Let me qualify this post and question by saying this is something I have wanted to ask and write about for quite a while. I often ask this question to people I meet in general life discussion, and I am very interested to hear every response. Today is a great day to ask this…
Think back… So, you are living your life, doing what you and everyone familiar to you are doing in the ordinary and regular way of living your specific life.
Perhaps you paid some attention to the political comings and goings of things, perhaps not.
Perhaps like most comfortably invisible people you were just putting one foot in front of the other, and generally doing the day-to-day things that most would consider ordinary.
Then one day, for some unknown and likely not that consequential reason, something caught your attention. Something piqued your curiosity; perhaps you noticed something you wouldn’t ordinarily have noticed. Perhaps you heard something, or saw something, or were just in a situational space where something itched your brain as you looked at something, heard something or noticed something that just didn’t quite fit or sit right.
Perhaps that little something, or big something, caused you to look just a little bit closer at the story, event or moment with a little more curiosity than before. Perhaps you dug into that specific moment with a little more than a side-eye glance, and you noticed something. After looking at it a little closer, you realized that construct was not at all what it appeared to be on the surface.
From that moment forward, for the first time, you really started to question the ‘thing’ that was in front of you, and from that moment forward, you woke up to recognize that things around you, things you perhaps didn’t pay attention to before, were not what you thought they were. It was from this moment when you really started to pay attention and your political awakening began.
Question: When was that moment for you?
I am always amazed at the replies I get in real life to this question of when the individual awakening began.
For some it was at an early age, for others much later in life. For some it was recently, and for others it was a long time ago. However, for everyone there was that moment when it started, and it is completely unique to the individual.
So, on this day, Sunday February 19, 2023, a generally innocuous day in the grand scheme of things, I pose this question to everyone.
Yes, even all the CTH lurkers who read here and never join the conversation. The comment section is open for all replies with the general rules of on-line decorum still standing. Us old schoolers still use the early internet standards of on-line discussion, and CTH requests polite and civil conversation that enlightens, expands thinking and uplifts the audience.
I am genuinely curious and will be reading every reply because it’s really cool to see what that “moment” was for each person. I’m pretty sure the entire CTH community will also enjoy reading the unique replies to the question.
We all travel a different path. We all come from different, likely comfortably invisible, life experiences. And we all merge into this big melting pot of curious people who are looking deeply at the issues we face. Regardless of how each of us arrived here, the larger dynamic is that we likely share a common curiosity for the reality of our situation. It’s a safe bet to say that almost everyone reading this is in the top-tier of “high information” consumers.
My question is not what arrived you at The Conservative Treehouse, but rather what the moment was when you began looking around and realizing that things just didn’t seem to add up. That’s the origin of the journey. That’s the moment I am inquiring about.
Perhaps it’s a weird way of looking at CTH, but our fellowship is always what has been the most important aspect to this little corner of the internet. It’s not the content of the Treehouse, but the conversation on the porch that matters. You, the readers, friends, people who assemble here, are the important element. Not me and not the site admins.
That’s genuinely the way I have always looked at our fellowship, and that’s also the reason for every detail I put into keeping this little corner of the internet standing.
So, with that in mind, what was that moment in your life when you realized the social, political and/or media narrative, was not at all what it was presented to be?
Love to all,
~ Sundance
It has been a gradual awakening for me, but there are key moments along the way which at the time I would have considered my first awakening. I began paying attention to politics on 9/11/2001. I was 17 years old. I relied on Fox news as my main source of news back then.
Glenn Beck first woke me up to the systematic takeover of our country and culture by the globalist left when he was on Fox News from 2009 to 2011. I must credit him with my “first awakening”. This is when I first began truly paying attention.
The second was the aftermath of the Election of Donald Trump, specifically Spy-Gate. This one I credit to Sundance. I was well aware of the “big club” AKA the uni-party, but I had no idea how bad it truly was. The weaponization of our government against us had been becoming more and more obvious since the IRS scandal, but this took it to a whole new level.
Towards the end of the Trump presidency, I thought I was quite aware of the evil at our doorsteps. How wrong I was.
The true awakening for me began in early 2020; the moment the media, government, medical community, pharmaceutical companies, and every big employer and corporation worked together to shut the entire country in a matter of days. That is when I first thought to myself, what the **** is happening here? The theft of the 2020 election right before our eyes was a real eye opener, but the covid takeover of the world, the censorship and the vaccine insanity is what has changed my outlook on the world and everyone I know.
I feel like Roddy Piper in the movie “They Live” when he puts the sunglasses on and can see that most of the people around him are aliens.
Your experience exactly mirrors mine. After 9/11, any thinking person would question the whole narrative, especially no working cameras at the Pentagon site. The election of President Trump and all the immediate calls for impeachment from people like Maxine Waters were impossible to not show how corrupt DC is. We were so lucky to escape Crooked Hillary with the surprise win , they just didn’t think they needed to cheat that much to beat President Trump. I retired January 2017 and now my world has really opened up as I have more time to visit sites like this one, and reading the comments here have made me feel I’m not alone.
