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
I grew up in a family of cops.
From an early age I was taught about situational awareness.
I learned to observe the world around me and learn what was normal and then to look for deviations from that normal.
I was taught to listen for contradictions to known truths and then pull on them like a loose thread, until the facts were revealed.
That kind of training, along with 30 years as a cop myself, just spills over into every aspect of life and the way I look at it.
Auwtsnae: Situational awareness is the most important of all surivival skills. Animals are born with situational awareness. Most humans must learn situational awareness. With wokeness, multi-culti, clueless parents, stupid teachers and mobile devices, situational awareness is being bred out of the population.
Test
I remember the moment well. But it may take a bit to explain it.
I was a psychotherapist who worked with men who faced trauma and noticed that some of these men were victims of domestic violence but were turned away, laughed at or worse when they sought services for their troubles. Just a bit of study showed me that the Violence Against Women Act was built to help women but not men or boys. The clinical and research data at the time showed that men and boys were indeed frequent victims of domestic violence. This motivated me to lobby in DC in 2005 during the VAWA reauthorization to have major alterations that would force the bill to help both men and women. At his point it was unashamedly only helping women. I joined a group of researchers, lawyers, clinicians and others to show that men and boys were being left out of any help and the bill needed to be adjusted accordingly. We brought tons of evidence both clinical and research driven into a Senators staff to make our point. We were well received and some of our group had lunches with the Senator to discuss the best approach. He promised us that our information would be a part of the reauthorization and that the VAWA needed to include men. I was optimistic that we might start making some changes. But then it happened. When the time cane for the hearing to bring out any concerns about the bill, a big dog and pony show was created. A very one sided dog and pony show that only told the default “women are victims” narrative and totally left out our information. Not one of our group was asked to speak at the hearing even though that had been the promise. I was shocked. I remember thinking that it was clear that this was not a govt by and for the people it was more like North Korea. Basically, I learned that the govt lies.
At that point I realized that lobbying the govt was useless and a far better approach would be to lobby to the culture, the general population and bring this information directly to the people. That is what I have been doing since that time. I have been writing (3 books), was in the Red Pill Movie, was vice chair of the Maryland Commission for Men’s Health and have been making videos about the issues men face and trying my best to bring that info forward. menaregood.com menaregood on youtube or menaregood.locals or menaregood.substack
I also realized that it wasn’t just this one bill, the VAWA, there was a concerted effort to bring men down. This didn’t make any sense at first. Why would they want to do that? But now I realize that taking men down has been a goal of the globalists for decades. They knew that men would be their biggest threat. So how to best neutralize the threat of men? Push feminism and its disdain for men. I never understood why feminism got millions upon millions of dollars from “foundations” and the govt. Now it makes more sense. Create family courts that remove fathers from the home. Slowly push memes like toxic masculinity which demonizes the very characteristics of men that might be a threat to them. So now, men are afraid to stand up and shout. They would immediately be accused of being toxic. But if a woman does the same, well, that’s empowerment. You go girl. Make fun of men in the media, in movies, and even in congress. Ignore that men are 80% of suicides and 93% of workplace deaths. Ignore that men live shorter lives than women and die more often and earlier from nearly every major disease. And on and on. Keep men down and the push for a takeover will be safer.
Oh, and who was that Senator that bamboozled us? It was none other than Joseph Biden.
Sundance I can’t tell you how much my wife and I appreciate your information. If I can ever be of help to you please do let me know. Blessings Sir.
Tom Golden
You are so right. I remember from the 60’s how all the sitcoms revolved around the father being a nincompoop (exception Father Knows Best).
Indeed, there was a huge shift from Father’s Know Best, My Three Sons, Leave it to Beaver, Sky King and so many other shows that portrayed men in a healthy manner. Then along came the late 60’s and 70’s and the bottom fell out. Simpsons, etc.
I didn’t think it was possible but you have opened my already wide eyed belief that women were being praised and rewarded and placed in powerful positions even though unqualified, only because they were willing to browbeat men and other people with their new found power. This has been going on a long time and is getting worse. It’s sick and makes me ashamed to be a part of that gender.
Now I can clearly see, THIS: It was none other than Joseph Biden.
LBJ, Vietnam & Robert “Body Count” McNamara opened my eyes. To date, LBJ was the absolute worst president in my lifetime.
Short answer, believe it or not, when I was a kid. 😉
I came to faith in Christ at a young age and the further you go in your relationship with the Savior the more aware you become of the world around you, as C.S. Lewis noted, as it compares to his ideal. So I began reading the newspaper at a young age, during my many visits to my grandmother’s house, which amused her no end. lol Fast forward to today, and the world has moved so far from its created ideal that you know it has to be some defect in the human character or some maleficent machination- or a combination of the two.
