Democracy In Distress 2021. Mat Chacon
It was a throng of media and amateur photographers feasting on the spectacle of a promised pro-Trump riot that didn’t deliver the circus everyone had hoped for. Instead of starting with a bang, it ended with a lip-quivering whimper before it even started.
Most of the media didn’t know what to do with this flop of an event and ended up wandering around like little puppies searching for a new place to pee.
The overall themes of the Justice for J6 rally were foggy mixed messages. The organizers were entirely unfocused and preached a smattering of “pray for our troops” and “support our police” while also condemning them for the imagined crimes of post-January 6 political persecution in the same sentence.
Capitol Cowboy 2021. Mat Chacon
It was an overwhelming embarrassment akin to loaning your laptop to your grandmother and forgetting to delete your sordid browser history.
The organizer’s conservative certainties are wholly inadequate scaffolding for their impassioned stances on how the world should function. When, in fact, they have no idea that their old fashioned ideas have long since been replaced by today’s knowledge sharing, global economy and Darwin’s theories of evolution.
The event was also conspicuously devoid of Proud Boys and Oath Keepers who apparently only keep their oath when it suits their cowardly designs to protest solely when the threat of violence and arrest are nonexistent. Proud Boys? More like disappointed parents. Such pretenders.
The same goes for most of the ANTIFA crowd whose incomprehensible ramblings and nightly violence are no more anti-fascist than a Benito Mussolini political rally. Both groups are different sides of the same coin, spewing a bukkake of verbal masturbation to briefly stimulate their limbic system so that they may revel in the joy of getting one’s self off.
Both groups work incredibly hard to ensure the world is a more dangerous place than they found it upon waking for the day.
The one thing I’ve learned from photographing conflicts, protests and riots is that the world needs only one thing… more love.
As Elvis Costello said, “What’s so funny about peace, love, and understanding?”
Fear and Loathing In DC 2021. Mat Chacon