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
For my country—involvement in the Tea Party. I discovered the reality of our political system. The out of control spending and driving the country into decline would continue despite the demand for any logical fiscal responsibility. For medical and health— my ah ha moment was the attempt by my family dr to take an osteoporosis drug when such drugs were new. I read the paperwork on the drug and then followed a very honest conversation with the dr. that I was no one who came in expecting or demanding a medicine for any ailment. That began my skepticism of the medical community and that questioning and watching has continued. When the vax came out, I got the ingredient panel and began reading all I could. We were both “wait and see”. As time passed, my husband and I both remained troubled by the push for it, by drs being sidelined for speaking, watching how so many citizens were scared and did as told. I had more healthy fear of Big Pharma than I suspect DJT did. My eyes are now wide open on all things.
My antennae were REALLY up when treatments for covid were never forthcoming and those drs. who stated what they were trying to use were shut off from communication. I knew something was VERY wrong in our country.
Why Government Doesn’t Work: How Reducing Government Will Bring Us Safer Cities, Better Schools, Lower Taxes, More Freedom and Prosperity for All – by Harry Browne – Hardcover – January 1, 1995
This quote from it really riled up the MSM at the time:
“So, what is government?… Very simply, it is an agency of coercion. Of course, there are other agencies of coercion – such as the Mafia. So to be more precise, government is the agency of coercion that has flags in front of its offices.”
So, I knew about the UniParty, which I now prefer to call the DeRp Party, 28 years ago.
A few excepts from the book:
No matter what they say, neither Democrats nor Republicans want to give up the power to bestow favors and exemptions on friends. Our salvation won’t come from politicians.
· We need people who will go to Washington not to reform government programs or to reduce them, but to get rid of them.
· We need leaders who don’t want to run the country, but who want to restore our right to run our own lives.
· We need legislators who don’t want to be politicians, but simply want to enjoy for themselves the freedom America once knew.
The Republican leadership merely wages a war of words with the Democrats. They may even be winning it, but words aren’t enough. What we want is real change — a dramatic reduction in government — and the Republicans have reduced nothing.
Oh yes, there have been battles over cuts in individual programs. But even these cuts are minor; they often are cuts only in the speed at which a program will grow; and in many cases the cuts aren’t scheduled to occur until years from now.
Despite the supposed “cuts,” despite the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, one fact stands out: the government is still growing.
Does he include religion? It’s the oldest form of government and coercion. Holding back the truth of God to gain power and money.
Just a thought, would the total eradication of religion bring us closer to God?
The ancient church (church is the people of God) had access to heaven and religion was only worship and glory to God it was not what we have today, it couldn’t be if they conversed with heaven.
Why would he mention that? Last I checked, complying with religious edicts was voluntary in this country.
It was in the late 1980s to 1992 that woke me up.
Having grown up in a Baptist household I was taught that all men are sinners. About 1987 to 88 we saw the failures of two Christian evangelicals Jimmy Swaggard and Jimmy Baker. As I witnessed the reporting by the media of these two men I noticed the joy the reporters expressed. I didn’t understand the attitude of these reporters.
Then again in the reporting of Ross Perot, how reporters disrespected a presidential candidate. As the two parties called him crazy when Mr. Perot said there would be a “giant sucking sound of jobs leaving our country” if NAFTA was signed into law. He was right.
So after these events I started reading political history Marxism how communism infiltrated our government throughout the 20th century. WWII, post war, the Red Scare, the radical sixties and how in all that time the left was being taken over by this Fruits of Marxism be it communism or socialism. Today they call it progressive. I call it evil.
Working on a farm in the middle of the country in 1974-78 I met a guy that gave me books on the Bilderberg Meetings, the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations. That’s what started it.
I was in college then and read some of the same books. So, the realization was seeded way back. I felt the 2020 election results were extremely hard to believe. But the real moment for me was January 6th, watching various video live streams of events at the capital and comparing that with the mainstream news coverage.