But as Sundance so often says, and I paraphrase, “Once you’re awake, you can never go to sleep again.”
when the American embassy in Tehran was overrun and the hostages were paraded every night on Nightline and Carter did nothing
Actually the back story is that he really did something…..he ordered our military to do NOTHING. A neighbor of mine was there.
Doing nothing is actually doing something. In this case, it was abandoning Americans.
When Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his cold case posse proved Obamas birth certificate was made to order from an existing birth certificate from Hawaii, and the media and our politicians all ignored it and started the birther conspiracy to shut us up.
When they threw Palin under the bus in 2008, then I realized something was wrong, but didn’t know what. I was very involved in my state GOP at that time. Then my kids school in 2014 started teaching kids that boys could be girls (in pk!) and I found out as I volunteered at the school. The district covered it up, refused to tell parents, the local paper helped cover it up as well. Then I knew nothing was as it seemed. I pulled my kids out of that mess and thank the Lord we did. The next blow was leaving the church we were married in and after 5 years of searching we have finally found one that doesn’t bend a knee to social justice woke mentality. It’s been a process, painful but necessary.
For me it was the election.92 I think, Clinton Perrot that started it. 9/11 Bld. 7 enhanced it, all thru Bush Jr., it grew, then the Obama years. Found CTH at that time, lurked and never posted here till today. Multiple daily visits here.
Think the Kennedy assassination started it, and the Clinton and GW pushed further…and the Obama debacle clinched it.
I have to add to my previous comment. I’ve had 4 come to Jesus moments over the past 21 years. 1st was 9/11 as I said previously. The second was the 2008 election. I was a new mom and my awareness changed. This definitely felt like a far left takeover that was unprecedented and I had to watch every day. Little did I know it was really the uniparty takeover. I didn’t fully understand that until June 6, 2020, which was my 3rd come to Jesus moment.
It was the timeframe of the nationwide peaceful protests that were burning towns and cities to the ground, terrorizing citizens. I’ll never forget it,
that day a neighbor rang my bell. I’m not friends with her only a hi and bye kind of thing so I was wondering why she would ring my bell. “Just a heads up, there’s a protest this weekend up the street. I have a friend who’s a state trooper and is telling everyone to take down their American flags just for the weekend because protestors were targeting homes with flags on them.” Let me tell you, there have been few times in my life when I was that enraged. I felt assaulted, slapped in the face, on the 76th anniversary of DDday no less. It wasn’t her fault, she meant well, she really did. Some people aren’t deep thinkers, I’m married to one. She honestly felt like she was doing me a favor. Her mother lives across the street from me and she bought a house up the street. “My mother is taking down her flag just for the weekend. It’s not like she’s a Trump supporter or anything”, she said to me. That what was going around during that time frame, the flag was a symbol of white supremacy, oppression and Donald Trump. It’s died down since then but the mere fact that anyone thought taking down the flag was going to make everything OK and safer was an epiphany for me and not in a good way. I realized that this threat was coming from my own government. This was not just a group of random thugs protesting, like this poor ignorant woman obviously thought. This was coming from the top. It was a message not to vote for Trump. I also knew this is probably linked to China as well since most of our government has been bought and paid for by Red China, I knew it.
In the end, the protest that weekend was only a group of high school kids and their teachers. I felt bad for the kids because I felt they were being used, but at least it was an organic protest not the brownshirts being bussed in. My town used to be an industrial factory town until about 20 yrs ago now its majority state workers and teachers. They get paid off public funds.
The 4th come to Jesus was just this past November after the midterms. I still had some tiny shred of hope that we would have the red wave. But once they stole it I knew free and fair elections are gone there’s no way to fluff over it and move on. I fear that 2028 will be the course correction and it will be very ugly unless we can rebuild a 2nd party on our own. It’s the only peaceful solution left. So when I say burn it to the ground I really mean demolish the current GOPe structure and rebuild, I can’t see any other peaceful way at this point.
Totally agree with you on the George Floyd “peaceful protests”. Here we were all locked down and wearing stupid masks and these BLM and ANTIFA criminal thugs were allowed, and almost encouraged to destroy the big cities. And we were wearing stupid masks. Never again.
We were lied to by the government. None of those protests made any sense to me. George Floyd was a criminal hopped up on drugs. His treatment by police was poor but didn’t cause his death.
