That moment was in the 11th grade during a social studies class on the ridiculous explanation of missiles form each country if fired how the other countries missile would counter the first fired missiles which would lead to a second launch by the first and by the time the teacher was done I felt like I just watched a verbal Rube Goldberg machine be constructed. That was the 70’s and when Ross Perot ran for President it really brought it all home for me.

My husband has a master degree in civil engineering, after watching the twin towers fall in 2001 he really had questions, a few years later Architects and Engineers began putting out studies on Building 7 and the twin towers.
That was the beginning of an awakening that reality wasn’t what was being presented to us.
We thought we were the only ones who had questions about what really happened.

Then the mortgage and banking collapse…..no accountability

Then Benghazi… no accountability.

Then the private email server….no accountability and the list goes on.

When Obama said he was going to fundamentally change America and no one questioned him about what he meant by that.

Before that, I had very little interest in politics and just wanted to live my life and be left alone.

Sixty-five years ago I was in the taxicab business. Pres. Eisenhower was presiding over our country in a recession. I had trouble finding drivers for my taxis, and at the same time the automobile industry was preparing for a strike by the workers. I was in a puzzled wonderment! How could people strike when everyone was in the midst of a recession? That was my first eye-opening experience. Little did I know that Labor was so tied into left leaning Liberals.

My second eye-opener came about many years later when I was losing confidence in the Democrat Party when Jimmy Carter was president. Until then I really had no inkling of the difference between Democrats and Republicans. Now I was getting so peeved, and my eyes and mind were opening very widely. I started voting for whom I thought was best for the job, and I voted for some Republicans for the first time. In 2004 we moved about 20 miles north, and at that time I changed my party affiliation to Independent. Within the next few years I began to appreciate the Republican Party so much that I changed my affiliation to Republican particularly when Barack Obama ran for president.

Since then I have been 100% Republican, and I find it very difficult to like anything that the Democrats do.

I grew up semi-consciously left-wing by family osmosis, and began to read about politics at age 15. Summer after high school read The Fish is Red, which made me think JFK’s assassination probably had CIA involvement (though I have since considered seriously arguments on both sides of that specific question). I remember two years later reading the angry opening of Chomsky’s The Fateful Triangle, thinking it overblown and coming away 500 pages later thinking it convincingly supported. I began reading Alexander Cockburn prior to that, but came to read him bi-weekly or weekly with great interest. I shared his expose of the SPLC (written with Ken Silverstein) with my grandmother, with whom I had lived during my first attempt at college, and in whose house I had often read SPLC fundraising mailings. She stopped donating at that time. Importantly, Cockburn sometimes found himself more on the side of causes labeled “right” than those labeled “left” – such as telling the truth about the Clinton-Reno murders of the people at Waco. I have to give him a lot of credit for his influence in that regard. From 1993 Ferrel Christensen’s carefully reasoned critiques of “sexist-feminists” saved me from the woke (tho the term wasn’t yet in use) assumptions that I had reflexively gone along with, but at some level felt aware hadn’t been convincing. Right after 9/11 began to seek out independent information on the burgeoning wars on a much more regular basis, such as at Antiwar.com, and found myself immersed in the skeptical literature about Iraq WMDs in the lead up to Iraq 2003 (especially work by Glen Rangwala, contrasting what the inspectors’ reports were actually saying with what the Administration was claiming).

With that background which shows it difficult to isolate a single moment in my awakening, I have experienced three subsequent awakenings that have affected my psyche in very deep ways. One was The End of Suburbia documentary in 2005. After which I became immersed in the Peak Oil discussions for several years. I became deeply uncertain regarding the sustainability of our extreme dependence on hydrocarbons, and became absorbed in learning about “forgotten” skills – although at that time traveling by air every week as part of my work, the disconnect seemed overwhelming. Then after a period when I stopped paying attention to politics, the next big revelation was realizing what was really going on in the war on Syria – very belatedly, in mid-2016. That was actually one factor in my twice voting for Trump, who I also quickly realized the media were treating with scandalous dishonesty. The evident attempt to propagandize and coerce experimental gene-therapy injections, conjointly with the suppression of early treatments, was a further disheartening shock to my sense that even despite all the evident corruptions of the establishment, they probably should retain a little benefit of the doubt – sometimes. Much as I’d rather maintain a “case-by-case” attitude, I find it now hard to avoid regarding them as utterly at war with us.

