#i reiterate: this is all speculation and i have no idea what r/juggalo is like because i’ve never been there

[violent-j]

Ever notice how older Juggalos are rude and gatekeepy as fuck? Like, I was browsing R/Juggalo and someone posted selfies of themself in their face paint asking to make some wicked clown friends and the comments were filled with "Elder Juggalos" calling them a Juggaho and an attention whore and telling them to go outside. Like, y'all were a kid trying to find a community once too and now that you have it this is what you're doing to someone who was exactly like you at one point? God y'all are fucking terrible. Makes me scared to interact with anyone above the age of 25 who's a Juggalo to be honest. I'm sorry for the unnecessary dump of information I just had to put it somewhere where someone would understand.

yeah i mean. outside of tumblr i don’t really go on the internet that much, so maybe i’m not the right one to ask. but i can see why you’d be put out by interactions like that.

the ‘older vs. younger/longtime vs. new fan’ friction is something that happens in kinda every fanbase ever, if you look around. gatekeeping is a bummer, but that’s sorta just what happens when any familiar landscape starts to change, it makes people uncomfortable en they start pushing back. in the case of ICP, there’s been such a huge wave of new (and reeeeally young) juggalos lately (i think cause of tiktok and homestuck getting more popular again & stuff?), so the landscape is changing like …….. a lot. & incredibly fast.

from what i’ve seen on this blog, it seems like a really high proportion of the newer and younger fans getting into ICP are also blogging about topics like dissociative identity disorder/systems/alters, being neurodivergent, neopronouns, xenogenders, OCs, furry stuff. i’m personally all for minding my own business and letting people talk about whatever they want (especially when they’re minors, like what the fuck? leave ‘em alone), but yknow. that ‘type’ of fan is understandable really, really different from the type of fan who grew up 30 years ago. yknow? i’m a young person, i’m intersex and queer, and even i don’t really ‘get’ what a xenogender is. if i was a cishet white guy born in 1980 who only uses reddit and facebook, i’d probably be confused as shit.

not defending anyone being a gatekeepy/bigoted/sexist asshole, but it’s something to consider when you’re wondering where all the hate is stemming from (i.e., discomfort). with a ton of new, wildly different fans starting to enter an established fan community, there’s some likelihood of people getting defensive and reacting immaturely about it.

ULTIMATELY THO …….. pls remember, people are basically always more shitty on the internet than in real life. if you show up to the Gathering or a local show, i think you’ll find people to be a lot more welcoming. any self-proclaimed ‘juggalo authority’ who wastes their days posting insults on reddit is a crusty piece of shit and not worth your time, if you ask me.

listen to the music if you want, wear facepaint if you want, go to a show if you want. being a juggalo is about not giving a fuck and watching out for your homies, & anyone who’s doing anything to the contrary has strayed from the path. focus on the clown love, don’t let shallow dumbasses posting on some website ruin shit for you.