Hitler, Stalin, both are jerks

F***in’ free speech, how does it work

And I don’t wanna talk to no nationalist

Y’all f***ers sieg-heilin’ and gettin’ me pissed

I don’t know why fans of Insane Clown Posse call themselves Juggalos, but it’s interesting that they’ve managed to form their own sort of underground society. They put on an annual festival called the Gathering of the Juggalos, and it draws thousands of people. Kat Timpf did a report from the Gathering last year. It doesn’t look like anything I’d want to participate in, but hey, it’s a free country. The people she talked to tended to be disaffected lower-income white kids who found a sense of community among other people who were rejected by the rest of society. They took a perverse sense of pride in being something most people don’t like.

Sound familiar?

Anna Gaca, Spin:

In the comparatively innocent political days of just last summer, Insane Clown Posse announced plans for the Juggalo March on Washington. The stated purpose: to protest the FBI’s characterization of the group’s fanbase as a “hybrid gang” and stand up for juggalos’ rights as Americans. The march is scheduled for noon on Saturday, Sept. 16, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C….

As MetalSucks points out, a pro-Trump gathering called the Mother of All Rallies has scheduled itself at the opposite end of the National Mall on Sept. 16…

On its website, the MOAR lists co-sponsoring groups affiliated with the “alt-right,” including the Proud Boys and the Alt Knights.

Juggalos vs. Proud Boys. Great.

Well, as those old dead white guys said, nobody can take away “the right of the people peaceably to assemble.” The operative word there being peaceably. I want nothing to do with the alt-right, and I want nothing to do with the Juggalos or their awful music. But I accept that they all have the right to believe and say what they want, no matter how much it pisses me off, as long as they don’t hurt anybody else.

We used to teach this stuff in schools. Hell, we used to teach it from the moment a kid could walk: “Don’t hit. Use your words. And for Pete’s sake, stop picking your nose.”

So now we’re looking at one crowd of angry, confused white kids vs. another crowd of angry, confused white kids. In the middle of the National Mall. I just hope it’s not Charlottesville all over again.

I can still hope, can’t I?