Jimmy Carter years, Government mismanagement and how he left the government in shambles. Regan came along and the increase in national pride seemed to return along with recovery in the economy. When I really started to wake up was during the Clinton years and from then on it was one disaster after the next. I could see more and more government control and strange things going on in the background it was harder in the early days to understand and find answers. Now with alternative media anyone who really wants to be educated can easily find the information on how our government has been taken over and being manipulated by groups within and without our boarders. The Treehouse has been a real fount of information over the years. Thank you.

Growing up in the 1940/50s in families that had grown up in the depression years instilled at a very young age each person’s responsibility for his/her life. Added to that was growing up in the mid-west in a family with farmer roots. We lived in the city but abilities and talents learned with farming came in very handy.

I believe those of us with that background have had a very healthy skepticism from our early years. Even with that mindset, though, it was the 1960/70s that caused me to start questioning the news and government explanations, particularly the Kennedy assassination. As I ponder Sundance’s question, I don’t recall a particular “aha moment” but rather a growing sense of complete distrust of government.

I felt a new hope when Trump came along but also great despair as he showed me how deep and corrupt the system really was and is. Now I know my distrust of government was worse than I thought and not sure if we can dig ourselves out of this huge hole.

Thank you Sundance for asking this question. As you review all of our responses, I wonder if new insights will appear that provide hope, even if it’s only a glimmer.

The first time I tuned into Rush on Election Day 1992.

I’d say it was a gradual process, beginning with the Clinton Presidency. What REALLY opened my eyes was Trump’s campaign/presidency–or, rather, the Uniparty/Deep State’s reaction. That provided me with incontrovertible proof of one very uncomfortable fact: Before, I thought the powers-that-be were just in it to feather their own nests, and were essentially indifferent to us ordinary people. Trump taught me that such is not the case: they openly hate us and want us dead, or at least ground into the dust. I never realized before just how evil and sadistic our elites are.

I grew up “Methodist” in the 50’s and 60’s, but not until a divorce in 1990, were my eyes were opened and I became a born-again believing Christian. I was always the rebel, per my dad, but nothing prepared me for the encounter with the demonic that year except for my experience with God as well! A daily close walk with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit ground me. Rush Limbaugh, true believers, a few strong godly women, a few websites such as CTH, Infowars, have enlightened me. I have only found a couple “modern” churches who actually preach and live the gospel What I see going on now in the political realm is beyond words, however, it is written and I have hope always!

The big one for me was when the supreme court ruled states have no standing to challenge federal elections. There were many huh? moments before but, that ruling stated things clearly for me.

Actually back in 1970 a close friend of mine who’s father was in local politics in N.J. was indicted for bribes all he did it was determined was pass an envelope to someone else. It was determined that he had no idea what was in the envelope. He wasn’t found guilty, he was a democrat as was I. The congressman at the time was Jim Florio! Ha also as far as I know didn’t get in any trouble. As far as I was concerned my friends Dad wasn’t a criminal, end of story. Jump forward to 1978 My wife and I wanted to purchase a house that was for sale. A HUD house. I approached the local HUD office and inquired about it. I told them I wasn’t looking for a HUD loan and that I would secure my own mortgage. They repeatedly asked me what my income was. I told them again I wasn’t looking for a government handout. The people living in the house hadn’t made a payment on their HUD loan for 6 months. The man who lived there bragged about it. The people were black, the entire HUD office were all black.

I kinda got the hint that they weren’t going to give a white person a chance to purchase this home. They told me to call my congressman, Florio! I explained to his screener what transpired and that it was a win win for the govermnet. They would get full payment from me buying the house and I would have my home. The people living there weren’t paying. What did his office tell me? To call Washingtons HUD office. I did, They told me to call my congressman.

