Let me qualify this post and question by saying this is something I have wanted to ask and write about for quite a while. I often ask this question to people I meet in general life discussion, and I am very interested to hear every response. Today is a great day to ask this…
Think back… So, you are living your life, doing what you and everyone familiar to you are doing in the ordinary and regular way of living your specific life.
Perhaps you paid some attention to the political comings and goings of things, perhaps not.
Perhaps like most comfortably invisible people you were just putting one foot in front of the other, and generally doing the day-to-day things that most would consider ordinary.
Then one day, for some unknown and likely not that consequential reason, something caught your attention. Something piqued your curiosity; perhaps you noticed something you wouldn’t ordinarily have noticed. Perhaps you heard something, or saw something, or were just in a situational space where something itched your brain as you looked at something, heard something or noticed something that just didn’t quite fit or sit right.
Perhaps that little something, or big something, caused you to look just a little bit closer at the story, event or moment with a little more curiosity than before. Perhaps you dug into that specific moment with a little more than a side-eye glance, and you noticed something. After looking at it a little closer, you realized that construct was not at all what it appeared to be on the surface.
From that moment forward, for the first time, you really started to question the ‘thing’ that was in front of you, and from that moment forward, you woke up to recognize that things around you, things you perhaps didn’t pay attention to before, were not what you thought they were. It was from this moment when you really started to pay attention and your political awakening began.
Question: When was that moment for you?
I am always amazed at the replies I get in real life to this question of when the individual awakening began.
For some it was at an early age, for others much later in life. For some it was recently, and for others it was a long time ago. However, for everyone there was that moment when it started, and it is completely unique to the individual.
So, on this day, Sunday February 19, 2023, a generally innocuous day in the grand scheme of things, I pose this question to everyone.
Yes, even all the CTH lurkers who read here and never join the conversation. The comment section is open for all replies with the general rules of on-line decorum still standing. Us old schoolers still use the early internet standards of on-line discussion, and CTH requests polite and civil conversation that enlightens, expands thinking and uplifts the audience.
I am genuinely curious and will be reading every reply because it’s really cool to see what that “moment” was for each person. I’m pretty sure the entire CTH community will also enjoy reading the unique replies to the question.
We all travel a different path. We all come from different, likely comfortably invisible, life experiences. And we all merge into this big melting pot of curious people who are looking deeply at the issues we face. Regardless of how each of us arrived here, the larger dynamic is that we likely share a common curiosity for the reality of our situation. It’s a safe bet to say that almost everyone reading this is in the top-tier of “high information” consumers.
My question is not what arrived you at The Conservative Treehouse, but rather what the moment was when you began looking around and realizing that things just didn’t seem to add up. That’s the origin of the journey. That’s the moment I am inquiring about.
Perhaps it’s a weird way of looking at CTH, but our fellowship is always what has been the most important aspect to this little corner of the internet. It’s not the content of the Treehouse, but the conversation on the porch that matters. You, the readers, friends, people who assemble here, are the important element. Not me and not the site admins.
That’s genuinely the way I have always looked at our fellowship, and that’s also the reason for every detail I put into keeping this little corner of the internet standing.
So, with that in mind, what was that moment in your life when you realized the social, political and/or media narrative, was not at all what it was presented to be?
Love to all,
~ Sundance
It often takes several events to invoke that Ah-ha moment in your life. I was only 6 years old when Kennedy was shot. I knew it was a big deal. We sat for days watching the funeral and TV coverage. One of the moments that stuck with me was my Nana saying to my mother, “I bet Hoover had something to do with this.” All I could think was, “how did our vacuum cleaner have anything to do with it? (I became afraid of that vacuum for months)
Fast forward to the Clinton election. I was teaching 6th grade CCD at our parish. (The Catholic equivalent to Sunday School). As I was walking out of church to go to the school one of the Nuns was handing out Clinton election buttons, bumper stickers etc. She was campaigning for him! I reminded her that he was ‘pro-choice’ and she told me that didn’t matter. I woke up that day.
