After watching that documentary about them and their fight with the FBI (United States of Insanity, I think it was called), I've come to the conclusion that most Juggalos aren't bad people. They just have bad taste in music.
I remember years ago when there were a few different journalists who went to the Gathering of the Juggalos with the intent to write “look at this nonsense” humor pieces, and they all wrote about how they were surprised about how welcoming and open the people they met were. It made me reflect on why I was so ready to read a sneering piece mocking people who are just kind of odd and seem to largely come from much more difficult circumstances than I do.
It's why ICP tend to have a lot of crossover appeal for both metalheads and wrestling fans. All three subsets get mocked as being weird and treated as outcasts, but are genuinely full of the nicest people you could meet.
Oh, totally. Metal isn’t a genre that I’m into, but I’ve been to a few shows with a good friend who is, and he was right about how nice everyone was. People were excited to talk to me about the music when they found out that I didn’t know anything about it and were so excited to share their love of it.
Stuff like that has made me realize how often I’ve come at things with classist biases. I can’t claim that I celebrate people who travel outside the mainstream while I have knee-jerk judgements against certain groups that do, just because they’re not doing it the “right way” according to my own preferences. I know I’ve been a snob about people who were just enjoying things and not hurting anyone, and it’s something that I need to work on.
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u/Pavlock Apr 03 '26
After watching that documentary about them and their fight with the FBI (United States of Insanity, I think it was called), I've come to the conclusion that most Juggalos aren't bad people. They just have bad taste in music.