Jacob Johnson (Victory Drive Podcast)

Why do I go after leftist public lands NGOs? They’re almost exclusively run by Beltway liberals and urbanites who attack rural American ways of life like ranching, multi use land policies, and push changes such as dam removals that locals usually don’t approve of. They just don’t care what the “yokels and hillbillies” think. We just don’t know what’s best for us. These NGOs are simply the latest wave of urbanites who’ve always believed they know better. Owens Lake is a perfect example. Los Angeles is full of outdoorsy REI Americans who hike in places like Big Bear and San Jacinto and write checks to green orgs. How many of them know their own city created the worst dust pollution problem in America? LA lied, stole, and muscled its way into controlling most of the Owens Valley’s water rights, then drained the lake. What’s left is a toxic alkali dust bowl. How many Angelenos or their politicians are demanding the water be returned? The fact that they had to be sued just to put 5% of the water back to knock down the dust storms should tell you everything. Urban America and its favorite NGOs love lecturing rural people about how to manage the public lands near our homes. Yet, they never seem to reckon with the environmental destruction that built their cities in the first place and sustain them to this day. There’s a lesson in that.