Whites-only community plotting expansion to another state as its efforts to build a ‘white nation' continue
Return to the Land (RTTL), which describes itself as a private membership association (PMA) for individuals with 'traditional views and European ancestry,' opened its first community in Arkansas in October 2023 and is now considering entering a second state, according to TMZ.
The group is opposed to mass immigration, multiculturalism and 'forced integration' and reportedly does not welcome non-white, non-Christian or LGBT+ people, explaining that its members are seeking to 'separate ourselves from a failing modern society' and return to pastoral living.
'You want a white nation? Build a white town?' RTTL's co-founder Eric Orwoll asks in an X video promoting the initiative. 'It can be done. We're doing it.'
RTTL's flagship community spans 150 acres of land, is home to approximately 40 inhabitants, and features its own cabins, roads, wells, a community center, and a schoolhouse.
It was followed by a second site nearby that opened in January this year, with the group listing a further Ozarks site as upcoming and aspirations to move into the Appalachian mountains on its website.
Speaking to Sky News journalist Tom Cheshire – who visited RTTL's first 'fortress for the white race' and found a world of fresh goat's milk, flute recitals, family kickball games and creek swimming – Orwoll expressed a nostalgia for the America of the 17th century encountered by the Virginia settlers.
'I would probably feel more comfortable there because I'm white and that's the way this country was when my ancestors came there,' he said, overlooking the Native Americans soon to be displaced by the colonists.
'Even if an individual has all the same values that I have, if they have an ethnic identity that other people share and care about, their children will also have that identity, and their children might not necessarily have all the same beliefs that they have.'
On his ambitions for RTTL's expansion, he said: 'I would like to have more communities so that people in all parts of the U.S. have this as an option if they want. I would also like us to network and branch out internationally.'
Part of that branching out includes online fundraising campaigns, one of which seeks donations to enable the group to pay 'cash rewards to parents of newborns as a means to incentivize population growth,' which was halfway towards its modest $10,000 goal at the time of writing.
For a back-to-nature movement, RTTL is surprisingly active on social media, posting updates on the progress of its construction projects, wildlife photography, and even illustrations from children's books to promote its vision of rural idyll.
Orwoll – who frames the debate surrounding his project as a 'First Amendment issue' and a 'freedom issue' about 'doing what we want on our own private land' – has invested tens of thousands of dollars into research on its legality.
He believes its PMA status exempts it from legislation like the Civil Rights Act or the Fair Housing Act, which mandate equality and outlaw discrimination, although that is by no means an opinion shared by all experts.
Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin, for one, said in a statement responding to RTTL's practices: 'Racial discrimination has no place in Arkansas or anywhere in a free society. These allegations raise all sorts of legal issues, including constitutional concerns. My office is reviewing the matter.'
Barry Jefferson, president of the Arkansas chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), said: 'I just truly believe that we don't need to get back to the Jim Crow era. We've been through that before. I think no one should be discriminated against because of their skin colour.
'If you really look deep into the Civil Rights Act, it doesn't state that. I think they're misunderstanding what it states because there have been many organisations that tried to carve that out. That's not right.'
The Anti-Defamation League has been even more blunt about RTTL, accusing it of trying to revive 'discredited and reprehensible forms of segregation.'
Asked by Sky about the more overtly racist aspects of his organization, including the sharing of white supremacist slogans in its Telegram channel and his own thoughts on a 'second coming' of Adolf Hitler, Orwoll did not shy away, saying conventional opinion on the Nazi leader is 'one-sided' and informed by Second World War propaganda.
'I think all historical figures are complex, multi-dimensional,' he said.
'But when I say, 'you're gonna have to wait for that new Hitler to arise', I'm not saying you're going to have to wait for a new person to start a new Holocaust.