All my brothers and sisters got their jab, also one of my sons. My other son resisted the mandate and in the end won out. Reading here about how this train wreck here in Ohio happened, that one group bought additional shares of a company for Hazmat mitigation, that the CDC has changed it’s information on the chemical that exploded in that poor town just recently in February, and that there was a movie made recently about the same incident before it happened really hurts my soul. I always thought the USA was a force for good, now I don’t believe that anymore.
I’m grateful for my sunglasses. It’s a burden but I feel like we are all one step ahead.
2018 during the Brett Kavanaugh hearings (I was 29). Halfway paid attention to politics beforehand. But When I heard about the allegations against him from 30 years ago I just thought WTF? Started paying attention to it and the more I read from different angles the more I realized how corrupt the media/government really are. Been a political junky ever since.
Awakening #1: 1999… two things happened: 1) A hardcore libertarian friend urged me to read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Big “A-ha!” moment, although it’s not one of my favorite books. Just an eye-opener. 2) A new local talk radio station with a fun conservative host named Jay Severin popped up. I was hooked, eventually moving on to Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Drudge Report, RealClearPolitics, Breitbart News.
Awakening #2: 2020… Trump “losing” reelection + all things Covid triggered a deeper dive because I knew everything really really REALLY wasn’t right now. The only news source from #1 above remaining was Rush Limbaugh. I found Kane at Citizen Free Press, Darren Beattie at Revolver, Steve Bannon and The War Room posse, and of course Sundance.
RIP Jay and Rush.
Atlas Shrugged is an awesome book. It’s a bit tedious, as Rand makes and remakes and remakes her points to hammer them home. But still an awesome book.
I continue to get news from your same sources.
I realized things were not as I had always been led to believe in 2007-2008 during Obama’s campaign. He was unqualified to be President and the fuss over him, and the lack of the mainstream media never reporting on the items Sean Hannity brought out, woke me up to a new reality. Also about many people I knew. They were into voting for somebody solely based on skin color. I then realized I was “different” than many people.
Perhaps the one specific “event” for me was Ruby Ridge! Seeing it play out on the news, and then the whole mess after the fact was eye opening. I looked at the Government more as a threat to Americans freedom. To set up an American for a weapons violation and goes as far as murder his wife and son was the tipping point for me.
I grew up in south Florida on the very edge of the Everglades. My father was a combat disabled Marine who fought in the Pacific in WWII. Have Georgia roots with my Great grandfather served in Confederate Army, My mother was half Cherokee ! I loved hearing the old stories and was fascinated by American history as well as World History. Growing up with 6 siblings we never felt threatened, by our government local or National.
I remember JFK murder, I was just a year too young to be drafted for Vietnam, watched it on the TV though every night on the news. Joined the service in 1980 and served 26 years. Saw a good part of the world in travels good and bad, and always was grateful for where I was from. But now the USA is in a very bad way.
Long story Short (as my dad used to say) … Then Trump came on the scene, I voted for him (conservative since Reagan ran)
But the way the Deep State, RINOs Democrats and just crazies did everything they could to destroy Trump was eye opening. Common since people knew he was being railroaded but it had to play out.
Now we have a free for all with the Biden mess, I’m hoping the USA can recover, either way we are in it up to our necks.
There’s a scene in the movie “No Country for Old Men” Leonard Corbin (as Ellis) says to The Sheriff Tommy Lee…. Ya Can’t Stop What’s Comin”
We as Americans will have to deal with “What’s Comin” regardless of the cost which I’m afraid will be great, to fix the mess we are in.
Trump is now talking about ballot harvesting, why didn’t he just fix the election fraud? This is putting the “good guys” on the same level as the trash. I agree with General RE Lee, doing something wrong that right may come of it is not the way to go.
Agreed! However, the way to go is by any means “legally ” necessary, because the other options will lead to so much more sorrow. The whole premise that Barely holds this country together is the Rule of Law!
Honestly, I think it was when I started listening to Rush Limbaugh. So it was the very late 80s, my late teens. The most important thing I learned from Rush was the ability to critically think, and I’m thankful that he had a positive impact on my life.
Love and miss El Rushbo!
Ditto
Me too!!!
I listened to Limbaugh for awhile until I realized he NEVER criticized the Bushes. He seems to have been a gatekeeper for those people & the money.
He did like the Bushes as did I back then, however, it was on Rush’s show that GW candidly stated there’s not much the President can really do on his own. The implication that others controlled the actions of the President was a seminal moment for me, eminently confirmed by the current puppet.
It began when I became interested in the news on TV and radio. I was a child. I wanted to be on TV and radio too. Noticing that the condition of our nation was of utmost importance during the newscasts, I began tracking the many players in the game.
Once I began reading the Bible in college, I saw that God formed this nation exclusively to be a beacon unto the world. I worked with my Church for a few years in various regions and then settled down to pursue journalism in radio and TV.
Rush Limbaugh was there and that’s where I really began. Immediately, I knew he was right and ‘liberals’ were the enemy.
I don’t call them ‘liberals’ anymore. It’s no longer accurate. My term is “demons.” Now, I’m here searching for more light and truth and fighting back against the “demonrats.” The balance of players in this game aren’t any better. They are all corrupt and are destroying God’s creations.