My grandfather was a charter member of the John Birch Society. The books and articles were common reading material in our homes. I have read all those publications in the 60s, 70s, etc. As a child, I thought politics was common discussion in all families. I tell everyone I had no choice but to be awake…it is in the genes, dna.
In the 90s. In elementary school and throughout. Wondering why the schools kept saying I was a racist because I’m white. Wondering why they were constantly putting everyone against each other, when our parents weren’t that way.
Benghazi
I began to see that what seems real is not always real during the Clinton Administration. Whitewatergate, Lewinskygate, Tailgate, Sexgate, Zippergate, “I never had sex with that woman”. I became convinced back then of a two-tier system of justice. The O.J. Simpson trial caused a loss in faith in our system. As a high school teacher, I came to class the day after the Watts Riots in LA and discussed the event with my students. I criticized people plundering stores and carrying away appliances and valuables that belonged to others. When I asked my students to respond, they looked at me dumbfounded and then one spoke to me, ‘Wait, wouldn’t you also take those things if you could get away with it?” It was a wake-up moment when I realized that the values of the “Great Generation” were not and would not be passed on to subsequent generations. I realized we were a nation in moral decline.
I was a communist until September 11th 2001, and I realized that I was wrong about everything. I have actively been trying to tell people what would happen since, and everyone says I am just being stupid, this can’t happen in America. They are wrong, it has happened in America, and people still don’t believe me.
So please expound on your words, your brief on your thoughts. Why embrace communism at all? Why sept 11 to give you clarity? I’m curious to understand why communism was a choice and why throw it down now? Did it stem from rebellion or contemplation on a way that might be better.
communism has a good “ring” to it on the surface but just history itself makes a case to avoid it, I truly do not understand the thought process. Socialism I understand. All the different religions i understand, they are ancient and prove different disciplines. Understanding the thought process is a path to dismember it, I’d like to know yours?
Was life long communist and flaming liberal, social activist in Chicago in the 80s….what changed me was my kid going into the peacetime military, the 2000 election, and then September 11th. I don’t say much, because of Chicago, I try to lay low
After a year as an enlisted man, the U.S. Army made me a 2d Lt. in 1967 at the not-so-tender age of 19. Two years later I turned down a promotion to Captain just to get out. Those two years opened my eyes to everything my Dad had ever told me about life. My eyes have been open ever since. I liked President Reagan. I love President Trump’s world view, ESPECIALLY the view that economic security is national security.
I have been skeptical of government since I was a teenager in the 70s, I was fascinated by UFOs and interested in the Kennedy assassination, and read all I could find about both. Also, no one could explain to me what Vietnam & Watergate were all about. What really set me off was a book I read in 2002 titled “Bias” by Bernard Goldberg, about how the media distorts the news. I stopped watching tv news then and started digging on the Internet for the real news. In 2010 I found Jim Marrs’ books “Crossfire”, about the JFK assassination, and “Alien Agenda”, both of which expanded my thinking. I read a book in 2012, “Family of Secrets” by Russ Baker, about the Bushes, which capped that family for me. By that time I knew how bad the Clintons & Obama were. I would read the authors cited in these books. Somehow you know when you get to the truth, you learn discernment. It’s a big dirty damn hole, and you can never go back.
9-11 got my attention. Started listening to Rush. Then crook Clinton, then muslum Obummer. But then the GREAT PRESIDENT TRUMP big-time, showed me more of the diseased government.
When Clinton was re-elected was the very beginning something was wrong. Kicked into high gear with Obama’s second term. steadily got to the point I no longer trust any of them, not even the beloved one.
It’s impossible to pick a seminal event. The Boston Tea Party of 1773 had been building for many years. I was introduced to Milton Friedman and Thomas Sowell some where around 1980. They made great sense. President Bush (the elder) promised “No new taxes” and that promise was like smoke on the wind. President Bush (the younger) never vetoed a single spending bill. And finally, President Obama, a man of dubious origins and talent, trashed the values of half the American population. MAGA patriots are not light bulbs but more like long dormant volcanoes that come to life. It’s a process. The first event in 2016 was like Mauna Loa erupting. The second might be like Krakatoa.
