Kentucky’s far-right utopia: Venture capital-backed real estate startup sets up haven for families fed up with ‘DEI, ESG and gayborhoods’ with EMPTY LOTS for up to $400,000 to escape America’s ‘cultural insanity’

Real estate developers with ties to far-right groups are marketing a rural retreat for like-minded Christian nationalists fleeing “cultural madness.”

The Highland Rim Project consists of two parcels of land in Kentucky, on either side of Burkesville, near the Tennessee border, divided into dozens of vacant lots.

One 460-acre tract sold for about $900,000 in 2022, and the other 170-acre tract sold for $1.03 million, property records showed.

They were purchased by Kentucky Ridge Runner LLC with the backing of venture fund New Founding, both of which shared the same leadership.

Both entities embrace far-right ideology and spend much time denigrating a mainstream America that they claim is overrun by the “totalitarian left.”

Instead, they promote a remote ‘aligned community’ where buyers can ‘disappear from the cultural frenzy of the wider country’.

“With the rise of remote work and broadband in rural areas, and the masses of people looking to leave the city and return to a healthier lifestyle, an opportunity has presented itself,” Ridge Runner wrote on its website.

“There is an opportunity for people to build new kinds of communities, built around shared values ​​and the American way of life.”

New Founding prides itself on “explicitly opposing DEI/ESG and the bureaucratization of American business culture” and betting on “clients who don’t like subversive ideologies.”

Joshua Abbotoy, managing partner of New Founding and, along with his father Mark, a partner at Ridge Runner, said “most of the leadership will be led by Protestant Christians” and hoped to spread further.

‘The aim is that we continue to do this in the long term, twenty years from today. We are regionally focused – we can expand from there to states,” he said.

How the project would maintain its ideological purity among residents without running afoul of rules other than aggressive marketing is unclear.

It is illegal discrimination to deny the sale of real estate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including gender identity and sexual orientation), disability, familial status, or national origin.

In response to online criticism of the project, Abbotoy claimed that the left was bent on destroying projects like his because they were seen as an “existential threat.”

“They will watch – no, they will cheer – as Bill Gates/foreign investors/private equity buy up Appalachia and turn it into a globally homogenized pile of junk, erasing its customs and traditions and dispossessing its locals,” he wrote.

“Of course they have numerous affinity-based communities of their own; the ‘gayborhood’ in any American city is an example of this. But they fear that right-wing America is becoming culturally self-defining.

“If you show any sign of life, they will send ghosts like this to your small towns and bring you international news.

“They are angry because some people, no matter how modest, somewhere had the audacity to imagine a future in which they have no input.”

Abbotoy emphasized that the developments complied with the Fair Housing Act.

One project, The Bend at Cumberland River, is located 7.5 miles southwest of Burkesville and was purchased for $1.03 million.

Half of the 170-hectare area is divided into half- and three-quarter-hectare plots priced at $45,000, with some cheaper ones and those with ‘premium views’ going up to $60,000.

These plots all extend to the river’s edge and there were plans to build a community boat ramp and pavilion.

The other half was reserved for community buildings such as a church, school and recreational facilities.

Longhollow Acres, advertised as a “550-acre rolling farm,” includes 460 acres purchased for $900,000, with the rest belonging to another owner.

Although not far from the river, these plots are nestled in valleys between forests known as ‘hollers’ which provide ‘very private fortresses’ for those fleeing civilization.

Ridge Runner said they were not only perfect for hunting and farming, but also for “preparation.”

The project includes 17 plots, mostly three to five hectares, starting at €39,900, in addition to four premium plots of 93 and 126 hectares – and a huge estate for €399,000.

Both areas will have underground fiber optic internet allowing for working from home, electricity, city water and access roads.

New Founding said developments like Highland Rim were against the “dominant corporate ideology” and were “intended to free us from censorship and bureaucracy.”

“Today, a leftist ideology attacks natural differences, traditional norms and the heritage of our nation,” it said.

“It is deeply anti-human, eroding the foundations of human excellence and undermining entrepreneurial initiative and economic success across our society.

“This ideology is pervasive: culture, politics and certainly business – including the startup and venture capital space. Founders and investors are increasingly under pressure to comply.”

Instead, the country claimed to be “pro-human,” unlike the left, and believed that humans were “made in the image of God” and born to “exercise dominion” over the earth.

“We reject transhumanism and all other anti-human ideologies,” the report claimed.

‘Family + virtue + great achievements together form the building blocks of civilization that enable people to live well; we reject leveling ideologies that seek to impose false concepts of equality and destroy all unchosen duties.”

The company claimed to be pursuing its vision despite a “totalitarian attempt by the left to capture institutions in our society and use their power against those who think differently.”

“We also directly attack the left’s efforts to reject their taboos and do business with people they say we should exclude,” it said.