My most important concern is to bring all of them to justice for their many crimes against us and to bring the knowledge of Truth to the people here and all over the world.
Thank you Sundance and team and every single person who visits with us each day.
In 2007, I retired. I had always voted Democrat. We watched Fox News and the Glenn Beck show. Obama’s words did not ring true to me. My husband and I started our own study on the construction.
When I moved back from a rural 3rd world country, I noticed it in 2010. Everyone on TV and media in general had picked sides – !
I was in college, trying to make heads or tails of an economics class. Specifically, I was puzzling over what “capital” is–the textbook used the term like it was the best-known word in the world, but I couldn’t precisely define it in my head. At the time I was a young capitalist (born in the inner city where most relatives and neighbors were Democrats and quite anti-capitalism), so it seemed wise to study some economics (ahem).
However, growing up in the rust belt made me skeptical of free trade so “comparative advantage” and other Ricardian concepts were what I wanted to understand (to accept them if they were true, and be able to refute them if they weren’t). Samuelson’s textbook quoted Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” passage at the top of the chapter on international trade (which posits comparative advantage as a law and declares it upfront as “irrefutable”), and so I decided to go to the source and read Wealth of Nations. To my surprise, the invisible hand passage was the climax of some 300 pages of exploration of the nature and uses of capital. And Samuelson’s version utterly and completely butchered it. Far from the “Gordon Gecko Greed Is Good” mantra his hacked quote made Smith sing, that passage was really just Smith marveling that the wealthiest countries just happened to be those that preferred domestic over foreign manufactures, for the reasons he just explained (domestic production for domestic consumption being “by far” the most efficient use of capital for the purpose of creating national wealth, as he just explained). The “invisible hand” was, as best he could tell, some kind of divine providence (consider the only other book he wrote was on theology). So what Smith was really saying in that passage (“America First”… or if you’re British, “Britain First”, etc.!) was twisted to say its opposite: that capitalists should care only about the cheapest cost of production and maximization of return. Surely, I thought, someone else would have noticed Samuelson’s dishonesty? The problem was: nobody cared. They shrugged it off as “Smith was wrong about a few things” and insisted that comparative advantage was the correct framework. But once you understand Smith’s point, even his apparent embrace of “free trade” has a very different meaning than that of the modern Ricardian framework, and the Ricardian framework actually makes no sense (I could write a book about this!). Anyway – all our leaders in both parties obtained their understanding of economics from this or that Ivy League school pushing some flavor of Samuelson’s textbook (or one of the many subsequent textbooks influenced by Samuelson’s). From that point on, I was always contrarian on these matters, and trusted academia not at all. I used to believe there must be more than one politician who could understand the issue, but by the time you get to them, the Establishment already did, and they simply couldn’t hear it. At one point I had a chance to meet McCain and try to express these ideas to him. He was impervious and just regurgitated back the usual talking points. I realized neither party believes in the American idea anymore, and when you really grok Smith you suddenly see his influence on Hamilton and the other founders, whose revolution started the very year he published his Wealth of Nations. You can see how they intentionally set us up to apply the lessons of Smith. This revelation occurred to me back in the early 1990s. But again, no history book really makes this connection, which to me was plain as day.
As a young Republican I was aware of Trump (who at the time was teasing people like Oprah with talk of running), and back when he seemed to be a Democrat, I dreaded the possibility he might run, because I knew he’d win. But I was secretly always a fan of his trade contrarianism, so I would have been more sanguine with him than any other Democrat. And so when he ran as a Republican, it was specifically his instinct against the globalist conventional wisdom that made it incredibly easy for me to support him, and forgive his other flaws. This is my main concern about DeSantis, as much as I love him as governor of Florida.
(There is more to that story – I also read the Austrians (especially Ludwig von Mises) and have lots of related observations about their laissez faire doctrines as well.)
Started watching Bill O’Reilly years ago and found common ground. When Donald Trump was elected everything went into overdrive. The fake news, indoctrination of kids etc. Now when a family member tells me what I talk about is a conspiracy theory I say “I saw it on the news”. Crickets
My personal day of reckoning was the Wednesday morning after the 2020 election in which Trump had lost to a basement dwelling old corrupt politician. I thought to myself how could this be, he was ahead by a substantial vote count last night. What happened?
We all know now the answer and SOME, buy not ALL of the details.
Now the question becomes how do we correct this? We still don’t have all those answers.
I went to UC Berkeley in the 60s, followed by working construction at a ski resort in the Sierras. That dip into the real world restored my sanity. Some. Next, I homeschooled our son and became Christian; both engendered clear thinking. Watched Al Gore debate GWB and voted Republican for the first time!! Traveled to Israel in 1999 and decided that I had to start getting news from abroad, as it was quite different. Tea party/ Sarah Palin!! Rush!! DJT! CTH! FreeRepublic! Scalia!! The Truth will set you free.
