The Mother of All Rallies
took place in Washington DC yesterday. It was supposed to be a loud, proud, strong pro-Trump rally. It was a bust. About 500 people showed up.
Meanwhile, at the same time and also on the mall, fans of the Insane Clown Posse demonstrated. About 1500 of them showed up. They were there to defend their civil rights.
Gill and every other speaker at the Juggalo rally preached inclusivity with a passion that speakers at the pro-Trump rally reserved for subjects liker border security.
“We don’t care if you’re black, white, Hispanic, straight, gay, trans, fat as fuck or skinny as a broom stick,” Gill said, adding everyone is welcome to be or support Juggalos.
I can’t believe that today I’m sitting here admiring the righteousness of Juggalos, but I am. And it’s not just because I’m laughing at the Trumpkins.
I was just reading about this. There are quite a number of articles up about how the opposition to Trump seriously outnumbers supporters. All I can say to that is good!
The juggalos have a serious problem – when you get identified as a gang, that unlocks all kinds of nasty tricks the police state can use against you.
If the juggalos are a gang, why isn’t the Roman Catholic Church?
Best tweet was something like: “small number of people march in favor of an insane clown, also there was a big protest by juggalos.”
“I can’t believe that today I’m sitting here admiring the righteousness of Juggalos, but I am. ”
Thanks, Trump!
I’m very glad everything came off peacefully. I hope the Juggalos are able to have that ridiculous gang designation removed. If they’re a gang, does that make the Kiss Army a militia?
I will admit this: a small part of me was hoping to see a dozen very unlucky Neo-Nazis get chased down the National Mall by a mob of a thousand people in horror-clown facepaint.
Doubter @5:
I have to say, that would have been most entertaining.
500 people for a pro-Trump rally? Why, that’s the biggest, bestest rally ever in the history of rallies.
I’ve done my fair share of Juggalo mocking in the past, but the “gang” designation is as much bullshit as Antifa being labelled terrorists (something a lot of people also want to do with Black Lives Matter).
I will reserve the right to still have fun at ICP’s expense, but the Juggalos themselves are now off-limits to me.
I’ve seen Trump described as an inane clown.
Oh, what a world we live in, where the Satanic Temple and the Juggalos are now paragons of virtue and social justice. What. The. Fuck.
[From the first linked post, citing The Independent ]
I have to wonder about the messaging, there — Woodstock is specifically associated with Sixties counterculture; hippies and related. Why would they even want to bring that up?
The Independent also has the MOAR attendance estimate at 1000, not 500.
The Independent also says: “while others carried flags for “Kekistan” – a fictional country that some internet-centric right-wing activists claim as their homeland.”
Maybe I am misremembering, but I thought “kek” and “Kekistan” were specifically 4chan joke memes.
KG @ 9:
Er, I think you might have slid by the joke involving the Insane Clown Posse and juggalos.
If groups of clowns are threatening why isn’t congress a gang?
Because the cops find it too difficult to recognise the RCC gang colours and their hideouts. All those religious orders and their differing rules and vestments, it’s just too much, I tell you, too much!
@10
Slight quibble, but both of the groups you described have socially progressive values kind of inherently baked into the pie, so this isn’t exactly a new thing.
The Satanic Temple is less activist than the Church of Satan, but they still speak very heavily against things like racism and misogyny, and like 90% of ICP songs boil down to “This guy is a racist/abuses kids/beats his wife, let’s kill him with our clown powers”
@Tabby Lavalamp #8:
I agree with Juggalo mocking, though I do less of it than most. However, I thought Antifa was roughly equivalent to the Black Panthers; i.e. a paramilitary organization not afraid to get violent. If so, aren’t they on the line to be terrorists? I don’t know much about Antifa, and it’s sometimes hard with all the media saying different things. I’ve also seen conflicting reports that they were responsible for the violence and destruction during Trump’s inauguration.
I really do want to know the truth, so I’m sorry if I really don’t know it yet.
Methuseus @ 16:
Some reading:
https://freethoughtblogs.com/singham/2017/09/07/a-pacifist-minister-on-how-the-antifa-saved-him-from-a-beating/
https://freethoughtblogs.com/natehevens/2017/09/06/welp-guess-im-a-terrorist-now/
https://perrystreetpalace.com/2013/08/19/we-are-all-terrorists-now/
https://freethoughtblogs.com/babbler/2017/09/04/sources-bolingbrook-vows-crackdown-against-local-antifa-cell-fiction/
@#11, Owlmirror
They are trying to co-opt the popularity or positive reputation of things they don’t understand (and generally wouldn’t go along with if they did), and they have grasped that the only young demographic which is willing to go along with them is 4chan. They don’t understand 4chan — I’m not sure if even 4chan understands 4chan, to be honest — but to them it represents youth and the future of the party, and must be embraced until it can be co-opted.
