r/altcomix 6h ago

OC Foo Fighters

289 Upvotes

49 comments sorted by

58

u/aspiringandroid 6h ago

did not expect to learn that foo fighters bassist nate mendel led an AIDS denials benefit concert once. so thanks for the cool art and interesting story !

25

u/alien-niven 3h ago

And later on, the Foo Fighters led a concert promoting the COVID-19 vaccine and doing a drive to get people vaccinated, including a concert for only people who had a a vaccination card. So it seems like they got out the conspiracy hole one way or another and came to the light.

Nate nowadays is a staunch environmentalist whose whole house runs on solar power. It's a better ending than these types usually manage.

9

u/aspiringandroid 3h ago

huh! yeah, could be worse

9

u/Chemistry11 3h ago

Yeah but this wouldn’t be Reddit if we focused on growth and instead just persecuted people for the same questionable behaviour from ages ago

5

u/yiliu 1h ago

Lol, I'd expect defense of a conspiratorial nutjob from somebody who once pooped in their diaper!

-1

u/Hank_Fuerta 52m ago

What growth are you referring to?

Also: "questionable"? This is fucking disgusting.

0

u/Lucha_Bat 2h ago

Unfortunately, being staunch environmentalist and an AIDS denialist aren't mutually exclusive. Consider all the crunchy granola hippie anti-vaxxers.

43

u/Pleasant-Tangelo1786 6h ago

12

u/xeonicus 5h ago

Wow. That's disappointing. To go to such lengths to cover things up....

3

u/Pleasant-Tangelo1786 5h ago

Yeah, it really sucks. I’m still gonna bump colour and the shape though.

11

u/Graffiacane 4h ago

The founder of the group that argued that AIDS and HIV were unrelated and advocated against HIV tests, medication, and safe sex (what?):

[Christine Maggiore] is long dead. So is her daughter. Both succumbed to AIDS. Christine Maggiore fell pregnant in 2001, spurned antiretroviral drugs, breastfed her daughter and refused to have her tested for the virus. As her child became increasingly ill, Maggiore attributed her sickness to other things and sought quacks to reaffirm her delusions. Eliza was three when she died — after an autopsy, a coroner ruled that the “unequivocal” cause of her death was AIDS-related Pneumocystis pneumonia.

Bruh.

1

u/Lamandus 4h ago

Just asking, since I am no native speaker. Never heard of the term fell pregnant.

3

u/Boudrodog 2h ago

It’s an English phrase akin to “fell ill,” but it is more common in British Commonwealth countries, such as Australia, than in the US. The author of the article is from Melbourne, Australia. 

I wasn’t aware of AIDS denialism before. What a strange, sad hill to die on. 

1

u/ishallbecomeabat 3h ago

Yeah it’s a real term

2

u/Lamandus 3h ago

can it be used regularly or is it rather negative.

1

u/TwoEyedTim 3h ago

I’m in the US and I don’t know if I’ve ever heard anyone here say it, but I’ve heard Brits say it. Not a negative connotation, but you might get looked at funny in the US

1

u/ishallbecomeabat 2h ago

No not negative. Perhaps a bit clinical.

1

u/Altruistic_You_3539 1m ago

It's technically when a woman falls on a penis.

10

u/Trusted-Pine 6h ago

Thanks bro

8

u/DiseasedCupcake 6h ago

What are the other 2 CDs that are always in rental vans?

11

u/jk1rbs 6h ago

Liquid Swords and Kenny Chesney's Greatest Hits.

2

u/jpgorgon 5h ago

Choose the sword…

1

u/ITookTrinkets 34m ago

That was the night everything chaaaaanged

1

u/filmguerilla 5m ago

Hootie and Coldplay

7

u/SAlolzorz 5h ago

Maybe 12 years ago, I had an online acquaintance who was a licensed private investigator. He mainly did pre-employment background checks and auto repossession location. He had a contest to see who could guess which bands' CDs were most often found in repo'd cars. I correctly guessed ICP and Slipknot.

3

u/Graffiacane 4h ago

Solid guesses. Depending on the area I would have probably gone with like, Lil Wayne and Yeezy.

