Butte tends to be the favorite punching bag for the rest of Montana.

Some of it is deserved, but I would like to think that most of it is not. It is not our fault that you find the landscape of the open-pit mining distasteful. It is not our fault that winter comes on too early and hangs on way too long.

We do not apologize for wearing the fact that we hail from the Mining City on our sleeves like we just served three tours in Fallujah. We also offer no olive branches because we travel better — and louder — with our high school sports teams than other Class AA cities.

Butte people can be a little obnoxious some times, but more often we are the life of the party. We are, after all, the city that produced Evel Knievel and Rob O’Neill. We are also the city that helped the good guys win a pair of world wars, and we take credit for that even if we were not alive to see either effort.

We do not even care that we are often looked down upon as being lesser than Missoula, Bozeman, Helena and Billings. We chalk that up to Butte envy. We figure there are two types of people: those who are from Butte and those who wish they were.

So, do not fear for us because we can take those punches. We are, after all, from Butte. We grew up walking to school uphill both ways, fighting our best friends and vicious packs of wild dogs along the way.

We don’t care what you think about us. Just make sure the punches are not cheap shots, or be ready to be punched back.

Last week, a handful of cheap shots came sneaking in on social media after the Montana Carpenter’s Union endorsed Aaron Flint, a right-wing Republican, for Montana’s first congressional house seat.

That announcement was made at a Butte business, so many people have assumed that it was only the Butte carpenters who made the decision. Some of those who were unhappy with the decision made by the union took out their frustrations on the Mining City.

Now, I will not pass judgement on the local’s endorsement of Flint, even if it does not seem to be a good idea for a union to support a candidate who has spent years trashing organized labor on his radio show.

If the carpenters are fine with an endorsement of a guy who has been part of a radio shot that routinely preaches hate against the LGBTQ+ community, among others, pushed dangerous conspiracy theories and showed tepid support for Vladamir Putin, then that is on them.

But this is not a Butte problem. In fact, the only Butte carpenters I have heard from are livid about the decision to endorse Flint over Sam Forstag, a former smoke jumper and union leader on the Democratic ticket.

A lot of people from the “Gibraltar of Unionism” seem to be angry about the endorsement.

In fact, some of the rumblings underground lately were not caused by the Yellowstone super volcano getting ready to blow. It was generations of Butte union members spinning in their graves.

As pissed off as the Missoula Democrats might have been about the carpenters endorsing Flint, the decision sent way more ripples through the Mining City.

A left-leaning Facebook page called “The Montana Resistance,” though, put Butte in the crosshairs with a post that read “Pro-data center Butte carpenters union endorses Aaron Flint (sic).”

The administrator of the site with 25,000 followers responded to a person who pointed out that Flint has a history of being anti-union with the following: “Exactly! He has called out unions and their destruction for years! Butte idiots.”

That statement is wrong on multiple levels. For one thing, Montana Carpenters Union Local 82 is not a “Butte union.” It is a union that represents carpenters in all corners of the Treasure State.

The union is headquartered in Great Falls, even though some prideful Butte carpenters worked hard to breathe new life into the Butte Carpenters Union Hall on Granite Street.

Newspaper publisher Jesse Mullen jumped to Butte’s defense, pointing out that these Missoula Democrats are doing themselves no favors by calling people from Butte “idiots.” Those same Democrats then sit back and wonder why they just cannot seem to win an election in Montana anymore.

I pointed out that comment about Butte was a cheap shot that was highly inaccurate. Blaming Butte instead of any other city in the state makes no sense. I would guess that there are more union carpenters in Billings and Missoula. So why not blame those cities?

Calling union carpenters “idiots” over the candidate they endorse is so far from fair, too.

Presumably, the No. 1 reason they made the endorsement is because Flint is pro data centers, and those data centers mean jobs for the union workers. At least in the short term.

As a boy who saw his dad travel all around the country to find union electrical work throughout the 1980s, I can certainly sympathize with that.

Everybody should be able to see that side. It doesn’t matter you are 100 percent for data centers, 100 percent against them, or, like me, a skeptic who would like to see the public involved in data center decisions, you should have a soft spot for the working men and women looking for work.

Flint told them he supports building data centers. Forstag, meanwhile, continues to sit on the fence on the subject. Making a decision based on your wallet in these tough economic times does not make a person an idiot.

When you are wondering how you are going to make your next mortgage payment, you are not too worried about the long-term effects that data centers will have on the environment or electrical rates.

Also, some of these carpenters are probably sick of working on the road, away from their families. They see the possibility of jobs in town, and they like that idea.

They might be wrong (and they might be right, too), but to put such a label on them is entirely unfair. It is also counterproductive.  

I would feel that way even if Butte did not take some undeserved shots in the process. You cannot call people names and then hope that they will join you in a voting bloc in the next election.

Attack the billionaires willing to trash our land so they can benefit from an artificial intelligence bubble that is bound to burst. Do not attack working men and women looking to get a step ahead.

The author of the post responded to my message about his cheap shot. He admitted that it was wrong, and he told me he was sorry. He did not address the comment publicly, however.

Of course, it is not me he owes an apology to. I am not a carpenter. I barely survived carpentry class at Butte High will all five digits on each hand.

The apology should be delivered to some hard-working union members who are not morons simply because they have a difference stance on data centers. It should be issued to all the people of Butte who do not appreciate being called idiots — even the ones who really are idiots.

It would probably be a good idea to offer that mea culpa before everybody’s favorite punching bag decides to punch back.

— Bill Foley, who has been called an idiot before, can be reached at foles74@gmail.com. Follow him at twitter.com/Foles74 or Bluesky at @foles74.bsky.social. Listen to him on the ButteCast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.