this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2026
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Leopards Ate My Face

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Terry Zink has spent 57 years building a life in Montana’s backcountry. The 57-year-old third-generation houndsman from Marion—a remote town nestled deep within the Flathead National Forest—runs a small archery target business serving outdoor recreation workers and guides who, until recently, had steady employment managing America’s public lands. Contents

Those workers are disappearing. Their jobs are gone. And Zink, who voted for Trump in 2024, is watching his customer base—and his livelihood—vanish before his eyes.

“You won’t meet anyone more conservative than me, and I didn’t vote for this,” Zink told Politico reporters as he surveyed the damage. “You cannot fire our firefighters. You cannot fire our trail crews. You have to have selective logging, water restoration, and healthy forests” (1).

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[–] veniasilente@lemmy.dbzer0.com 33 points 11 hours ago

Yes you did.

[–] PissingIntoTheWind@lemmy.world 7 points 9 hours ago

They can get fucked. You wanted this. You got it.

[–] mysticpickle@lemmy.ca 29 points 13 hours ago

Awww is someone having a hard time finding his bootstraps? 😁

[–] Jaysyn@lemmy.world 30 points 13 hours ago

You did vote for this & you were also warned.

You're just a sucker.

[–] Bubbaonthebeach@lemmy.ca 27 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

'I didn't vote this." Yes. Yes you did. You didn't want to hear others tell you what you were voting for. You wanted to believe your own fantasy version. Even now, most MEGA voters want to believe their own fantasy of what Trump will do for America over the truth of what he is actively doing.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 5 points 9 hours ago

thats why they fall for scams quite easily, they trump is just kidding or he suddenly reverses what he does, nope he doesnt. only the 1st term he had people preventing him from doing too much damage, this time no one is going to stop trump and his cronies, conservatives also want to blame democrats, but dems arnt in power anymore.

[–] Typhoon@lemmy.ca 63 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

“You won’t meet anyone more conservative than me, and I didn’t vote for this,”

You consistently voted for this. Every time conservatives are in power they cut services and environmental protections. You voted for it over and over again but this time it actually hurt you and you're sad.

[–] pupbiru@aussie.zone 10 points 13 hours ago

this time it hurt you in a way that you noticed

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 2 points 9 hours ago

also cut TAXES for actual rich people, not for poors whom seem to think they will benefit from such tax cuts for the rich somehow.

[–] RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world 16 points 13 hours ago

Do people just not understand how voting works, or what the word means? Do they maybe think it's short for Devote?

[–] mrgoosmoos@lemmy.ca 21 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

The workers who lost their jobs weren’t desk-bound administrators. They were firefighters, trail maintenance crews, wildlife biologists, rangers, foresters, and seasonal workers who kept public lands accessible and safe. They were the people who made it possible for outfitters, guides, hunters, ranchers, and tourism operators to do business.

try doing that without desk-bound administrators and see how it goes

The betrayal is particularly acute because these workers weren’t making big government salaries. Forest Service seasonal workers typically earn $15 to $18 per hour. Park rangers make $35,000 to $50,000 annually. These were working-class jobs that supported working-class families in rural communities with few other options.

isn't this the same group of people who claim that minimum wage is too high?

[–] JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 97 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

Of course not. He voted for other people to lose their jobs.

Maybe he should reflect on what it's like to be "other people".

[–] lobut@lemmy.ca 39 points 16 hours ago

If they had empathy, they wouldn't be conservative.

[–] aceshigh@lemmy.world 11 points 17 hours ago

His situation is a mistake that needs to be rectified, everyone else deserved it.

[–] jballs@sh.itjust.works 26 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

These are real jobs held by real people in small towns across Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and Arizona—states that overwhelmingly voted for Trump.

Whoa whoa whoa, don't lump Colorado in with those states. We absolutely did NOT vote for that piece of shit - 3 times in a row.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 1 points 9 hours ago

he said "real" jobs.

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[–] spaghettiwestern@sh.itjust.works 248 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) (3 children)

“You won’t meet anyone more conservative than me, and I didn’t vote for this,” Zink told Politico...

Right. You voted for other people to lose their jobs. In reality you voted for and deserve exactly what you're getting.

[–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 124 points 21 hours ago (3 children)

“You won’t meet anyone more conservative than me, and I didn’t vote for this,”

Ha, I grabbed that quote too.

Narrator Voice: But He did. He actually did vote for this.

[–] foodandart@lemmy.zip 25 points 19 hours ago (4 children)

honestly, what I hear when these nitwits say this is "I spent all my time being told what to think by people on TV (famous celebrities! Ooooo!) in the media that I was easily impressed by..."

It's the full flower of the Southern Strategy that Lee Atwater leveraged in 1980 to help Reagan take the election. The early 80's was also when Paul Manafort, Roger Stone and Lee Atwater - broke into politics in the biggest way and cemented lying and couched racism as right wing political tools..

https://democracyjournal.org/magazine/75/creatures-of-the-swamp/

It's been all downhill for the US since then.

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[–] SeductiveTortoise@piefed.social 9 points 15 hours ago

Just because you're too dumb to understand the consequences doesn't mean you're shielded from them.

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[–] kboos1@lemmy.world 156 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

So his business is built around serving federal government employees and federal spending, he voted to reduce federal spending and is upset that it negatively affected his business.

Whhhhhaaattt????

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 1 points 9 hours ago

doge pretty much eliminated most if not all the federal employees and spending.

