It's the hip new way to feel rebellious and tell the government "you can't tell me what to do" while the government fucks them over and steals their future for a quick pay day.

It's a carefully orchestrated distraction.

Science-denying anti-intellectualism mixed with "you can't tell me what to do!"

They're like toddlers. You tell them they shouldn't and they will do everything in their power to do it anyways. They don't believe in science so everything is a "radical far left jewish space laser" conspiracy to take away their freedumbs.

As far as I can tell: It's partially the same shit as the anti vaccine mixed with being angry about government regulations.

A lot of the anecdotes I've heard about raw.milk being safe, are from small farms with few dairy cows.

In addition to what everyone else has said, I think it's also from ideas of "return to tradition" and a veneration of a kind of rural lifestyle that largely doesn't exist anymore. My extended family are farmers and even they got out of livestock when I was really young because there's not enough profit except at obscene scale. But milk fresh from the cow was a thing I grew up hearing about from cousins, it was apparently viewed as safe enough for the older kids as long as you cleaned the teat and it was really really fresh. But I wouldn't be surprised if the conditions in factory farms added another layer of risk that just wasn't there in the 90s on the last remaining family farms.

Edit: also some of them are operating under the mistaken idea that raw milk is healthier or more nutritious (it's not), or that or tastes better (actually possible, I actually heard it tasted slightly better as a kid).

My mother's been on the "natural health" train for a while now and claims that pasteurizing milk removes most of the nutrients (verifiably false). No amount of my protesting or pointing her towards sources for the contrary have convinced her to stop consuming that garbage.

It's anti vax and anti regulation so basically a maga wet dream. Squeeze cow, milk, ta da. In reality to the other 3/4 of humanity it's a microbial breeding ground for unfiltered mutations and diseases because you're just trusting the entire food chain leading up to the cow has been healthy and unmutated.

Pasteurized milk goes through a process where you filter out unwanted microbes or unsafe mutations before bottling the milk. It's like boiling water before drinking vs drinking from a puddle.

Regression. World is scary. Milk brought safety during infancy and the limbic system remembers.

If no one else has mentioned it, there are also those idiotic fascists (but I repeat myself) that were/are big on guzzling milk to show how "superior" they are because lactose intolerance is fairly common, but even more common among non-whites.

Extra Nazi points if it's raw milk, maybe?

The conscription of the granola moms.

I think it's just that it's a regulation, and regulation bad. I don't want the gunment telling me I can't drink raw milk. No, fools, the government doesn't want people selling raw milk.

A lot of the US understands capitalism as purchasing choices at the store. Therefore if I can buy more stuff at the store I'm more free. Regulation bad.

This is handy for actual capitalist that want to abuse their workers and their customers by selling poison or watered down milk with plaster of Paris for color and liquified calf brains for texture miles from cows that are fed sawdust and literally dying. 👈 Why we regular milk now because this is all literally what was occuring.

The only half reasonable argument I've seen is that requiring pasteurisation (supposedly) makes it difficult for small dairy farms that want to sell direct to consumer, and forces them to sell to large milk companies for a far lower price. I have no idea how valid that argument is.

Brawndo hasn’t been invented yet.

I think it's one of the easiest ways they can "stick it to the man".