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
The entire Obozo Administration turned me sour, but the San Bernardino shooting was the once incident that caused me to realize that something was terribly wrong. Another “trigger event” was the Las Vegas shooting, with the “security guard” fleeing to Mexico, and then returning to the US to do an “interview” with Ellen Degeneres, before disappearing for good.
Thus, looking back, and doing a lot of reading and online research, I believe that much of the “bad” done against America since at least the early 1960s, and, with regard to communism, since the 1930s has been done on purpose, with intent.
Good morning,
For me it was the first week of May/2020, I sat down to watch the local news broadcast at 5:30 like I always did and the opening story was a repeat of the previous day, weeks and months opening story … welcome to the NEW NORMAL and the related covid numbers, drama, etc. I got mad and changed the channel and to my surprise they were saying the exact same thing , word for word. So I went to another channel and they were saying the exact same thing also …. so I checked all of the 5:30 news broadcasts and to my complete and utter amazement and surprise they were all the same !!! I was dumbfounded as was my wife, we both looked at each other and said WTF is this ??? Up until that day I always thought of myself as a knowledgeable person that had his finger on the pulse as to what was happening in my world. Boy was I ever wrong … The next day I went on a search for the truth and I soon came across an article from a web page called “The Conservative Treehouse” and my life changed immediately for the better. Ever since then I spend many hours a day reading searching/investigating for the truth/facts and information about how corrupt our governments/society has become and where this will all lead too. A super big thank you for everything that you do and for having a very strong and determined voice. Keep up the good work.
Charlie
One night back when Leno and Letterman were the big names in the late-night slot, I clicked between the monologues of Jay Leno and David Letterman. They were telling the same jokes at the same time about the same topics. I smiled a bitter smile and turned off the teevee. The communist motif in big media is thoroughgoing and relentless. They want it all.
Jim Traficant getting thrown out of congress and the advent of the 24 hour news cycle with Fox News, MSLSD and most importantly – listening to Rush Limbaugh.
Grew up in NYC- Queens. When news was on in our house it was usually on CBS/NBC and later CNN.
1986 husband was transferred to North Carolina and that was the trigger for me to research all the stereotypes about Southeners, real Jim Crow history, etc. Mind blown. When we left NYC, I left the Dem party forever but still did not trust the Repub party and their country club attitudes so I became an Independent.
Later became involved in local government but this was the profound turning point for me.
Did a double take on sept 11 1991 when Bush Sr said ” we have a real opportunity for a New World Order”. What did he just say? Convinced myself he didn’t really mean what it implied. Realized later he most certainly did. My Father was a ” conspiracy theorist ” so I was taught to question and think outside the box. Got busy raising a family. Had babies 1980, 1985, 1994. Third baby diagnosed autistic at the age of 2. Saw a complete change in him after 18 months. Started questioning vaccines. Stopped vaccinating. He made such a turn around the CDC came to my home to test him and study him. I asked the scientist that came. Do you think the vaccines could play any part in the autism epidemic. ” absolutely not!!” Was the answer. But I thought they were just now researching. Why the direct absolute answer? Told me the answer without telling me. So then I started paying attention. I did fall for 9/11. I feel very stupid about that one. They also got me with the remdesivir trick. My husband went fishing in FL during the covid fiasco. Didnt drink water bit drank adult beverages. Came home severely dehydrated. I took him to ER for IV hydration. Oh no mam he tested positive for covid. He had no covid symptoms. Dr says ok you were right his kidneys are critically injured and the treatment for covid is remdesivir. Will be hard on his kidneys. Then why are we giving him that? CDC protocol. I am totally deer in the head lights. We knew not to take the vaccine or get on a ventilator. Didnt know about remdesivir. But I do now. ICU nurse tried to warn me. So they pumped him with fluids gave him remdesivir shut down his kidneys fluid goes to lungs. He died 9 days later which I find out now is the usual time it takes to kill someone with remdesivir. I now know how diabolical they are. Whatever the gov says I know to do the opposite. I trust God alone.
i am very sorry for your loss. i just felt i had to tell you because your story brought a tear to my eye. Side note, my daughter is a teacher. i brought up the possible problems with vaccines and autism and she said “i am disgusted that you think i could be that ignorant”. Very frustrating.
I defended Reagan in high school because of all he stood for against big government. Really got it when Ross ran against George on NAFTA, I voted for Ross. I’m in manufacturing and that was the death to our business in many ways. Trump built us back up Biden ended us.
