Planned Survivalist Community

[notsocommon]

I'm evil, but I'd love to plant a small firecracker ye olde towne squaree.

I am evil, too because I giggled madly..... Lets do a whole mega strand of black cats!

[Sobeknofret]

Bo Gritz and his band of merry survivalists tried this same thing in Idaho a few years ago, and it flopped like a beached whale. I highly doubt that this enterprise will get far either. http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/i ... s/bo-gritz

[Seven Severn]

The sooner these right wingnuts separate themselves from the rest of society, the better. I hope they all go live in walled-off communities and take their guns and jeebus and Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin with them. It can't happen soon enough for me. Any idiots who believe it's a good idea to arm 13-year-olds need to be removed from civilization. I am surprised this community isn't going to be built on Alabama or Mississippi, though (if it happens.)

Alabama and Mississippi aren't nearly isolated enough - no mountains and valleys to squirrel away in and no snow & cold to keep out the less hardy types.

[jenny_islander]

I'm not surprised by what happened at Almost Heaven. The problem with American survivalists is that they all imagine themselves as the big boss rooster in the barnyard, or the alpha in the wolf pack.

The other problem is that as much as they like to talk about rugged independence and self-sufficiency, most of them rely on big piles of purchased supplies. Opening the box with the deliciously anti-Gummint logo (or deliciously paranoid lack of same) to reveal the latest object that will guarantee their survival when the sheeple turn into zombie hordes, or whatever, is an important ritual of self-affirmation. The actual discomfort of life without infrastructure is unthinkable. If a planned survivalist community did manage to hold together in the face of some massive country-shattering catastrophe, they would start killing each other a few days after the toilet paper ran out.

[Kitty]

Also, is it just me or do these things seem, oh, mutually exclusive:

By extension, I'd also guess that they won't have any building codes or design requirements so people will be at the mercy of wacko DIY homebuilders who may or may not be able to construct a residence that actually stays standing.

Maybe they'd allow a camera crew or time-lapse camera set-up to record all that goes on so that the rest of us can watch the implosion from a safe distance.

It's a good thing they're in Idaho rather than some coastal Southern state. Some shack built by a DIYer with little experience in homebuilding and no code to follow would be history after a hurricane.

Also, I'm tired of these right-wingnuts constantly bringing up 17th and 18th century thinkers to justify their bullshit. The world was very different during Thomas Jefferson's lifetime. He had a lot of good ideas, but those ideas made the most sense in his time, and would be kind of nutty now. Not to mention that his words are so frequently taken out of context. It's like he's an actual religious figure, like Jesus, but obviously not supernatural in any way. I'm about to start calling this bullshit done in his name Jeffersonianity.

[Sumeri]

Approved applicants receive a Lifetime Lease (paid off in only 30 years)

So basically, they have a mortgage, right? Like a 30 year mortgage? Only with no credit check, no preapproval, nothing except (I'm assuming) an option to buy and if you flake on your payments...then what? Do they shoot you?

[Maggie Mae]

http://www.iiicitadel.com/patriotagreement.html

So basically, if you have a 13 year old who sucks at shooting or doesn't attend his "battlefield medical training" you can lose your lease. Also, everyone 13 and older has to bring a rifle to the town community center? WTH.

[NeonJungle]

http://www.iiicitadel.com/index.html

By clicking around it seems this is to be funded/built around an arms company (what else?)

It is just ... I really cannot wrap my brain around this type thinking. How does one live in this country and get to the point where they have to create an isolationist community? And how are their tenets supported? I just do not get it.

[GeoBQn]

I sent the information to my dad, who owns both of James Wesley, Rawles' books. (I tried reading the first one since I like post-apocalyptic fiction. It was basically a survivalist manual that got interrupted by characters. And he made two villains atheist communists who literally eat fetuses.) My dad had already heard of this on the news, and the guy who is spearheading this Citadel project really seems like a con-artist. I predict that it's never going to materialize and he will run off with any money that people give for it.

[EyeQueue]

So basically, they have a mortgage, right? Like a 30 year mortgage? Only with no credit check, no preapproval, nothing except (I'm assuming) an option to buy and if you flake on your payments...then what? Do they shoot you?

I can't tell from their site how this is supposed to work, but when someone questioned this in the blog portion of the site, the lease was explained as a mechanism for keeping liberals out. Not sure how that wotks.

[darareaksmey]

Hmmmm. I wonder about freedom from the dreaded HOA. Perhaps the orgasm of patriotic fellowship will subside when their rube neighbors start having mountains of beer cans in their yard or decorate the driveway with an old beater up on cinder blocks.

[wildflower]

I would be scared shit-less to live anywhere near there. A collection of rednecks, hyped up about survival, surrounded by weapons, and egged on by each other's stupidity? Yeah I'll pass. I wonder what the communities surrounding that area think of this.

You're describing my childhood. No, it does not end well. :angry-banghead:

[Izzybee]

I predict that it's never going to materialize and he will run off with any money that people give for it.

