Free Republic

The engines of anti-democratic subversion have been grinding away for decades. The signs and portents all around us. The emergence of the scourge of political correctness and the lockstep leftist agitprop of the mainstream media, for example, are sure indicators of advancing democratic collapse. According to Reporters Without Borders, Canada ranks 18th and the U.S. 41st in its World Press Freedom Index -- a rather shabby performance for ostensibly enlightened democratic nations. Political disinformation has come to supplant journalistic integrity in a sustained effort to steer the electorate toward the socialist agenda of anti-individualism, bigger government, state welfarism and bureaucratic...

Just how desperately college and university administrators want to control what students say lest anyone take offense or feel “harassed” is revealed by a policy adopted at Iowa State University (ISU). ISU students are told that they must abide by the school’s policy against “harassment” of anyone in the university community. Students must complete a “training program” consisting of 118 slides online, covering the university’s non-harassment policies and procedures, and then pledge never to violate them. But what if a student thinks that the ISU policy goes way beyond preventing true harassment and amounts to an abridgement of his rights...

A petition to reverse the decision by Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus to make the entire job title system gender-neutral has reached more than 100,000 signatures, forcing a White House review.The petition soared to 50,000 within the first week of its launch in late September, but for the rest of October, it was an open question of whether it would reach its goal.But as of Monday morning, the petition reached 102,591 signatures, which reflects the fact that the new job title change is viewed in an almost universally unfavorable light.“For 241 Years Navy personnel have been identified by their...

Hey everyone, sorry if people think this is a vanity but I think people need to watch this because like as not this will be happening in schools all over the nation. There is no doubt in my mind that your kid could face 2 weeks detention even expulsion for saying something like, "Caitlyn Jenner is not a Hero." When I went to school, people also got in trouble for less. You were more likely to get detention or suspension for praying over your meal than giving the Hitler salute. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jtxym6orSNc SEASON 19 EPISODE 1 STUNNING AND BRAVE

An NYU professor crusading against political correctness and student coddling was booted from the classroom last week after his colleagues complained about his “incivility,” The Post has learned. Liberal studies prof Michael Rectenwald, 57, said he was forced Wednesday to go on paid leave for the rest of the semester. “They are actually pushing me out the door for having a different perspective,” the academic told The Post...

The personal desktop computer used to once be an exclusive and expensive machine, though we now know it and its laptop counterpart as a mass-market commodity that most people can afford. This week, however, the companies that defined the personal computer, Microsoft and Apple, gave us a glimpse of the future and it looks like a return to the past: the PC is going back to being an exclusive and expensive machine. Set aside all the explosions of color on gorgeous, high-resolution displays. Ignore the glamorous promo videos and the ultrathin, all-metal chassis of the new Surface Studio and MacBook...

Student protesters at the University of California-Berkeley gathered in front of a bridge on campus and forcibly prevented white people from crossing it. Students of color were allowed to pass. The massive human wall was conceived as a pro-safe space demonstration. Activists wanted the university administration to designate additional safe spaces for trans students, gay students, and students of color. They were apparently incensed that one of their official safe spaces had been moved from the fifth floor of a building to the basement. According to video footage of the protest, demonstrators blocked off the bridge completely. Students who needed...

<p>A slew of vicious, “flash mob”-style attacks at Temple University left at least six students beaten and bloodied over the weekend, along with a cop and a police horse. More than 150 teens, spread out in groups of 20 or 30, descended upon the campus at around 8:30 p.m. Friday — wreaking havoc for nearly two hours before eventually dispersing, according to NBC 10.</p>

If the PC police killed Halloween on campus, conservative students are determined to ensure the holiday at least has a proper burial. On Friday, Young America’s Foundation announced a Funeral for Halloween campaign, meant to push back against “warnings of ‘cultural appropriation,’ political correctness, and [others] telling you what you can and can’t wear on Halloween.”The initiative comes after Halloween sparked widespread controversy on campuses last year. A Yale professor ultimately resigned after an uproar when she dared to criticize the university’s “implied control” over Halloween costumes. Since then, dozens of universities have hosted events about Halloween and cultural appropriation,...

The challenge of racial division in America today is not just that there are forces pushing us apart, but that we've lost the things that held us together. Relations between black people and white people are probably at their worst in anyone's lifetime, with most of those divisions exacerbated dramatically in the last handful of years. The reasons for that have more to do with the manipulation of racial animosity than the reality of the racial situation. Politicians and activists, each standing to benefit by pitting people against one another, have whipped up an internal and seemingly unresolvable conflict between...

