Did you actually read the WP article to which you yourself linked? Classifying Juggalos as a gang makes about as much sense as classifying Beatlemaniacs as a gang because Charles Manson claimed Helter Skelter as his inspiration.
![The Stupid, It Burns [small]](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/boingboing/original/3X/9/1/915f83c6b71f3149788bbe5204d43fd6355e6103.jpg)
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To start with:
It is estimated that 85–90% of self-described Juggalos are peaceful, non-criminal music fans. The other 10–15% make up the Juggalo subculture’s criminal element – National Gang Intelligence Center.
I doubt the criminal element would be out for a march.
A lot of the sources of the article seem to be either law enforcement, or organizations like the Rocky Mountain Information Network. By their cautious nature, they’re never going to say that a group is harmless with a few bad apples. Also, with their straight/conformist/authoritarian alignment, to them the Juggalos would seem pretty alien, resulting in large confirmation biases in their conclusions.
Watch and see. (And I suspect that trying to fit the Juggalos into the old school class struggle dialectic will be a waste of time.)
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How does the new school conceptualize exploitation by elites differently from how the old school did it?
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You have to place those statistics in context. Consider the socio-economic status of Juggalos. Look into how many deeply troubled people they accept into the group. A pretty big chunk of this group is going to get into trouble whether they are into ICP and the Juggalo lifestyle or not. A significant number of people find a place where they belong, find some support, and could very well be stopped from going on to a more serious life of crime.
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You’re not missing anything. The writer of the Jacobin article and the ICP are part of the self-described “dirtbag left,” which spends half the time going after “champagne socialists” and “limousine liberals.” I don’t entirely agree with their approach, but they’re not privileged, actually know something about the class struggle (because they’re on the losing end of that bargain), and are definitely a phenomenon amongst Millenial and younger leftists who reject both establishment liberalism and the Boomer 60s version of leftism.
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Good call! (Still no magnets though)
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It’s worse than that: he magically becomes a member of the country’s dreaded educated social elite, and since he remains a leftist or a liberal he’s automatically a hypocrite who loses all credibility.
[the preceding message for the Know-Nothing base was brought to you by the alt-right and its conservative enablers and (in this thread) apologists]
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I don’t know. The off-the-clock clown makeup aside, this …
they are “the cashiers at Walmart and the servers at McDonald’s, spectacles of misfortune either ignored or blithely exploited for cheap laughs. They live a life of menial labor that elite ideology insists they deserve.”
… sounds pretty old-school to me. The only thing missing is a service industry icon to match the hammer and sickle (the paper cap, perhaps? the name tag?).
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Facts. How do they work?
Fans of fictional depictions of harmful things aren’t dangerous. But people who can’t distinguish between fiction and reality and because of that act to punish creators and fans for making and consuming fiction are a very real and material danger to society.
Well we can’t have people who try to improve their situation in life. If the working class did that, how would the actual coastal elites abuse them? /s
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Whenever I have had personal encounters with Jugglaos, they have always been perfectly nice people. They didn’t seem any more inclined to violence than your average heavy metal fan, which is to say, not at all. To me, it just seems like they are alienated by the larger society and drawn to edgy shit, which is an understandable response.
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The whole Juggalo thing is most common in places that are pretty economically run down, with high crime rates and where the opium epidemic is hitting hardest. So there’s definitely some sort of greater experience or culture of violence there. Just not in any way different from any group of people from any place with those same sorts of problems. The crazy shit I heard about from the Philly Juggalos 10 years ago is damn near identical to the crazy shit I heard about from my friend who grew up in the shit end of Kingston Jamaica. There is gang and drug trade involvement in the group from what I can tell, but only in the same way as you’re going to find that in a poor community of any type.
Aside from the discussion of the champagne socialist stuff above. I don’t think its neccisarily right to characterise this a “cook up”.
Apparently Juggalos have been going out of their way to involve themselves in various protest movements, or to basically protect various left wing protest groups from counter protesters or other antagonistic responses for a while now. I’ve heard about groups of Juggalos placing themselves between BLM protests and counter protesters and cops before. And apparently there’s a big, concerted effort for Juggalos to do the same for groups countering Alt-Right marches. I’ve even heard about Juggalos doing the protection detail thing at abortion clinics, escorting patients in and out or pushing back protesters to keep the clinics accessible… And I do remembering there being a noticeable amount of Juggalos at Occupy Wallstreet and related events at Washington Square park years ago.
I mean obviously people who happen to be Juggalos are gonna do all that anyway. But there are groups of people organized as and by Juggalos, doing it under the “Juggalo” banner at this point.
A big proportion of the organized Juggalo community seem to have a legit interest in being involved in a whole host of left wing protest moments. And they’re organizing themselves specifically as a sort of Juggalo contingent to do just that. Often acting in the same role as the Anti-Fa groups are, but with less recourse to boots in faces.
The thing that seems to have happened the last month or so is the socialist/communist/marxist end of the left noticed. And they’re now trying to intellectually masturbate themselves into some sort of Social Democrat + Juggalo coalition for electoral success. Which is frankly bizarre. They may be from the traditional working class left. But they are nowhere near the entirety of it. They aren’t exactly publicly respected.
The more sensible response I’ve seen has been more along the lines of reaching out. Making sure that Juggalo groups are welcome where ever, and in some cases specifically requesting that they come and do their thing as part of a protest or rally. As they really do seem to be making it safer for everyone lately. Frankly it just seems like you’ve got this pretty large group of people with an active interest. Who already happen to be well organized for other reasons (concerts and music festivals, fandom stuff). So they’re able to step in as an organized block and fill a specific roll. Its been nice to see.
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I belong to a non-profit group of volunteers that run a charity haunt near Cleveland. Our group has Juggalos. They’re not much different than any of the other subgroups we have at our version of the “weird kids table” - we have emos and old goths, the confused and the truly crazy, metalheads and suburban cowboys, theatre nerds and larpers. Juggalos are just another group of disaffected youth and adults that can find a creative outlet scaring for charity.
We just had to get them to stop tagging the sets for fun.
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So more people gathered in the center of Washington DC to support the juggalos than for the president’s inauguration.
Americans are clearly discerning about which clowns they support.
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When your movement makes Juggalos look like reasonable, upstanding people, you may want to rethink your life.
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nope nope nope!
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Socrates: I drank what?
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Nazis (I WILL NOT CALL THEM" ALT-RIGHT"! THEY ARE NAZIS GODDAMMIT!) cheat by trying to run people over.
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