
The darkness at the heart of Malheur - DiabloD3
http://www.hcn.org/hcn/hcn/issues/48.5/the-darkness-at-the-heart-of-malheur
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vonnik
This is a great piece, and it puts most coverage of Malheur to shame. The one
pang I feel after reading journalism like this is that it will not reach the
people it should. It may increase our understanding of them, but it doesn't
increase their understanding, nor our ability to reach them and steer them
away from the cliff edge of, in this case, divesting public lands.

It's an old play, in a way: Vast, shadowy private interests manipulate the
lumpen to demonize the only institution that can stop them, the government, in
order to hack away at the general welfare and the public good.

The Bundy's are just sock puppets for the Kochs and other barons amassing
fiefdoms at the people's expense.

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apathy
This is not a short or simple read. However, if you believe that the American
experiment was not a mistake, and the sclerotic dynasties of Europe are a Bad
Thing, it is worth the time to read through to the end.

With the incoming administration, I have a very bad feeling that the events in
the story -- militant common people fighting for their own demise -- will be
replayed on a much larger scale. The more people willing to die for a cause
realize that it is a lie, the more warm bodies there will be left to defend
the principles that at least some of us still believe in.

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Animats
The key point he makes is that privatization of public lands doesn't mean
rugged individualists get land. It means the Koch brothers and Ted Turner and
others with a few spare billions can buy more land.

As others have pointed out, the Bundys didn't make money running cattle. They
were getting state welfare payments for taking care of four foster kids. And a
loan from the Small Business Administration.

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tlrobinson
Minor correction: LaVoy Finicum had foster children, not the Bundys.

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Animats
Oh, right. The Bundys just had the $530K unpaid SBA loan.

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tlrobinson
By "unpaid" do you mean defaulted on, or just outstanding?

But what's your point? I don't know anything about their business, but the
fact that they took out a loan isn't necessarily a sign of a poor business,
nor is it hypocritical for someone who opposes the welfare state to make use
of services they've been forced to pay taxes to support. See: Ayn Rand and
social security.

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thoughtsimple
Make sure to read the conclusion. This could do with a little editing to
reduce the number of descriptions of less than sane protestors and to reach
the important conclusions faster.

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user837387
Reading the piece he is basically describing [1]YouKnowWho's supporters. By
the end he is pretty much describing YouKnowWho [2] himself.

[1] I used the moniker You Know Who instead of using Donald's last name. It
seems to enrage some people when they see his last name and uncontrollably hit
the downvote button. Voldermort would probably kill me for this comparison
since in the Harry Potter books Voldermort was smart and charming. Donald is
the idiot's version of You Know Who. Although both are very similar when it
comes to lying, narcissism, and being mean to others

[2]>>Instead, the nature of evil is to take a truth and twist it, sometimes as
much as 180 degrees. Love of country becomes hatred of those we believe don’t
share our devotion, or don’t share it the same way.<<

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inimino
You sure you're not reading into it? Does everything have to be about _that_?
Give it a rest, please.