My “moment” was when the anti-Vietnam War, classical liberal “hippies” in my hometown, who I had opposed politically on almost every issue throughout my life, were protesting the “Patriot Act” at a busy street intersection in my town. As I drove by I said “damn, I agree wholeheartedly with those guys on this one; something has changed big-time”.
It started in 2009 when I joined the Tea Party movement and marched on Washington DC, but my real realization of the corruption not just from the left but the right as well, came from the 2020 stolen election from DJT, and my awakening that no one was going to do a thing about it!!! It sickens me, that in my 7th decade, I’m watching my country collapse!
I had two distinct moments in time. I’m 72, so I’ve seen a lot.
As a young voter and engineer, I always voted for Republicans. My family was Republican.
Then in 1992, Ross Perot came along, not a politician, and offered a different view, a step away from the two parties that seemed so similar. I listened and voted for him. He lost. Republicans lost.
Republicans lost me, too. After that I voted for Democrats. I voted for Clinton 1996, Gore 2000, Kerry 2004. I know, sounds crazy now.
I supported Bush43 striking al qaeda in 2001, following 9/11. But, I became further convinced that Republicans were “bad” when Bush43 sent the USA into war in Iraq… that was crap, another Vietnam. And the icing on the cake was John McCain in 2008, a man who never saw a war he didn’t want to send young Americans to fight. I could never ever vote for John McCain.
I voted for Obama, proudly in 2008. Obama was going to reach across the aisle, heal the wounds between Blacks and Whites, and provide healthcare for the masses… it was going to be awesome… until it wasn’t. I was so wrong and so misinformed. I was in favor of national healthcare at this time in 2008.
My epiphany came on December 24, 2009 when Democrats rolled over Republicans and the American people and pushed through a very partisan, terrible healthcare plan, the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare with a “deal” for Nelson in Florida, someone in Louisiana, someone in Nebraska, and kept unions exempt and Congress exempt. It was eventually agreed to by reconciliation. It was just awful.
That was my date of change from a Democrat. December 24, 2009.
At that point I began reading, doing my own research, and found out what a fraud Obama was, who Saul Alinsky was, and the tenants of Communism.
I began listening to Rush Limbaugh, who I used to just hate; and finally he made sense to me. I listened to Hannity (yah, don’t like him now) and Mark Levin. I turned off CNN and MSNBC… I used to watch Morning Joe back then… shut it off too.
And, so there I was, in about 6 months, converted to a Conservative Independent from being a Democrat for the previous 16 or so years.
I supported the Tea Party in 2010, I voted for Romney in 2012, and was a Cruz supporter in 2016 due to policy, but joyfully voted for Trump in 2016, and shed tears of joy on his election night. One of best nights of my life.
The second Iraq war is what did it for me. I thought the cold war was way overblown because I understood that Russia had a relatively small economy and wasn’t really any kind of threat to the U.S. (and still isn’t), but it wasn’t something I thought about much other than to note how wasteful much of military spending is. When Bush fabricated reasons for invading Iraq and the media went along with it, it made me see how utterly rotten and corrupt this country is and likely has been since the progressive era when the 16th-19th Amendments were passed.
Great question and after a bit of reflection I can recall two “brick in the head moments”. First was a Tim Russert interview with George W Bush. Tim Russert was so quick and uncharacteristically rude that I did a head spin and realized the difference in his approach according to the guest he had on. My second whack in the head moment was actually an accumulation of “friends” having no problem telling me what a jerk, lowlife, idiot “republicans” were (FYI, I like in White Plains, NY). I finally said enough. Why was it ok for them to tell me how they believed and yet I remained silent as to not offend AND yet their every knock down offended me! I am silent no more and have a Trump mobile (lots of PDJT stickers, Magnets, slogans…), yard (Flags, lawn signs) that I proudly display for the world to see. I am loud and proud about my PDJT support and don’t give a swift second about how others think of me anymore.