I have read a great many of others’ comments before writing my own here. I can definitely appreciate so many people’s “Wake Up Moments”… Mine came to me in an unusual way…while in a waiting room at my orthopaedic surgeon’s office. I must tell you all that I am a natural born “EMPATH”, and as such I “feel” energies around me all the time. (We all have this ability, buy my antenna is especially sensitive.) As I was sitting waiting for my appointment, they had a huge TV on and I began to become aware that they were talking about all the upcoming Democratic candidates running for President–of which this black guy with a strange name was one of them. Obama. Sundance…I will tell you that the SECOND I saw him and HEARD him, I felt an electrical shock hit me on top of my head and shot down my body right through my legs! In fact, both my legs jumped and a bunch of other folks in the waiting room noticed, and asked if I was okay. I assured them I was, though a bit embarrassed that such a huge energetic HIT was noticeable. At that very moment, I received psychic messaging that: He will be the next president, despite all evidence that will surround him that he is not who he says he is.
Although I have been very interested in history and eventually politics for a number of years, it was after this extraordinary occurrence in that surgeon’s office that REALLY caught my attention–to a VIGILANT level. After that imposter was [indeed] elected…which I considered that was a fraudulent election at that, I began to be driven to search out “alternative” news/information sources, as I watched so many people practically DROOLING over this guy. I started right off commenting that I considered him to be the OCCUPANT of the Whitehouse.
It was Obama’s occupation of the office of president that started me going back into history and politics. I began to “connect-the-dots” about so many other things before this particular election. I stopped believing anything the mainstream media spewed out. I continued to listen to Rush Limbaugh during my lunch hour–only with much deeper attention. In my search to locate news sites that were questioning “everything-Obama”, I came upon The Conservative Treehouse, and have been a faithful follower of your wonderful work, Sundance. I appreciate my fellow Treepers more that anyone can know. And though I don’t always comment–(mostly lurk), I have learned so much, and continue to do so, daily. Your in-depth research has told me that “NO, Everything is NOT what it seems”. So, there’s that.
I am a Trump supporter to my core. And, in closing my comment here… I had another “energetic hit” the moment I watched Donald Trump and his wife Melania come down the escalator in 2015. It was unmistakable to me that HE would be our next President. Despite the overwhelming and numerous catastrophes, the in-our-face lying, coverups, fraud, and downright EVIL going on daily… I continue to feel in my bones that, as he has said…”The best is yet to come”.
Thank you,
PatriotGalNC
My feelings exactly. When I watched and listen to Obama speak for the first time, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up! And every instinct in my body screamed: “this guy isn’t right! Their is something ominous about him!”
9/11 got me really into paying attention. But then when they started accusing Trump of Russia collusion, that is when I really started to notice what is really going on. COVID, stolen election, Ukraine has opened my eyes a lot.
That moment for me was when I saw the press doing a hatchet job on Richard Nixon between his run for Governor of California and his 1968 run for the Presidency. From that moment on I have considered the press enemies of the Republican party. I voted for Nixon twice and have always voted for Republican Presidential candidates since.
I attended my first March for life in 1983 on the DC mall. Hundreds of thousands of participants. It was a massive crowd. When I finally got home that night, I went to the local news to see if they had shots of the thousands of people there. They said there were some people on the mall Protesting abortion. No aerial shots or photos. That was it. Afterwards, they spent several minutes interviewing a group of about 12 pro-abortion protesters outside of a pregnancy clinic. It was a rude awakening for me, and that’s when I started to take notice. We’re not in Kansas anymore.
My realization of things being really outta whack began with a Los Angeles Times report about a crooked scientist at UCLA.
It was 1992 or thereabouts. Wife and I were living in L.A. I was at the In-n-Out @ Sunset and Orange, settling in with the lunch crowd: a Double-Double-with-fries-&-Coke. I was scanning a fresh copy of the L.A Times while enjoying the best chain-store burger west of the Mississippi.
On a page in the Local News section, I came across a report that astonished me. A full professor at UCLA had falsified evidence and proof and results of some kind of research to do nothing but get more grant money. Until then, until that moment, I had a kind of reverence for the scientific community. I had “Watched Mister Wizard” as a child and really believed the men and women of science were honorable, straightforward searchers for real honest facts.
To me this report of fraud and malfeasant behavior from someone so highly credentialed in the scientific community at a world-renowned university campus was a bombshell story. (I use the term *b-o-m-b-s-h-e-l-l* very advisedly). I expected to hear reports of this crime on television and radio. I expected The Times to stay on top of the story until the wrongdoer had been punished. Instead, nothing. That story vanished down the memory hole and from then to now, I have watched an ever-increasing, never-diminishing across-the-board exhibition of fraud, violence, corruption and malfeasance.