The Catholic vote didn’t matter anymore. The Christian vote didn’t matter anymore. They would vote for any pretty face. If the voters were so easily swayed …then we were doomed. If the parish priest didn’t stop her… Then we were doomed. That was my moment. That was when I really started to question the reality I thought existed to the one that actually does. It was the moment I realized that my grandmother had thought the FBI could have had something to do with killing Kennedy!
when I came home from Vietnam and saw more VietCong flags being waved by Democrats than I saw in Vietnam
In 2005, I had returned from Najaf, Iraq as an IT contractor working for the KSA MODA and Walter Reed Army Medical Center. I was sad, disillusioned, and sick of being part of something so soul sucking. I felt like it was less about 9/11 and more about oil and empire building so I opened my mind a bit and started delving into the conspiracy sites, Infowars and PrisonPlanet, AboveTopSecret, and others.
I picked up a DVD copy of “Endgame” from Alex Jones and laughed at most of it until I started researching the Rothschild family and the formation of the Federal Reserve. This led me to the book “The Creature from Jekyll Island” by G. Edward Griffin which was fascinating since my grandfather (who I had never met) was involved in its formation as an executive with J.P. Morgan in NYC.
Of course, I had heard of the “New World Order” muttered by H.W. Bush and had gone clubbing in college to Ministry’s song “N.W.O” but I never believed it was real or something that the U.S.A would ever succumb to. It was all a bunch of BS to me at the time. The United States and its people were too individualistic, strong, and independent to be a part of a globalist cabal.
I couldn’t have been more wrong. The moment it all became clear was this:
“We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.”
— Barack Obama, October 30, 2008
My first thought was “Why? What’s wrong with the United States of America”…then it all came together. Obama would be the next President of our country because the TPTB wanted it. It had nothing to do with voting or patriotism or whatever it is that people who love this country hold dear. It was about reducing America’s position in the world and abandoning our sovereignty to an international order of authoritarian elites.
Obama became the American apologist, signed the Paris Climate Accords, engaged in many colour revolutions during his presidency. In 2012, Romney was nothing more than controlled opposition to make it look legitimate. Obama pushed hard for more treaties, greater ties to Davos and the TPP. Obama was onboard with the globalist dream. They had won but they hadn’t finished us off….there was more work to be done.
People believe that Trump beat Hillary in 2016 because of his populist views…. I don’t. I believe he didn’t win at all – the TPTB gave him the win because they wanted to setup and beat down and humiliate what was left of American nationalism and ultimately allow a puppet like Biden to move us ever closer to one world government in a very radical jump. Think about it: Clinton had overwhelming polling numbers, experience and the media and establishment behind her. Trump was a ‘racist’ (despite winning a Rosa Parks award), obviously an egotistical white male narcissist, and was incredibly popular to middle and patriotic Americans. What better way to destroy all populist movements, independence, and sow fear than to infect the world with an obviously bioengineered virus and take down a popular president? Besides, they had to do something given Brexit and Marine Le Pen who were becoming more and more popular.
This was all planned – send a message to the world that global government is happening regardless of what the people want. F you – we run the planet and you bow to us., get used to it.
Signed,
The Elites
You get it. Tie all this in with the federal reserve (1913), gold confiscation (1934), removing silver from our coins (1965), and Nixon closing the gold window (August 15, 1971). Imposition of slavery on the people by issuing massive debt through a fiat currency! It’s very clear looking back at it now. Look where we are today. Great comment.
In my 20’s in the 70’s, I was on extended road trips throughout both “gas crises” traveling the East Coast and into the Midwest. I determined through experience that the lack of gas was in inverse proportion to your distance from a major media outlet including, back then, large newspapers. Two examples were forever ingrained in mind.
Talking with a gas station operator at an interstate exit with a station on each corner who said the crisis was the best thing that happeded to him other than his wedding. The 4 owners got together and set up a rotating schedule for opening one only each day. They each sold as much or more per week as previously and were enjoying time at home that they had never had before.