The other big lies to us by the government were:
– Covid, Covid origins, Covid treatments, Covid “vaccine”
– Charlottesville
– George Floyd Peaceful Protests
– Iraq war and Weapons of Mass Destruction
– Hands up, Don’t shoot
– Russia Russia Russia hoax
– Ukraine perfect phone call
– Color Revolutions
– Jan 6
– Election steal of 2020
– Obamacare; American people are stupid; you can keep your doctor; it will save $200/month
– Patriot Act
– War on Poverty LBJ
– Inflation Reduction Act
– Infrastructure Act
– Twitter & Facebook censoring
– IRS Targeting conservative groups
– 11 million illegals; more like 35 million illegals from the 2018 Yale/MIT study
– AP scandal going after James Rosen
– Fast & Furious gun running by Eric Holder
– Obama north certificate and college records that are still sealed
Yah missed a few more…
– JFK assignation
– RFK assassination
– Cuba takeover by Castro; Intel Community ousted Batista
– Iran takeover by Islamists; Intel Community ousted the Shah of Iran
JFK assassination. I was 11. They trotted out Oswald, ‘I am just a patsy’, in the police station and Ruby rushed him and shot him. Then all of the back story’s about how he shot the president from behind with 3 shots all in less than 5 seconds. I had then my first .22 bolt action rifle. It seemed impossible that anyone could hit a moving target at his angle as JFK’s motorcade continued moving, much less get off 3 shots from a bolt action in less than 5 seconds. But I was a kid taught to trust the government, but the “undertoad” begin then. With that filter on many things over time began to make less sense. Watching TV news and hearing exact repeated phrases by all would literally send my brain into convulsions. The exporting of US manufacturing jobs seemed heartless as middle America rusted. The Trump years sealed the deal with all of the false accusations by all, the coming out of the no longer in the camouflage uni-party and then the degeneracy of today much like in the ending Weimar republic era of the 1930’s. But finally? Covid; the data was obfuscated and by then I had come to understand obfuscation is the biggest sign of fraud. There was a lot of instilled bias to un-learn in this journey.
Totally agree about JFK and even his brother RFK… they knew too much…
it IS possible to get off three shots in 5 seconds, as any hunter can elaborate upon. If you have a deer within range and you miss, it is remarkable how quickly you are able to recycle the bolt, and if you have any familiarity with your gun you merely have to tilt it to the left to make sure the bolt doesn’t hit you in the face. With both eyes open, it is easy to pick up the target with the non scope eye and zero in with the scope eye.
This of course assumes familarity and facility with your gun, making sure it is in working order. What is that phrase….”well regulated,” which meant the arms you can keep and bear must be in good working order.
It is less possible when using what was referred to as “the humanitarian weapon” due to its inability to hit anything it was pointed at.
For me it was ” the indefinite detention without trail or charges” contained in the NDAA following 911. When Obama was selected for a second term, I realized we as citizens had lost the republic, never again to experience in our lifetimes the freedoms that we had become accustomed to. I have little hope that the current state of the country will turn around in my grandchildrens liftimes.
Once I learned that vaccine manufacturers don’t have any liability, which I learned right before covid. Then Covid opened my eyes even wider.
I think it started when I realized how biased CNN was. That was a long time ago.. maybe even before the days of social media.
You kinda get a funny feeling.. then with social media, you discover that many, many people have the same discomfort. The big story that kicked my teeth in was Trayvon. The media took sides… the agenda was so obvious.. the players were out of central casting.. This website was my door to social media.. I have kinda walked away.. but I still visit.
I’m 43yrs or so,
first kinda huh? Was when Obama was elected 2nd term.
Background; Canuck, raised remotely, was taking some business / courses economic, seeing decline, concerned people.
Not really following politics but was being to see how policies could quite quickly change things. Obama “elected” 2nd term didn’t make sense.
Then started watching the Trump on the 2016 debate stage… first time ever following closely. – Big turning in point. Been following since…
Clear answers, solid logical explanation/plans, and could see that he was well versed and was setting out actual solutions for the people.
And then the obvious media control of narrative also became obvious! Grandparents legally immigrated to here and survived the German occupation of their home country. Didn’t talk about it much but my grandfather clearly made sure that i was at least aware of “propaganda”. It’s war. Now i get it.
God Bless.
I was in my early teens in the late 80s, listening to Rush Limbaugh nearly every day while driving a tractor from spring until fall. Listening to him opened my eyes, and I started asking questions. I had the great opportunity to know many older farmers from the greatest generation as we had a hay baling business we ran all summer. I got to talk to them frequently and noticed a big disconnect between their beliefs and values and the politicians they voted for simply because of which party they were in.