My mother announced she had terminal cancer in June 2001, then the towers fell in September. She finally died in December and my father 8 months later. There were a lot of airplane flights during that time and I remember very vividly a very young US Soldier at San Francisco International Airport standing guarding the entrances to the gates hiding his M16 behind his legs. His face told it all as he was embarrassed to be treating us as if we were a third-world country. Soon afterward my wife kept coming to my computer room and turning on Glen Beck. It was painful watching him and then Bill O’Reilly. They did however open my eyes that my government was against me. Then the obamination. If dad was still alive, he would have died of a heart attack, rather than cancer.
I could not bring myself to believe the conspiracy theories that Bush created 911 to pass the Patriot Act because I could not comprehend that our government would ever kill us, but now the Covid attack told me the truth. Covid-19 was created at the University of North Carolina until obama put it on hold because it was breaking our Biological warfare treaties. He canceled it 9 months later, but by then Fauci had completed building China’s only class 4 laboratory in Wuhan. Everyone involved with that is guilty of first-degree murder and crimes against humanity. This week Kamala projected that on Russia, crossing every t and doting every i.
I was 20 years old in 1990 when I first started paying attention and our first New World Order war (Gulf War) was at hand . Eventually it led to the ‘New World Order’ speech by Sr. and red flags went off in my young mind. I read everything I could about these people and their organizations (CFR, Tri-Lateral Commission, Atlantic Council et. al) and was terrified about our future. I became a professional musician and relayed the information via the lyrics. Back then they all thought I was crazy, today, I look like a prophet and they tell me that I was right. All that I did was read and become informed. In 1992, I was happy to vote for Bill Clinton with my first ever vote. After NAFTA and GATT, I realize they’re all the same and coming from the same global organizations and so I played the election cycle flip flop game but there was never any change. It wasn’t until the last election (2020) that I realized that our Republic had been conquered decades ago and our vote doesn’t count. We appear to have become a Fascist Corporate Oligarchy with two separate Justice Systems. Fortunately, the Constitution remains so there is hope but as you can see, they are doing their best to circumvent it behind the scenes.
Raised one of six in loving home with staunch R dad and staunch D mom. Favoring a balanced budget, strong defense, etc tilted me conservative so I voted R but mostly didn’t want to choose among equally loved and admired parents so apolitical would best describe me. Until, that fateful day before turning 40, when my first child was born. No longer feeling responsible in life only for putting my one foot in front of the other I was compelled to look behind the curtains, under the rug and vet the narratives. OMG! Then the need to know simply took off and the willingness to learn and admit I had been duped into believing falsehoods was unleashed never to be captive to rolled out narratives again.
I became awere in 1982 young and stupid I was SHOCKED ! My freind told me about the One World Government gave me all these books with pages marked to read that lead me to the Globalist Plan. My husband who was 14 years older explained what happened to Goldwater and filled me in about Kennedy. I listened to the radio and caught up with Chuck Harder who a freind reccomended. He warned of the DEEP STATE. He bought the telford hotel in white springs fl and broadcasted from there.The historical hotel is closed and maybe we MAGA people could get together and open a MAGA HOTEL/RADIO and take over White Springs.
https://news.radio-online.com/cgi-bin/rol.exe/headline_id=n35449
https://asliceofbigpauly.wordpress.com/tag/chuck-harder/
1988, CBS’ Dan Rather (who I thought was fair and balanced) went off on George Bush Sr. (who I didn’t trust) and rudely cut him off and ended the segment. Bill Clinton always got the “good ol’ boy” treatment.
Anyone with kids in sports, knows you want ‘honest’ referees; the kind of refs that will call their own kids “out” at first base, or home plate. Dan Rather was and still is a dishonest ref – and so is 90% of the media. It didn’t take a MENSA member to realize CBS was in the tank for the democrat party. In my mind it was cheating – I have a lot of faults, but cheating to win isn’t one of them.
The more I grew to understand American politics, the more I began to distrust career politicians. I could be wrong, but I suspect that more than 2/3 of Congress are parasitical blood-sucking socialists.
Finally: I have transitioned ;- from Jimmy Carter democrat, to Christian Conservative Independent, CCI.
For those who are on the bubble vis a vis Trump: It’s fair to compare partisan sickness to cancer; spreading and destroying America’s best future. As a cancer survivor (so far) I can tell you I don’t care if the best doctor for my diagnosis is an egotistical, thin-skinned jerk…ALL I care about is getting cured and back about my business. I took a chance on the rogue Trump, and he delivered the common sense policies to kick start our economy. He was probably elected again – I believe there was/is more than enough evidence for the courts to demand a bi-partisan forensic examination.
I filtered Trump first because he was not part of the Congressional Crime Cartel. My second filter was he is a good man with a real chance of winning.
Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one. Charles Mackay, L.L.D.
Yes? They go crazy in congregations too! They only get better…ONE by ONE! Even religion is part of the deception to divide and conquer!
The 2020 election steal. Then CTH provided the clarity of it all which confirmed my suspicions of the corruption, the extent which exceeded anything I could imagine.
I was 19. Intervening in a civil war in Southeast Asia did the trick. Fellow high school buddies getting killed.
It was later reinforced by the wholesale attack on Nucleqar Power. I tracked the source of all the anti-nuke money. It was big oil. I asked myself: what else are they lying about? Answer: Damn near everything!