Jump forward to 1980. I voted for Jimmy Carter in 76 because I was a democrat, I was 26 young and dumb but getting smarter. Then Ronald Reagan happened and my eyes were then opened! Again jump forward to 1991 I happened to be looking for something on my radio cause there was no good music and I accidently tuned in to the Rush Limbaugh broadcast. Listening to him made my eyes WIDE open. The rest is pretty easy once your eyes are open. He was right on everything!EVERYTHING!And here we are just as he predicted if they ever get full power. It’s a very sad story when I look back. My eyes are still wide open more than ever and I’m afraid our loved country is going down the tube. The forces of evil are upon us and I look forward to God!

My husband said it was during the Vietnam War and the media lies, that he saw though at the age of 13ish. For me it was reading Ayn Rand and trying to get what she was talking about, then Ruby Ridge and a very persistent husband who was RELENTLESS about questioning me on “why” I thought what I thought….to which I mostly didn’t know.

No specific incident. Leaving school and hearing of Kennedy’s assassination, although I didn’t understand. changed my view of things. Also growing up in the 60’s,I got a distrust of government over Vietnam. (I was never revolutionary) Then I came across Mark Levin. When he described Supreme court judges as bums in black ropes, that caught my attention. Then through all the years I came upon The Conservative Treehouse and started to get a good look at the weeds.

I read Pres. Richard Nixon’s book, The Real War. It was published in 1980 but I didn’t read it until 1987 or 88. Nixon laid out the Cold War as being akin to WWIII, and showed me that everything the Left said about the Soviet Union was a lie. It was then that I understood that if the Left would lie about this, they were probably lying about everything else too. I was in my early 20’s at the time.

Like a snowball rolling down the hillside, gathering and growing …………..

For me, the snowball started rolling sometime around the Kennedy Assisantion and the Warren Commission, then the Vietnam war when it was clear our government was lying and I was required to sign up for the draft. It picked up steam in Watergate, then the Church hearings, Waco, Ruby Ridge, Bundy Ranch, Russia Hoax, election steal……………

All the time the MS media and government worked hard at lying to us.

It was in the summer and fall of 1999, when George W. Bush (then governor of Texas) announced he was running for president, and all of a sudden he was all but anointed, consecrated and declared the Republican candidate, with little if any primary opposition.

I remember being quite struck by how quickly he came out of seemingly nowhere and became the consensus Republican candidate — all while being one of the most inarticulate people on the planet — and so it was at that point when I then knew there was a back-room, secretive cabal of “elites” making decisions on behalf of the entire country, or at least on behalf of half of it.

I was married, with two step children, and working as a young corporate lawyer in Indianapolis at the time, and just going along with life and trying to be a good husband, step dad, and friend to my circle of friends.

But I haven’t trusted anyone in government since. Don’t even get me started. I could write for days.

I’ve been interested in politics most of my life, but most of my reading and awareness of an alternate truth came during Obama’s “first” time, and me getting more savvy w internet reading sources. When LibbyDole was shut out by the press and they pushed GWBII.
When GWBII showed he and family are members of the DeepState by denouncing Trump, and supporting the J6 travesties.
ALL OF BIDEN’S CRAP GOES UNCHECKED RISKING OUR MENTAL, PHYSICAL AND FINANCIAL HEALTH.
I will never be the same, I who like others, grew up in our happy cocoons, believing in what the Govt said and promised. No longer could I possibly have faith in what these fools have in store for us. Who do they think we are? Well, they haven’t met me and I ain’t giving’ nothin’ in return as long as libs dominate the field.

This may seem like an odd response, but years ago for some reason my attention was drawn to news reports about AARP and their positions regarding Social Security and Medicare and general govt support for seniors. I didn’t want to begrudge seniors a comfortable life and AARP seemed harmless, but it dawned on me that every one of their demands was or someday would be detrimental to my children who were at the time in their pre teen years. This made me realize that political clout meant a lot, and at a minimum I needed to start paying attention to who the winners and losers and their backers are in political and policy debates. Full disclosure, I am now in my “senior” years, but not a fan of or participant in AARP activities.

