror State are solid albums that remind me of a world that couldn’t even imagine Trump actually being president.

I admired how you and your band could allegorise imperialism. I enjoyed your newer albums despite all its flaws because I cared more about what you had to say. I attributed the bad reception to how the late 2010s was a time when you couldn’t say anything without sounding like a populist saying something relevant.

Although you sold out by signing to a major label like Rage Against the Machine did, I saw you as the voice of a revolution, and the fact that you stood with so many groups like Amnesty and Greenpeace, as well as movements like Occupy, is just as important to your legacy as protesters chanting your songs.

We never would have suspected that you would sexually assault a woman, or even an underage girl. We never would have suspected that you would want a “master and slave” relationship in a sexual relationship. We would have never suspected that you would use the very radical realm of political punks to groom women and dominate them, nor would we have thought that your band was built on a foundation of hypocrisy. We would have never suspected you of anything that the RollingStone article published on September 5, 2023.

But I read the article, and I can say with confidence that I am truly disgusted by your actions, and how you used the cause of leftists everywhere to groom, sexually assault, and rape women. Not only have you lied to your band, but you have lied to us all, you acted like you were one of us, and it horrifies me how this has been hidden for over 27 years. It makes it hard to believe that only 14 women have been harmed by you.

What really ticked me off was the “master and slave” relationship that you so much desired to have with one of your victims. I know that there is a different meaning for those terms when it comes to getting it on, but it disgusts me that someone who would sing against bigotry and hierarchy would use words like these to dominate a woman.

What makes matters worse for you is that it could not have come up at a worse time, either, as we are seeing a rise in far-right activity and rhetoric becoming more prevalent in our society. We recently saw one of the most acclaimed rappers and producers, Kanye West, spout anti-semitic rhetoric and encourage neo-Nazi activity, essentially destroying his legacy for many fans. I thought I would never have to experience what a Kanye West fan experienced during that time, yet here we are. Even worse, I’d say you have contributed to what the far-right wants.

When I read that article, the first thing that came to mind for me was Dahvie Vanity of Blood on the Dance Floor. I do not know if you will be as infamous as Dahvie in the future, but I am sure that your actions will forever overshadow you and your band’s legacy and music. This will haunt you for the rest of your life, Mr. Geever, and I hope it stays that way.

To end this, I cite my favourite song by you and your band, “Turncoat”, when I call you these.

For using a political movement to sexually assault women, and for making us all look like a bunch of fools to anyone else who didn’t like us in the first place, you might as well be a TURNCOAT.

For destroying the trust of so many people who have followed you, you are a metaphorical KILLER.

For claiming to be a feminist while sexually assaulting women, and keeping this secret from everyone over all these years, you are a LIAR.

For taking the money of so many people and wasting our time having us pay attention to your false activism, you are a THIEF.

But one thing that I do know is that you are no criminal with protection of the law.

We’ll see where this goes, Mr. Geever.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/anti-flag-justin-sane-1234817170/