Yesterday, violent right-wing terrorists invaded the Capitol after a pro-Trump protest that everyone on the planet – except, strangely, everyone involved in law enforcement – knew would escalate to dangerous levels, leading to a day when the United States never will and must never live. And, according to Pitchfork, there were a few familiar faces in the crowd outside the White House, most notably Ariel Pink and John Maus. The two appeared in a photo posted by Washington DC filmmaker Alex Lee Moyer, prompting Pink tweet that he was there to ‘show peacefully [his] support for the president ”and that he“ went back to the hotel and took a nap ”before all the uproar started. So that’s cool, right? He was just there to express how much he loves the idiotic despot who drove the protesters to anger in the first place and has convinced people for the past four years that he is universally loved and that the only possible explanation for all that made him befalls a massive conspiracy of Antifa super soldiers who (despite the name) destroy the for real fascists. So if “I just attended the White House Peaceful Rally” is supposed to be a defense, it’s a damn stupid one.
As for Maus, his explanation is a bit more difficult to parse. He posted a link on Twitter to a piece of religious writing from 1937 that satirizes idolizing certain people or governments, which seems to be anti-Trump, but other than what this means, he hasn’t given any clarification. Also, as noted by our friends at Jezebel, he was one of the musical performers involved with Adult Swim’s short-lived alt-right sketch show Million Dollar Extreme presents: World Peace and seemingly refused to consider the possibility that the people he had worked with were anything but “nice.” And last but not least, as he said Noisy in 2017 they weren’t “burning crosses or anything.” Again: stupid.
Which brings us to Alex Lee Moyer, who narrated it Pitchfork in an email that she was there because she “felt obliged to record what was happening”. To this day, Moyer was probably best known for TFW No GF, a sympathetic documentary about incels allowing angry whites on the internet And last but not least tell their side of the story. In a post on her now private Instagram, Moyer shared the photo with Pink and Maus next to the caption, “The day we almost died, but had a great time instead.” A great time! Good for her. One could hypothetically ask how you could almost die if you were only at the “peaceful” meeting of the White House and not at the siege of the Senate chambers, but whatever. The thing is, she had a great time, which – after consulting our handy chart on ‘Statements from people who attended the riot’ – let’s see … oh yeah, damn stupid.