Everything you say is true. I was simply looking at their use of the term ‘survivalist’. In the government and media dictionary that is a terrible thing to be.
Weaver & his wife lived outside the norm, off the grid, raising or killing what they ate, pretty much separating themselves from the outside world.
But when the government wanted to smear him, they called him a survivalist.
They pushed "white supremacist", and "right-wing extremist", too, and iirc, even tried to call him a neonazi. That was the sort of demonization tactic used against Koresh, Weaver, Gordon Kahl, and others, and is pretty much standard stuff.
There were many hippies who lived on communes and were “survivalists.” I guess the media forgets these things. /rhetorical