[RoyalHenOil]

They are making a joke that ranchers in Colorado are trigger-happy cowboys and will murder someone like me for suggesting that their current ranching methods are bad and need to be updated.

The joke is based on a very Hollywood-informed idea of what this region is like (think Wild West movies and TV shows). It is not a reflection of reality.

[naravara]

Not being in or from the region, my impression from brief interactions with the lobbyists they send up to Washington has been that many of the ranchers are, themselves, trying to cosplay a Wild West fantasy. But this is probably largely overrepresenting the "gentleman ranchers" (who are actually just heirs to oil money or something) who own a ranch as a lifestyle aesthetic rather than a livelihood.

However, it does seem that these guys have a dramatically outsized influence in political representation around these interests unfortunately.

[tomcam]

Untrue but I genuinely like your prose style