Deftones Guitarist Stephen Carpenter Shares Flat-Earth, Anti-Vax Beliefs

“If you think you live on a spinning, flying space ball, you’re in a cult”

Published Nov 12, 2020

As heavy an album as Deftones‘ Ohms is, listeners must now contend with the weight of Stephen Carpenter’s conspiratorial beliefs. After all,  the guitarist just shared that he is a flat-Earther, as well as doubted the severity of the coronavirus and claimed that vaccines have never worked.

Carpenter was a recent guest on conspiracy podcast Tin Foil Hat, telling comedian and host Sam Tripoli how he has been interested in conspiracy theories since the early ’90s. Transcripts of the interview from ThePRP find the guitarist also discussing his belief that nuclear weapons do not exist, simulation theory and more.

When asked if he was a flat-Earther, Carpenter responded, “Absolutely… If you think you live on a spinning, flying space ball, you’re in a cult.”

He would later explain, “The simplest terms for my perspective with flat Earth is simply, I know we’re not on a spinning, flying space ball. Now, what it actually is and all that and, and, and to what depths it goes to, that’s all still to be discovered and people are working on those things.”

On the topic of a potential coronavirus vaccine, Carpenter claimed, “[There’s] never been one single vaccine that’s ever worked ever. All poisons, you can never get it out of your body, [your] body has no means to expel it, it’s stuck in you forever and you just suffer with whatever it becomes.”

When asked about the success of a vaccination for polio, Carpenter countered, “We never eradicated it [Polio]. It was… we’ve never actually learned… I’m grateful for COVID, for teaching me the actual germ theory, and that is the virus is something the body creates. You are not capable of catching a virus from somebody. You develop viruses because you have some type of poison or toxin within you. And that’s your poisoned and toxined cells secreting the virus to clean them from the body.”

The guitarist expressed, “If you don’t agree with vaccines, [people think] you’re insane. There’s something wrong with you.”

On the virus itself, he suggested, “Wouldn’t the homeless population be all you need to know about the virus? I mean, if there was this incredibly deadly, deadly virus going around for this whole entire year, we would have lost everybody on the street by now. I’m sure of it. But in fact we didn’t lose them, their numbers got stronger.”

You can take in Carpenter’s entire appearance below at your own discretion, and can find further transcription here.

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*** This article has been archived for your research. The original version from Exclaim! can be found here ***