Fast forward 15 years, and I am in the military, canceling all my plans because I am getting immediately deployed because of 9-11. I was gung-ho and caught up in the swell of patriotism. I initially felt the same when they announced we were going into Iraq. I can’t point to an exact moment, but shortly after that, I started wondering exactly why we were getting involved in Iraq. An actual look at the supposed evidence revealed the reasoning behind that decision was flimsy at best. I concluded that our leaders had used that wave of patriotism to further a different agenda. I left the military after finishing the rest of my enlistment.
Bush Jrs second term was a real eye-opener. Between him and Obama, it was just too depressing to even think about politics. It was so obvious at that point for me that there was a real uni party that controlled everything. I remember frequently getting into discussions with people about politics. I noticed people becoming more divided. I would anger both sides by showing how truly similar Obama’s and Bush’s policies were.
Trump’s entrance was like a ray of hope. Finally, someone outside the establishment, who spoke directly with the intention of doing what’s best for our country.
If I had to point to a specific event, it would be Bush’s second term. The Iraq War pushed me, but his second term is what made me begin to realize things weren’t as they appeared.
McCain and Romney’s campaigns solidified it.
I knew the tea party was doomed early. It was necessary, but looking at history, these things take a few waves of “uprisings” before getting long-term success. Wwe just didn’t have the support yet. They weren’t ready to look at just how corrupt the GOP was.
On another topic, I long agreed with Trump that the best path forward was to reform the GOP from within. I am not so sure now. I feel like it may take the formation of a new party and a beating in a few election cycles before we get to a place where the majority of people can be represented accurately in our government.
It was about 10 years ago my husband and I woke up to the reality we were all being lied to. It was under Obama’s leadership It first came to light. We noticed that he would say one thing to one group and something completely different to another and the media never called him out. It was around the time comedians were never talking about real time issues and no one ever questioned what the president was doing with all the executive orders. He used his power differently. Behind closed door and obviously with threats. 2013 was my awaking.
1) When Comey/Obama let Hillary off the hook for the bathroom server.
2) When I realized the 2020 vote was 100% stolen – particularly where I live (Clark Co/Vegas).
That was the day I erased my social media accounts and stopped watching the “news”. We live under a totalitarian criminal Fabian socialist regime that did away with actual voting. Sigh.
I have always been a Republican, but I was a fool. I defended the Bushes and their wars to my leftist friends. I voted for McCain and Romney (barf). Donald Trump opened my eyes. Now that I see, I can never unsee or not see again. It’s exciting, frustrating and extremely frightening.
I’ve had a lot of “wait,what!?” moments starting when I was 1 7 and a local politician skipped over me for a conversation because I was not able to vote yet. I was in the first AP US History class taught by my high school and we learned actual SCOTUS decisions and the constitution and I noticed a lot of “something’s not quite right” as I went along.
College, marriage, babies and generally trying to get by in the so-called good times of the 1990s kept me from really paying too much atention, but the frequency and intensity of the SNQR moments was increasing to the point a person couldn’t really have a daily life without noticing: the Branch Davidians burned to the ground, school shootings becoming a “normal” thing.
I was living in Albuquerque when fed police took over local operations over the shooting of a homeless man. Black SUVs everywhere over a single incident. Wait, what?!
Fast forward to San Bernardino massacre and turns out the guy is a known quantity to FBI and had regular access to schools. By this time I’m a single mom and my life became overwhelmed with fearfulness. I had to force myself to attend school events for recitals and band concert and I could see the weaknesses in every event and school pick up area. I wondered if this would be the next school shooting. This was also the run up to the 2016 election.
Shortly after I was out for some fresh air and it dawned on me that my reality was nothing like the world the news had painted for me. I started reading Breitbart and found CTH in a link in the comments. I also realized that a person who got all their information from the news would have a very different opinion than those who read the alternative news sources. I stopped reading or watching legacy media.
Fast forward to 2019. Everything about COVID and the way it was handled was upsidedown. My state level leaders in Tennessee failed to stand up against the mandates for ALL of our citizens. Why? Because hospital corporations and federal contracts are big budget items for the state and those are exactly who were forced to choose jab or job. Even local mayor and county executive fell in with thinking they can mandate details of life. This is in a county that voted 60% R and 70% Trump in the 2016 election.
The leadership of the nonprofit corporation that i work for was the same, because medical nonprofits are really just an arm of the state and federal agencies that fund them, in this case Medicare/Medicaid.
