Miners vs. Ranchers

Remember: It’s different when THEY do it…

While this was going on in Oregon, this was airing on PBS.

Yes. The armed revolt and miner army was being celebrated on PBS, even as the rancher revolt was being attacked by Feds in Oregon.

I watched the "Mine Wars" on PBS; it was heavily slanted toward the miners (of course), who (it seems to me) could have moved away and gotten jobs elsewhere as did the blacks who moved to Detroit from the South around the same timeframe. That would have strangled the mine owners, who depended on their labor. Still, the totalitarian control of miners' lives, incomes, and even speech, was unconscionable. Both sides were to blame, it seems to me.

The rancher stand-off is a similar situation. The original Bundy stand-off was based on more reasonable principles than this one. This one is based on purported rancher mistreatment of government land, which put ranchers in prison (a dubious claim and a dubious government response). The takeover of government property is a dubious rancher response, as well, and has jumped the shark in terms of publicity for their cause. This already hasn't ended well, and will continue in that direction, it appears.

But the original comparison remains: the miners were iconized; the ranchers are villainized. It all depends on the designated Class which is being abused. The capitalists were abusing the miners; the ranchers are abusing the (Democrat) government. It's all in the Class Theory of the current culture.