[–] WanderWisley@lemmy.world 17 points 15 hours ago
[–] ignirtoq@feddit.online 73 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

"I believed we were cutting waste in Washington,” Mitchell said in an interview with local news. “I didn’t think they’d fire the people actually fighting fires and maintaining trails. That’s not waste—that’s the actual work.”

It's all actual work. The relentless assault on all federal institutions for the last half century had the initial effect of making the vast majority of them the most efficient systems in existence. Both political parties initially agreed they should not be wasteful, and through several rounds of reform they became more efficient than private organizations doing the same job can even theoretically be. But it's never actually been about "waste," and they stated cutting bone by the early 2000s. The only federal jobs left do actual work, and better, more important work than the vast majority of private sector jobs.

The waste is in private contracts that don't fund public sector jobs. But DOGE didn't go for those.

[–] favoredponcho@lemmy.zip 21 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (4 children)

I would argue they didn’t become more efficient. They just outsourced everything to private contractors. And private contractors have an overhead of needing to compete for contracts, so they’re all spending money on staff that writes up the bids. Additionally, they only hire the workers when they win the contract and those contracts usually expire after 5-10 years. This means there is no long term, institutional capacity building. It might be fine for small projects, but for large complex projects, tearing down an organization only to reassemble it under another contractor every 5-10 years is in fact terribly inefficient and produces worse outcomes. Organizations cannot become good at the work. I’ve seen it first hand. There are many contractors that specialize only in federal procurement regulations, but have almost no in house technical knowledge of how to run the projects they’re bidding on beyond what is they need to say to win. And, most importantly, knowing what to say to win is different than having a mature organization in place to do the work.

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[–] MisterOwl@lemmy.world 29 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Yes, you did. Fucking idiot. Enjoy being homeless.

[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 10 points 15 hours ago

Especially in a country where criminalizing homelessness is literally a bipartisan issue.

[–] ProfThadBach@lemmy.world 34 points 18 hours ago (3 children)

We tried to fucking tell you chucklefucks what was going to happen if Trump was elected. Project 2025 laid it all out plain as day but you still fucking gargled his shit covered balls so fuck you fuck you fuck you.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 1 points 9 hours ago

OBAMA broke the minds of moderate republicans, and liberterians. cant have a black man as a president, this ensure also no woman will be a president ever in america too.

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[–] SillyGooseQuacked@lemmy.world 91 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) (4 children)

Folks from rural areas prioritize cultural signaling for conservativism over economic growth. I'd hazard that Mr. Zink would probably vote Trump again, given the opportunity, if the opposite candidate publicly supported trans rights or was just a Democratic black woman.

Edit:

Goosechase.jpg "You won't meet anyone more conservative than me, and I didn't vote for this"

"WHAT DID YOU VOTE FOR THEN"

[–] Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 59 points 21 hours ago

"WHAT DID YOU VOTE FOR THEN"

Conservatives: "We voted for the child rapist."

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 1 points 9 hours ago

they love vice signalling as well as virtue signalling.

[–] U7826391786239@lemmy.zip 41 points 21 hours ago

“WHAT DID YOU VOTE FOR THEN”

for white unarmed mother of 3 to be murdered and called a terrorist because she was murdered

[–] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 35 points 21 hours ago (10 children)

God people in rural communities are so stupid when they vote. I live in a very lopsided state. Just for ease of understanding, about 80% of the state is rural, but also 80% of the people live in the cities. Rural folks often forget just how many more people live in cities.

So they get resentful and say "why are MAH tax dollars going to all them city folks"! I've had this talk so many times with them, why should they pay (like pennies or their salary) to my city improvements just because they're state taxes?

Well, rural guy, because in actuality "us city folk" subsidize all of the rural state. They think they're paying for our stuff but turns out density is way cheaper and way more economically viable than rural. So we subsidize them all the time. I always remind them who do they think pays for the roads, the infrastructure, their state parks? It's not them and their low tax income. Their life depends on the city people

And then they vote to hurt us by cutting programs... And forget that we were paying for them to be on those programs.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 1 points 9 hours ago

"I love the poorly educated"- TRUMP and ever GOP ever.

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[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 10 points 15 hours ago

Oh, Terry, you sweet summer child.

What did you expect would get cut when Donald told you he was going to take a saw to our government?

[–] SnarkoPolo@lemmy.world 9 points 15 hours ago

You wanted fascism, Zinky. Well, you got it. And you better thank Dear Leader and Jesus. You live in the Greatest Country In The World, and God gave you bootstraps!

Quit crying and get a job, weakling. Hail Trump.

[–] pyrinix@kbin.melroy.org 50 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Sorry, I'm not sympathetic. You've damned us all because of your poorly uneducated choices.

You did vote to lose your job. You deserve to lose your job. More people are going to lose their job, like you.

And you voted for it.

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[–] mp3@lemmy.ca 11 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago) (1 children)

It's like signing a contract, you have only yourself to blame if the contract sucks but didn't read it before putting your signature on it.

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[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 40 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

I didn’t vote for this

Edit: Pardon the comma splice. I found such cheese.

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[–] Dogiedog64@lemmy.world 23 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

Here champ, you dropped this.

[–] BigMacHole@sopuli.xyz 39 points 21 hours ago

You LIBTARD RAPISTS need to have Compassion! He THOUGHT that only Brown and Gay people would be Effected! If he had KNOWN he would ALSO be Effected he would have STILL voted for Trump! So have some COMPASSION RAPIST LIBTARDS!

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