The way Ron Paul supporters were treated in Louisiana really woke me up. It made me realize that even if you win by following the rules, TPTB can just change them. I never looked at politics the same way again. I now realize it we haven’t had a real election in a very long time. Trump was a black swan. I don’t think we’ll ever get to actually choose a leader by voting again.

late seventies and early eighties (grade to high school). R. Emmet Tyrrell, Jr. informed me. I had access to the American Spectator and the weekly or maybe monthly article “The Continuing Crisis,” which documented many, many unfortunate aspects of a declining republic. In the mid-eighties in response to the animal rights movement (free the university lab animals), I would inform people that we need to “free the electrons.” How could we keep them in orbit, it was just cruel and we should free all the electrons…..and now we have arrived at (the end) (the awakening), the (???)

The passage of Obamacare and the subsequent 2012 election.. I had joined the Tea Party with my best friend and was horrified at what transpired.

When I voted for Regan in 1980. But more so when I listened to Rush in 1990. And even more since 2020.

For me, it was around the age of 35 (I’m 50 this year). As I’m paying more attention, I’ve realized that we are surrounded by a web of lies and the people in power spin those lies to entangle the unaware public.

Sometimes, I feel like I’m the crazy one. Anyone else feel that way?

I began to think that our government officials were corrupt back in the 80’s (when I was busy raising a very young family), because they went into government poor and came out wealthy- while I struggled along and did my best to cope with their decisions over my life. There were many clues over time as I worked and went to school and worked and went back to school. But I didn’t connect the dots until the ‘big bang’; the night of the election in 2020, when the election stopped. Instantly, like a plunging knife in my heart, I knew my country was stolen. I didn’t sleep for 3 months. But I did start to get involved as never before. It is a very different life now, to have to diligently work to determine truth from lies all the time, in a world gone upside down. But that is the cost of freedom and I’m willing to pay it.
Sundance, you have done much to shine a light in this foggy darkness of our time. You provide us patriot searchers with a forum for hope. Thank you.

I started paying attention to politics when Obama announced he was running for president. I had this uneasy feeling in my mind and heart about his candidacy. I had not felt this before with other candidates. I began to research and could find nothing about him, his background, etc. How could all information about a person be erased from the internet without nefarious reasons? Needless to say, most of America didn’t research him or wouldn’t listen to those who did. My husband (God rest his soul), who passed in 2010, always said “Obama is a puppet. His strings are being pulled by someone else.” I look back and see…. he was right. I sometimes wonder what he would think about the situation our country is in now.

I am OLD!, and in my 84 years, having been a skeptic for most of those years, it has been somewhat difficult for me to choose the exact issue which brought my awakening to the “political” rot and corruption in our Government and the mainstream media.

At the end of 1958 I had spent two years in college and had been having too much of a good time socializing rather than pursuing an education when I realized that I needed a major attitude adjustment or I was not going to make it in academia so I enlisted in the U S Marine Corps.

It was during the last years of my enlistment – 1961 and ‘62 – I was an NCO and in an area where I had a top secret clearance and was in a position where I was dealing with information concerning our military’s involvement in all locations throughout the world. The information I was seeing every day was quite eye-opening and was a completely different story than the “We are only in Vietnam in an ‘advisory’ capacity,” one that was being fed to the US public.

I returned to college after my active service ended in December 1962 with an entirely different attitude toward anything that we were being told by the government/media. Then came the assassination of President Kennedy and the fairy tales surrounding that event; LBJ; our professors retiring and being replaced with Berkeley type Communists; my graduation and becoming exposed to the already installed Communist indoctrination in our public schools.

Since that time I have never believed anything that we are told by government or the Main Stream Media. My wife and I pulled the plug on the television about sixteen years ago and all I can say is thank God for Conservative Tree House and Sundance, President Trump, and people like Neil Oliver, the Hoft brothers, and a few others.

Live your best life—and RESIST!

