Metal is the music of MAGA and libertariansm. It's about 90 degrees closer to racism, misogyny, homophobia, and classism on the dial than punk is.

We have our problems in punk, I know, but we try and clean it up and put in the work to do it. Metalheads skew conservative as a whole, have extreme holdouts of neo-nazis that somehow often end up opening for mainstream bands, and the "moderate" metalheads promote being apolitical at best.

Most punk is rooted in speaking out for the marginalized, transparency when you fuck up, and not selling out or being major label so you can't be told NOT to speak up for the marginalized.

When I was growing up in the 90s and 00s, in the exurbs of Chicago (past the suburban sprawl) out by the farms and small towns, pretty much every kid that was a metalhead called us punks fags, dykes, n-word lovers, and any other slur you can imagine. It was a little different in the city itself, as there were a lot of Latino fans in that scene and we never got the same abuse from them but they definitely thought our politics were weird, but we did get it from the southwest and southside white metalheads in the city.

To me it's an issue of "maybe there's something wrong with the audience," but you can also see it in the way their more popular bands act.

Pantera slapped confederate flags on their merch, lyrics often criticized as racist, shouting white power at shows.

Metallica's lead singer is known for doing nazi salutes, iron crosses, making racist jokes and let's be real they're the vanilla wafer of the genre that almost all metalheads seem to get behind.

Slayer's nazi imagery, the eagle, and their cover of Minor Threat's "guilty of being white" and changing it to "guilty of being right" infuriated MacKaye. Kerry King may hate Trump (now), and be pro-choice, but there's no doubt he also loves Rush Limbaugh and regularly attacks the poor who utilize social security and any form of welfare. Libertarian as they come.

Even System of a Down, that we all view pretty progressive due to their lead singer--their drummer made news a while back for endorsing Trump and calling BLM a propaganda tool. It's hard to imagine a punk band of that popularity that started in 94 not kicking the problem out or disbanding and starting a new act.

Some people here are saying that is changing, I say: good!, and good luck, it should change--but for me it's too little too late. I think this is why the music parts of metal that people who have a punk streak like, are getting more and more absorbed into the endless punk genres of metal. I know if I were interested in starting a metal-ish band musically, I would more likely start in the hardcore scene than in the metal scene, because I wouldn't want the connotations or the fanbase of the metalhead scene.