Apostle Paul outlines what I’ve been witnessing in the first chapter of Romans. When I first read that long list of human perversion I could hardly believe things could ever get THAT bad. I have been seriously and finally disabused of my misconception. I now understand a little better why there really is no such thing as “worst” on this side of heaven.
I’m so glad you brought up Paul’s first chapter of his letter to the Romans.
I think of it almost every day — which is easy for me since I committed it to memory in about 7 years ago.
The exceedingly relevant part, I think is this: Verses 28-32 “And since they did not consider it worthwhile to hold on to the true knowledge of God, God handed them over to a corrupted mind to do things that never should be done. They are filled with every kind of unrighteousness, evil, greed, and wickedness. They are full of envy, murder, quarreling, deceit, and malice.
They are gossipers, slanderers, God-haters, insolent mockers, arrogant boasters, and loudmouths. They dream up evil things.. . . . ”
“Even though they KNOW God’s righteous decree that those who do these things are worthy of death, such people not only continue to do them, BUT ALSO APPROVE OF OTHERS WHO CONTINUE TO COMMIT SUCH SINS.”
If you’re of a mind to memorize Scripture, the Book of Romans is immeasurably worthwhile.
The memory verses I’m working with now are the first 10 verses of Psalm 91. Those verses have kept me from going off the deep end and falling headlong toward rocky bottom.
I’d say Bill Clinton’s Presidency… It’s been down hill since then except for a brief respite in 2016
In 2009 about 20 illegal aliens move in next door. Soon robberies sky rocketed in our neighborhood. I started reading up on illegal immigration and how it hurt poor and working American citizens most. I came to realize how hypocritical and phony the American keft is and I just continued down the road of conservatism and never went back. And then Donald Trump came along …………..
For me the pivotal moment is when I first noticed the UNiparty construct. And that was when Bill Clinton and George HW Bush were pictured relaxed and laughing in each other’s company, on a new joint venture to form the Clinton Foundation.
That one photograph and background story on the formation of the Clinton Foundation crystallized for me the fact that I had been strung along for all these years. There were NOT two political parties philosophically opposed to each other’s policies. R & D were in fact two fake factions of one slimy government swamp- and they were both opposed to we, the people.
From that moment on I began to pay closer attention and I discovered they ALL were full of hot air. Due to my extreme disillusionment and distrust, it was not until Donald Trump rode the escalator that it hit me like a bolt of lightning: HE WAS THE ONLY ONE who could fix this mess! And right away I jumped aboard that Trump train – actually it was the LIRR to Trump Tower- and haven’t gotten off since!
My first awakening occurred during the Clinton occupation. I had a bad back injury, and spent many hours lying on ice packs. I despised daytime tv, so starting watching C span. I was watching a hearing on Hillarys’ healthplan proposals and was utterly shocked at what she was proposing. She also made a comment that all mothers should be working. I couldn’t wait for the evening news to cover the hearing and reveal what was being proposed. And on the news that night–crickets. In the newspaper the next day–crickets. For the first time, I realized that bias and censorship was real.
The second awakening was years later, when I stumbled on a you tube investigator, named George Webb. He was investigating the disappearance of a young man who had worked for the Clinton Foundation. One thing lead to another, and for the first time I learned some hard truths about child sex trafficking. And the curious case of the Awan brothers, working for Congress. I didn’t sleep well for a long time.
My third awakening was thanks to Sundance. The idea of a uniparty was new to me. And it struck home. I finally understood why my voting for Republicans never seemed to lead to real change. The puzzle pieces all fell into place.
When was that moment for Me?
My eyes where opened June 1985. I learned the truth of the “Federal Reserve.” This made Me question everything.
I had an old friend how work with Military IntellAgent. He told me to” watch the news reports and don’t just listen. The pictures will always tell the truth. Question everything.” This is true today and it changed my life.
The assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The official “facts” never made sense. I’ve questioned and researched everything since then.
Been ‘lurking’ at CTH since the Jessica Chambers murder.
2012 after losing my mother in a fire, leaving my teaching job and surviving a serious life changing health scare. My husband suggested getting a new computer and I joined FB and a few community groups..it was election year and I started following American Thinker..I read about the New World order, Globalism, etc..things weren’t adding up…the new Pope in 2013 didn’t add up. I watched a long video done by a lady named Rose that worked for the BLM(Land management) in CA and she spelled out Smart Growth, and agenda 21..it all clicked..it was going on in my D city, Obama was re elected and I knew we were in for a ride..