I questioned and still do what happened on September 11, 2001. I questioned Colin Powell speech about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. But my real turning point was the creation and passing of the Patriot Act. That was the last straw for be believing in the Federal Government. Years later I ran across The Conservative Treehouse Blog and was hooked. Finally, somebody telling the ruth about what was happening in the world.
I got rid of my cable in 2014 and have never watched TV since. I have lost many friends and even family members because of my conservative views but I am content and happy in my life.

For myself it started in High School, 11th Grade. I have always had a deep interest in World History, Literature Focused on Society and Military History. I also read authors that many High School students avoided, like Huxley and Orwell. I was also blessed to attend a very small High School in rural PA that allowed my English Teacher for years 11 and 12 (the same guy was my teacher 10th through 12th) to assemble a highly unorthodox curriculum … titled Man, Machines and Literature. This teacher was also highly demanding in that ALL exams were Extensive Essay-Take Home Exams. I learned more critical thinking in this English Course than ALL my future education combined.

Lump on top of that start in my “Interest in Questioning ALL”, my life to present as a Constant Student, Athlete, Soldier, Engineer, Business Leader, World Traveler, Family Man, Consistent Avid Reader … one gets a to looking at the world through a very odd analytical prism.

I will admit my “Interest in Questioning ALL” was further excited when I started writing, blogging and jousting across all forms of social media starting in the 1990’s … especially when my: concepts, words, terms and phrases are picked up and adopted by authors far more famous as well as followed than myself … as well as other by commenters on the forums I frequent.

It is especially exciting to see my words being adopted as a means of resistance as important as “physical” actions. The battle to shape the minds controlling the physical resistance is vital.

The only major draw back is a deepened skeptical outlook as I continue forward. Yet, that skeptical outlook is balanced to an extent by an oddly unexpected optimistic outlook at times and habit of trusting until betrayed. I also have a deeply christian catholic outlook as in the spiritual faith and not the “physical church”.

My own personal code has been shaped via reading the traditional bible as well as most of the discarded, ignored and “banned” books of the bible. I have read the KORAN and many of the popular hadithes. Plus have read the Coptic Bible, The Nag Hamadi and Dead Sea Scrolls.

Thanks for the opportunity.

. . . from an early age, I was attracted to the Republican Party because of the messages of God, patriotism and independent striving I thought I saw there: I was just a tot when Eisenhower was President — loved both he and Reagan! I began to be really frustrated under the Bushes (this is when I discovered Rush!). My big ‘aha’ moment came after Trump announced his candidacy: at last! (I thought — a can do businessman, a fighter for the American people!) . . . gradually I realized the Republican Party was not onboard — I was stunned! One day I followed a link from luccianne.com to CTH & was introduced to the ‘splitter’ strategy (so Machiavellian — cannot possibly be true!) since that discovery I have learned to question everything — looking forward to MAGA Trump 2024!

When I heard a guy named Rush Limbaugh on WHIO radio. Prior to that I voted democrat….

Thanks Rush!

I guess I naively trusted our government to generally do the right thing for its citizens and in the best interest of the country. I knew or thought the Rs & Ds had ideological differences and there were a few bad people in congress, but overall it worked ok.

I started to see with the SubPrime mortgage debacle that occurred and our government bailouts of automotive and financial companies how our government could be corrupt and there was nothing we could do about it.

I also trusted Bush and the CIA to be truthful in justification of the Iraq invasion. I no longer do. And my feeling toward our government institutions started a downward trend then and has continued exponentially when President Trump came on the scene.

So, for me, there was not jut one thing, but a development over the last fifteen years of distrust in the governance of our country, justice and legal institutions, education, etc. now most recently our medical community.

The last ten years, starting with Obama, I’ve seen a rapid decline in our country and it’s citizens.

The Terri Schiavo case really showed me how evil government agencies are.

Getting silenced on Disqus over at Gateway Pundit

I remember that speech. When I heard him say that I was like HUH? I also believe all this was in the making for over 100 years. It snowballed after WWII. McCarthy was dead on right! Operation “paperclip ” was a big factor bringing Nazi over here. Look where we are now, listen to Schwab! The Nazi have never gone away, we only defeated their military, their ideology has moved to the U.S and Europe.