By accident finding a link to this website in something else about 6-7 years ago. Can’t remember which one. Ah, I know, the really only other one I frequented was Karl Denninger’s Market Ticker. Or it might have been Zero Hedge in a comment. One of those two. I’m sure there was a link in some comment there. And I would not have really started paying attention if not found here. Karl Denninger not very reader friendly, so no real revelations there. I think Zero Hedge is somewhat controlled and chooses words too carefully.
I really didn’t “follow” Rush social media, though listened all the time. And it had been a long time since I looked at Drudge.
I had watched politics since teens, 40 years ago, but always thought it was a basic back and forth of 2, real opinions. Quite a bit naive.
9/11 was my moment.
BTW, I’ve never, not once, voted for a Democrat.
I did voted for JFK – only time. IMO that was a good vote!
My first was watching the weather channel and the weather gal was sitting in a row boat saying this is the only way to get around as someone was walking behind her. She just get going we laughed about that for years. Also when Obama was trying to say how wonderful his Obamacare was at a rally in Vegas. He told a woman that her mother who had a pacemaker at some point should just take a pill. I don’t think that woman realized what he had said. That video probably still exists.
2008.
The assassination of John F. Kennedy.
Mine as well. Confirmed by 9/11
It started when our 7 yr old daughter came home from school and asked us what “oral sex” was….she and her class had seen the term in a front page newspaper article about the President, Bill Clinton, and a White House aide…more realization came with exposure of the Bush clan. We became fully awake and aware with the rise of Trump, and the stench of the obama “pair”. Proud to be a Treeper and look for your printed words daily Sundance. We continue to resist!
CT,
I read your exposes going back to 2021, “How Do We Fix This Mess?” which are invaluable to know more of what’s happened.
Of concern are your 100’s of embedded links that take the reader nowhere, except another story with 100’s of embedded links that take the reader nowhere.
At least nowhere related to the link’s enticing words.
[Go Deep] links to other stories with little more information.
[epicenter of the corruption] links to no epicenters.
It’s saddening that such investigative journalism is used to bait readers to stay and read more, the people above Obama will be named soon, and worst of all, false hope solutions.
CT is a good resource for hard to find evidence based facts, my compliments, when they aren’t circumspect, however, if there is anything Patriots have had their fill of, it’s false hope.
Not related to CT, but another example is:
The promised Brazilian military is a no-show.
It certainly doesn’t behoove conservative media to admit to readers that a free America is gone for good, (unless there’s either a miracle (which I still believe in), or the biggest revolution in human history.)
Our captors control every institution. Every branch and agency of federal govt (when they finish off SCOTUS), K Street, mass media, social media, the entire college and university system, most grades K-12, the military, the AMA, the BAR, elections in most states (soon all states and localities), surveillance, most courts, and globally: most countries and virtually all international organizations.
They’re coming for CT and conservative media now. That plan has been launched. They’ll be deprived of their funding.
I do my own research, and outlets like CT are hugely helpful in knowing what our captors are doing now, and doing next.
When Ronald Reagan was elected. I thought things were going to get better. I have been waiting for another Reagan ever since. Trump seemed as close as we were ever going to get.
Reckon President Reagan activated & fertilized my inner BS meter.
Had to be so, cuz first election cycle I was old enough to vote in, pulled the lever for Ross Perot…
#1 – 1987 Vice from Dallas Tx raided the home of a friend and businessman who happened to be in an Adult oriented biz, basically ran him out of the state due to harassment, legal fees got to be too much of a burden for him.
#2 – 1995 when they quit looking for “John Doe #2” Oklahoma City bombing and Kenneth Trentadue died in custody and the ensuing cover-up.
https://libertarianinstitute.org/everything-will/from-okc-to-abu-ghraib-the-kenneth-trentadue-case/
Plus all the “Coincedental” events before and after, the ensuing Cover-up by Eric Holder, Janet Reno et al surrounding the OKC bombing of the Murrah Building
#3 – Barry Sotero aka Barack Hussein Obama or whatever the hell is real name is. From unknown Chitcongo district Politico to Selected President of USA
Actually there are many other instances before 1987, in between those listed and even more afterwards.
