Free Republic

When and why did American life become so coarse, amoral and ungovernable? In his classic 1993 essay, “Defining Deviancy Down”, the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan offered a semantic explanation. He concluded that, as the amount of deviant behaviour increased beyond the levels the community can “afford to recognise”, we have been redefining deviancy so as to exempt conduct we used to stigmatise, while also quietly raising the “normal” level in categories where behaviour is now abnormal by any earlier standard. The reasons behind this, he said, were altruism, opportunism and denial — but the result was the same: an...

Savage and Stephen Gardner expose the Left in their plot to erode America’s borders, language, and culture. Savage quotes Voltaire: “Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” He shares examples of the Left’s “absurdities” leading to “atrocities”: defunding police, open borders, gender ideology, critical race theory, etc. They discuss how corporate greed and the Left are working to decimate our borders and bring down our civilization. Learn why Letitia James’ prosecution of Trump is a political persecution. Savage explains why the Civil War is already here as the left is waging an insurgency to destroy...

Have you ever been listening to someone talk and have déjà vu, even though you’ve never seen or heard of the person speaking, and the interview you’re watching happened just a few hours ago? I have. Once. A couple of weeks ago. I was listening to Tucker interview Xi Van Fleet, a Chinese native who lived through the Cultural Revolution in China. She eventually immigrated to the United States and has lived here for 40 years. As I was listening to her talk about how the Cultural Revolution rolled out and how she was seeing many of the same things...

Last week, Joe Biden issued a schoolmarmish warning to Israel, which he has been browbeating for months to placate his party’s anti-Israel left and Muslim American voters in Michigan, a critical swing state. Speaking to the press, he threatened, “There’s got to be a ceasefire because Ramadan – if we get into circumstances where this continues to Ramadan, Israel and Jerusalem could be very, very dangerous.”This solicitude for Muslims’ sensitivity about their faith bespeaks the West’s long bad habit of caring more about Islam––the faith that conquered and occupied, and to this day still occupies, much of the Christian Roman...

Would-be assassin-turned-folk singer John Hinckley Jr., who attempted to kill President Ronald Reagan in 1981, insisted he was a victim of “cancel culture” after his latest concert was called off. The 68-year-old was scheduled to perform at the Hotel Huxley in Naugatuck, Connecticut, on March 30 — 43 years to the day after he attacked Reagan — but the gig was postponed indefinitely, he told The Post. “I think that’s fair to say: I’m a victim of cancel culture,” Hinckley Jr. opined. “It keeps happening over and over again.” A message on the venue’s Instagram posted last week read, “You...

A recent study revealed that 42 percent of individuals belonging to Generation Z, born between 1990 and 2010, have been diagnosed with a mental health condition. The prevalent diagnoses include anxiety, depression, ADHD, and PTSD. Furthermore, twenty percent of them have sought therapy, and sixty percent are currently taking medication.

During the mid and late 1990’s, my mentor and boss at Defense Watch, the late Colonel David Hackworth frequently reported on the military’s descent into the PC maelstrom. What had merely been the rantings of the feminist fringe in Washington in the 1970’s and 80’s, had materialized into policy the moment the great draft dodger swore to protect and defend the constitution in 1993. The self-immolation of a phenomenal fighting force had begun. Highly decorated and a veteran of three wars, Hack knew more than anyone that the Pentagon’s perfumed princes didn’t have the intestinal fortitude nor the foresight to...

Will our historical era be remembered as the “Age of Fakes”? We have fake news, fake meat, fake elections, fake genders, fake vaccines, fake budgets, fake democracy, fake truths, fake hate, fake Russian collusion, fake insurrections, fake climate emergencies, fake freedoms, fake outrage, fake speech crimes, fake money, fake justice, fake intellects, fake women, fake borders, fake wars, and even a fake president. In some ways, it is a very silly time to be alive. So much of our fake world has been built on two monstrously fake foundations: fake progress and fake liberalism. Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson...

Oklahoma 16-year-old Nex Benedict died by suicide, according to an autopsy report released Wednesday by the state's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Benedict, a member of the 2SLGBTQ community, died one day after getting into a physical fight with several other students at Owasso High School. Benedict was nonbinary and went by they/them pronouns, according to Benedict's family. 2SLGBTQ includes Two Spirit, an umbrella term used to describe a third gender in Native and Indigenous communities. Sue Benedict, their mother, is a registered member of the Choctaw Nation. [snip] The Department of Education has opened an investigation into Owasso...

