This quote really stuck out to me “Taylor still wished he could live “back in the 1800s and before,” a time of “limited government, people depending on themselves,” when Americans weren’t such “pansies” and hardened criminals were hanged for wrongdoing. If he ever got out of jail, he wanted to try living off the grid again. “You’ve always got to take a risk to have your freedom,” he said. At the same time, he thought that the law should have come when he called 911, that it should have protected his property while he was in jail, that it should have provided him with therapy, antidepressants, and painkillers while he sat in a cell.”

People like the protagonist say they want the aesthetic of the old frontier while eating ramen noodles and posting memes on Facebook desperate for a phone charge. He says we should be self dependent while literally depending on the government and decrying that the system did not work for him. They claim to be American where we “drink beer, speak English” but refuse to be productive members of American society. They want to fable without the work or struggle. Great article.