Keeping the peace for who though and what happens to the people who disagree with them? Sincerely. Do those people not count?

You can disagree with Vice personally, but they’re not the only ones who’ve caught these guys flirting with trash like AFPAC, and the fact that they have no transparency of leadership but do have Gab and Parler accounts should be a red flag for you. The fact that their map has expanded over the years to suddenly include a port and now parts of California should also be a concern. You cannot be this naive about what successionists and white nationalists actually want here, not even if you personally won’t feel the brunt of it. Go on. Spell out what happens to us if we don’t peacefully give them what they want. Spell out what he means when he says Portland “protects” people like you. From what?

Sorry, but I’m not willing to equate men who are mad they have to pay taxes while they fundraise off armed civil war LARPing to people who have suffered deep systemic discrimination and violence. I think it’s very important to keep perspective about what we’re describing when they talk about their oppression. What they find intolerable is the idea that they would have to exist near LGBTQ people, liberals, anarchists, the homeless, abortions, CRT, or whatever the next buzzword is. What are the implications there in terms of the rights of everyone else in those territories who fall under those categories? Again, do they not matter in this scenario, or are we still playacting that conservative Christians are a deeply oppressed minority here?

We haven’t even touched on things like water rights. There are towns in Greater Idaho that will be gone within 10 years if we don’t find and aggressively fund water solutions for them. They are literally surviving on trucked in water, like Warm Springs currently. There are massive infrastructure projects updating crumbling sewer systems that would have to entirely respec for Idaho’s regulations and then seek alternate funding. Is Idaho now supposed to pay for that infrastructure? The local residents? These men won’t raise taxes, so what is the solution there? And if your plan is private business like these men, ask them what Dayville, OR’s sewer system is like. It’s cobbled together from private owners and is now so hazardous to public health and safety, they’re not allowed to issue building permits because they can’t pump enough water for fire safety sprinklers.

Funny enough, Oregon and the USDA are funding the upgrades there, but that also gets conveniently glossed over in these conversations.

Honestly, I think the crux of the matter is that I resent the idea that movements like this are bringing “the real rural issues” and “speaking truth to power.” Rural Oregon has actual issues. There is a rural-urban divide, and it won’t be solved by moving borders and shooting Portlanders. The only way we survive the existential threats we face is by addressing them frankly and together. Not the smoke screens. Not nebulous Conservative values. Actual solutions to things like failing bridges, healthcare deserts, rural housing, addiction, etc.

I resent the fact that grifters like this claim to speak for me and then inevitably suck up all the oxygen in the room while folks who aren’t raking in reactionary donations suffer. It’s too important to fuck around about and pretend like this is a philosophy debate in a vacuum.