I went to high school in the next town over. Snowflake, Show Low, St. Johns, Pinetop and Heber are in many ways the remnants of the Mormon diaspora in the 1870s. Those little towns in NE Arizona were founded by Mormon polygamists who were sent away to preserve Mormonism in the face of increasing Federal pressure to abandon polygamy. The founders had survived the Mormon Reformation in the 1850's and 60's-- people fervent enough to survive a religious narrowing and tough enough to survive the series of famines caused by drought and locusts, and they passed that cultural history down. The towns remain somewhere north of 90% Mormon, and increasingly radically conservative.
Those communities have a deep-seated culture of separatism and a cultural expectation of repression. They take a grim pleasure in the idea that they are opposed and oppressed. Heritage '76 (the anti-abortion printers) are based there. My high school history teacher was a goldbug who revered Bo Gritz, taught New World Orderism and conspiracy theories instead of, ya know, American History, and was a survivalist (all whilst taking a government salary with full benefits, natch.) This was in the late 80's, before the Internet became a stellar vector for teh Crazy. I was 15, then, and I spent much of that school year walking out of class, down to the vice principal's office to complain, then to the library to actually study the American History I was supposed to be learning. Went to a lot of school board meetings, too. He was never disciplined, though the agreement finally reached was that I would do my homework, the school librarian would grade it, and I would get credit for work done. I was the only one to pass the AP American History test that year.
That same year, my AP biology class had a project on ecological sustainability, that included building the plans for a 1 acre sustainable human habitat. About half of the projects submitted were walled compounds with bunkers and moats for defense; about half of those had relatively enormous houses intended for polygamy after some sort of apocalyptic end. (Bio teacher was not a survivalist, did teach evolution and the scientific method, told students that the religion discussions should take place at the Seminary or at home. That edict stuck. It helped that he was the football coach, too, and was excellent at both jobs.) High school juniors relished the idea of a Red Dawn future. They learned that at home, in church and at school. When we did college counseling with the guidance counselor, girls were presented with two options - Ricks College (a 2 year Mormon owned and operated junior college) or BYU. Everywhere else, I had to apply on my own - the GC had no faintest clue how to help. That sounds awful, but boys didn't even get that - they would be going on missions after all, and college would have to wait.
The community was and, according to my mother who still has friends there, is still extremely racist. Many never accepted the 1978 revelation. Many truly believed that Native Americans had to be converted as a means of ethnic cleansing by forced assimilation. Until the mid-eighties, kids were still being removed from their families on the Hopi and Navajo (Diné) reservations and force-fostered in Mormon communities. Outsiders of any sort were barely tolerated - especially those who came as representatives of the government (including my father, a civil engineer working on the state highways.) We didn't eat in the local restaurant (singular) after trying once - our food was spat upon and my 6 year old sister's meal was coated with pepper. My tires were slashed/flattened three times, our firewood was set on fire twice, our dog was killed and somebody pooped in my mother's garden. I've been back a couple times since then -- it feels more insular, more embattled, more reactionary. Though I'm white, living there taught me, at least in part, what growing up black in Little Rock or Selma must have been like. In large part, those people are why I'm a liberal and a Democrat.
There's a significant percentage in these communities who want an excuse for a revolution, and another significant portion who may not want revolution, but would tolerate and go along with one. It's fine for us, far away and secure from that prejudice, to say let them do as they please, but there are a few liberals in that region. Before my father worked for the state, he was a Seabee (Naval Corps of Engineers). When he was in the service, his weapons were never in the house. After moving up there, we started keeping them, and I was taught to shoot, because my father assessed the chance for a lynching as possible. (Dad is many unpleasant things, but on threat assessment, he was not paranoid.) Liberals in the area do keep weapons for hunting and self defense. Should the survivalists and wannabe revolutionaries take it into their heads to start something, those few will be endangered. I agree that shooting back won't help, but armed liberals may forestall the shooting from starting.
Most of me fully supports and encourages any of the bitter losers who want to Go Galt. Most of me would help them pack. But I have a fifteen year old girl in me, who wanted nothing more than an education and an opportunity, who remembers how embattled she felt. That part of me worries for those still there.
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