Call me skeptical??
I call you Ostrich with head stuck in sand or up your own Arse….
Just so you know- although they SAID there was no JD#2 in OKC, one if my coworkers was detained and questioned by FBI as a possible JD#2 several months later.
Also, one of the deputies who testified about the congressman and the lawyer saying ‘we knew this was coming’ who was later smeared as someone trying to cash in on his position. We went to church with him for decades and never once heard the story from him-not after church, Sunday School, bowling, pot lucks- never. If he was glory hounding, he kinda sucked at it.
I wasn’t particularly interested in politics until 2007 when Obama appeared on the scene. I knew immediately there was something wrong. I got into social media and started signing up for conservative web sites. It was like a snowball rolling downhill. Now that I’m retired I spend even more time reading and listening to podcasts.
My first “great awakening moment” came with the aftermath of the Viet Nam war. I remember Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon telling me an everyone else that we had achieved “peace with honor”. Then within a year, all of the allies we left over there were dead, we had “Vietnamese Boat People” washing up all around the world, and the Khmer Rouge was on it’s way to killing 2 million people. I was 13 years old at the time and I remember thinking “Where is the honor in this?” I’ve been paying attention ever since.
My second “great awakening moment” came in November of 2000 when “Bush, The Elder” was certified as the winner in Florida and the next day Al Gore announced that he was going to sue Florida to become president. Sue to become president? WTH??
Up until that moment, I thought there was at least some respect for the will of the people amongst the political class. From that point on, I knew there was not.
9/11 woke me a bit but eyes were wide open when Obama started looking and believe it or not but Glen Beck used to have a show on fox we’re he daily broke down the Obama story as it was developing. Living on the eastern plains of Colorado for 32 years the state was mostly conservative (excepting Boulder area) then the pot and Californians migrated to the front range all to bring their silly ideas with them. Didn’t take to many years to install voter registration when you did your drivers license and mail in voting has basically wiped out any conservatives and most of the Republican Party. Now they have had complete crazy Democrat control of legislator and Governors office for a few years now and I don’t think they can turn it even a little red anymore. I moved when home prices were really high a couple years ago to a more conservative state that so far doesn’t charge you for paper or plastic at the stores. I haven watched Fox since they called the 2020 election and I have enjoyed the writing at Conservative Treehouse for around six years now and it is the first place I check for news in the morning. Thank you for your words and wisdom:)
I grew up in the 70’s and 80’s in a liberal democrat home. In the late 80’s I was converted into a follower of Jesus Christ. At that time, I switched from being a liberal democrat to being a republican on social issues.
I was duped as an 18 year-old into voting for George HW Bush thinking he was a conservative. I had no idea that the uniparty was a thing.
I started listening to Rush Limbaugh in ’91 and generally held to his belief (at that time) that there really were two parties. I was dissuaded by Rush into not voting for Perot.
I paid attention in ’96 and again in ’00. ’96 seemed like a capitulation to Clinton as Dole would not take the shots that were set up for him to take. ’00 was a debacle, but I was still in the mindset that there really was a difference between the R’s and D’s. ’04 was more of the same.
The financial meltdown of ’08 and McCain…ugh…to look at it with what we know now is to make me feel like such a sucker.
Then came ’12 and my eyes began to be opened. I saw candidate after candidate rise to challenge Mittens, only to be taken down by sketchy reporting of shady dealings. This was prep for what I was to see in ’16.
Then came ’15-’16…I saw a comment on breitbart that the conservative treehouse had all the shenanigans of the republican primary season pegged. I went to the treehouse and my eyes were opened to the splitter strategy. I read and paid attention as these things unfolded EXACTLY as predicted. (Note: the same splitter strategy got us our installed resident in chief–again perfectly predicted by Sundance).