Throw in the 2020 election rigging, denial of courts to even hear evidence when it is so blatantly obvious and in some cases caught on security cameras. Failures of state and county leaders to do anything about it and then to see it done again with impunity in AZ in 2022. Our J6ers still locked up despite a new “R” house majority. why not release them all with any bond required being the time served? Where’s all that promised footage?
So while it has been a long time brewing, the undeniable realization that our government not only uses us for personal gain at every chance but also is actively working at destroying the entire fabric of life and that we are on our own has really been since Biden took office.
But, I am not feeling hopeless. Jesus has been alongside me in many fires. He hasn’t changed.
My vision kept me from learning to fly helicopters for the army in 1967. Not long after I was recruited (enticed) to join the army security agency. A division of the National Security Agency which included, Air Force, Marines, plus the Navy. USS Pueblo 1968 captured by North Korea gives one insight to our mission. The job I was placed into was communications center specialist. A nexus where all compartments flowed through to pass their individual secrets on. Everything was based on “need to know”qualification for dissemination. We didn’t need to know but were given access to nearly all comms. My first duty station was in Panama, Southern Command, which covered S.America, Central America and Cuba. The 1st coup d’etat that I became aware of involved the Panamanian government. We knew ahead that it would happen and the participants. My naïveté was not realizing our involvement. Transferred from Panama, 1969 to Headquarters US Army Security, Arlington Hall, Va.
A river crossing from Washington DC and the center where all world spooks and spies info flowed. While being stationed there my first serious encounter of our government lying and breaking the law occurred. Spying on American citizens and possibly deploying active duty military troops and declaring marshal law in Baltimore MD. This is 1970 and in between the hate my own countrymen were displaying and my disappointment of our government, I volunteered for Vietnam, which cemented my distrust of anything federal. By the way the unit I served with was the 175th Radio Research Company.
I have always been engaged. But the Sept 2001 moment when George Bush smoked cigars with the Saudi ambassador and then let the Saudi’s flee during a No Fly Event was the moment. At that inflection point, I knew the Bush’s had sold out to the Saudi money and I then reflected on how GHWB wasn’t just a successful oil man but a CIA operation. He had been planted in theRegan administration to watch and control.
I am posting my reply and then I am going to go back and read everyone else’s. So many little things that I’m sure I’m missing some. But these are things I’m ticking off in my brain as I sit here.
Something clicked in the back of my mind when people kept dying around the Clintons. I remember that plane crash with the Ag Secretary in particular when I thought, “this is just too many deaths to be a coincidence.” When I found FreeRepublic a few years later, I dug into Vince Foster’s death with a vengeance and knew for sure something was screwy there. And that was on a dialup modem.
Fast forward to when Rick Santorum endorsed Arlen Specter in the PA Senate primary. I realized I couldn’t trust any politician. (And it’s why I will vote for Donald Trump over anyone). Although still registered Republican, I began identifying myself as independent.
And then the kids at Duke being falsely accused of rape. Did another deep dive on that case. Knew for sure at this point that the MSM was complete crap.
And then Lois Lerner making both accusatory and defensive statements (illegally) while pleading the 5th.
I think Lois Lerner was the nail in the coffin for me where I began mourning the loss of what I had always believed America was.
Haha, freerepublic.com was the Treehouse of the late ‘90’s. I spent many a Sunday afternoon reading the threads. It’s sad how the level of commentary and debate has plummeted on that once great site.
Yes it is! I remember when all of a sudden there were so many racist comments. I sort of drifted away from FR at that time. In hindsight, I’m left wondering how many of those comments were actually deliberate enemy attempts to turn people away from FR.
It was in 1988. I took a journalism class at a junior college. The lady that taught it was a retired, old school reporter. She explained to us one day about gatekeepers and how we lived in a mediated reality. Changed me forever.
When I watched NPR give Bill Clinton a softball intetview at the height of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, got interested, started listening to Rush.
But confirmation of the depth and level of corruption was confirmed by Jim Comey and his ludicrous, laughable “no reasonable prosecutor” speech.
I should add: Since I had a very low draft lottery number, I listened closely to Nixon. That was my single issue, so I paid close attention to him. Then came Watergate, a surreal scandal and fascinating scandal. Always thought its was just a black and white, right vs wrong thing, never saw the behind the scenes power plays. As things “settled down” I got about my work and raising a family. Then the Clinton’s came along with their agenda. Then, see above.
PS: Thank God for the alt media.
For me it was when OBowel Movement was running in 2008. Started listening to Rush Limbaugh and various other conservative outlets…online and radio.
