>>Same here. It was a very rude awakening.
During the siege, I supported the government while friends tried to convince me that this is the REAL government and not the stable, benign one that I imagined was reality.
When that tank started rolling and the fires started, I reconsidered my opinions on Ruby Ridge and I knew they were right.
I didn't support the government on general principles, thought Koresh was over the top cult leader, wished the people wouldn't have followed him, but after days of it via MSM news (didn't have the internet until 1997 and would read ussenet at first, found my way here by about 2002).
Nobody mentioned they had WMD. That was one of the pretexts for the raid, just one bit I do remember.
From there, Morris Dees came out with Violence on the Plain, got that and read it. Then got a short wave radio and listened to the militia side of it, the Republic of Texas Freedom movement, mostly the Michigan Militia. I didn't want to be involved with them but started to see another side to it.
Ruby Ridge don't remember too much about it, not something I would do (religious extremism) but didn't like the govt sting to entrap him, then kill his son and wife holding their baby in cold blood. That upset me. He got a settlement from the govt eventually and was living with his father as I recall, haven't heard anything since.
Nothing excuses Timothy McVeigh or OKC but that was when I started realizing we can never get to the bottom of a lot of things. I did follow that trial. Clearing away the rubble so quickly, a common element in Waco, OKC and WTC 911.
My nice little short wave radio broke and haven't listened for many years. And still get a lot of my news from MSM for balance because some truth in much of it but realize it is tainted any number of ways to follow a general narrative. I even blame the MSM for ginning up violence against the police.
But I learned a lot from all these events and the way MSM, the govt, and conspiracies that grow around them. Some things are true and don't make sense. And if people only get their news from the MSM, they don't know the half of what might have really happened and by whom (and I never will either).
If there were some inside bad apples in all of this, they have totally gotten away with it.
And I realize the futility of fighting the government if any group tried what is now happening in Iran. And shudder to think what will happen with Democrats again but fear the inevitibality they will succeed. Rush ominously predicted yesterday the Puerto Ricans are mad at Trump and blame him, are moving to the US in droves, are citizens but can only vote primaries in Puerto Rico. About 200K are in FL now, by 2018 could be 400K. If they register to vote and vote, I don't know if we could ever have a conservative or even RINO president again.