Shirt Stains: Make Mustaine Great Again
He just couldn’t help himself.
Good old Dave Mustaine. Just when you think he’s somewhat redeemed himself, he does something to make you say, “Oh, yeah. It’s Dave Mustaine. Of course.” The leader of Megadeth has always been one to speak his mind. Some may think that this is a great quality to possess, that it is some form of “rugged individualism” only seen in movies from the 50’s and in bad novels. There is a difference though between “speaking your mind” and having no filter, letting words flow from your mouth like a diarrhea geyser (or “geyserrhea” if you prefer).
Mustaine falls somewhere in the middle. It was that frank honesty in his political and social beliefs that made Megadeth albums such as Rust In Peace and Peace Sells…But Who’s Buying metal classics. It has also led to Mustaine saying all sorts of terrible things, ranging from racism to misogyny to publicly announcing that he likes former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum. Earlier in the year, Mustaine noted that he was going to refrain from talking about the presidential race. I recently praised Mustaine for his openness on Twitter, spending hours at a time answering questions from fans. Had Dave Mustaine finally turned a corner and decided to just play his guitar and keep his mouth shut?
Nah. When asked for his election predictions, Mustaine said that Bernie Sanders would turn the US into Venezuela, Hillary Clinton is ineligible because of (nonexistent) “criminal proceedings” and some nonsense about the 25th Amendment. His thoughts on Trump? One sentence: “If you don’t want either one of those things [Sanders and Clinton], the other choice is gonna be Donald Trump.” Not exactly a full-throated endorsement, but who needs words when you can just wear your thoughts and feelings?
Dave Mustaine and co. have decided to sell hats aping on sentient creamsicle Donald Trump’s asinine slogan “Make America Great Again” by swapping their name for his and “metal” for “America.” Two things: 1) Creating a product based off of a man who has said so many insane things in the past few months that it’s not even worth posting links to them is an awful idea and will alienate a lot of people. 2) Megadeth is already late to the “Stupid Hat For A Metal Band Based Off Of Trump’s Bullshittery” game. This “Make Metallica Great Again” hat has been floating around online since March. It’s a double-whammy of duh.
You can try to make the argument that Mustaineadeth are being clever or ironic, but the past, oh, thirty years or so have proven that Davey isn’t exactly adept at being either of those things. Maybe all his clever irony was used up for their “Dave Mustaine For President” shirt or for the Trump-esque hat that comes in black. “Death By Irony” will be listed on many of our death certificates for that one. In an effort to help out Dave And The Megadeths, I’ve come up with a few new designs using Mustaine’s own words. I hope he likes them.
The internet never forgets, Dave, especially when you tweet out some sweet praise for partially-microwaved candy corn-colored birthers.
Here’s a better hat slogan that everyone can laugh at and enjoy.