This is hilarious. It's a short vid (1 min, 27 sec) but packed full of hilarity about modern woke society. And there is no doubt that it does indeed "pretty much explains today's society." (you can click post link above or click pic below)

"America was founded on racism" and "parents need to stay out of their kids' education and shouldn't have a say in what they learn," are the kinds of things you'd expect to read on the pages of Pravda, back during the bad old days of the Cold War when the Communists were running Russia. I have some news for you. Pravda is now part of the U.S. military's training manuals and the Communists are running Washington. This exposé is courtesy of the invaluable Chaya Raichik, aka Libs of TikTok. SCOOP: Mandatory training for military members teaches that America was founded...

Millions of Americans, depressed by the ideological divide in America, harbor a wish that something or someone can bridge this divide. This wish is understandable. But it is fantasy. The divide is unbridgeable. One might as well wish that daily consumption of a hot fudge sundae will lead to weight loss. To cite a few samples: How are we to bridge the gap between those who believe men can become women and women can become men and those who don't believe this? Between those who believe men menstruate and those who believe only women menstruate? How are we to bridge...

To many, it is a stirring patriotic anthem conjuring up images of Britain's long and proud history. But Rule, Britannia! can feel 'alienating' to others, according to Labour culture spokesman Thangam Debbonaire.

So I'm sitting at SeaTac airport. By my count there are no less than 8 people within earshot loudly playing videos, video chats, or in 1 case having a conversation over speakerphone. It's obnoxious. A bunch of noise I don't want. The interesting thing to me, and this holds with observations I've made over the last couple years, is this: every single person doing this is over 50 years of age. There are plenty of younger people playing videos, music, making phone calls, etc, but they're all using headphones. So what happened? I'm in my thirties, and I'm pretty sure...

Meanwhile, under Trump’s and Putin’s direction, Republicans in Congress are doing everything they can to damage the people of the United States. They believe it will help them in the 2024 election if they can ruin the U.S. economy while convincing American voters that our system of government is so corrupt (“deep state”) that we should consider replacing democracy with an autocratic strongman form of government like Putin’s Russia. Tucker Carlson is even suggesting that Russia is a better place to live than the US. They revel in pitting racial, religious, and gender groups against each other while embracing a...

CHICAGO — A convicted child sex offender who allegedly impersonated a doctor to access the children’s wing of a Chicago hospital has been handed a three-year prison sentence. Christopher Chothen, 39, pleaded guilty to one count of being a child sex offender present in a children’s facility, according to court records. Judge Domenica Stephenson meted out the sentence. Chothen has been required to register as a sex offender since being convicted of abducting, restraining, and sexually abusing a 15-year-old in 2002, state records show. He was 17 at the time of that crime. Last July, prosecutors accused him of using...

Don't lose hope! The only problem with subtitling your book “A Practical Guide to Winning the Culture War” is that people like to ask you if we really are going to win. “Peachy, things look pretty bleak right now. You said we’re going to win. Are we?” It’s true, things do look mighty bleak at the moment. Nasty people who hate us are in charge of everything, from our elite universities to our comically bumbling military. We’re also on track to welcome another ten million or so foreign invaders Our Greatest Strength, who are swarming the cities and rural hinterlands...

Interesting analysis this morning from Axios in a “Deep Dive: Inside the Mind of Gen Z.” The piece pulls together a bunch of data points and quotes from experts to provide a snapshot of a generation that, at least in my humble opinion, is in deep trouble.Here’s the key data from the Axios analysis: “By the numbers: Gen Z (defined as people roughly ages 12 to 27) reports the poorest mental health of any generation, according to a Gallup and Walton Family Foundation report.“Just 44% of Gen Zers say they feel prepared for the future. “The big picture: They dodged...

In the same way that you don’t notice the specifics of your own culture until you travel elsewhere, you don’t really notice your social class until you enter another one. As an undergraduate at Yale a decade ago, I came to see that my peers had experienced a totally different social reality than me. I had grown up poor, a biracial product of family dysfunction, foster care and military service. Suddenly ensconced in affluence at an elite university—more Yale students come from families in the top 1% of income than from the bottom 60%—I found myself thinking a lot about...

Our Christian NationChristopher Dawson was an English historian in the middle of the last century, one of those intellectuals prominent in his own day—T. S. Eliot called him “the most powerful intellectual influence in England”—but mostly overlooked in ours. Which is the usual treatment posterity gives to intellectuals, and usually for the best. But as to Dawson, it’s a shame. At this troubled juncture in American history, he is worth recalling. His lifelong subject was the study of religion and culture. And his lifelong thesis was this: Every great culture in the history of mankind has depended on “a common...