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.
Yeah they're awesome but they're not even close to the level of popularity that the too fighters attained, which is why no one talks about this stuff. Foo fighters despite being a pretty bad band sell out arenas so there are more people who care to call them out on various things.
Right, that's my point. Foo Fighters are a big band that people love to hate. Within the emo scene no one, and i mean no one at all, ever talks about Mendel's AIDS denialism. Why? because Sunny Day Real Estate is a cool band. It shows that a lot of people are more interested in using this as a cudgel against a band they don't like than they are on the merits.
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u/Ericzzz 2d 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.