Now it is as Sundance frequently describes. There was a time as a small child that I thought the marionettes were actual characters experiencing real life…but then I saw the strings. Now, I can’t help but see the strings.
My red pill progression started in the early 90’s with little steps and not a single jolt. I realized the Disney movies my kids watched were not promoting family values as every lead character had lost one or both parents and at least one character was gay.
I became aware of the illegal immigrant invasion of America when the elementary school my kids attended created 1 classroom for each grade level for Spanish speaking children who did not understand the English language.
I changed political party affiliation when Hilary ran for president. How could a woman who slept her way to the “top” represent intelligence hard working women?
I became suspicious of the media with 911, the Iraq war and Obama’s live birth record. Listening to Rush and Glenn Beck expanded my way of thinking.
I became aware that evil wasn’t just a character facet of psychos but of very real people and seemingly normal folks in our government who lives to destroy America. The effort put forth to erase Trump and his policies from history is shocking.
I became fearful of government when the vax was mandated for travel and employment while there was a 99.5 chance of survival. When Canada shut down the trucker’s bank accounts for a peaceful protest, I wondered if America was next.
I became terrified of the media, government and corporation collision with the cancel culture, J-6, and recent endless destruction of America’s food, energy and transportation infrastructure.
That being said, I began reciting that Lord’s Prayer daily after discovering this site. My hope for the future increasing daily as I read the comments here from very intelligent and thoughtful folks and other independent media sites. As the Awakening spreads, I am preparing for a call to action. We are all in God’s hands.
Barak Hussein Obama
I was kind of paying attention to Clinton and that poop show but BHO did it. That is when I knew that is was all a show, these things had been in the works for a very very long time, and that people were so incredibly snowed it was going to work.
I grew up in a household that was conservative, where we listened to Rush. We were skeptical of liberals from an early age. We were also somewhat cynical of Republicans from a young age because they never seemed to follow through on their promises. I mostly chalked that up to differences in politics and divided government.
However, the moment I realized things weren’t what they seemed was with the Duke LaCrosse Rape accusation. The allegations sounded off right from the start. The more I read about the process the DA was using, the more I became convinced something was wrong with the official story.
It was then that I searched out for alternative news sites that dug into the story deeper. In the process I became convinced that the DA was deliberately framing innocent kids. I kept thinking to myself “how could the prosecutors, judges, and reporters not see it?”
The scales dropped from my eyes when I realized they weren’t stupid, they saw what I saw. I realized they were okay with framing innocent kids because it fit the story they wanted to be true about race and class in society.
This was Dan Rather’s “fake but true” Bush military documents, but not a dirty political trick and a single biased reporter. It was real life, with real victims. Everything was the complete opposite of what the entire legal system and media portrayed them to be.
From that point on, I realized the news media and the official government position on things were so much worse than I thought. Objective truth didn’t matter.
Other stories drew my cynicism: the Iraq surge (which was successful in real time but portrayed as a failure), global warming (which had a name change because some of the custodians of the official data started speaking out that the observed data didn’t support the stated conclusion), the Travon Martin death (with eerie similarities to the Duke LaCrosse case). I discovered this site during the ongoing “Russia collusion” hoax.
Each time, the official powers of government were working at cross purposes to the objective truth.
I remember supporting George Bush against Gore and agonizing over the election dispute.
But then Bush was a worrisome President. He put us into a war in Iraq, which never made sense . Iraq was not responsible for the 9/11 attack, it was Papa Bush’s old war continued. Why were we there?
Bush was also under constant attack in the press and never bothered to defend himself, which made those attacks quite effective and hurt those who supported him. A real disappointment.
Then the financial collapse in 2008, before Obama’s election always seemed convenient. Many big money firms were bailed out, although they bore responsibility for the housing collapse.
It was a convenient crisis like the Covid pandemic many years later. McCain lost and Obama was installed. The press adored him.
I also have never understand the horrible and incompetent candidates that are offered up to Republicans and Democrats, like John McCain , Hillary Clinton, Bob Dole.
