RW assholes in the plant nursery.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

I had an upsetting experience in my first journey away from home since the middle of April. I went to a local Amish nursery. Most of the customers wore masks. However, the staff did not. Nor did they keep their distance.

I should have left then. But, I was eager to get some plants going and this place has the best prices around. (Price being especially important lately due to COVID-19 financial impact on our household.)

So I spend about 20 minutes shopping, and had still not decided, when in came a 45ish yo woman with two hillbilly-punk teens, none of them wearing masks. The young women were not really shopping, just being rowdy inside the relatively small greenhouse. The older woman with them was also maskless. I had to keep running away from them, as they were not going to keep their distance.

No doubt in my mind the mask-less customers were Republicans. I don't know if the Amish participate in politics, but if they did, they'd definitely be Republicans.

I ended up making some purchases, for which I later felt really guilty. I was so conflicted because I didn't not want to support this irresponsible business. Yet, I'd already spent the time there and wanted the plants.

It's one thing to know these Republican assholes are out there, but being exposed to them was highly disturbing.

[captain queeg]

1. I don't know. I worked with Amish for years. They are conservative but really doubt they'd support a

Lying, amoral asshole like trump. They aren’t angels but they do have some strict moral code they adhere to.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

5. Wow, that's totally different from what my friend who works with them says.

From his pretty extensive experience , they're not honest. While they are strict in a way regarding their religious beliefs, they're like RW Rs in that they don't seem to really adhere to it where they don't feel like it.

In my experience with the women who run the store, they don't outright lie, but they don't exactly always tell the truth, either. M

[LakeArenal]

8. Wow that is totally different. Never knew them to lie

But I’ll tell you one thing, they are far better businessmen than religious leaders.

They are in business to make money. Period.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

10. So true. I started with a very unrealistic view of them as kind of hippies living off the land.

I was shocked to learn that they use massive amounts of chemical fertilizer and pesticides on what they grow. My friend who lives close the them says he can grow veggies with no insect problems because the pesticides from the adjoining Amish farms waft over. A blessing and a curse, I guess, as when he buys produce, it's usually organic.

[LakeArenal]

11. Generators too.

[LakeArenal]

2. I have Amish friends who tended to say things like:

I heard good things about “a conservative.”

Like Ron Johnson. Otherwise they don’t vote.

I’m sure they have not heard much about the virus.

My Amish friends were totally self sufficient. Never going to any supermarket or department store. Not even the Amish grocery store.

They own a greenhouse and my friend Rosanna runs it. He farms and labors in the greenhouse. I’m sure they won’t be wearing masks. They have no health insurance and pay cash. Her granddaughter was born having seizures. They paid cash for her treatment. Must have been a fortune.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

6. In PA, where I live the Amish are not nearly as isolated and unaware.

Especially of of big things like a pandemic.

If I'd read this below beforehand, I would have been more patient and not bought anything until I my appointment this week at another nursery that's actually taking the virus seriously.

On Thursday, Lapp, the tour operator, was helping deliver fabric masks that the Amish are making to the Lancaster Health Center. The masks are being sewn at Bird-in-Hand Fabric, and while not medical grade, they are “better than nothing,” he said. The Amish are reading newspapers and know what’s happening, but "at the same time, they’re not wearing masks, they’re not social distancing themselves, and I do fear for their elderly. "

https://www.inquirer.com/news/amish-coronavirus-religion-covid-pennsylvania-masks-20200327.html

[mobeau69]

3. Seems like they avoid what could be their fair share of taxes.

A lot of cash sales and no gasoline taxes but they use the roads to buggy around nonetheless.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

4. Precisely.

Also, while they can't have their own cars, phones, etc., they're perfectly happy, in fact, often rather persistent about getting rides in other people's cars, using other people's phones, etc.

[concreteblue]

7. Where my wife is from is western KY

Where my wife is from is western KY, "driving Amish" is a job.....

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

9. I'm guessing it is around here, too. Say with Amish construction crews working far enough away from

their home base that using horse-drawn conveyances isn't feasible. I just know that among my friends who live close to Amish people it's a know issue that they're often imposed upon to drive them for free. Of course, maybe they're just complaining, as people tend to do, and making it sound more of a problem than it really is.

[LakeArenal]

12. They pay property tax, income tax and sales tax inWI.

We have every type of Amish store. They have receipts.

I wouldn’t say they skim anymore than bar owners, salon workers, servers or other greenhouses.

[captain queeg]

13. It's been many years since I worked with the Amish in Ohio

The guy who talked about driving them around is right, I had friend who did that. He drove a carpentry crew to work. After awhile they gave him a list of things they wanted him to fix on his old van or they’d fire him which is what happened. He thought the real reason was because he kept bugging them to teach him carpentry. They are renowned carpenters.

I worked in a slaughterhouse with them. Most all the kill floor was Amish, just a few of them worked in the cooler with me and the rest of the “Yankees”. They’d use power equipment on the job but not in their home. One guys dad had a wood shop, he had a telephone in the shop and I imagine power tools but not in the home. I’ve ridden in a buggy with one and even let one of the young ones drive my car. I was taking him home from work. He saw his dad out in the field and said Oh shit and slammed the car into park (fortunately in a gravel road) and rolled out of the car into the ditch and told me to keep going. Apparently they aren’t usually full blown Amish till they marry. Most of the Amish drink beer and they sort of look the other way when the kids smoke and raise hell. I’m not sure if they vote but I suspect they do. They don’t like paying taxes so that might get them to vote but generally don’t participate in modern life. They didn’t believe man had been to the moon so they are capable of denying reality. But I still don’t think they’d approve of trump with multiple wife’s and use of prostitutes.