2004. Rathergate/Memogate. “Fake but accurate.”
That was my awakening to “it is all bullshit, all of it.”
It was deepened with the 2008 bailouts.
November 20th, 2009. On that date Anthony Watts of “wattsupwiththat.com” released the climategate e-mails. For the next few days the things that were being posted on the internet were amazing. The things that weren’t being talked about on TV news, including Fox News, were stunning.
When Donald J Trump was running for President in 2015, and I saw the discrepancies between what I read on the internet and saw on TV, I canceled my subscription to Comcast TV. Haven’t watched MSM since.
me too — cut cable tv in 2010.
Also, much earlier, I quit buying anything Proctor and Gamble when I learned they were sponsoring gay-advocate programming.
Culture destroyers!
In college in 1969 at Cornell, a group of armed black students had taken over the Student Union building and were occupying it, with demands to set up a Black Studies program. The whole school was shut down for several days. Mass meetings were being held in the ROTC hall. I went out of curiosity.
One day I sat in some bleachers off to the side where I had a good view of the interactions between the speaker and the crowd. I observed that every time the speaker said something that got a reaction, he said the same thing again, to pump the reaction up.
I got really angry because I realized that bad things like riots didn’t “just happen” spontaneously, but were caused deliberately.
I was so mad, I went down to the stage and demanded to speak, and I was so agitated, they let me on the stage because they thought I was going to rabble rouse. Instead I said, in front of 5,000 people and TV cameras, don’t listen to this guy, he’s trying to turn you into a bunch of animals! I got booed off the stage by his close supporters in front.
Boy was I awake! I had learned that nothing was an accident, it was all caused intentionally.
I’ve always paid attention and been generally skeptical and untrusting of media and government. However, the point of no return for me centered on the “Yugoslav Wars”, ethnic conflicts, insurgencies, and so-called wars of independence in the SFR Yugoslavia from 1991 – 2001. Up until that point and never in my lifetime had so much BS been served up to the American people by the military, government and media than during those conflicts. The conflicts then were instigated and perpetuated by the same parties that seem to be responsible for the present-day carnage in Ukraine, and for much the same reasons.
When it exactly, I am not sure. But how was Sundance. Article after article, analysis after analysis, and the sunlight pierced the dark.
Some early eye openers: scarcity realization when local butcher rumored to have meat and the mad rush to buy it 1944; puppy love when Dad brought me a pup 1947; vision glasses enabled me to see the blackboard 1948; poverty when a schoolmate criticised my church given dresses 1957; freedom with my first car 1958.
When it was apparent that the IRS targeted conservative groups. Not single individuals, but a large swath of conservative folks. That is when I looked up and said “what the hell”!
Yes. I questioned prior happenings but this did it. And the outright animosity and evil intent toward Donald Trump opened my eyes for good. Oh, and CTH and Sundance too!
Thought I realized the game was rigged against Republicans when Bill and Hill were given a pass on anything and everything.
Realized the game was actually rigged against us when we gave Republicans everything in 2016 and they immediately turned against TRUMP and the voters who put them in office.
I also remember wondering who in heck is this yahoo from Arkansas no one ever heard of, and why did he of all people get the nod to run for President of the United States?
That made me suspicious about what criteria is applied (a pretty low bar) to attract such lowly people to the highest office in the land?
I grew up in the East Bay Area of SF. Contra Cost Co. was still a red county back then but us kids were enamored with Berkeley and SF. As a teen in the early 1970s I was somewhat aware that not all was as it was made out to be. My father was conservative and was very much against Unicef. I had read The Hidden Persuaders book. And, I was aware that many of my music idols were really sell-outs to the entertainment system. In my 20s I was wrapped up in trying to get ahead, live, work, and pay bills and didn’t pay much attention. But, once married and having children in my 30s I did sit up and pay attention. I was still a Bay Area Democrat back then but got disgusted with the local politics of Willie Brown and Sen. Cranston plus Biden’s lying and plagiarism scandal in 1988. So I left and became an Independent. It was the Clinton era that I really had my eyes opened. Did not like Bill or Hillary at all. Didn’t like either of the Bushes. Obama era ripped any remaining blinders as I saw how much the public was manipulated by the party and this man. When Trump entered the scene I was puzzled by him. I didn’t know much about him as I didn’t follow his television or social scene. Yes, I found him abrasive but so much of what he said was true! Began to watch and listen to the alternative media and realized that much of what we have been taught was false and now has me questioning everything. Retired now and consider myself a ‘Constitutional conservative.’