Until Trump, Reagan was my favorite President.
I also wondered how these politicians were getting so wealthy and were never investigated.
Finally, when the Republican Establishment killed the TEA Party, a grass roots movement that any sane political organization would have embraced, I woke to the utter corruption in our system.
I found the Treehouse around the time of Trump. Sundance’s explanation of The Big Ugly saved my sanity and gave me hope of a cure. I think Sundance answered every nagging question in my mind with those articles.
Trump’s persistant truth telling has been like no other politician in my lifetime, and the inability of the deep state to finish him off has opened my eyes.
Unfortunately it seems sunlight has not yet stopped the corruption.
Being the spawn of a WWII career veteran and a Polish mother who caught the wrong train out to the Kazak sun tour in ’39.
I came to realization in the “Age of Aquarius”. I moved on from the military with the skills I rely on today. Constant training.
It never stops. It’s what life is. College was the mental crucible, not the sunny skies of SE Asia. Civilian living was a bitch. The
trust factor is low. Dog eat dog. So you have to be a wolf. The playbook of the deep state, socialism, communism, blah, blah,
SDS, SLA, etc…was embedded and in play. That was my entry level “awareness moment”. I feel it was the second coming of the narrative that we live with today. The real beginning is “probably” post Indian Wars into the Monster of Jekyll Island.
Creature really. And then two wars. the Great War of Families and the War of the World. Didn’t have a WWl until there was a
WW2. and now, forever coming…..WW THREE. In between there and now, for me is history, that THEY are trying to dilute until it’s gone and any knowledge of it can be useful. Western thought defines time as linear. In reality, it’s cyclical. The present day way of life is constantly giving the “Darwin Awards” to more and more people, it seems, to actually want them.
Training never stops. Train as you fight. and grasp the OODA loop principle……… and I didn’t use profanity once.
My sister’s moment was the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings.
I remember everyday after school my mother glued to C-SPAN’s coverage of the Clarence Thomas hearings. This was before 24/hr news channels and so every evening during prime time news (whether NBC, CBS, ABC) she’d start yelling “Liars!” at the TV because anchors were distorting and outright lying about what she heard with her own ears earlier in the day watching live.
I can tell you that was her “Ah-ha” moment. She was in utter disbelief about the character assassination being played out against Thomas by the democrats. She thought Biden’s role in it all was particularly vile.
I am in my late 30’s. As a kid I always felt something off about the news media and noticed, albeit peripherally, how some of the outrages du jour affected my life as a child. One example is how “science says egg yolks are bad” (egg whites for breakfast for a few years) became “science says egg yolks are good now” (whole eggs for breakfast again). The first tickle at my brain came with 9/11. The second rub was Sandy Hook. Was in my office at an accounting firm, few years on the job, when it was all over the news. Since then, I have been a studious follower of the school of skepticism, which turned out helped my skills as an auditor (bonus!). I had always felt, even as a child, some sort of bullsh*t/propaganda gauge functioning quietly back there in my subconscious, and only recently the last 10 years or so have I been learning to hone into it.
I grew up in SE Texas, was born in the early60’s into a traditional family – Dad was a Col. in the Army (Reserves), Mom was a teacher. I didn’t care about politics and thought everything was fine until around 1999. That was when the media and everyone made such a big deal about how the computers would possibly be screwed up when we turned over to 2000. My husband and I had to go to his office, he was a director of distribution for a medical supply company, and stay there until midnight to ensure the changeover didn’t mess up their data system. Everything turned out fine, but the fear porn involved was disgusting and we missed out on a great New Years party.
It was also about that time that I began to notice illegal aliens start to fill up our emergency rooms claiming indigent status, and fill up social security offices trying to get disability.
I began to believe our government was working against us with the media and started paying attention.
As an atheist, I should remain silent on this in here!