Things just didn’t pass the stink test for me at that point and was so hungry for the truth it became an obsession for me.
Then I discovered CTH via links from other sites and decided this site is my NUMERO UNO for best analysis.
Thank you to those who post links to other sites – this is how the real poop gets posted and makes the rounds.
GOD BLESS YOU SUNDANCE!
Initial idea implanted in Graduate School class on “Public Opinion and Political Propaganda” where I was taught about Power Brokers and how they relate to politics. We learned that The US Chamber of Commerce and Sears were the big power brokers. Twenty years later as a politician of a small urban city in South Florida I learned that if you did not Toe the line the Chamber, Waste management and Residential Developers would not only not provide you with election funding but would actively support your opposition with False lies and accusations just before the election. The icing on the cake was “The Hanging Chads ballot recount” in Broward and Palm Beach county where precincts were being chosen to be recounted and Chad intents were judged and assigned to a candidate (Bush or Gore) Even in unique chosen precincts it appeared to my eyes that all unclear ballots wanted Gore. Charley Chris the perpetual fence sitting Florida candidate was also starting to Jump from the top of his fence from one side to the other based on the current day propaganda news.
After retiring from the Army 30 years ago I did not follow politics closely. Then I learned about Obama and his connection to Jeramiah Wright in Chicago. That set off alarm bells and I started looking into his background. What I found really disturbed me. A fellow Marxist said of him in 1980 that Obama was the most radicalized person he had ever met. Obama believed the country could be overthrown in a Marxist revolution. The fellow thought he convinced Obama that the US overthrow could only come from inside government. And so it has.
When I learned the consideration for Britian issuing the Balfour Declaration was the Tribe using it’s influence to get the US to enter WWI.
Benjamin Freedman’s 1961 speech talks about this.
I was first awakened by George Bush’s New World Order speech to congress in 1990. That is when I really started paying attention.
“Out of these troubled times, our objective – a new world order – can emerge ….. Today, that new world is struggling to be born, a world quite different from the one we have known …..”
Former President George Bush
Sept. 11, 1990
That speech was dark and foreboding to me. It was not based on the principles of our founding fathers but on the evolving role of the United Nations and creating a world that functions as one. The United Nations Charter was established in 1945. It has been heavily influenced by the Council on Foreign Relations. Bush Sr. was on the Council Board of Directors from 1977-1979.
This same New World Order was a focus of Obama’s when he said in a campaign speech ….”We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.”
George Washington said in his farewell address…..”the rule of conduct of America regarding foreign nations is in expanding our commercial relations, and to have as little political connections as possible.”
A concept focused on with keen precision only by former President Trump.
The viciousness of the democrats during the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings renewed my interest in politics and opened my eyes to the corruption. Oddly, Kamala Harris stands out as the most shallow, argumentative and unintelligent character in that charade. She was a phony then and even more phony as Vice Resident.
Thanks for your interest! Around 2005 Tom Tancredo was my congressman and I was a longtime reader of the Denver Post. I began to notice that whatever Tom proposed regarding southern border issues was labeled “racist” by the Post. In fact, he could hardly speak without being labeled racist. He was (and is) an intelligent, thoughtful citizen just trying to better the country. The realization that I was immersed in political agendas, narratives and untruths gradual grew from that point. About the same time period I began to notice the Bush administration narratives regarding “a religion of peace” and “weapons of mass destruction”. Fast forward to 2023 and the narratives are rampant and proliferating (racist people, racist country, LGBTQ, trannyism, BLM, CRT, DEI, Ukraine good, climate apocalypse etc.). I no longer believe any of the emanations from traditional media, the elites, government institutions, political parties, the sports industry or the entertainment world. Fortunately, higher truth is out there and provides protection from this tsunami. Keep up your good works.
I lived in CO for over 48 years (fled there, leaving behind family, in 2019). Tom Tancredo was my guy too. He is a hardline constitutionalist and I adored him. I always read the Rocky Mountain News (which was the conservative newspaper) but they got rid of it. Sometimes it’s just the constant barrage of “little things” that begin to wake us up. Then I got gob smacked (thankfully) by the 2016 election and Bill Penzey.
During the Clinton years and, in particular, Waco, Ruby Ridge, Vince Foster, Travelgate and the Elian Gonzalez debacle.
For me it was 9-11. Although I always voted every two years 9-11 was my wake up call. And when I decide to do something it often becomes an obsession. I spend two or three hours every morning educating myself in politics. And frankly CTH is a daily must read. Maybe second to Rush but no-one breaks it down better.