The shenanigans of GHWB.
Grew up in the DC suburbs in the late 50’s. Parents were both Republican (my dad thought James J. Kilpatrick was a liberal). Went to church with Nixon while he was Veep. Served newspapers to Peter Mack (D-IL) and Carl Albert while he was still a rank and file congressman from Oklahoma. Lived in a sort of awe of all the “powerful” people around me.
Received a commission in the Navy. Second tour took me to Viet Nam. At our Saturday AM briefing at Pearl Harbor, the briefing officer told our CO who later became high ranking officer in the Pacific Fleet that CinCPac who was supposedly running the naval war in Viet Nam got its news and views from reading message traffic between Washington and Saigon (FUBAR). If that’s the case, what are we doing here? Strike One.
Came home in 1970 to find a mess and Lurch parading around the Washington Monument throwing borrowed medals over the snow fences, yelling about how unjust the war where he made his name was . Absolutely nothing was done about his traitorous ways.
Moved to Massachusetts and stayed awake. Attended a work luncheon where Governor Romney came by to tell us all how great he was. Fouled that one off. After watching the unpenalized cavorting’s of my congressman, realized something was really rotten in MA 10 and the nation in general that said what he was doing was WRONG was okay. (Strike 2)!
Sat idlily by as the country started down the tubes. Even voted for Governor 0 when he ran for The Big House all the while gritting my teeth. What was the alternative?
Not sure what specifically was strike 3 was. There have been SO MANY of them since Slick Willie and all his baggage and clinger’s descended on my hometown. Pray every night that our grandchildren will experience more of the tranquility that we had in the 1950’s and be able to experience the easier, carefree times we had then. Not sure now.
Hard to tell an exact moment, so I’ll give kudos to Rush Limbaugh. My father turned me on to him early on, before he became huge. One cannot unsee what the leftists do to ordinary Patriots, and to innocuous events. At about the same time I went to law school, after having undergrad in a small Bible college. What a shock to see how commies and marxists infested the class body, the professors and the administration. I realized then that we had lost the battle for the “brains full of mush” crowd. To conservatives, teaching youth is a vocation; to Marxists it is part of their religion.
My moment was when Trump entered the race. It woke me up in a lot of ways.
I’ve paid attention to politics since I was in college in the mjd nineties. After Sept 11 I started reading about 4 or 5 different news sources daily to try to get different perspectives. During the Obama admin though I was reading an article one day and it used a really weird turn-of-prhrase. Then I saw an almost identical phrase used elsewhere. Then again. And again. I caught the same bizarre language in around 6 or 7 articles. I checked and they didn’t say they were derived from some common source like the AP. So, it meant that not only were they carrying water for their candidate, they were coordinating.
After I saw behind the curtain I can’t unsee it, and now I just sound like a conspiracy theorist all the time.
For me it was both a gradual process and a moment of realization.
I was born (1957) and raised in a small town in northeast Massachusetts. As a young teenager in the very early 70’s I wasn’t particularly political. Being a Democrat was as natural as breathing. Then one day, while watching TV, I happened upon William F Buckley jr. I had no idea who he was, but he seemed to make a lot of sense to me. The more I listened, the more I liked him. At the time, I didn’t quite understand all of what he was saying, but those years in the early seventies planted the seeds of of my lean toward conservatism that wouldn’t be fully realized until decades later.
I never told any of my friends at the time, that I liked him.
Reagan helped me in my move away from the Democratic Party, but it wasn’t until the election of 2000 that I knew the media was a propaganda arm of the Democrats. That was the pivotal moment for me
I’ve been paying close attention to politics for about 25 years. However, it was the “election” of Obama when I finally realized the extent of the corruption.
For me on the medical side – standing in line at the student union in 1976 for the “swine flu shot.” I had, I don’t know, a premonition that this “medical” group thing was a bad idea, perhaps from the casual way the “line” was yakking up the whole swine flu thing. Eschewed modern medical and dental science ever since (very successfully I might add with my own tech: no cavities, no disease, no symptoms). Politically, the day after Clinton was elected after listening to wife cry all night (she was ahead of me in terms of paying attention).
George CARLIN. Ahead of his time. He was like Paul REVERE.
January 1991, George H.W. Bush attack on Baghdad.
9/11
I’ve answered for myself and now I’m going to answer for my sister. She has always been a liberal and in fact is in public education up in Massachusetts. For most of her life she’s been heavy. A few years ago, I finally convinced her to go low carb. Of course, she lost a ton of weight, came off her BP and acid reflux meds and her joint pain is vanished. She now realizes that the food pyramid is a lie. She even took the horse paste when she got COVID. AND, she actually voted for Trump in 2020.