The same day that I read a newspaper report of a shooting in a gas line, I was in rural West Virginia where the stations were still giving out glassware as an incentive to purchase.
Additionally, there was a simple work-around to the gas rationing scheme. If your vehicle had out-of-state plates, there was no limit of not totally filling your tank. Didn’t take long to switch plates down the block according to certain persons.
Distrust of TPTB started then but life and family got in the way of follow-up. Now I’m retired and reading better things. Atlas Shrugged and Unintended Consequences by John Ross have crystalized my amorphous feelings on the state of current affairs.
both are great books. I gave copies of Unintended Consequences to several people. I asked one what he thought of the book. He said, I need to get some hogs.
In the 1980’s I was going to school and having kids so not paying attention. But the very first time I saw and heard from Bill Clinton in a debate with 3 other Democrats I turned to my husband and said ‘ now there is a snake in the grass’! After that I watched how he ascended to the presidency with a lot of help from the media and realized how powerful our media is in ‘choosing’ the president. I started to wake up and pay attention. One of the scandals that disturbed me most was the one where top ‘secrets’ disappeared and it was reported on until they showed up in a suitcase behind a copy machine. Everything on the matter went silent. So so weird! I don’t know that I was fully awake yet at the time, but I was very skeptical. I had voted for both Democrats and Republicans and because of the Clintons stopped voting for Democrats and very wary of the media. Waking up to the Republicans took longer but definitely by the Obama years I realized the game of pitting Democrats against Republicans was a distraction for whatever was really going on. I think that the going after Republicans so hard by the media, was part of the distraction game. The corruption by the Democrats was so obvious that getting a Republican in seemed like a relief so I did not look hard enough, I let my guard down so to speak, but toward the end of the Bush years, it was obvious something was really wrong. In my opinion Bush was the dumbest candidate on the Republican side from watching the debates in the late 90’s yet he got in. Window dressing so the corruption behind the scenes could continue, I eventually realized. Until Trump was in and now Biden, I did not fully realize to what depth and widespread the corruption behind the scenes really was. I have realized things were very corrupt since the Clinton years but now it’s in plain sight and horrifying.
I couldn’t make sense of the world. All the traditional values and virtues I had been taught as a child pointed in one direction but so many people kept surprising me with contrary views. In 1979, I read the book None Dare Call it Conspiracy by Gary Allen. He connected many dots and I spent a full year reading 40 or so books that helped form an understandable background. It has been an ongoing process that unfortunately makes me more cynical every day. I am convinced of the ultimate evil in this world–Satan–using man’s nature to destroy all that is good and holy. Many people are self absorbed, lazy, and greedy. They are easily distracted by pandering to those weaknesses. They don’t believe they are doing anything wrong, just exercising their freedom and their rights. There is a smaller group that knows that all the “rights” are just a charade and distraction. These are the Machevellian administrators at various levels who all follow the same purpose. Some of the administrators are true believers in “the cause” as they manipulate underlings. Lastly, come the super wealthy (and powerful) who today dominate the world but seek to control it fully for their own glory and benefit. The Matrix is such a clear metaphor that almost everyone talks about the red pill. The history we are taught is slanted, the values being taught today are pure perversion and narcissism. By the time the tiny super rich faction deceive the global population into an ESG guided system where you can’t buy, sell, eat, have and raise your children, get an education, work at what you like, defend yourself, travel, speak, or write without the approval of the central government, it will be too late to resist. They will have total control and will use technology to breed a population of drones for drudge work. “Useless eaters” will be eliminate and the world population reduced to only those needed to serve the Super Wealthy. Make no mistake. Most governments today are at the beck and call of the super wealthy.
It started with the Clinton presidency… the credible allegations of rape, the coverups, etc.