I guess when I first started reading this CTH site, which was back about the time that poor girl got set on fire by her black boyfriend. I remember CTH covering that case pretty extensively. So, what maybe 10 – 12 years ago?

The 2000 election recount, appeals to the FL and US supreme courts. Clinton’s failure to resign after the Lewinsky affair showed how sleazy and power-hungry he and Hillary were, but the recount publicly revealed how far the Dems would go to grab and hold on to power.

when DJT came down the escalator.

While I have followed politics for many years, I really went to high alert during the Trump Presidency. The biggest gift Trump gave to America was just how corrupt and evil our government is. Until then I knew it was bad, I didn’t appreciate just how bad it really was/is. Thanks to Trump and the many blogs such as CTH and other alternate media, I am even more freaked out, but not out of the fight! I am even more active and involved.

Thank you for your great insights

I

Lot’s and LOT’S of corruption going on in Fed.gov throughout the years but Obama’s Beghazi and Operation Fast and Furious were the big eye-openers for me.

When the National Guard fired on the students in Ohio, killing several….1970?? “There but for the Grace of God go I”, thought I………….

Hillary’s emails were the true eye opener, though I had a sense before that her emails were so blatant that i finally saw was what going on.

In hindsight, my wake up took an embarrassingly long time, but thank God it finally started in October 2020 at age 50. All of the different and spontaneous rallies taking place for Trump (e.g., motorcycles, boats, Amish buggies, farm tractors) both in the US and in other countries really caught my attention. I couldn’t recall another American presidential candidate who was able to inspire other nations to hold rallies on his behalf when he was visiting their country much less when he wasn’t. And the yet the public opinion polls never seemed to align with these demonstrations by the populace. The polls kept leaning in Biden’s favor who was holding rallies for 10 people in a basement.

My brain wouldn’t let it go, so I found myself online not really knowing what I was looking for, but looking nonetheless. Despite never being a fan of social media, I started with FB, YouTube videos and Twitter which was not yet totally censored. Those efforts help me connect with some sources that I later followed to other platforms after the censorship ramped up after the election. The insanity that was the 2020 election just reinforced how I was feeling.

The final transition from normie to awake was from a viral Scott McKay/Patriot Streetfighter video shared with me by a high school acquaintance in January 2021 that sent me down every rabbit hole imaginable. I’ve spent the time since trying to hone my discernment, but it’s a never-ending task where certainty is hard to come by. Learning when, if and how to help others awaken has also been challenge. To feel awake, but now alone, within one’s local community is a weird consolation prize.

My first recollection that things weren’t as they had been presented to me was the JFK assassination.

I always had a hard time seeing or more aptly, believing the big picture, ie the scale and scope of the indoctrination until I found the treehouse before the 2016 election.

Truth is freedom.

I feel it happened with me when Trump ran for President. Until then I was your typical GOPe who read National Review and was devoted to the Republican Party. This site with SD made me realize we did not have a two party system but a uniparty.

During the first gulf war when the left wing media was trying to build a narrative. My brother was over there and I was noticing the way that some news organizations were trying to make America look bad in the eyes of America. During the first 2 weeks of the gulf war CNN was broadcasting live from a hotel next to a park in Bagdad and would walk the streets of the city every morning after the nightly bombing run by coalition forces and show the world the damage to the houses and the civilian adult and children that were hurt in the nights bombing. They would show children playing in the streets with bandages blood stained and the roofs of the buildings damaged from the attack.
Truth be known that during that time the only weapons used during the first few weeks were cruise missiles and the stealth bombers that were never over the targets. The stealth bombers could through there smart bombs lone distances and then would turn away and be gone by the target was hit. So in effect we were never over any target during the early parts of the battle. And we only hit command and control military locations and did not hit civilian infrastructure like power and water.
If you watch you watch footage of CNN night time broadcast every time a bomb impacted a target they started shooting thousands and thousands of anti aircraft and small arms fire directly into the air, and there was damage to the roof top of the hotel that CNN was broadcasting from. Now remember there was never and aircraft over a target! When the explosions happened they Fired in to the air, What goes up must come down, they were shooting themselves! And CNN played the lying game.
Just keeps getting worse!

