Originally tweeted by Laura Jedeed (Misanthrophile) (@1misanthrophile) on November 14, 2020.
Forgive me, friends. I lied to you. I intended to infiltrate the MAGA rally on DC today and it seemed prudent to tell the far right people who follow me that I wasn’t going to DC
I am in DC
The rally is HUGE
Stay tuned for coverage
(I am not infiltrating: this is an entirely too normie event for the costume I brought. Should have brought a different one. Too late now)
(It does mean I can live-tweet more or less safely though)
DC has been a trip. When I checked in last night, ~15 MAGA folks were hooting and hollering outside, drunk as fuck
“They’ve been there for hours. Apparently it’s their right,” the clerk told me. “Someone called the cops”
The cops stood around until they went to bed around 2
I wandered around with @Johnnthelefty for a couple hours last night, and virtually every hotel we passed had a similar scene
They’re here in force
Apparently my hotel is the Portland Chud Hotel. I passed Audra and several people with “Justice for J” this morning while I attempted to find breakfast
Rode the elevator down with a bunch of obnoxious people in MAGA gear who started blasting a pro-Trump song and taking selfies
This is not the rally. This is a small group on the way to the rally
Does that fencing look familiar? The whole White House area is surrounded by the same kind of fencing that surrounds the Portland district courthouse
You can’t even see the President’s House
Lafayette Square, in front of the White House–or rather, the street by the fence separating the people from Lafeyette Square
A small counter-protest
The tape on the fence is where the Trump supporters came and ripped down BLM signs commemorating Black lives lost last night
MAGA people on the way to the rally with police escort past the maybe 40 BLM protesters
This is ALSO not the rally. This is an entirely different group of Trump supporters heading to the rally
It’s been like this all morning. I scouted earlier
THIS is the rally. You can’t see all of it from up here but it’s as good as I can get
It’s not a million but it’s SO MANY. They’re gonna overflow Freedom Plaza
Internet is FUCKED. That last video took 10 minutes to upload. There are at least 10,000 people here and a lot of them are uploading video so it’s gonna be a lot of words for a while
Someone from Women for America First thanks everyone for coming. Then says we should wear masks unless we have medical exemption. If we aren’t wearing one, she assumes we’re exempt
“I’m exempt! It’s called the Constitution! I’m constitutionally exempt!” someone shouts
(Most people are, of course, not wearing masks. I am double-masked, in case you were wondering. Medical mask under a cloth one)
The speaker instructs us to ignore the counter-protesters. “They aren’t important. We the people are speaking, and they’re scared”
I can’t even see counter-protesters. Too many MAGA people
It’s time for prayer. Hats off
“I don’t want you to bow your head. We aren’t bowing to anyone today. Look up!”
Not sure that’s how Christianity usually works, pretty sure bowing to God is real important, but what do I know
He thanks God for Trump in flowery prose
“God told us that you will not be led by CNN or Cable News or Fake News”
Corinthians 14:88
“It will be weeks. It may be months. But we will stand with our President, Donald Trump!”
“The bodyguard of the people, the bodyguard of Western civilization, is one man: Donald J Trump”
They pledge allegiance to the flag
Capitalism
The Epoch Times aggressively pushing product on people. I didn’t know they even had a print version but this is going in the collection
“Everybody loves our President, some just don’t know it yet!”
This speaker says that 72 million people voted for Trump, which is a record
The record, for the record, is “second-most votes,” and it’s 70 million last I heard
Apparently the most important thing he’s done is smashed the tool of political correctness
“It was politically incorrect to say Merry Christmas! So many things were wrong. When j did my commercials, they told me I couldn’t wear my cross!!”
What?
(An aside: obviously it’s not great that this is happening for a variety of reasons but for me, an absolute nerd for the far right, this is fucking incredible and I’m so glad I get to be here holy shit)
This guy is doing a speech so rambling I’m having trouble parsing it
Something about how Planned Parenthood and BLM are the same because political correctness and abdication of personal responsibility? I’m not sure that’s right?
Another prayer. Off to my right, a small chant of “USA! USA!”
The energy is high but god damn the words are dull
Someone named Paris Denard with Black Voices for Trump starts speaking
“Turn to the media and tell them we are here and we aren’t going anywhere…there are 72 million people who are not going to be silenced!”
So we’ll silence the 74 million, I guess, that makes sense
“We are going to WIN, WIN, WIN!”
The crowd chants it for a while
The speaker says he’s looking over half a million people and look this is fucking huge but it is not even a little bit half a million
He’s talking about the Weather Underground now for some reason
“That’s what helter skelter meant! Divide and conquer! It means a catastrophic race war! And that’s what the Democrats have been trying to do!”
