Eric Kayne Photography | Washington, DC

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Double standard, double-exposure: Photography at the Rage Against The War Machine Rally in Washington, DC

Attendants participate at the Rage Against the War Machine event, organized by the Libertarian movement, Feb. 19, 2023 in Washington at the Lincoln Memorial. I give this guy a lot of props for his impressive outfit. It makes communism seem so appealing and not totalitarian at all!

What is more fun than a gathering of folks who want an open and free market but don’t want to pay for any of the services that make up civil society? Making double-exposures of the attendees! A couple of weekends ago, I went to the Rage Against The War Machine rally held at the Lincoln Memorial. The title, a ripoff of a pretty decent alt-rock band’s name, was meant to gather together divergent political forces under one big anti-government umbrella.

I never did ask the guy with the signs why they were misspelled. Out of context, it makes him look kind of like an idiot. That’s what happens when you move into an ideological bubble.

One couldn’t have asked for better weather. It was a rare spring-like day and the cherry blossoms were already starting to bloom (hello global warming). The speakers’ deliveries, however, were canned and uninspiring. I don’t remember one chant in unison. A huge faux pax: no music between speakers, with huge silent pauses coupled with the nice weather that lulled at least 15 people to sleep (I counted).

This guy had the right idea. Second image is Silver Spring metro station gate I took on the way to the rally.

The best thing about events like these is the people who go LOVE attention. No one cared if I made their photo. All they wanted me to do was take a copy of their pamphlet about freeing Julian Assange or how taxes are theft or talk to me endlessly about how bad things are and are only getting worse.

The hammer and sickle made many varied appearances at the event.

Check out some of the photos and let me know what you think in the comments, if anyone actually still comments on blogs.

A man in a jumpsuit is interviewed by a Russian “news” channel while in the second exposure, a child covers up his mother’s libertarian mouth.

Cops tell a vendor to beat it. So much for the free market. Some kind of death thing in the second exposure.

There’s no way this entire thing wasn’t organized and/or funded by Russia.

I followed this guy in the hat and bow-tie around for a while. He looked and acted like he stepped out of a time machine from the early 1900’s. He had a kindly, genteel demeanor. He was just plod along the outskirts of the crowd, on the fringes, stop and rest and listen to the speakers and then start the process over again. A lot of stamina for a time-traveller, but with ideas that expired in the 20th century.