But the real moment for me came while listening to NPR one day. I was driving along, and they were discussing his Chinese friends, and their obviously illegal campaign contributions. One of the two “Johnnys” (Trie? Huang? I don’t recall) was rewarded with a Commerce Department job. He was assigned to the (mainland) China desk, but used to wander into the Taiwan section and pick up papers there.
This was expressly forbidden, by statute.
Once he had picked up the papers, he would leave the area with them.
Also forbidden.
Sometimes, he would (apparently) take them across the street to the Kinkos store, which coincidentally had a fax machine, in addition to copiers.
Of course, forbidden.
Eventually, a couple supervisors in the Department decided to look into this. They wrote a memo, questioning how this outsider could come into their department and behave in ways that were strictly forbidden, even for authorized personnel.
After reporting all of the above, the NPR talking head then mentioned that, in preparing the story, they did not speak to the two supervisors. One, they reported, had been killed in the Ron Brown plane crash. By that point, I was yelling at the radio “Well that’s pretty f***ing convenient”…
Then it happened. I’d always heard the term “my blood ran chill”, and thought it was a nice bit of literary license. Nope. It’s a real feeling, and I felt it that day. An icy feeling ran through my veins… because it *was* pretty freaking convenient…. especially when they mentioned that the other reporter had declined to be interviewed.
But that felt like a problem with the president. The rest of the country was still good, right?
*****
It worsened during the impeachment scandal, when I read an Op-Ed by my useless but loyal democrat senator about how “sure, what the President did was wrong, but it wasn’t worth overturning an election”. Followed a short time later by the discovery that most democrat senators said the same thing.
And when I read that many of them cited “I didn’t see any evidence to suggest any wrongdoing…” followed by reading the book by the House lawyer who mentioned that NONE of the democrat senators had EVER set foot in the evidence room, and thus had never made the slightest effort to “See” the evidence, I knew we were in trouble.
Now I question the entire legitimacy of the regime in DC.
I started taking an interest the minute they released the vaccine without any explanation of whether or if they had complied with the FDA process for testing and release, which takes from 2 to 7 years. Uh-uh. Something wrong from the very beginning
When Obama was elected
Pat Buchanan caught my attention back in the 90’s but President Trump’s rally in Alabama in August 2015 was a Watershed moment.
I offer a 2-part answer. I graduated from high school in 1972. Not long after that, I read The Rich and the Super-Rich by Ferdinand Lundberg. I learned that America really is an oligarchy. This in the midst of the anti-war movement, then Watergate, and not many years since the assassinations of Kennedy, King, and Kennedy, led me to conclude that this oligarchic cancer is deep and probably inoperable. I considered revolution as perhaps the only answer.
After a time, I decided revolution was premature. Despite all the problems, America was at that time still a pretty good place to live. Revolution would tear down a lot of good along with the bad. So long as this was the case, we could muddle on with our decaying political system.
In 2008, I fell in love with Barack Obama. Some of his speeches inspired me like nothing I had heard. I believed he would try to become our next great president. God knows, we needed one. I did a little bit of volunteer work for his campaign, I voted for him, and I celebrated the night he got elected. Right away, things didn’t seem to make sense. The people he was choosing for his cabinet, and the White House…where were all the progressives? What were these people doing here?!? Over the next several months, I was faced with the fact that Obama was not who he said he would be. But I was so reluctant to face that truth.
In Sept. 2009 he gave a major address to save his floundering health care bill. By then, I had learned that his staff were working diligently in Congress to keep the public option out of the bill even though he and his staff were expressing support for it on TV. That night his rhetoric reached heights we hadn’t heard since the campaign. But he was lying. Obama was using his lofty oratory not to inspire, but to mislead.
I broke with Obama and the Democrats at that moment. I began to realize how deeply corrupt our power structure had become. Maybe it was time. But I was pushing towards 60.
I later got involved with the Bernie Sanders campaign as a volunteer and watched the Democrats lie, cheat & steal to make sure Clinton got the nomination. I voted for Trump.