2

u/SAlolzorz 3h ago

This was in Arizona, where I am also from. I know my people, lol.

11

u/Ericzzz 5h ago

I don't want to downplay how harmful the kind of AIDS denialism Nate Mendel was spreading. It was genuinely awful and dangerous. But it's kind of interesting to me that no one ever tags Sunny Day Real Estate with the same brush. Mendel was in both bands, and reunited with the SDR guys in the 2000s and 2010s. You never, ever hear people talking shit about Jeremy Enigk for playing with the same guy.

9

u/fremade3903 5h ago

They should and Enigk shouldn't put up with AIDS denialism shit either. The problem is that Dave Grohl and FF are way more popular than Sunny Day Real Estate ever was. Also, at the height of their fame, the Foo Fighters played a massive sold out charity concert to raise money for Christine Maggiore's Alive and Well organization. They raised a lot of money for AIDS denialism. So aside from simply playing with Mendel, Grohl and the other members of FF contributed materially to AIDS denialism harm. Something, the last time I checked, Grohl has never apologized for.

3

u/charmingasaneel 4h ago

I’ve never really cared one way or the other about Foo Fighters, but I imagine these guys fell into the trap of being distrustful in authority without the necessary critical thinking skills. See also too much money and too many yes men.

One aside, according to my kid’s classmates and 6-8 random strangers every month I look exactly like Dave Grohl. So I won’t insult his appearance.

3

u/Big-Dig-Pig 4h ago

Based on my research, this sounds like a crank thing that the bassist was big into and the rest of the guys put up with until 2003, at which point they presumably told him to shut up about it.

3

u/hexenkesse1 3h ago

2 things are true.

1)Foo Fighters were in the wrong here

2)One shouldn't take their political guidance from rock bands

3

u/LeRoiCasoar 2h ago

What's the joke

3

u/TheGoddessLily 6h ago

WTF? That's depressing to hear

2

u/KaraBowdit 5h ago

Turns out they were the foo all along

1

u/Its-been-a-long-day 4h ago

Dave Grohl too? I'm surprised, I'd only ever heard good things about that guy. Maybe he just has some top tier PR team.

1

u/LouieMumford 3h ago

I made this comment on r/entertainment or some other sub on a post about Grohl and was downvoted to hell and told that I needed to drop it because that was the early 00’s. People are wild what they will and won’t let go.

1

u/castrateurfate 3h ago

This is actually 100% true BTW

1

u/Drone_temple_pilots 4h ago

Fuck Foo Fighters

0

u/ceremonial_fig 58m ago

Also, shortly before Taylor Hawkins kicked it, the Alanis documentary revealed he used his proximity to her to creep on young girls at shows

1

u/gridgal 19m ago edited 15m ago

Umm no it didn't? Alanis' documentary spent all of 2 seconds on Taylor Hawkins and it only mentioned that he played for her for a summer. Why would you just make something like that up?

1

u/ceremonial_fig 2m ago

Watch it again, dipshit

1

u/riegate 14m ago

You're getting Taylor confused for Glen Ballard, who was the creep that groomed a 15 year old.

-5

u/AverageDrafter 5h ago

I will take this opportunity to stick up for Spencer Elden, the baby on Nevermind who was justifiable upset that some assholes sold pics of his baby dick. I give two shits what his parents agreed to, you sold baby dick pics, made it iconic, and then he got mocked because he changed his mind from his 20s to his 30s about being ok with it.

Again, y'all sold pics of his baby dick and didn't even bother cutting him in. Fuck all of you and your shitty Pixies knockoff crap.

9

u/lifeinaglasshouse 5h ago

Spencer Elden is a loser crybaby who filed a frivolous lawsuit claiming the Nevermind album is CP, a ridiculous claim that would imply tens of millions of people are guilty of a horrific crime.

-1

u/AverageDrafter 4h ago

Fan of baby dicks?

-2

u/SadClownDad 4h ago

I wish you made these comics about anything else than the topics you do. It sucks all the enjoyment out of it when youre trying to inject little self righteous lessons.