'I am saying you are going to wait for a charismatic leader who is going to advocate for your interests because that's how a lot of people see Hitler.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
10 hours ago
- The Guardian
Democrats use new tactic to highlight Trump's gutting of Medicaid: billboards in the rural US
The road to four struggling rural hospitals now hosts a political message: 'If this hospital closes, blame Trump.' In a series of black-and-yellow billboards erected near the facilities, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) seeks to tell voters in deep red states 'who is responsible for gutting rural healthcare'. 'UNDER TRUMP'S WATCH, STILWELL GENERAL HOSPITAL IS CLOSING ITS DOORS,' one sign screams. The billboards are outside hospitals in Silex, Missouri; Columbus, Indiana; Stilwell, Oklahoma; and Missoula, Montana. The fate of rural hospitals has become a politically contentious issue for Republicans, as historic cuts pushed through by the GOP are expected to come into effect over the next decade. Trump's enormous One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) cut more than $1tn from Medicaid, the public health insurance program for low-income and disabled Americans, insuring more than 71 million adults. 'Where the real impact is going to be is on the people who just won't get care,' said Dave Kendall, senior fellow for health and fiscal policy at Third Way, a center-left advocacy organization. 'That's what used to happen before we had rural hospitals – they just don't get the care because they can't afford it, and they can't get to the hospital.' In response to criticism, Republicans added a $50bn 'rural health transformation fund' just before passage of the OBBBA. The fund is expected to cover about one-third of the losses rural areas will face, and about 70% of the losses for the four hospitals where Democrats now have nearby billboards. The rural health fund provides money through 2030, while the Medicaid cuts are not time-bound. That is already becoming a political football, as Democrats argued in a letter that the money is a 'slush fund' already promised to key Republican Congress members. 'We are alarmed by reports suggesting these taxpayer funds are already promised to Republican members of Congress in exchange for their votes in support of the Big, Ugly Betrayal,' wrote 16 Democratic senators in a letter to Dr Mehmet Oz, Trump's head of Medicare and Medicaid. 'In addition, the vague legislative language creating this fund will seemingly function as your personal fund to be distributed according to your political whims.' Rural hospitals have been under financial strain for more than a decade. Since 2010, 153 rural hospitals have closed or lost the inpatient services which partly define a hospital, according to the University of North Carolina Sheps Center for Health Services Research. 'In states across the country, hospitals are either closing their doors or cutting critical services, and it's Trump's own voters who will suffer the most,' said the DNC chair, Ken Martin, in a statement announcing the billboards. The OBBBA is expected to further exacerbate those financial strains. A recent analysis by the Urban Institute found rural hospitals are likely to see an $87bn loss in the next 10 years. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion 'We're expecting rural hospitals to close as a result – we've already started to see some hospitals like, 'OK, how are we going to survive?'' said Third Way's Kendall. A June analysis by the Sheps Center found that 338 rural hospitals, including dozens in states such as Louisiana, Kentucky and Oklahoma, could close as a result of the OBBBA. There are nearly 1,800 rural hospitals nationally, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), a healthcare research non-profit. That perspective was buttressed by the CEO of the National Rural Health Association, Alan Morgan, who in a recent newsletter said 45% of rural hospitals are already operating at a loss. 'When you remove $155bn over the next 10 years, it's going to have an impact,' he said. In the fragmented US healthcare ecosystem, Medicaid is both the largest and poorest payer of healthcare providers. Patients benefit from largely no-cost care, but hospitals complain that Medicaid rates don't pay for the cost of service, making institutions that disproportionately rely on Medicaid less financially stable. In rural areas, benefit-rich employer health insurance is harder to come by; therefore, more hospitals depend on Medicaid. But even though Medicaid pays less than other insurance programs, some payment is still better than none. Trump's OBBBA cut of more than $1tn from the program over the coming decade is expected to result in nearly 12 million people losing coverage. When uninsured people get sick, they are more likely to delay care, more likely to use hospital emergency rooms and more likely to struggle to pay their bills. In turn, the institutions that serve them also suffer. 'This is what Donald Trump does – screw over the people who are counting on him,' said Martin, the DNC chair. 'These new DNC billboards plainly state exactly what is happening to rural hospitals under Donald Trump's watch.'
