Dave Mustaine Watches Fox News, Loves Bill O’Reilly

Dave Mustaine has been in a nosedive into the hateful, close-minded deep-end for years already. There was his public support of uber-right wing Presidential candidate Rick Santorum in 2012, his belief that President Obama was born outside of the U.S., the fact that he doesn’t believe in gay marriage and his suggestion to African women that they “put a plug in it” and stop having babies. And those are just the tl;dr highlights.

So it shouldn’t come as any surprise that Mustaine is a fan of Fox News talking head Bill O’Reilly, which he revealed to another of the network’s hosts, Laura Ingle, in a recent interview. Here’s what he offered:

“I love Bill O’Reilly’s outlook on life. He kind of plays it right up the middle. I don’t know that I’m that much like him, but he’s helped me have a lot of open-mindedness towards things that I was previously not as open-minded to.

“When my life changed and I got saved, people were telling me, ‘Oh, now you’re a Republican.’ It’s, like, no, I’m not. I’m an independent, man; I go right up the middle. And there’s just a lot of things, stigmatisms people say come along with what you believe, or how you believe. And there were several things that he said that has gone contrary to my previous beliefs that I thought, ‘Wow, that’s a whole new paradigm.’ And it’s opened my mind.”

Here’s the thing: O’Reilly is not open-minded. He is not “right up the middle.” And he is not an independent, nor is Dave Mustaine. O’Reilly is the complete opposite of open-minded, and he is about as far-right as any mainstream news host in America today. But that’s exactly the kind of bullshit Fox News pedals: “fair and balanced,” right? “We’ll give you the facts and let you decide.”

Look: in light of the recent letter MetalSucks received from a fellow left-leaning Jew, I’m trying to be more cautious in my approach to these kinds statements from stars like Mustaine. But when someone has a hateful record of saying offensive and/or discriminatory things against gay people and minorities, and supports people in power with those same viewpoints, there’s not much room to be cautious. We should all be ashamed that we continue to support Mustaine and his music. This kind of hate has no place in the metal community, and it needs to stop.

If for some you disagree — and you think Mustaine’s behavior is excusable — please tell us why in the comments below.

[via Blabbermouth]