A local curmudgeon was reminiscing about how things used to be (50’s, 60’s, 70’s) – I told him that as a young kid I saw the neighbor boy hauled off to Federal prison for burning his draft card and refusing to go to Vietnam. His brother left for Canada before he could get drafted. I didn’t really understand it all then. The old curmudgeon didn’t have much to say about my story. Our Federal government isn’t just corrupted, it is evil now.
When between contracts, I would pick a topic of interest I wanted to know more about + dig into it. If fruitful, I would pick I up again here + there in later years.
In my 20s, I read around in other Religions as a Christian – not seeking to convert myself but to know how others think.
One between contracts, I chose The History of the Occult…. It began connecting dots in highlighted fashion from ? I had noted before + drew many new likely/possible connections.
I’d filed many datapoints in that Big ? Box in my mind from many sources on various topics.
I don’t remember what year it was but far enough back to get lost – I had marked 2020 on my mental calendar (like I had Y2K + 2012) + then gone about my daily life. (I know I marked 2020 before 2016, because when I stumbled across Leo Zagami’s Confessions vol 2 all about 2020 – I moved that ? Area to a higher level in the Box.)
As New Year’s grew close in 2019, that area of the box rang some mental bells…
…When the Holiday Season included big warnings about a Chinese Virus coming out of Wuhan where the CCP (+ NIH + others) have a bioweapon-type lab—— those bells became DEFCON 1 Loud……
I hoped time would prove me wrong.
I immediately connected it to tidbits filed in the Box on the coming POTUS Election – like brief notes on key changes that had gone thru in multiple States on Election Procedures like Voting + Counting – changes done by boards or executives rather than a State Legislature + the SLs didn’t fight them….
With the load of other tidbits filed away over the years – like the 1973 Club of Rome Announcement that Science Proved global civilization would take a sharp turn to collapse in a specific year – 2020 + continue to collapse until wiped out by 2040 or 50 — I gave it a high probability – Trump would “lose” via Fraud via collusion of all the key Gov Orgs that were needed to pull it off + protect it.
(If anyone forced me to – I could go scroll years back at Gateway Pundit to show comments I made in early 2020 warning the signs were the Election was being rigged + nobody in Authority was going to stop it.
If I could search the CT comments archives, I’m sure I could find the same from 2020.)
— So, when did I really start to pay attention?
It’s not easy to answer:
I’m a fundamentalist Christian with a conservative lifestyle, but I cast my net for tidbits far + wide for decades…
I noted possible trends or connections + so on —— but lived my life + if given fairly specific timeframes – waited to see. Which is a key reason I never bought into Global Warming / Climate Change: How many times does “Science” have to get it wrong before…….?
The amount of times 2020-2040 got filed away in the Box grew over time to the point it demanded being moved up but still remained vague or too troublesome to process + too far outside my areas to dedicate a high level of focus.
(——— if I had known sometime back then what I know now, good God, who knows….)
So – Late-2019 was Game Changing…
I still wish time would eradicate those sections of the Box related to all this – but – frankly, they are no longer in the ? Box. I don’t question things as much when Objective Reality is smashing me over the head with them to the point I’m having a hard time ignoring the blood splattering on the wall…
For example, when some with seemingly trunks full of photos of himself with ranking members of different Secret Societies in Europe + beyond tells me in 2016 that the Elites in them are giddy about 2020 + the final stages of a take over of the planet – and tells me to watch out for seemingly Natural Disasters + the release of Deadly Viruses + a major war parlayed into WW3 to accomplish the take over + rise to dominance — + then Covid is matched by the WEF proclaiming The Great Reset + then Russia invades Ukraine + NATO gets very excited about the Moral Imperative to join in…
………………………………..How can I NOT make it a primary focus of my thinking or do what I can to prepare in earnest + attempt to ring alarm bells (like I did thru out 2020 with no sense of personal satisfaction + frustration at being ignored except by the % that felt the need to lol + smack me down + tell me I was an idiot + would I please shut up because nobody wanted to hear it…
….Trump’s polls (later rallies) are MAMMOTH + Biden’s are the lowest in history….!!! I was scolded…
…..When an Election is going to be Rigged — who gives a #$&@ how big the rallies are….I’d think as I beat my forehead into the desk…….
The rise of Q-Anon in strength AFTER the theft was the last straw for me for many months….
A Bomber Plane-equivalent known as an EMP Device Delivery System flying across the heartland + achieving pretty much crickets from our side has had the same effect….
………..I honestly have far less skin in the game than the Average Person at this point in my life.
I’m not going to lose as much + my soul is guaranteed.
Good God, I never would have bought it at all at any other stage in my life – even if You had told me Yourself – that You would have led me down a path that turned the figurative into my objective reality:
[Q]
What did Voltaire mean with his gardening advice? That we must keep a good distance between ourselves and the world, because taking too close an interest in politics or public opinion is a fast route to aggravation and danger. We should know well enough at this point that humans are troublesome and will never achieve – at a state level – anything like the degree of logic and goodness we would wish for. We should never tie our personal moods to the condition of a whole nation or people in general; or we would need to weep continuously. We need to live in our own small plots, not the heads of strangers. At the same time, because our minds are haunted and prey to anxiety and despair, we need to keep ourselves busy. We need a project.
