{"id":574704,"date":"2026-04-09T22:09:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T22:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/574704\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T22:09:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T22:09:08","slug":"maynard-james-keenan-weve-lost-the-fcking-way-i-think-the-ability-to-talk-to-each-other-is-vanquished-its-been-unplugged","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/574704\/","title":{"rendered":"Maynard James Keenan: “We\u2019ve Lost The F*cking Way. I Think The Ability To Talk To Each Other Is Vanquished. It\u2019s Been Unplugged.”"},"content":{"rendered":"

In recent months, Maynard James Keenan hasn\u2019t been shy on his opinions about the state of the world we currently find ourselves inhabiting. He\u2019s already spoken out freely against violent oppression<\/a> and voiced his opposition to fundamentalist extremism<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Much of his growing unease and frustration at the state world was also channeled into his latest musical venture, Puscifer\u2018s fifth studio album \u201cNormal Isn\u2019t\u201c. As he\u2019s said many times in the press, that title is a direct reference to the absence of \u2018normality\u2019 he sees in modern times.<\/p>\n

In a newly published chat with Louder<\/a>, Keenan, who is also known for fronting alternative metal juggernauts Tool and A Perfect Circle, spoke with serious concern over the lack of empathy and humanity being displayed by society as a whole. He stated:<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if you noticed, but the f*cking world\u2019s on fire and I don\u2019t think there\u2019s enough buckets around to help put it out. There\u2019s a lot of people that don\u2019t seem interested or even notice that it\u2019s on fire. We\u2019ve lost the f*cking way. I think the ability to talk to each other is vanquished. It\u2019s been unplugged. Frustrating times.\u201d<\/p>\n

That sentiment of a disconnect on a personal level is one also shared by Lamb Of God vocalist Randy Blythe, who like Keenan feels that the world of siloed algorithms and digital dopamine feeds, paired with bad actors and an ever-present culture war, has effectively severed previously cherished communal ties. Blythe told Kerrang!<\/a> earlier this year of his concerns about how society has been steered away from a sense of community in that sense, stating:<\/p>\n

\u201cMost people are more isolated than ever. How many people know their neighbours? I know mine. Several of them have the key to my house. They can come and go when they please. I\u2019ll watch their dog. They\u2019ll watch my cat when I\u2019m out of town. If they need something, they can just come in the house. It\u2019s not a problem. Why? Because we are building community.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Keenan\u2018s views might not echo those of Blythe to the letter, it\u2019s clear that both feel that the prevalence of technology and manipulative tactics employed by social media giants, and other nefarious individuals, have had a damning effect. Addressing his own political ideology, Keenan told Metal Hammer:<\/p>\n

\u201cI lean left, but I\u2019m definitely centrist because it\u2019s more about education and it\u2019s about understanding motivation, and I\u2019m absolutely abhorrently opposed to fundamentalist extremism. And there\u2019s a whole bunch of those these days \u2013 right, left, centre, extremist people that are just latching on to a thing and they can\u2019t move.<\/p>\n

They are stuck, they\u2019re going to die on this hill over stupid sh*t. And that\u2019s the nature of the programming, of the AI, of the algorithms, feeding that dopamine addiction. We\u2019re just being f*cking puppeteered.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keenan, who at one point was primed for a military career in his young years<\/a>, was quick to point out though that he tends to practice observation through his artistry as opposed to unbridled activism:<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not a politician, I\u2019m not a soldier \u2013 I was a soldier, but I\u2019m not a soldier. My only primary motivation is to see what I see, report the story. All I can do is what I know how to do, which is to tell stories, sing songs, make food, get you drunk. That\u2019s all I can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a father of two, Keenan has alarmingly already seen the prevalence of politics creep into the life of his 10-year-old daughter. He told the aforementioned publication that he overheard her discussing Project 2025 with her friends. Project 2025 is a highly controversial initiative that was published in 2023 by the Heritage Foundation. It outlined many divisive right-wing aligned policies that some claimed would serve as an framework for Donald J. Trump\u2018s second term as U.S. President.<\/p>\n

While initially disavowed by the Trump campaign during that election cycle, various initiatives outlined in Project 2025 have since come to pass. Keenan himself spoke of just how different his own upbringing was in contrast to that of his own daughter, for her to be aware of a contentious political at such a young age:<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a pretty good idea of what I was doing at the age of ten. But she\u2019s with her friends talking Project 2025. Can you imagine being ten years old talking about that sh*t?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In recent months, Maynard James Keenan hasn\u2019t been shy on his opinions about the state of the world…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":574705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[125395,88,125396,216,210920,16935],"class_list":{"0":"post-574704","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-a-perfect-circle","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-maynard-james-keenan","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-puscifer","13":"tag-tool"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}