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This thread is basically for extremists of all kinds, those of us who understand that we are in a minority and can't expect to institute our desired policy on the federal level. But what extremists of all stripes CAN do is concentrate our votes by relocating to a single town or county, building a LOCAL majority, and enacting our extreme policy in one place.
Some towns are already extreme. Colorado City AZ is poligamous, Provincetown MA is gay, NYC funds abortions, Kamiah ID is white seperatist, and Maywood CA is Mexican immigrant, And Ave Maria, near Tampa, is Catholic. My hope is that through political relocation, more towns and counties will come to reflect specific and (externally) diverse philosophies.
Who out there knows about other towns or counties that reflect specific and non mainstream philosophies? or other groups that wish to concentrate on a specific town or county? This is a good place to form and organize such groups.
Last edited by autumngal; 05-12-2008 at 06:23 PM..
Liberals could relocate to Lincoln, Nebraska but it will take a 49.99% population gain to even out with the social conservatives.
I am from Colorado Springs originally and Colorado Springs actually seems liberal (its actually conservative, compared to Lincoln it feels liberal) and progressive compared to Lincoln, Nebraska stiffling, fundamentalist absoluteist religious culture.
Heck, even Omaha is closer to San Francisco or Seattle political then it is to Lincoln.
Lincoln, Nebraska has got to be the most socially conservative city in the country. Political diversity here is almost unheard of. Every time I walk into coffee shop or go out here a vast majority of the time everyone is reading their bible for hours and talking about Jesus and God. Alot of the college students here also like to go on and on about how the sermon's are too lightweight and not fundamentalist christian enough.
People in Lincoln tend to disassociate people who do not read the bible or talk about religion when they go out as being non-believers and disassociate them.
Also, Lincolnites disassociate and stare at people who go to a restaurant or coffee shop and are not married. They frown down upon people who dont have one baby after another because according to Lincolnites the only reason for marriage is to have babies. Alot of families here have at least 5 babies or more and that is their definition of their religious duty.
Needless, to say since Lincolnite's are absoluteists the property tax levels are very high because its a city of 240,000 people that has a school system thats about the size as some cities of 350,000 people.
That said alot of cities and towns in the intermountain west are moderating on political beliefs though because of a large influx of people from California.
Maybe the extreme housing costs in California will cause more moderate's to move to the inter-mountain west will cause election's to swing more towards the left.
Back in the mid 1980s, the big news in eastern Oregon was the Bhagwanh Shree Rajneesh and his followers who set up a massive compound not far from the town of Antelope. At it's height, 7000 Rasjneesh followers settled there, and they took control of the local government of Antelope and changed the town name to Rajneesh. They wore funny red pajamas, and the Bhagwanh owned 50 or 100 Rolls Royce, but this was no joking matter.
Then they decided to try and do away with opposition to their cult in the county government. In an attempt to make as many county residents as possible too sick to vote in an election referendum, they engaged in the only act of mass bio terrorism in the 20th century in the US - they poisoned the town water supply and intentionally poured salmonella contamination onto salad bars at local restaurants. Nearly 800 people were made sick around the city of The Dalles.
The ironic thing is that this went on just a few years after the mass suicide / mass murder in Jonestown, Guyana. It's hard to imagine what would lead people to join a cult like the Rajneesh while the memory of Jonestown was still fresh. Especially because the Rajneesh cult had a lot in common with the Jonestown cult - one person demagogue, private militia, remote outpost "outside the rule of law", remove cult members from their original home and family.
I don't mind the idea of people that share common values, heritage or beliefs in setting up new private communes or communities where those beliefs are championed. That's their right to do so. However, they must abide by the rules of law, don't threaten or mis-treat others that don't follow those same beliefs, and don't set up private militias.
There are no new counties. All the land is taken. The problem with communes is that none of them so far have incorporated as towns. However some incoprated towns are completely or very nearly empty, like Antelope OR. Some towns are able to repeal some county ordinances within their borders and others not, but they can usually pass and enforce additional ordinances. I would have listed Antelope but it is in the past, there is nothing politically exceptional about the place now.
This thread is basically for extremists of all kinds, those of us who understand that we are in a minority and can't expect to institute our desired policy on the federal level. But what extremists of all stripes CAN do is concentrate our votes by relocating to a single town or county, building a LOCAL majority, and enacting our extreme policy in one place.
Some towns are already extreme. Colorado City AZ is poligamous, Provincetown MA is gay, NYC funds abortions, Kamiah ID is white seperatist, and Maywood CA is Mexican immigrant, And Ave Maria, near Tampa, is Catholic. My hope is that through political relocation, more towns and counties will come to reflect specific and (externally) diverse philosophies.
Who out there knows about other towns or counties that reflect specific and non mainstream philosophies? or other groups that wish to concentrate on a specific town or county? This is a good place to form and organize such groups.
An ABSOLUTELY FASCINATING Subject. one I've always been interested in. I've been a student of "futurists" (Alvin Toffler, Vance Packard, et al)- also read Orwell's "1984" many times- and I see no reason that society couldn't "fragment" in the future, as we get more and more multicultural and people begin to feel less a "part" of things.
We all know of several semi-serious White Supremacist groups who have advocated one form or another of White Homelands (mostly in the Pacific Northwest)- there was also a fairly sophisticated Black group that began work on a similar Black Homeland (in North Carolina, I think)- none of these groups, yet, has reached "critical mass", and they've largely "fizzled out" for now. We all remember the "Freedmen" on the plains of Montana who, a few years back, attempted to retreat from the US government. Also there was Reies Tijerina, back in the 60's, who led a movement pitting the ancient Hispanic community of northern New Mexico against the US Gov't. In the process, I believe they bombed a courthouse (in Tierra Amarilla) and some folks went to jail.
All of these groups, in one way or another, are seeking to "circle the wagons" and engage in a sort of voluntary self-segregation in order to cope with a society they see as not representing them fairly. Even home-schoolers could be put in this category.
Some decades back, there was an attempt by gay groups from the Bay Area to "swing the vote" in remote Alpine County,Calif., in the High Sierra. Though not far from Reno, the county had so few voters that this was felt "doable"-don't know how it actually came out.
My brother worked on a bridge project very near Antelope, Oregon, and yes, the Rajneesh DID do all the things mentioned, including the mass salad-bar poisoning. They were finally prosecuted and several leaders fled to India.
I have been through Colorado City, AZ, and it does have a rather "spooky" quality to it- dozens of rather uniform, nondescript homes, with only one place that could be thought of as a "business". Hildale, Utah, is visible just up the hill. Definitely not the average country town. There is no apparent effort made to "connect" with the passing public-- a very "closed society" sort of place.
Once again, a fascinating subject- I understand there are now some small, racist towns of "Afrikaaners" who have retreated from the "new" South Afrika in order to preserve their language and customs- not many "takers", though, as I understand it.
Could we also use the Amish of the East, or the Mennonites on the Great Plains- or even the Mormons, on a much larger scale, as folks who have voluntarily "separated" from mainstream society?
Bottom line is, as the future looks to be increasingly wide-open and fragmented and contentious, I see no reason to think that more and more groups, of all descriptions, may want to band together and "head for the hills" either literally or figuratively...
Last edited by autumngal; 05-12-2008 at 06:28 PM..
Here are some more links to people who are trying to advance an ovepopulation or childfree town.
-Alan
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Remember the "rajneeshees"?