I’m going to link an article as an example of the point I want to make here, even though this article is probably already a FR link. It’s from the LA Times: Transcripts: What the mics caught Donald Trump saying in 2005 and what he said in his taped apology. And it’s very nasty - not because it doesn’t tell the truth, but because of how it lies with the truth. It slams the transcript of Donald 11 years ago directly in to the transcript of his apology, same text, no visual or layout breaks. In other words, it very...

Online retail giant Amazon was forced to remove a skimpy low-cut black dress, complete with veil, advertised on its website as a “ladies sexy Saudi burka Islamic costume,” after scores of infuriated users labeled it “racist” and “disgusting.” .comCustomers outraged by Walmart’s Israeli soldier Halloween costume Online shoppers surfing Amazon’s UK website for new ideas for upcoming Halloween dress-up parties stumbled upon the garment on Thursday. The mini-dress priced at £18.99 ($23) is apparently a take on the conservative Arab women’s swimwear, except that it barely covers anything but the face, with a niqab leaving only the eyes visible. Upon...

The Army’s Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program, which has delivered military training at colleges and universities since 1916, has been ordered to tape their guns in high viz orange for safety. The news, reported by The Washington Post this week, comes after incidents where students and faculty have mistaken drills by cadets with inert guns as dangerous active shooters. Now, under the orders of Maj. Gen. Christopher P. Hughes, the 250 Army ROTC units and 700 affiliates will conduct on campus training with simulated weapons (using empty hands mimicking carrying guns) while taking extra precautions in transport and storage...

tudent leaders of this year’s freshman orientation at James Madison University were given a list of 35 things they should avoid saying, including phrases such as “you have such a pretty face,” “love the sinner, hate the sin,” “we’re all part of the human race,” “I treat all people the same,” “it was only a joke,” “I never owned slaves,” and “people just need to pick themselves up by their bootstraps,” among other expressions. Those phrases and others on the list “widen the diversity gap” and do not “create a safe and inclusive environment,” according to the seven-page handout, a...

Back in the days of the Cold War between the Communist bloc of nations and the Western democracies, the Communists maintained pervasive restrictions around Eastern Europe that were aptly called an "iron curtain," isolating the people in its bloc from the ideas of the West and physically obstructing their escape. One of the few things that could penetrate the "iron curtain" were ideas conveyed on radio waves. "The Voice of America" network broadcast to the peoples of the Soviet bloc, so that they were never completely isolated, and hearing only what the Communist dictatorships wanted them to hear. Ironically, despite...

If you want a new PC running Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, you'll have fewer options beginning on Nov. 1. Here's what the end-of-sales deadline means.

A dark age descends on America’s campuses, fostered and welcomed by the disciples of Gramsci that have seized control of the commanding heights of education and culture. In place of the sacred academic tradition of open inquiry, they have substituted a reign of virtue, at least as they define it, so that dissenting ideas not only need not be heard, they must be actively suppressed. The so-called Social Justice Warriors, intoxicated with their own sense of absolute righteousness, are enforcing the dogmas of revolutionary purity. Emily Zanotti of Heat Street descries what happened when the University of Kansas chapter of...

Young girls may be discarding their princess wands for superhero capes this Halloween, but not so in the canine world. The glass ceiling appears to be firmly in place at PetSmart, where career costumes labeled “male” include firefighter and police officer, while female dogs can choose between a pink cowgirl costume and pink loofah. “It seems silly on the surface, but this is part of a larger message we’re sending, that there are certain jobs for men, and certain jobs for women,” said Scott Lawrie, 36, who co-hosts a podcast, ‘She will not be ignored,’ about gender issues. “The career...

A Danish far-right group faced criticism on Wednesday after handing out "asylum spray" to be used against violent migrants. In the southern town of Haderslev, 137 cans of relabelled hair spray were given away to the public on Saturday by the far-right Party of the Danes, which does not hold any seats in parliament. "The asylum spray is a concrete reaction against more Danes feeling insecure," party leader Daniel Carlsen, a former member of a Nazi group that he now distances himself from, told AFP. "Some Danish girls don't dare to go outside after it gets dark, partly because there...

We’re living in America 180, where good old American common sense has been thrown out the window and replaced by political correctness, militant feminism and cultural Marxism. The wimps and freaks and the loonies are running the country. Two stories this morning solidified the true nature of the craziness being pushed on the nation by the militant left: The first story was titled, “Parenting Magazine warns Blond, Cheerful Families Dangerous, Probably Right Wing.” Parenting magazine Baby & Family has told readers to beware of families who are “inconspicuous” and “cheerful”, as these warning signs indicate they are right wing and...