So, her wakeup moment was realizing the food pyramid was propaganda put out by the government in collusion with big Ag, big Pharma, and big Medicine.
The Clinton presidency got me intrigued. 9/11 made me really question things. Obama’s election and how Hillary could do whatever and never face a consequence except stern words form fake patriot repubs. The opposames in government made it clear to anyone remotely paying attention, that something was up.
I had always read about the Bohemian Grove meetings and the CFR etc and this made all of that seem legit.
Good question Sundance!
It started in my childhood, when I was about 5-7 yrs old. My Dad was a farmer, (at one time that was his only livelihood) and I had 5 older sisters and 1 younger brother. We were all grouped by 2 close in birth order and then a gap of 3-4 years. My oldest sister was 18 years older than me and she assisted with my raising as an infant and into my first 5 years of life. I looked upon her as my Mom, until it was apparent and then my real Mother, took over and told her to back off because I wouldn’t listen to her when she told me to do something.
That’s just family background.
When my Dad was milking in the 50’s-early 60’s; we naturally counted on his milk check. Then one day, the government decided to pay farmers for non-production; let your land lay fallow, don’t plant the grains, etc. and we will put in a beautiful pond for you, stocked with fish and then pay you extra in your milk check . Well, our neighbors took advantage of that, but not my Dad. He did have a stocked pond anyway and he grew all of his own grain and took it to the feed mill to grind up and bag for his use.
We had a self-sufficient farm and were well fed, Mom made our clothes, bought high quality shoes(2 pair each year ), we were warm in the winter and windows open weekly to air out the house and clean it up. We were healthy, happy, worked hard indoors and outdoors and lived normal lives on a big farm.
Looking back, we were really very rich, although, I thought we were poor because I went to school with kids whose Dads’ were engineers, teachers, business professionals, doctors, nurses, etc.
But the kids always wanted to come to my house, because we ate steak, chicken, goose, duck, rabbits, pork, lamb, venison, woodchuck, coon, you name it and fresh fish/seafood, fresh vegetable, berries, fruits from our trees, AND lots of homemade noodles and bread and fresh desserts everyday! (Candy only at Christmas and Easter though but popcorn was a great snack and Dad grew the corn).
We learned about the world and politics at the supper table. We kids never chatted at the table during any meal but Mom and Dad would talk about certain things that were safe for our ears. The night he told us what the government was doing, I remember it well, because he told us not to believe anything that the government tells us and it didn’t matter what party, Republican or Democrat, they all lied. He wasn’t going to go along and sign off on letting his land lay fallow, he had about 50 head of milking cows along with beef cattle, sheep, pigs, etc. and he just didn’t see the benefit to our family needs.
They just wanted to run our lives and take our money. That lesson was pounded into my brain when I received my first paycheck as a Grand Union part-time cashier at the age of 15 yrs, when I looked at my first paycheck and saw all the money the government took out of my earnings. I really felt cheated!!
My Dad explained that when he was younger and growing up in PA, working on his Dad’s farms (he had at least 2 big ones for a family of 15 children), he also worked on the highway crew (don’t know if it was county or town) and he said his job on the road crew was dependent on which political party was in power at the state level, so, there was a time he was a Democrat and then, if necessary, he changed to Republican in order to maintain his job.
Fast forward several years, with my family working in the church and community and relatives active in local politics, I lived my life in that atmosphere and watched and learned how “things really worked”.
So, I grew up in it and was not really blinded by lies and BS.
When I became more active in local, county and state politics, that is where I had a rude awakening and witnessed the ‘silo-effect’ in action, along with the corruption. So, when you are writing your articles, itemizing these facts and figures, I am nodding along, even though I can see that I didn’t have a complete grasp of just how much our government has deteriorated over the decades. You bring out the fine points which answers many questions that I have had over the years when dealing with Senators, Congressmen, Judges, Attorney Generals and the Political machine at the state and local levels.
I was very active in the Tea Party Movement at the same time that I increased my level of interest and achievements in elected office. Our Movement did indeed work very hard to draft Donald Trump to run for NYS Governor and he would not, however, he was active and instrumental in the Tea Party activity at that time and did attend our functions and spoke when asked.