Baby Boomer here who as a young adult leaned liberal in politics but lived actually like a social conservative … Nothing like being kicked around by life to send you back to the one constant in life: God. Making God the center of my life, followed by family, prepared me for my aha! moment, when leaders in *my church* began supporting gay marriage circa 2002. At that point I had to choose a side, and that’s when I began to see myself as truly, deeply conservative. I became a card-carrying member of the Tinfoil Hat Brigade during President Trump’s administration. Ironically, I see the government just as corrupt now as I did in the 1970s, except now as a conservative and back then as a liberal.
My time started around 1988 when I was told about Rush on KFBK 1530 AM.
Though I had no interest in Paul Manafort himself, I stumbled across reporting of what was going on in his court case, and was hooked into following the many tentacles of malfeasance showing up everywhere through the years after, and now blossoming like the Gorgon’s head in daily life today. I don’t watch movies or Netflix because what is being played out on the world’s stage is far more interesting and crucial to personal and national survival, even as we have to sort through the lies of the msm and our government, the 3 letter agencies in particular.
At some point I discovered CTH and though mostly lurking, it’s my go-to page with my morning coffee!
Thank you so much for what you do Sundance.
When Al Gore was almost elected president. (did we dodge a bullet? Or was the size/scope of 9-11 different?)
Since, I’ve come to realize what’s been related numerous times here, they’re both just 2 wings of a vulture.
Not an eagle.
Not representative of America at all except basest of ways.
I was born this way. For my entire life I have kept one ear open to the news and formed my own viewpoints on it. I remember as a child watching a news segment that was in regard to a law that passed. The law made it mandatory to ride your bike with the traffic and not against it. There was a fat assed woman on the news saying “If it saves one life it’s worth it”. For some reason the statement didn’t seem right. A few days later I got a ticket for riding my bike on the wrong side of the road, my punishment was to have my bike, which was my freedom taken away from me. My dislike for the people that have the mentality of “If it saves one life, it’s worth it” was welded into place.
As time passed, it seemed that every time a little piece of freedom was taken away it came from the “If it saves one life, it’s worth it” crowd. I didn’t know at the time the difference between republican and democrat, liberal and conservative. I did know that there was people out there taking my freedom away, one small bite at a time.
As I became more aware that it was the democrats that was doing it, I began to lean towards the republicans. My naive thought was that because the were not democrats they had to be on my side. I always had a suspicion that the republicans were not on my side, they spoke the things I wanted to hear yet they never delivered. Paul Ryan and John McCain were the final confirmation to my suspicions as to the true nature of the republican party.
Here I am, like many, a citizen without a party to represent me, voting America First hoping to make a change, yet keeping my eyes wide open and my distrust of all things in the world of politics.
I credit Conservative radio…back in the 1986-87… KLIF in Dallas…I tuned in for sports… Hitzges in the morning and then kept the station on in my car and then when I got back in my car afternoon’s with David Gold came on…got where i enjoyed his conservative banter…something unlike I heard or read in the media. i realized that there were a lot of people like me out there.
Heard a reference one day on the station to Rush Limbaugh…looked for it on the radio dial and he was on an obscure station and then moved to WBAP in 1980 for his midday drive time. I was hooked.
I patterned my work day listening to him…avoided business lunches and many times eating in my car to hear him.
Rush is an important mentor in my life and I credit him for alerting me and paying attention to the world events and the liberal/conservative world around me.
Thanks to Rush is when I started paying attention…
When I saw a young woman egged in the face for attending a Trump rally there was no going back for me.
Early on I was influenced by family and I’ve been a consumer of conservative media since the early 1990’s. But, I also was a believer in Republican vs Democrat agendas and goals. I believed the game as stated and would root for my side. That all changed when Trump was elected, the Republicans had control of the House and the Senate and Congress did not repeal/replace Obamacare when they had the chance. That, for me, was when I began questioning things the most.
Yes the 2016 election and shortly after. When Paul Lyin Ryan and other other Republicans stabbed Trump in the back with the border, and McCain did the thumbs down on Obamacare, I realized Rinos and Democrats are in the same corrupt group.
When “They” shot President Reagan.