He proves this by pointing out that Democrats were the party of racism
Someone points at me and says “Antifa” several times and no one seems to care, which is nice
The speaker talks about Muhammad Ali for some reason. When Ali was asked what he thought of Africa, according to this dude, he said”Thank God my granddaddy got on that boat.” Scattered applause
This is the kind of shit my uncle likes to say and that is not a compliment
He talks about how the evil ones have taken over the schools and the media as part of their evil plan. Boos.
“This has been a long time coming and it’s a revolution! I don’t care if they put a smiley face or an old man’s face on it!”
A woman hands me an Infowars bumper sticker and asks about my body camera. Her companion looks at me skeptically and asks if I’m on the Left or the Right but I just keep talking about the camera until she relaxes
She tells me about the massive media censorship in this country
The Infowars supporter tells me thar Joe Biden has accepted 1.5 million dollars from China and is beholden to a communist party. That Kamala Harris is far left and has affiliation with communists
I nod sagely. She eventually moves on
Meanwhile the speaker, a member of Mothers for America, tells a heartbreaking story of how her son is trying to plan a wedding during COVID and her other son is missing out on his basketball season
The maskless people are suitably sad
Someone named the Reagan Babe speaks. She says this reminds her of the Tea Party
She’s not the first person to bring this up and I agree
Remember: movements like this ALWAYS do best with a strong enemy to unite it
“Are we really to believe that the party that approves of looting in the name of social justice didn’t steal this election in the name of social justice?!”
Boos
Bulletproof logic
She talks about how we are ready to fight for this with our lives
For today, we’ll just march to the Supreme Court
“COVID hug!”
*chuckles* I’m in danger
A few Proud Boys enter. Weird to see them without body armor
That’s where I went wrong with my disguise, by the way. I was thinking of Portland protests. Sometimes I forget I live in a warzone (by comparison)
Uhurus echo as I find the interesting section of the rally. More body armor out here at the outskirts. They didn’t come for speeches
People are asking about the vibe. This is definitely a peaceful protest right now. The normie-to-chud ratio is off-the-charts normie. There’s some rhetoric that suggests violence, but it’s the kind of posturing I remember from the Tea Party, not a serious threat right now
I have found the chud corner because of course I have
Proud Boys chant “Fuck Antifa!!” at no one. There are no counterprotesters here
Proud Boys just marching in circles. Maybe two dozen tops. I’m not really worried about them right now
Meanwhile, an investigative reporter for underground news (?? Might not have caught that) tells us about the importance of independent journalism
I agree!
She says, we must protect independent journalism and also the First Family
Chant: “CNN SUCKS!! FOX NEWS SUCKS”
“What happened [to Fox News]?! What a disgrace. They are the enemy of the people!!”
The speaker tells the narrative I’m hearing over and over
Trump was up big in all the important states
Then they “found a bunch of ballots that night while we were asleep”
Then the media declared Biden the victor
The myth of the Lügenpresse is ascendent. They hate Biden of course, and a variety of other groups. But it is the media who is the enemy in this story. They are the ones who executed the stab-in-the-back
A chant: “LOCK HIM UP!!”
Boy howdy they like to lock people up, won’t someone tell them about FetLife I feel like we would all be much happier
A chant goes up in a corner of the crowd: “America First!”
That slogan had a real interesting history. I should know, my grandfather was an America Firster back in the 1930s
He’s dead now, and that slogan should also die
Having trouble uploading video again but they keep chanting America First and waving America First flags
I feel like I should know who they are but I’m face-blind
Then they start chanting “GROYPER!” and I’m like oh, this tracks
They scream for a journalist to be expelled. “TAKE HIS COAT!” they chant baffling
Then they decide he’s cool
“HE’S OK!” they chant
What in the fuck is going on here on this day
Finally the video uploaded!!!!
The Groypers are talking about how immigrants and “transnationals”–the “lowest common denominator”–who are destroying America
They take a moment to chant “BLM SUCKS”
It’s extremely unfortunate that these lads have chosen to have their Groyper rally next to the far more powerful sound system brought by Women For Trump, because these speeches are far more interesting
I have just been informed by the Groyper speaker that the idea that America is an idea is obscene
Rather, America is a place and a people. They do not say “blood and soil” but it’s the same idea
The speaker shouts “they will not replace us!”
As the Groyper speaker talks about the great replacement, YMCA starts blaring and I somehow do not laugh
“Looks like the march is starting!” the speaker shouts, and so we take a break from Nazis-with-the-serial-numbers-shaved-off to march down the street to a gay anthem
“look at all these people and tell me Trump lost the election!” someone who doesn’t understand math says to his neighbor
There are a LOT of people marching though
I have been trying to upload a 15-second clip for about 10 minutes so just imagine, if you will, a 4-lane street filled with Trump supporters marching slowly by
Then imagine this but for over 6 minutes
Numbers-wise, the only thing I can compare this to is the 2016 Women’s March in Portland
Read Part 2 here
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