From that point on, until today, I have paid attention and have come to my own conclusions on issues at hand. I was well aware of Agenda 21 and all the little details, with NYS being the first state to adopt it’s measures. When I spoke out against it, I was labeled “a tin-foil hat wearing conspiracy nut”. I’ve been called that many times over the years and much worse but I didn’t back down. Of course, I faced much criticism and finally at the ripe old age of 62, I retired.
Looking back, I have no idea how I accomplished what I did and how I survived the 24 hour/day hell-raising from the enemy within the political structure that I had to work in. But I did it and I don’t regret it.
We raised both children to recognize the reality of the world in which we live. They are 50 and 48 yrs.
conservative, faithful Catholics, who are not really too surprised at what is going on, and they do not participate in that leftist extremism. They pay attention, cannot find any good partners, and remain single, however, love their dogs. They are very independent minded and well-read adults, with much life experience for their years.
So be it.
The first time I really began to pay attention was in the election of 2008. I had always voted in the Presidential elections, now I see I didn’t even realize what or who I was voting for. But that year, I couldn’t vote for either one. I’m sure McCain would have been a better choice (not by much), but certainly the other one set us on this disastrous path we’re on now. Although I realize the way down this path began before him. I discovered you with your writings on Trayvon Martin.
it was sometime toward the end of o first term. when he was s-elected, all i expected him to accomplished was things at the status quo – for him to do nothing. things kept going downhill. the race-baiting was relentless. the fire that almost died, fuel was dumped on it to reignite. when he was s-elected to 2nd term, i changed my political party affiliation to independent.
Brett Kavenaugh hearings
Thanks Sundance … I’ve enjoyed reading so many of these replies!
When Bill Clinton first ran for POTUS. Not when he won, but during his campaign. Nothing added up to allow him to become POTUS. All downhill from there.
True! Remember how happy my political science classmates were with Clinton, but the dude gave me the heebie-jeebies. The documentary “Commanding Heights” (part 4) gives a good portrayal of Bill’s transition from Arkansas American to Wall Street globalist. In fact, they show the restaurant where Bill was shown the Wall St. goody room.
Ditto, here.
The Clintons were, IMO, the first in American history to use the office not only as a means for power, but also personal enrichment.
Additionally, they subtly communicated and promoted the “acceptability” of corruption throughout the bureaucracy, and thus paved the road to where we are today.
The Clintons corrupted the government.
The Obamas weaponized it.
The Clintons started by corrupting Arkansas…
For me, it didn’t happen all at once. But there were transformational waypoints happening over a period of forty years where my personal outlook on things changed markedly from one week to the next.
— For the social, it was November 22nd 1963 and the days which immediately followed. In the social sphere, mostly everything before that seemed mostly sane; much of everything after that, not so much.
— For the political, it was Reagan’s election in 1980 and what appeared to be an end to Carter’s period of America’s managed decline. The press lied their collective a$$es off during and after Reagan’s presidency about the things he was accomplishing.
— For the economic, it happened in 2004 when I was a listening to a PBS discussion program concerning the offshoring of America’s industrial base to Asia and why it was happening. Before that program, I was generally a GOPe free trader; afterwards, I finally understood that America’s working class was being consciously and deliberately shafted by both political parties. (That was in 2004. No such program could appear on PBS today.)
— In the area of military and foreign policy, friends who were serving in Iraq in 2005 told me what a complete FUBAR Bush and Rumsfeld were making of the occupation. In that year, I had recently read H.R. McMaster’s book about the roots of America’s involvement in Vietnam, ‘Dereliction of Duty’, and realized that the same kinds of analytical and policy failures which slow-walked us into Vietnam were operative inside the Bush White House and Pentagon.
Yes, November 22, 1963 and the years following. Everyone who was there cannot deny how society has fundamentally changed for the worse in every single important way.
I was a stay-at-home mom and my son was 4. We were living in a 2-bedroom apartment in Salem, NH when one afternoon I took a sit-down break from housework and sat on the livingroom couch where my son was playing on the rug in front of the TV. He was ‘plugged-in’ -as was my strategy early afternoons -so I could clean uninterrupted. Yet, somehow his 2 matchbox cars were holding his attention as he played with them on the floor -they usually did not, but Dora the Explorer was not holding his attention -which it usually did. So I watched the episode that was in progress. And then I really watched the episode. In a matter of 2 or 3 minutes, I was nearly in a state of disbelief and shock at what I heard and saw: the most vile, hate-filled children’s cartoon wherein the main character named “Dora” was showing little children that it was okay to have outward animosity to white people when they behaved in ways that the two brown people (Dora & her “abuela”) didn’t like. If my son had been paying attention, he would have learned that it was appropriate to completely shut out white people from social events whenever one among them -in this case a white girl- behaves rudely toward the ‘oppressed’ brown people. In essence, the white girl and Dora entered an ice skating competition during which the girl mocked Dora for not buying a new skate dress with all the shimmer and glitz, but instead having her grandmother sew a homemade costume.