[EQ]
Come to think of it – I left my small town of 250 people in semi-rural GA to experience life in several “exotic” cultures to seek understanding of the world + ended up in a house my Great-Uncle built with his brothers + recently unearthed British Common Wealth Commemorative Coins from the 1930s as I tilled raw ground to learn how to grow vegetables in preparation for possibilities…and none of the older relatives still alive – multiple who grew up in this house – have any clue whose they might be or how they got buried a few inches under our backyard…
….Life is odd… and like now – sometimes mind boggling…
(The notes on a real seemingly organic Revival among Christians + seekers the last few weeks is encouraging…..the most encouraging thing out there since Late-2019. By far…)
When Bobbie Kennedy was assassinated.
My journey started w/ Rush…I started listening to him while working on construction sites – at first I found him simply entertaining. Then I realized subjects that he talked about weeks and months earlier always seemed to come true – it was like he had a crystal ball to see and understand the future [May I say at this point – This website helps fill the void left after Rush’s passing….”THANK YOU, Sundance for seeking and finding Truth – Lord knows we all need much more TRUTH]…..Also went to the Tea Party marches in Washington – And saw how the media distorted the event after it was over…. they downplayed & demonized a Truly Patriotic event. I also went to the Jan 6th event – Almost wish I never went that day – Long Story Short – The ONLY thing that makes any sense – based on what I witnessed that day ….The breach of our Capital building was simply “ALLOWED” to happen! I now realize the left wing media only reports news that supports their preconceived [FALSE] Narrative ….Truth be Damned! There’s a reason they aren’t releasing ALL the video from that day – It would show what I witnessed that day. I never thought I would get to this point in my life….I no longer have any trust and faith in our government….I will forever question EVERYTHING they say and do! Thank You Sundance [ONE MORE TIME]
I grew up in the Detroit area in the melting pot. My main circle was family and church that was transplanted farmers and sharecroppers from Tennessee and Kentucky. We started businesses, churches, and thrived in Detroit. My parents told me I could be what I could dream, and I became a physician as opposed to a minister, psychologist, or teacher coach, in order to use the platform of medicine to help people not only medically, but emotionally and spiritually as well. I chose to go back to Tennessee, because I knew my parents would eventually retire there.
Being from Detroit, I grew up seeing the riots, the unions, the strikes, Coleman Young as mayor. I was proud of being part of the continued progress in the movement to eliminate racism and poverty, and give opportunity to all as had my own family risen above but still cherished their sharecropping roots.
When I arrived to Tennessee in 1993 the transition year between Bush I and Cliniton, all the major factories and plants were in transition to Mexico, or being bought and trashed by purchasers from Japan. I prosperous growth for these rural towns was suddenly ending. I thought, “My gosh, who in charge could be allowing this to happen, and why? And what is being done about it?” It made me sick. It was clear that someone was selling out the American Dream that had enabled my parents and grandparents to prosper.
I was aware of the influence of big Pharma, and as students we were taught to stick to the science and be aware of lying pharmaceuticals. But I was on the tail end of the peaking of the good influence of HCA in bringing good hospitals to the rural corners of America, incentives to get physicians to rural areas. But soon it became apparent that the large hospitals and hospital administrators were unduly influencing the quality and ethics of the healthcare delivered.
I got involved in professional associations to promote rural health care, medicine, and education for my kids. But soon it became apparent that there were powers much greater than local influences who were not representing the needs of the people. It was sickening, but I seemed to be the only one seeing it at the massive level that I did.
I found CTH during the runup of the presidential election of Trump. Between Sundance and the honest truth seeking of the Treeper community and their willingness to share their wisdom and experience, I have confirmed that I am not crazy, and am inspired that my patriotic instincts are rooted in our Devine unalienable rights, and that there is still and will always be reason for hope.
Iranian hostage crisis. Gas lines. Oil embargo. Carter.
1) the ugly and sickening body counts out of Vietnam on the nightly news; the nauseating arguments over the shape of the conference table in Paris when they were trying to figure out the nauseating language that would give them cover to get out of Vietnam
2) Began watching Capitol Gang, nightly, and realized before long what a charade the whole “political debate” thing was, and then easily saw the same charade all around me.
3) The lies of HW Bush (“no new taxes”) and the panic of Christian women who were in a Bible class I was teaching–almost all of them had been “conservative” all their lives, even though it wasn’t yet cool to be called that. They panicked and broke for Bill Clinton because they were afraid their husbands wouldn’t be able to keep earning as much money as they were used to. I know that because they told me that. I asked them how they managed his enthusiasm for abortion. Apparently they didn’t, and they acknowledged as much.
4) 2010 – my late husband and I had a specific conversation in which we wondered if that would be the last opportunity to turn the ship of the Republic
Time frame, for what it’s worth: I was born in 1944, about six weeks before D-Day. I grew up in a Republican farm house where FDR was simply not discussed. Everyone in our family knew who and what he was, and there was no point in discussing him or what he did. MacArthur was honored and awed at–until he wasn’t. Eisenhower was deeply appreciated on all sides. Nixon was always a slightly suspicious character, but….lack of options….(Kefauver?? Not hardly)
Correction: Eisenhower’s opponent was Adlai Stevenson, not Kefauver.