Me too. What's delicious is that whoever coughs up that seed money or patriot fee or whatever it's called will be giving up money they could have spent on guns and ammo to a guy who can't even own a gun. Oh, that and they deserve to lose cash for lack of critical thinking skills. In our house, we call that the stupidity fee (as in, can't remember to remove cash from your pockets before putting clothes in the wash? Stupidity fee)

[miffy]

At least all the crazies will be in one place, away from everybody else. They will no doubt spend countless fireside hours discussing 'Jews did 9/11' 'Man never landed on moon' 'Nessie' 'Illuminati' 'doctors r evvvvviill'

I just don't get the survivalist idea. If end times ever happen, I don't want to live. I think it would be like my almost 93 yr old grandmother who only has a couple of sister in laws left & some cousins who are not much older than her children, no other family or friends in her age group are still alive. One she hates because her only interest having enough salt on her food & the other one is lovely, but 10 years younger than her. She is lonely because of this.

[tropaka]

At least all the crazies will be in one place, away from everybody else. They will no doubt spend countless fireside hours discussing 'Jews did 9/11' 'Man never landed on moon' 'Nessie' 'Illuminati' 'doctors r evvvvviill'

Guessing they won't have a local Masonic Temple/Hall then, eh?

I pulled the original article from a post about Glenn Beck's imagined "Independence" (guess he didn't bother to see there are other places of the same name - surprised he didn't go with Libertyville).

[Arete]

This reaks to high heaven of a scam. My take, some smarter rednecks are about to part some dumber rednecks from their cash.

[nonymouse]

I love how the Patriot Agreement suggests that it be read so those who aren't sure if they belong can "opt out of residency." You'd think most people would be clear on their views....

[lipstickgoalie]

Did anyone else catch the part in the FAQ where they compare themselves to Disneyland? Odd comparison to use, but ok patriot whackadoos.

Eta: I know the difference between a period and a question mark.

[RachelB]

I sent the information to my dad, who owns both of James Wesley, Rawles' books. (I tried reading the first one since I like post-apocalyptic fiction. It was basically a survivalist manual that got interrupted by characters. And he made two villains atheist communists who literally eat fetuses.) My dad had already heard of this on the news, and the guy who is spearheading this Citadel project really seems like a con-artist. I predict that it's never going to materialize and he will run off with any money that people give for it.

Honestly, that seems like the most preferable outcome to me. At least it wouldn't result in kids living in a shithole full of aggro people with more weapons than sense.

[SoybeanQueen]

It would probably make a really interesting TV show, but this is 100 kinds of scary. Aren't these types usually kind of crazed about property rights? Like, your pile of fire wood is one millimeter over onto my property line, imma shoot you! I imagine survivalists make terrible neighbors, and probably don't get along with their own kind very well once they're face to face. That "me, me, me" attitude is hard to make into a community!

Lifetime lease? Whose lifetime? If Pa Survivalist dies, his family is out of luck, I'd guess. The funny thing is that leased land versus outright owned land is common in China. Guessing that's not the place they're trying to recreate.

[hoipolloi]

This reaks to high heaven of a scam. My take, some smarter rednecks are about to part some dumber rednecks from their cash.

QFT - and I do like the point made that this will be money NOT spent on guns 'n ammo.

[Edited for riffle]

[jenny_islander]

I can't tell from their site how this is supposed to work, but when someone questioned this in the blog portion of the site, the lease was explained as a mechanism for keeping liberals out. Not sure how that wotks.

Only brave patriots who always hold their assault weapons at a phallic angle are tough enough to take on a 30-year mortgage, I guess.

Sure tells you the target pool of rubes for this scam, doesn't it? If you are so ignorant about home ownership that you have no clue that a 30-year mortgage is also a "lifetime lease" payable in 30 annual installments, give us your money! We'll take real good care of it. :shifty:

Oh, right, a 30-year mortgage also comes with the terrible encumbrances of having full-time professionals survey the property to make sure that nobody's septic system is dangerously close to anybody else's well, the foundations aren't rotten, there are no bizarre and possibly flammable things going on with the wiring . . . irrelevant stuff like that. I guess it's more patriotic to have your cousin's stepdad's buddy who worked on a construction site one time swear up and down that nothing's going to go wrong.

[mpheels]

Well, the lifetime lease at least explains how they will get around property tax - they won't! Individuals may not have to pay taxes directly to the county because they don't own the property, but the property owner will, and the funds will come from the monthly payments residents make. Same likely goes for any community maintenance/improvements that an HOA would normally cover. Can't wait for every apartment complex and landlord in the country to start boasting that you can avoid paying taxes if you just sell your house and rent!

[Sola]

I sort of want to leave a comment praising it, asking where I join up and then sign off as;

Muhammed Bin Ibrahim

Then sit back and watch the sparks fly.

[lilah]

Do it! You could ask them about building a mosque.

see how far their religous tolerance stretches.