
Key West Declared a Faux War on the United States in 1982 - antoviaque
https://medium.com/war-is-boring/key-west-declared-a-faux-war-on-the-united-states-in-1982-f2c40b429e75
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hvs
As a small-"l" libertarian, these kinds of stories make me feel warm and fuzzy
inside. In all seriousness, people willing to stand up against bureaucratic
mistreatment is one of the signs of a healthy republic. I'm not sure we still
have that.

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s_dev
I recall reading the same story on reddit in a TIL - but it was paraphrased as
a looney mayor who simply declared war on the US as a joke. However this story
depicts it much more accurately by giving attention to the cause which was the
grievance of having tourists blocked and the offense at the explanation
offered of "non of your business".

I do think that spirit is still there though. They handled their bureaucratic
mistreatment very very well. I'm not sure its a repeatable solution.

~~~
CapitalistCartr
The Federal reaction to the Mariel boatlift was heavy-handed and didn't return
to normal after. That made the residents furious at being treated like
prisoners in Siberia (from their viewpint).

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screwedup
Did anybody else initially read this as "Kanye West Declared..." and then get
really confused when they got to "...in 1982"?

~~~
macintux
Yes!

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sgnelson
"The Mouse that Roared"
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mouse_That_Roared](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mouse_That_Roared)

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tedunangst
The Wikipedia article links to a few sources.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conch_Republic](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conch_Republic)

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yaiu
I live in the Northern Territories (Key Largo) and I have a Conch Republic
passport.

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peterwwillis
These _exact same_ roadblocks exist today throughout parts of the southwest
united states, but they have (to my knowledge) not been challenged by their
respective states. It's kind of terrifying that they continue to be allowed to
exist.

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tomohawk
This is exactly what should be done to resolve this:

[http://www.wired.com/2008/10/aclu-
assails-10/](http://www.wired.com/2008/10/aclu-assails-10/)

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CapitalistCartr
I remember this; it's because the Federal gov't treats The Keys like the
proverbial red-headed stepchild.

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golemotron
It wasn't fake. Key West is subverting the US with margaritas and t-shirts.

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dmritard96
Conch Republic ftw