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Daily Mail
The government-run supermarket that cost Kansas City taxpayers $29M
A government-run supermarket that has cost Kansas City taxpayers $29million is filled with empty shelves and rotten smells, according to shoppers. Images at the Sun Fresh grocery store show mostly bare shelves and coolers as well as empty meat, produce and deli departments. Shoppers said the store once held the fresh items they needed, but that it has been mostly empty for the last three months - and that some of products available appear to be expired. 'The milk, I am scared to buy some,' shopper Michaelle Randolph told KMBC. 'Even the dates, they may have a few days over. I don't want to buy that.' 'It's a rancid odor. I think something is dead or something's gone bad,' added shopper Jon Murphy. The store opened in 2018 in Kansas City; it was part of a project to bring life back into the city's embattled east side, which did not have a grocery store before. Kansas City, Missouri, has recently been compared to the Mad Max movie series , which offered a terrifying vision of society collapsing into anarchic tribal violence amid resource wars and ecocide. News of the government-owned grocery store's fate comes as several progressive politicians lobby for city-funded grocery stores to help low-income neighborhoods. The Democrats' candidate for New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani has proposed the creation of five city-owned supermarkets to operate 'without a profit motive.' Meanwhile residents of the area told The Washington Post they are scared to go to the store because of the rampant drug dealing and vagrancy both inside and outside the store. Crooks and hoodlums have little to fear, residents said, as Kansas City has not had its own jail since 2009, and can only access a few dozen detention beds in lockups in nearby counties. Surveillance cameras inside the store have caught several concerning at the shopping center, including a naked woman walking through the store, a person urinating and a couple fornicating on the lawn of the library in broad daylight. According to local media, the store has received $28,997,400 in taxpayer money through bonds, loans, ordinances and subsidies. But there is little to show for it, with the store a very poor cousin of privately-run supermarkets nearby whose clean aisles are stuffed with fresh food. The City of Kansas owns the shopping center where the grocery store is located, after it spent $17 million to buy it and fix it up. The store is run by the nonprofit Community Builders KC, and the city reportedly collects revenue from a 1 percent retail sales tax on purchases. But the supermarket lost $885,000 last year, according to The Washington Post, and now only has 4,000 shoppers a week - down from from 14,000 a few years ago. When asked about the store's poor state, Kansas City Democratic mayor defended the project. 'Mayor [Quinton] Lucas and Kansas City remain deeply committed to access to healthy food on the Prospect corridor,' the mayor's office told KSHB. 'The City will work closely with store ownership and all neighborhood stakeholders to support the long-term viability of the store based on normal revenues from customers and area consumers.' Since its opening, the city has spent tens of thousands of dollars on security as the store dealt with crime in the area of the shopping center.
The Independent
3 days ago
- The Independent
Far-right group establishes ‘whites-only' community with 40 residents
Joe Sommerlad Thursday 24 July 2025 17:12 BST Return to the Land's first settlement site in rural Arkansas (Aarvoll/YouTube) Return to the Land (RTTL), a far-right ethnonationalist group, has established a "whites-only" community in remote Arkansas and is reportedly planning expansion into Missouri. Describing itself as a private membership association, RTTL welcomes only individuals of "European ancestry" with "traditional views," aiming to separate from modern society. RTTL's flagship community spans approximately 150 acres of land, is home to 40 inhabitants, and features its own cabins, roads, wells, a community center, and a schoolhouse. A second community was established near the first in January this year and the group lists aspirations to move into the Appalachian mountains on its website. Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin, the NAACP, and the Anti-Defamation League have raised significant concerns, accusing RTTL of racial discrimination and attempting to revive segregation. In full
