DLTooley said:
I think Colorado is a tipping point State.
Colorado has been a destination for "off-gridders" for some years now. I know since the late 60's it was flooded with hippies and other young adventurist types, sometimes drawn in by popular media like John Denver, Steve Miller's "Rocky Mountain High" (wow, doesn't that have new relevance) and the increasing popularity of backpacking and climbing. The Aspen area used to be just another ski town with cheap motel prices in the off season. Now it's some of the most expensive real estate on earth and the surrounding areas are filled with multi-millionairs' massive chateaus. Gonzo journalist Hunter Thompson had a small cabin near there where he used to fire his collection of firearms off his porch while sipping whisky. For better or worse those days are gone.
An anarchist group, Squat the Planet (they still have a web site) set up a little community of tents etc. in hills near Boulder until a local sheriff dragged their leader off to a deserted road and murdered him in cold blood. He is not alone in that sentiment. And the sentiment has probably only grown since that time.
Colorado's flammability of the landscape there adds to residents' concerns of course. And this last incident of course could be THE tipping incident. Apparently someone of foreign origin intentionally set one (at least) of the fires currently raging in Colorado. The parallels to the infamous Reichstag Fire which the Nazis exploited to declare marshal law in Germany and suspend elections are alarming.
My experience in Colorado (as well as elsewhere) is that there are many there who moved from more populated areas - most notably California. People moving to more rural areas in the expectation that they are escaping the troubles of the city - crime, homelessness, immorality, congestion, pollution. When perceive it springing up in their midst, it sparks the fear that it's happening all over again and they take rapid measures to cut off what they perceive as the bud of their troubled past home before it spreads.
All this has massive relevance to boondockers, full-time RVers, aspiring off-gridders as we may see locking of forest access roads, defunding of federal agencies, and increasingly oppressive law enforcement measures to stem nomadic lifestyles of all kinds. And it's probably no coincidence that these measures serve more than the goals of Colorado rural residents.