It was when Ross Perot entered the political ring and as a Republican on both sides of my family since Lincoln and Mayflower legacy that I saw the GOPe for what it was. Perot’s assertion that the “government “ threatened his family is eerily familiar to what happened to Trump. So if you believe this is new you are wrong. I believe there is a time in the future when a third party will emerge because the tipping point of working in a corrupt system has been reach. Thank you Sundance for your excellent forum.

That moment was in the summer of 1989 when I was a teenager in the Governor’s Scholar program in Kentucky. During that 6-week long event, one of the things they did was celebrate Bastille Day, a French Holiday. They made a huge deal about it. But not a word was spoken about, nor any celebration of July 4th. It was my first taste of globalism.

Started to awaken, listening to Rush in 1994. His media montages were instructive. Took an interest in anthropogenic global warming in 1998 after I retired. I’ve read hundreds of articles. I learned that the narrative is bogus on many levels.
In early 2000, I discovered the the complicity of the GOP. Sundance you have fleshed this out very comprehensively. It is much worst than I initially imagined-the uniparty.
I was very skeptical of the Covid narrative from the very beginning, March 2020. My initial thought is that the narrative is overblown. I have since read, and saved hundreds of articles.
It is a very complex subject, with many layers, themselves complex.
I was initially skeptical, but open minded of the Jabs.
I am so glad that I never got them.
I literally, do not believe anything coming from the national media.
I do not use search engines, but rather, start from websites, I trust and chain off of them.
I do this because, the media non coverage of topics is much more damaging than their inversion of covered topics, in my opinion. At least we can examine and debate the narratives.

Allow me to draw a distinction between noticing corruption and politics, and waking up to the manufactured nature of American “reality” – the “reality” that is still in full force for 9 out of 10 of my friends and family.

I grew up in the belly of the Beast. The Washington Post was delivered to our doorstep daily, and I read it daily, starting by age 12. I noticed fairly quickly that a politician could take one position this year and do an about face the next when voting on the same issue the next year, not to mention the hypocrisy- when I do it, it is fine but when my opposition does it, it is despicable (exact same conduct).

My first encounter with the way in which perceived reality could differ was in 8th grade. One of my teachers claimed there hadn’t been any riots in DC in 1968. I had seen the damage with my own eyes from those riots, but she would not believe that they had ever occurred. I thought it was a one off thing. I chalked it up to some sort of ignorance, rather than “memory holed.”

By the end of high school, I knew about the sinking of the Maine. I knew about the Gulf of Tonkin incident. I knew that political DC knew during Bill Clinton’s first run for the presidency that he was not to be trusted in confined quarters with a woman. I despised Bush I too much to give that “rumor” credit, but was proved wrong, in pretty short order.

So maybe that all primed my attention to really notice the lead up to the invasion of Iraq. For some reason I could see the smoke and mirrors. I could see Hillary Clinton and W move in unison to beat the war drums, and to manufacture the intelligence (Curveball, Powell in front of the UN, Tony Blair shaping the intelligence), and I was amazed that it was possible to construct a narrative out of nothing more than smoke and mirrors to send a nation to war.

I do not know whether it is to my credit that I ever woke up at all, given the deeply brainwashed environment of my daily life, or to my shame that it took getting rooked by Obama to begin to perceive that there are no high level Democrats or high level Republicans, just one Uniparty manipulating shadows. Obama’s “evolution” on gay marriage, and his overt friendship with the Bushes, plus the weird rehabilitation of Richard Nixon’s reputation finally raised the whole curtain. Going from the orthodoxy of “Bob Woodward is a hero and Nixon disgraced forever” to seeing the whole political class show up and say nice things at Nixon’s funeral – guess they never meant the prior 20 or so years?

It has been steps deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole ever since, accelerating with the Trump presidency and all the unmasking as a result.

There has never been as dramatic a demonstration of the way in which the “reality ” can be manufactured and be made to persist as the face masks. In any blue area you can still see people walking around in a completely different experienced reality from ours – marked by the mask on their faces, the fear still beating in their heads.