They have not grasped the lesson which more savvy, charismatic politicians tend to know instinctively: if you don’t understand a pop culture phenomenon, don’t try to co-opt it. Show it respect in your own idiom if need be, but don’t try to pretend you’re a part of it. You end up sounding like a 40-year-old parent dropping random slang words into a lecture they’re giving their children — the quotation marks are audible, and it makes you seem more out-of-touch than you are.
(This problem is not limited to the right wing. Any self-absorbed, tone-deaf politician can have it.)
Apart from their crimes against music I can’t see why Juggalos would be considered a gang. Meanwhile cops steal from a fast food vendor. Why aren’t they considered a gang?
Please do not call Trump-supporters “Trumpkins”. Trumpkin is a character in CS Lewis’ book Prince Caspian, and he is the opposite of your typical Trump-supporter. Trumpkin is honest, loyal, dependable, straightforward, and level-headed.
Instead, it’s better to refer to Trump-supporters as “Trumpies”. That way, when they have sx, it’s Trumpie-rumpie-pumpie.
@#20, handsomemrtoad
Well, sort of. He’s also a C. S. Lewis character, which means that since he’s one of the Forces Of Good in a Narnia book, he’s a crypto-Christian supporter of the ruling regime.
I would really, really love for somebody to write a parody which subverted the Narnia books like Wicked! does for the Oz books — since Narnia is basically just C. S. Lewis taking stuff he didn’t like, transposing it into fantasy, and then making a very black-and-white morality play out of it where his enemies play the part of the Forces of Evil:
The Telmarines (all those nasty Muslims and dark-skinned people who dare not to accept British colonization!) are all automatically evil and treacherous except for a handful who embrace Narnian values, who are then merely too stupid to know they really love Aslan and not their own gods. The solution to any sort of problem is always violence, which is always something which only men can really perform — and if you’re a male and don’t like violence, there’s something wrong with you and you’re probably evil. Aslan’s plans always end with him sorting everything out in person anyway, but before he does he always insists on a complex rigamarole in which he stays hidden and everyone else is given the maximum chance to screw things up and is tested for loyalty again and again (and then it is revealed that Aslan knew who would be loyal in advance, meaning that the tests were unnecessary). (There’s also some projection going on: in Narnia, it’s admitted that colonization and cultural appropriation are evil — but instead of the pseudo-English, or at least pseudo-Western-European cultures committing it constantly, it’s the other nations, which in real life generally were subjugated by the Europeans, who are doing it, and Narnia-as-a-proxy-for-England is under threat from the pseudo-Muslims.)
It would be easy, for example, a story where the ice giants are being slaughtered and the Telmarines try to talk the Narnians into stopping, and are threatened with invasion for trying to interfere.
I’m pretty sure that would be construed as “homophobic.”
Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right…
My son and I went to both. Both were peaceful (except for a very small skirmish at the Trump rally with about 10 people that claimed to be Antifa). Flags and eagles at one and face paint and (omg) bad language at the other. But I know where I felt safer.
But DC cops and park police knew where problems might happen – and it wasn’t at the Juggalo March. By my crude estimate there was 8x more officers at the Trump rally. I would’ve guessed that a real gang would get more scrutiny but maybe local law enforcement knows more than the FBI does.
I’m not a Juggalo. I know a few and I just met a bunch more.and I think they’ve been screwed by the FBI. I will happily march with them if another march is necessary
Some Juggalos are terrible people. Some Juggalos are wonderful people. Most are somewhere in between.
They have, however, a well-earned reputation for violence and vandalism.
@Caine #17:
Thank you for those links. I have to confess, I don’t know what I was thinking earlier. No, Antifa shouldn’t be considered terrorists. That’s ridiculous. My beef with them is blowing up cars / setting them on fire and the like for no reason. I’m honestly curious if they actually did that. I’ve heard both that is was alt-right and Antifa, and I hope it wasn’t Antifa, but, if it was, I will denounce those actions, while hoping and pleading that they move in a way to enact change.
Caine@12,
No, I got that joke. Indeed, I saw the description of Trump as an inane clown as itself a switch on the Insane Clown Posse.
That is a hell of an idea, and I may well do it. I’ve been writing a short story column for a local magazine and my buffer is in need of filling!
The Vicar,
You’re confusing your Telmarines with your Calormen. The Telmarines were descended from Earth pirates that were magically transported to the island of Telmar (which was a Calormen colony) and eventually conquered Narnia because, really, we can’t have all those talking animals actually in position of power or responsibility. The Calormen were the stand-ins for all those evil swarthy Muslims.
handsomemrtoad,
Ana Mardoll has been doing a deconstruction of the Narnia books over the past several years. Might make you rethink your defense of Trumpkins.
@29 Maroon
Thanks for that link, I’m reading those now. Interesting!
@ abbeycadabra: read the comments too, there are some brilliant short fanfics in there!
abbeycadabra,
My pleasure. Someone here linked to it a while ago, so I’m just passing on the favor.
@ 20:
I’ve never called them that. What seems like ages ago, I coined the word Trumpholes, and that’s what I use.