Self edit
November 8, 2016. I was in Las Vegas for a special event. An Aussie actually broke the news that VSGPDJT had won the election. It was after midnight & I was on my way to my room so I didn’t notice much else. The next day there were meltdowns going on everywhere. People on the phone saying stuff like “What am I going to tell my kids?”. Total headscratcher for me since I was elated & dancing on air. I was on Twatter & Fakebook at the time. The hate sped through those platforms like wildfire. It was vicious and palpable. And then I got the famous Penzey’s email. 😳 And here I have been pretty much ever since.
Same here. I live in MA and people were acting like it was the end of the world. Shortly thereafter got off Facebook permanently and lost a few friends when I read what they really thought of people like me. My eyes are wide open now, part of me is so sad about it I wish I did not see it, the other part of me is mad as hell.
What’s the famous Penzey’s email? If you mean the Penzeys spices owner, I know he’s super anti-Trump and a vicious radical leftie but I don’t know the details.
Yes, Penzey’s spices. After Trump won in 2016 Bill Penzey sent out an email to all his customers. In it he shamed anyone who voted for Trump, called us names, and told us that one way to atone for our sin was to donate to the SPLC!!!! It was quite a rant. I instantly unsubscribed to his email newsletter and set about to rid myself of all his spices. McCormick’s works great for me, thanks. 🙂
I’m a lifelong conservative. I got a very swift and complete lesson about the left for which I am grateful. In those ‘liberal’ individuals I was unable to avoid I consistently noticed two common characteristics: they are intolerant, and they are liars.
Kennedy assassination
1. ‘The Woke’ 1 year prior to my retirement my IT shop went woke…retire the white men in the corner office, group vote on project timeline, video games n foosball in breakroom.
2. Politics. A coworker friend invited me to a TEA Christmas breakfast,I think 5 years ago.
I was in 3rd or 4th grade in the early 80s. I was an altar boy. Thankfully, the obvious didn’t happen, but I noticed how bad of a person the priest was when nobody was looking. The way he treated kids with intimidation, the way he reeked of booze and cigarettes, the way he seemed to hate his job, the way he seemed to hate himself, etc…. I went home and asked my parents questions like “why are priest better than us when our priest isn’t a good person.” That conversation ended up being cut short with a reply of “stop asking questions.” Haha. From that day forward I started developing a keen eye for spotting hypocrisies, lies and injustices. Cheers Sundance! Keep up the good work.
I was born in 1962, my father worked at McDonnell-Douglas (now Boeing) fighterjet and missle company near St. Louis airport. Around 1972, on our semi-annual vacation to see relatives in Kansas City, we stopped by a then active ICBM next to I-70 forty miles east of KC. By this time I had seen the old 1964 Daisy mushroom cloud commercial and other Cold War nuclear destruction documentaries. At 10 years old I suddenly realized that when we held those “get under desk” nuclear drills back in elementary school, living near a target military factory, that little wooden desk would have been vaporized. Hello cruel world.
The day I saw the news and a black person said I voted for Obobo because he is black. The rest is history
Not all, but several black folks that are my friends did that. Many now know they made a mistake. But many more will not admit it to me. And I quietly see their faces and know they are disappointed because the conversation trails off…Sad.
I was a licensed securities broker. Jon Corzine, former Gov of NJ, former Sen of NJ and prolific fundraiser for Dem Party ran a large investment firm which made some bad bets and used client funds to cover those bets. The biggest no-no in the brokerage business.
Somehow, Obama and Holder never jailed him??
It was then I realized Justice was going to be one sided going forward.
My eyes were officially opened by the “The Downside Legacy at 2 Degrees of President Clinton”, by Alamo Girl. Ever since then, I understood that it was not only the liberal Democrat politicians that were trying to destroy American Exceptionalism, but also the GOP. The Uni-party ensured that all of the rogue nations received nuclear weapon technology and the stolen Loral rocket technology to deliver those weapons anywhere in the world. Of course, the media was in on protecting all of this back then. The evil spread by the Uni-Party has grown exponentially since then and the role of the media has provided dark coverage of that evil from the American public.
The 60 Minutes interview of Bill and Hillary. I thought “they’re lying…he’s out for the glory and she’s after the power”.
Have to admit it was also a shock to realize the GOP weren’t the good guys I thought they were.
In 2021, when I realized the deep state and Democrats were not going to allow another Trump presidency… and to my shock what happens next?
Sundance attacks Ron DeSantis.
I was cleaved in half.
