In a recent interview with U.K.'s Kerrang! magazine, DISTURBED singer David Draiman spoke about his decision to quit Twitter a few years ago. He said: "There's just no decency. It's a bunch of high school kids insulting each other, having a contest about who can come up with the most grandiose insult. It's childish. People are dying to be triggered about something. All you have to do is express your opinion on anything and someone's going to fight you about it. As a band, it's not like we're using our social media to be influencers, so why bother?" Draiman also discussed his sometimes complicated relationship with the rock press. "I've looked back at some of my earlier quotes and, regardless of whether or not things were taken out of context, I have to hit myself in the head and think, 'What the hell was I saying?! Why did I say that thing like that?!'" he said. "I think that when you set yourself up to be a target, people are more than willing to take pot shots at you." According to Draiman, it still hurts to be at the receiving end of those pot shots. "Even though making music is your livelihood, it's also a labor of love," he explained. "It's art; you're creating things that you're really emotionally attached to and are passionate about, so when people shit on that, and they shit on you and your delivery of it, then it's a hard thing to take. They're diminishing your pain. That's the tough part. People are so cavalier with their judgements and their wordings, and understandably so, because we live in an age where there are no repercussions and accountability. You sit behind that keyboard typing away and nobody's going to do anything to you. You can be anyone you want and say anything you want." Draiman went on to say that he never wondered what his younger self might have been like if he had had access to today's social media. "I'm just not a shit-talker," he said. 'Don't get me wrong — there have been periods in the past when I've talked some shit, but that's one of those retrospective elements that I can look back on and say, 'What was I thinking?'" Back in August 2018, David admitted to SiriusXM Octane that while he does not have an official presence on Twitter, he still uses the platform "as a news tool. I still have a 'shadow' Twitter account," he explained. "But I don't tweet, I don't spew anything. It's just there for me to be able to get my news." Draiman has in the past battled with Twitter trolls who have harassed him about his sometimes-controversial views regarding Israel and its ongoing conflict with the Palestinians. Draiman has had frequent heated exchanges with followers on Twitter, some of whom believe that Israel is not blameless in the ongoing conflict with Palestinians. Draiman, the son of Israelis and the grandson of Holocaust survivors, spent much of 2014 and early 2015 linking to articles by conservative and pro-Israel blogs and has often used his fame to speak out against anti-Semitism.
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