The shocking part was the precision of the messaging. The “mean girl” was drawn in Barbie fashion with blonde hair, blue eyes and perfectly symmetrical features. Her friends and parents were also fair-skinned. And for this singular episode, everyone in the town was drawn in high-relief, lily-white fashion. In the first seconds of the competition, Barbie-girl gives Dora the chin, bumps into her and pushes her down onto the ice for all to see. But Dora arises, skates her routine, and then appears alone, close-up as is the format of the cartoon show when it’s ‘teachable moment time’ for the little viewers.
I cannot recall exactly what she said in her soliloquy, but I remember thinking how different the language used was to the show. It was highly inappropriate and unbelievably negative. The last part of her sage ‘advice’ was given while she appeared in a side bubble and the storyboard continues: we see the parents collect Barbie-girl and the crowd quickly and widely part as if these people are plagued. Then the sad-looking abuela comes into focus. Heads hang in shame all around her while she just sits, appearing to be somehow also wronged or defeated.
I will never forget that afternoon, because on that day a nickelodeon cartoon tried to teach my 4-year-old son to hate his own sister. I thanked God for His intervention and protection of my boy who saw nothing of this episode…I shut that garbage off and never allowed my son to watch cartoons without me again.
That was 19 years ago. I am happy to share my story. This red-pilled me politically, but I’d like to end on the important part: Make no mistake. They are coming for our children.
Mixed kids and mixed families have a special hell when the parents had no clue that racism was about to get way worse.
Mothers are wonderful. Thank you.
And then I sat down at a Disney movie recently to have Buzz Lightyears friend, a gay girl with her married female kisses, thrust in my face revoltingly! Wonder what 33rd degree mason Walt would have to say about the woke people now in charge of his fairyland once sweet company with Minnie and Mickey pushing their sick agenda into the minds of our children decades after his death!? Pure evil, I say!
Awakening began after Hussein defined marriage to Rick Warren at Saddleback Church as a union between a man and a woman in the summer of 2008. Within a year, after he was elected President basically admitted he lied and his definition was any two people regardless of gender. Subsequently was codified into federal law. That was the moment and I began researching Obama and that led to healthy distrust of media and government. Been a lurker here since 2008.
A great source of research regarding Obama: “Radical in Chief” by Stanley Kurtz. It was a tedious read at times because it was so detailed with dry facts, but it was invaluable in understanding who he really is by understanding his history. Read that book and you understand more than most people regarding Obama.
But of course! The only thing about Obama is he never came out of the closet in divulging his gay trists while state senator, his arranged marriage to Moochelle the dancing dingaling, and his communist upbringing attending the a little Red Church with his mom and grandparents. Or his frequenting the Chicago Down aloe bar with Rahm where the regulars couldn’t believe Barack got so far politicallly without being exposed!? That’s what media power, the CIA, etc can accomplish. And hey, why wasn’t he ever prosecuted for identity theft using a dead persons SS number, or investigated for having two girls with no birth records in the USA?
Hey, Disgusted by This! You deserve a medal! You’re spot on!
I started to wake up when I noticed the way the Republican leadership and pundits were trashing the Tea Party. I started
reading up on the Tea Party and what they were advocating and stood for was exactly the way I felt. I started asking
myself, why is it that even though we elect Republicans, nothing ever changes. With both of the Bush presidencies it
was just more tax and spend, more wars, nothing to solve the problems that were of concern to Americans like
taking care of domestic policy and developing our American domestic economy. Their pitch of exporting manufacturing because we had become a “service economy” made no sense to me. So I started following the Tea Party and then I discovered CTH and I thought it was a God send, finally a place where I got better educated on the big picture and what we were up against. I’m not much of a writer, but I’m a very attentive and faithful lurker who spreads links to CTH articles with everyone I can. I love you, Sundance and I love all the great people who contribute here. I appreciate how you’ve helped me stay on track and stay sane through all the media madness we’ve endured over the years.
Yup! Paul Ryan and his crying mentor Boner (ok Boehner but the ither name is appropriate) and old senile Mitch M are truly disgusting example of the Repub party but if ull recall, old Paul was a Tea apartier that obviously betrayed the TP ! It took me a while because I was a huge Bush Jr supporter, until I wasn’t after learning more about dad, his brother, and him!