My wife and I started to wake up in 1994. Our 6 month old firstborn had a seizure a week after a DPT shot. She made two fists, shook and went limp. We saw the whites of her eyes roll back. We began to question the immunization schedule for children, and the medical establishment in general. Our distrust grew stronger when my wife’s grandmother suffered Guillain-Barre’ syndrome after a flu shot. From then on, we’ve taken full control of our health care decisions.
The Clinton years continued our journey to awakening but at the time we thought the corruption was still isolated to democrats. Vince Foster’s “suicide” in Fort Marcy Park with dirt on his heels after he drug his body uphill, Ron Brown’s murder after surviving the plane crash in Croatia, the Oklahoma City federal building bombing, the TWA 800 mid air explosion blaming it on a static charge to a fuel tank dismissing eyewitness reports of seeing a missile streak up from the ground.
Then 9/11 happened. While we still bought into the narrative at the time, the instant loss of liberties with the Patriot Act passage concerned us greatly. America had changed and we feared for our children’s futures.
How Sarah Palin was silenced in the last couple of months of the election, and denied her wish to campaign in Michigan. How the Tea Party formed and influenced the 2010 midterms, yet the Congressman we sent did very little of what he campaigned on. How the IRS targeted Tea Party groups, silencing our voices. Obamacare being forced upon America. Mitt Romney rolling over after winning the first debate.
The militarization of our local police departments. Cameras at every intersection it seems, facial recognition software, putting our medical records online, government intrusion into our banking; all directly impacting our anonymity and privacy.
Then Donald Trump entered the political arena. Finally someone with the courage to speak to how we felt. Our eyes opened wider. Representatives and Senators didn’t work for us. The media was not impartial. Big Pharma and the Medical establishment no longer ascribed to the Hippocratic Oath.
But the real eye opener was the collapse of justice in this country. The corruption and politicization of the FBI and the DOJ. Attorneys Generals failing to prosecute crimes, blocking advancement of cases through the courts, or Judges bought and paid for by corporate America and/or political causes denying the application of justice for all Americans.
Election fraud, the open border, the Green New Deal, lockdowns, masking, the jab…..
Every last one needs to be exposed. I could add more but were headed to church.
November 10, 2005 when Peter Jennings said on live TV: “the voters threw a temper tantrum” — because he didn’t like the results of the election — and he didn’t get fired or even reprimanded.
It was many years ago.
In geostrategy, from my seat, it was in 1987 when the ‘reflagged tankers’ were being escorted by US warships in an all too clear attempt to produce a casus belli. VP Bush, and what we now call ‘Deep State’, saw America’s military power at apogee and thought it the best time to change the regime in Iran.
At home it was in 1993 when the FBI claimed there were drugs on the Davidian compound – and knew perfectly well from their informant there were none. That drug connection opened the doors to using military assets with the inevitable results.
I grew up listening to Paul Harvey evey day with my grandfather. I listened to Rush Limbaugh for decades. My eyes were always somewhat open but then came 9-11-01. When I seen on live TV the nose of that 2nd aircraft come out the otherside of building and then watched building 7 fall in a controlled demolition. The hair stood up on my neck when I heard George Noory speaking to a guest about a virus in a wet market in Wuhan, China. 2+ months before the virus was released.
I guess that looking back. I’ve never trusted our government. My grandfather taught me about precious metals and told me at a very young age that the government would come for them much like they outlawed his gold in his day.
I was taught about bar codes, years before it was even a thing, the mark of the beast, government mandated vaccines. How they took our freedoms away in the 1860’s with a bastardized constitution, made everything a corporation. The 3 city states, Rome, London, Washington.
Yes sir. I’ve lived 99% of my life awake.
For me it was when slick willy was elected.
Jan 21, 1981. Reagan sworn in as president, promising to, in essence, make America great again.
A scant two months later, Bush Sr’s CIA tries to assassinate him and take the Presidency.
“Something’s terribly wrong here”. Start reading founding documents, see what America is supposed to be, try to point it out but literally no one wants to hear it.
Incidents since then too numerous to list. Once you see the bars of the cage you are living in, it’s impossible to unsee them.
Buy a damned rifle and learn to use it.
911 and the Mandalay Bay shooting
When Palin was announced as vice president candidate, overnight ‘google’ searches could find nothing but derogatory remarks and false reports about her as gov of AK. FYI: I lived in AK, and they lied. Secondly, only negative stories about McCain, with glowing coverage of obummer with not a single mention of his ‘voting record’ as senator, the issue with his various citizenships and his lack of scholastic records. From there I discovered we were deeply buried in propaganda, at every level of .gov and there was no way to stop it.
I’m 26 and I think it coincided with my religious awakening in 2018. My primary news source cites you guys often. I am still very sluggish though.
For my husband it was the Ferguson riots. He grew up in Ferguson and the media and President Obama misrepresented what really happened. Purposefully creating racial division in this country.
For me it was during the Bush administration and hearing that President Bush let a plane full of Saudi nationals leave the country immediately after 9/11.