All through the 80s, we lived a good life. I married my wife in ’79… she was a commercial loan officer for a major bank in downtown LA, and I worked as middle management for a government contractor with the DOJ. West Hollywood, at the time, was a very safe place for a young married couple to live… except for AIDS… but there really wasn’t a political aspect to the virus yet, so we went about our daily lives relatively unaware of anything much beyond our immediate surroundings. We were, after all, newlyweds.
George Deukmejian and Pete Wilson, both moderate Republicans, were governors during those years, so there was very little state-driven political activism going on… it was pretty much business as usual. Suzy’s dad had been a career postal employee, and I came from a strong military family, so we were both OK with the most visible aspects of the federal government. Reagan and Bush Sr. were presidents then, both of whom we voted for, but not passionately.
We were conservatives, in hindsight, but weren’t actually aware of it… if you know what I mean.
We started our own business in ’82, moved out of the city to a ski resort in the mountains above Los Angeles, all of which served to remove us even one step further from political worry. Like I said… life was good.
Then, in 1992, the earthquake hit. We lived at epicenter. We lost our home, a small rental property that we had purchased, and the business. But we had our lives, and an insurance settlement that afforded us the ability to escape here to the mountains of central Arizona where we’ve been ever since.
Maybe it was coincidence, or more likely just having gone through an event as traumatic and life-changing as an earthquake, but whatever it was had awakened us… we were no longer distracted from the things happening in the world around us. Things like Ross Perot.
That was it… he hit the media at exactly the time that we started paying attention to it. He captured our imaginations… something different… NOT business as usual. And when he lost to Bill Clinton, we only became more interested, more aware that there were forces in our central government powerful enough to actually direct events… to influence the outcome of virtually anything within their sphere of influence… like the failed attempt to remove Clinton from office.
And as they say on the roller derby circuit, it was all downhill from there.
In 1977, I was 17 in a small town in Baltimore, Md. I graduated high school a year early and I had to work. During my time in school in the 60’s and 70’s I was involved with the ecology movement, cleaning our neighborhoods and pestering our grownups about littering. I got a job at Friendly’s as a waitress at a local shopping center. I got my first paycheck and noticed that taxes took most of my money. I worked for that money and I was shocked at the small amount I had left over. I ended up working 3 part time jobs. One job was cleaning banks at night, under the table, for cash. My folks paid for a college class but my Dad told me I had to concentrate on making money in order to pay for any more college myself. It was hard to find a full time job. Times were turbulent then, to say the least. This is when we were forced to gas our cars on alternate days. Inflation was thru the roof and cigarettes went to a whole dollar a pack!! (I quit smoking!) These were the Jimmy Carter years, the years that changed me into a conservative. I started to be more aware of National and local politics. Before cell phones and social media. Just real LIFE. I didn’t sleep much, just worked. I swore to myself that I’d never vote for anyone who wanted more taxes. I’m 62 now, living retired in red state WV. I’ve voted in every election and I’ve never voted Democrat, and I never will.
During Trumps first campaign, he commented on polling locations staying open in blue area’s, after hours. This was to run up the count after realizing their candidate was losing. And sure enough, they did on election night. Now we can obviously ignore all these millionaire Civil servants. While we wear coats in our home, and buy new cars. Not their problem, their rich! Two words,”TERM LIMITS”.
Repeatedly prompting us to hate the orange man didn’t work on more than half the country. What concerns me most is both major party’s do this. I recently registered Independent. I vividly see the point in authors .Img, and do what I can. First of which is vote.
Having an “over the hill” type of investigative energy as a child, 29 Sept 1965 the draft. The beginning of the change from one life of ignorance and cars etc. to a discipline I clearly did not initially understand. From upper middle class, a job, ladies, to military family. As I was a bit older 21, I was tasked with a project to privately review an incident that generated the emphasis and plausibility to engage in SE Asia conflict. A solidification, of my lack of trust in Governmental affairs was discusion with my Grandfather concerning the project. Grandfather said: trust belongs to few. He said ” Wilson” was more hired than elected. Grandad was sent to the Argonne in WW1, Grandad lost his banks in 1929-34, and all his private funds, and started over. His final advice at the end of the conversation was: you were given an education in analysis, study the United Nations for it is not what it appears. Now, I have three families and 9 grandchildren who I cannot let
live in what is coming. Still at the Foensic Historical analysis at 79 and counting. We will win for the Founding Documents,
while the cost? time is getting short. Godspeed,the Lord gave us a brain, and faith in the future. Possibly I should send shekels for being able to chat.