Ostensibly this movie fights the doomed free speech fight against the FBI categorizing fans of rap-rock group Insane Clown Posse (ICP), known as “Juggalos,” as members of a gang; more accurately, it looks into the ICP phenomenon and why it appeals to the growing group of dispossessed in America.
Rap-rock, a kissing cousin to nu-metal but with more Motown and alternative rock, may not be your favorite genre, but anyone can appreciate the simple appeal of ICP: like Jesus Christ, they undertook the hatred of the world to be its scapegoat and in doing so, made it OK to be weird and poor.
Essentially, this describes their fanbase: the people left behind by the meritocracy. From broken homes, often abused, usually alienated, these people either grew up poor, are poor, or both, and are also dedicated to weirdness as a way of driving back criticism and judgment.
This music — maybe not for metalheads, although bonus points if you spot the Bathory and Motörhead tshirts — appeals to those who want to mock the entire failure of a dying democracy and revel in the momentary importance of having stepped outside the treadmill to experience life.
In this sense, the ICP phenomenon is no different than any artistic activity since the Peasant Revolts or maybe Aethelred of Wessex in that it seeks to get outside the System and see life as what it is. Too much civilization equals a self-destructive civilization.
Unlike most documentaries, this one does not pretend to be distant from its subjects, and joins in their humor and eccentricity as a way of driving itself forward without having to posture or moralize. Warning: the most common word in this documentary is “fuck” and variants thereof.
The court case it celebrates is doomed because the FBI pointing out correlations is part of their mandate for identifying threats, but the sentiment behind the case is that when people get blacklisted, their ability to interact with society is nearly eliminated, and this is a social bad.
Perhaps the most convincing thing that this documentary achieves is to humanize the Juggalos and point out that their music is a coping strategy, and their lifestyle a way of being accepted by a group in the wasteland of alienation left behind by the world wars, diversity, socialism, and empire breakdown.
While much of this seems mainstream to the underground metal audience, who unlike the Juggalos do not pretend to be about “peace” and acceptance of humanity, it resonates because of the desire to find something real in the maelstrom of distractions, pretense, and lies.
The documentary, filmed through interviews that are most often presented as voice-overs on scenes of ICP concerts and Juggalos getting weird with their bad selves, moves quickly and keeps a punch in every scene so that the usual droning NPR melancholy does not take over.
United States of Insanity would probably not work as a date movie, but it provides supreme entertainment by being more about the social phenomenon of Juggalos than ICP or their court case, and gives heady insight into the rising wave of alienation among those who notice the System has failed.
Tags: aclu, documentary, faygo, fbi, insane clown posse, juggalos, movie, nu-metal, rap rock
I am voting for Biden now….
Just to punish you…
You just cost yourself a trump vote…
Fucking prick…
by doing so you are only punishing yourself lol
have fun paying 8$ for bigmac
$8 for a Big Mac? That’s a steal! Holy crap prices are going back down!
The real problem is the size. One Big Mac will feed no one, so you have to order two, which takes you to $10 and about 400 calories past what lunch should be, most of it soy, sugars, seed oils, and glyphosate-desiccated grain flour.
Big Macs are soyglop. I like this better than “goyslop” because people are too quick to blame The Jews™ for the terrible decisions made by White people (Christianity, equality).
This is not an endorse of ICP’s music, rap-rock, hip-hop, nu-metal, jump metal, etc. It is an interesting documentary. As far as listening to this stuff, it would probably not work for me.
If you want to punish me, get a leather dominatrix outfit, a fidget spinner, and some guacamole and meet me at the usual place.
ICP > Limp Bizkit, Machine Gun Kelly, that Ronnie Radke faggot combined. They were “embracing the hate” before internet grifters thought it was cool. ICP at least seem to be somewhat self-aware of everything, and they pissed off Sharon Osbourne!
They are Christians though. They lose major points for that.
It seems all poor people and people in prisons are Christians.
I was never into the Bible and other desert stuff much. But Jesus, for all his flaws, turned sh-t into… well not gold but at least something bigger than himself (if the stories are true). While perhaps not as inspiring as the Alchemist, he at least was a sort of positive/victorious element in a sea of sh-t. The anti-Boomer/hippie/degenerate whatever the kids call them.
The “modern Jesus” stuff literally removed the only good parts of Christianity – improvement – and replaced it with total acceptance and indulgence of shit. They even celebrate it. aka ICP.
I don’t know much about ICP, but I remember one anecdote. The first time I went to America someone told me: look at the Insane Clown Posse, they are the lowest of the low, and even THEY are against racism. Figures.
Jesus is just an allusion to Socrates. Read Phaedo. You can have all of the benefits of Christianity with none of the desert.
Everyone is America is against “racism,” except the people who actually think things through. They are the real minority.
Brett,
Serious question:
Other than the Bible and Nietzsche, what else forms your understanding of Christianity? Have you ever studied any of the Church Fathers or the Scholastics?
Thanks,
Your favourite Irishman
I grew up WASP with a northern German side to the family who left a string of Lutheran churches across Europe. They zinged around between Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Latvia, apparently. Owing to the WASP side — tea with toast — there is a lot of Episcopalian in there not to mention theologians in the family (as well as some New Thought pioneers). Add that to an academic study of philosophy including the Bible, reading far too much C.S. Lewis and Bruce Charlton, and you have a decent background, but no, nothing… católico.
Don’t the Anglicans/ Episcopals acknowledge the Church Fathers as well? St Gregory of Nyssa got really esoteric with it, you may appreciate his stuff.
Interestingly enough, my own background is southern German (Bavarian) which was very Catholic for much of history, and to this day tends to be much less cucked than the rest of the country.
Meritocracy? What meritocracy?
Meritocracy is like a committee: whoever memorizes the stuff and argues all sides gets ahead. Meritocracy means tests, memorization, and following procedure not purpose.
So DEI meritocracy.
Meritocracy was a replacement for the caste system. It is always not great, but DEI etc make it into garbage just like nepotism will.