From there on the “great awakening” began. Cannot unsee it anymore.
Great discussion. Immersed in reading the responses.
This sounds very strange but….
When I was 14 I was sexually molested by the town’s 9th JV football team. These were the popular” good guys.” These were the sons of the mayor, police chief, etc.
I had to rebuild my world. I realized we lived in a fake world.
🙏💕
When Andrew Breitbart got my attention and then when he died suddenly. I worked hard and really never paid much attention but Andrew was the real deal. He spoke truth. Was he taken out….probably.
Yesterday, I attended a local Republican club meeting. I was one of the officers of that Club and Party back in 2008.
My Dad was a Pearl Harbor survivor so I grew up in a household where there was no love for Roosevelt. My Dad taught us about the evil he saw through 8 years of Navy life and travel throughout the world. I have always paid attention but really got serious after listening and following Breitbart. He was gone too soon.
He is dead and that POS Podesta still walks.
My dad expressed the same views as yours.
Lived offshore much of my young life and never thought much about it except for missing many friends and possible long-term relationships. I was drafted pre-lottery in the sixties and that was the first time I really remembered the aspect of how the state and it’s power had more influence over me than I can remember relative to the understanding of the civics and how individual liberty was being compromised relative to my understanding of the country. Later there were many influences, but Ron Paul has been more prominant to my thinking… still, as I’m into my mid-seventies. Trump has been the only one since who has had a profound and supportable impact.
For me, it was the 2000 presidential election and the shenanigans in Florida.
The first Gulf War when they lied about babies being tossed out incubators by Iraqis. That’s when I started questioning everything
The ‘eye opener’ for me was watching the DNC force-feed the Hildabeast as the Presidential nominee while kicking Bernie to the curb (with a new house and lucrative book deal). At that point, I realized it was exactly how we ended up with Romney, McCain and two Bushes as the RNC nominee (and a strong push for a 3rd one). From that point on, I begin to view it all, past and present, through a different lens.
I grew up immersed in ‘politics’ and very close to the ‘arena’. I know there has always been a good-ole boy network and ample corruption and backstabbing. However, I did not realize the depths of ‘the swamp’ and the full extent of the coordinated efforts of the ‘big clubs’ and the forces that control them.
I blamed a liberal media for not vetting 0bama and, the low information voters for electing him and, even worse, re-electing him. Once I realized that the global wealth and control is really in the hands of relatively few then a lot more began to make sense… the control and infiltration of media, corporations, elected officials, education, banking, even churches – practically every aspect of our lives .
Only in hindsight and as a modern day conspiracy theorist do I see the pure evil in the ‘conspiracies’ of today as well as our past. I am still often naive and I thank YOU, Sundance, for shining the light in the dark corners that often miss.
First came listening & watching the evening news in the early 60’s with my daddy as he cautioned, “Learn to detect these d***newscasters’ opinions”. As a young naive adult I volunteered to be a poll watcher and observed a permanent precinct election judge running it “his way”. Then came the testimony of Catherine Engelbrecht.
It was Obama‘s first presidential run. I heard about Jeremiah Wright and went to the website. At the time it said only Black people were welcome to join. That combined with listening to Rush Limbaugh wasn’t my great awakening but the confirmation of my worst fears.
I guess it was when Obama was elected, and I could see with my own eyes his “fundamental transformation of America”. It was obvious that he wasn’t putting the interests of America First, but instead leveling the playing field, at America’s expense! To then find out that he wasn’t vetted, that he wasn’t a “Natural Born Citizen”, only confirmed it for me. The whole smokescreen about whether he was born in Kenya or Hawaii was to distract us from the fact that he was ineligible to be President, due to his father not being a U.S. citizen. But of course, no one could point that out, for fear of being labeled a racist! I think this was the start of a shadowy Globalist World Government, and it’s only gotten worse since then …
Obamas’ usurpation of the White House was not the beginning of “the start of the shadowy Globalist World Government “. In fact, Obamas’ installation was the culmination of years of scheming, colluding, obfuscations and yes, even assassinations on the part of the ever evolving Deep State government to force its agenda on our country and the world. America as it was did not fit the agenda of the Globalists, the multinational corporations and the military-industrial complex. A radical change was needed and Obama was the perfect subterfuge, the Trojan Horse, the Manchurian Candidate to effect that radical change. The millions of Americans across the strata’s of our society, whom were aware of Obamas’ ineligibility; that he is ostensibly an illegal alien, and yet worked diligently to cover that up are in my opinion, traitors.
100% agree
Sorry, 9th grade JV team.
For our household, this certainly was a siren call about our government………….I was 16. At this point (Feb-1968) in the war we had about 37,000 dead young American men. This is when the onion of government/media lies began peeling away for me.
Then President Johnson said “if i have lost Cronkite, I have lost middle America”………
The challenger crash, AIDS, the death of John Wheeler then 9-11.
Have been aware since I was a little boy really. The death of John F. Kennedy rocked me at age 9 years old. Then the late 1960s was eye opening. Been paying attention for a long, long time, but the whole Michael Brown BS in 2014 just took me to a new level. Been stressed out about it all since then. Ugh.