Free Republic

Fake News? That pales in comparison to Fake History. As committed socialist George Orwell once wrote: He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past. There is an article in Vox yesterday which explains exactly why there need to be more conservative citizen historians so as to hold "the experts" accountable. Titled "“They have no allegiance to liberal democracy”: an expert on antifa explains the group", faux-historian Mark Bray accurately admits that Antifa terrorists have no interest in Freedom. They have no allegiance to liberal democracy, which they believe has failed the marginalized...

George Orwell’s dictum, "Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past," is often quoted, and for good reason. But it is usually quoted out of context. The passage begins: "And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed -- if all records told the same tale -- then the lie passed into history and became truth. " Then comes the aphorism, and Orwell continues: "And yet the past, though of its nature alterable, never had been altered. Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting. All that was needed was...

Statues of Lincoln, Catholic saints, and Confederate generals have been in the political debate as of late. There are even a few commentators who want to tear down monuments to George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. It’s out of control, but then again—that’s the progressive Left. Now, former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson says it’s a matter of national security. He made the remarks to ABC News’ Martha Raddatz on This Week Sunday. Our friends at the Washington Free Beacon clipped the exchangeJeh Johnson: Removing Confederate statues a matter of 'homeland security' "What alarms so many of us from a...

Technically speaking, progressives have had about six different names. I believe that if the progressives ever did change their name again, they would choose the word "technocrat" as their new hiding place. First, for a little background. Note: this is not designed to be an all-encompassing, uncover-every-stone-history lesson. Starting out, the earliest progressives were known as "Georgists" - that is, Henry George and the publication of the book Progress and Poverty. Note the word "progress" in the title. Georgists were not the uniform statist that we would come to know, starting around the beginning of the 20th century. One of...

In describing some of the history of American Progressivism, Dinesh D'Souza asks a very provocative question: Think about this: we know the name of the philosopher of capitalism, Adam Smith. We also know the name of the philosopher of Marxism, Karl Marx. So, quick, what is the name of the philosopher of fascism? Yes, exactly. You don’t know. Virtually no one knows. My point is that this is not because there were no foundational thinkers behind fascism – there were several – but rather that the left had to get rid of them in order to avoid confronting their unavoidable...

Today's counter-revolution against liberty is being fought on a number of fronts in American society. One is on college and university campuses across the country, where the ideology of "political correctness" is strangling freedom of speech and smothering intellectual controversy and debate. Critical to this campaign is the capture of language. It is through our language that we think about ourselves, our relationships to others, and the social order surrounding us. Words do not merely delineate objects, individuals, events or actions. Words also create mental imageries, emotions, attitudes, and beliefs that color how people see themselves and the world around...

“Liberals do not believe in the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness which are American ideals, or at least they used to be. If you love freedom, then you will be hated by the modern liberal who believes that government should regulate individual freedom. If you love freedom and believe that the state does not own you, then leftist hate should be a goal, not a fear.” – Dr. Helen Smith“I thought of what Daddy had said when I asked him why he’d never gone on public assistance. ‘Because they take away your manhood,’ he said.” –...

A "progressive parent" friend of mine was recently expressing enthusiasm over the fact that his children had taken to reading Young Adult dystopian novels. They were dying to see the new feature film adaptation of the book The Giver (see Sarah Palin's review, here), after having ploughed through the quartet of bestselling books by Lois Lowry. They had absorbed the blockbuster film adaptations of Divergent and The Hunger Games and had hungrily consumed the associated merchandise . They'd also made hundreds of new friends from all over the world who "shared" the same passion for dystopian teen icons Katniss, Tris...

This lady used to be a real hardcore Leftist, but she suddenly switched and voted Republican in 2012. What made her change? Read on to find out.Dr. Danusha V. Goska has abandoned the Leftist philosophy for good. She wrote a long article that explains each point in detail at American Thinker. It also includes a bio of Dr. Goska that shows her Leftist ‘street cred’.To sum up, here are her Top 10 Reasons for Dumping Leftist Ideology:10. Huffiness We rushed to cast everyone in one of three roles: victim, victimizer, or champion of the oppressed. We lived our lives in...

Those who do not know their history are doomed to repeat it. So it is, where countless articles have been written now about McCain's recent betrayal on the Obamacare repeal vote, but none of them looks at the issue historically. McCain is being true to his hero Theodore Roosevelt here. This is a high-school boy-crush on McCain's part, and it is pure progressive ideology on display for all to see who wish to see it in its raw ugliness. They all want government to control your healthcare, the progressives, and they've wanted it this way since 1912. One of the...

Last week, The Atlantic rendered a great service to those of us who contend that America is in the midst of a civil war between the right and the left. It provided a smoking gun -- actually, the gunshot itself -- to those of us who contend that the left (never to be confused with liberals) is intent on dismantling Western civilization. It published articles by two left-wing writers, one by Peter Beinart titled "The Racial and Religious Paranoia of Trump's Warsaw Speech," and one by its national correspondent, James Fallows, written on the same theme as Beinart's. The subject...

How is it that progressives and other ideologues end up recruiting rich friends? You would think that would be an unfavorable group, but that's simply not so. In the magazine The Nationalist, the following is written: "In one respect the Nationalists and the Christian Socialists, who are attempting practically the same work, are right. They are applying to the advance of their reform the system which long and painful work has shown to be the best; they are beginning at the top, and their propaganda is to be carried on, not among the humble and the suffering, where it would,...

Years ago Marxist-socialist leftists, embarrassed at being Marxist-socialist leftists, made up a shiny new name for themselves, “progressives.” It’s a word that sounds like a garden of forward-thinking delights, but is simply code for the failed, human-spirit-destroying government-command-and control that birthed all the evil “isms” of the past. That’s why every time I hear a conservative commentator in print, radio, or on TV call lefty-socialists “progressives” my 200 billion brain cells swoon. The Fourth of July brings to mind how far alleged progressivism deviates from this nation’s founding freedoms. The government command-and-control against which the American revolutionaries fought was King...

I've eluded to this before, but I am more convinced of this than ever. A "Progressive" gets his name; or rather, originally got his name - because of the book "Progress and Poverty". That is, this: A "Progressive" is someone who "is in favor of Progress and poverty" (The contents of the book; George's arguments, etc.) But they can't call themselves Progressandpovertyists, who are in favor of Progressandpovertyism. I feel silly even typing that, yet that's ultimately the most accurate way to describe it. That's what a progressive is. That's how it started. Henry George. Progressivism is progressandpovertyism. Now, you...

The shooting at a congressional GOP baseball practice is just the latest in an escalating pattern of violence and intimidation against Republicans. James T. Hodgkinson opened fire on GOP lawmakers and staffers with a rifle on Wednesday morning as they prepared for the annual summer baseball game between Republicans and Democrats. The shooter wounded several victims, including House Majority Whip Steve Scalise and a staffer for Texas Rep. Roger Williams, before heroically being taken down by Capitol Police. If not for the attendance of Scalise — whose leadership position comes with a security detail — “it would have been a...

The American Thinker has an interesting piece today about Howard Zinn, in which the claim is made that: "Zinn, more than any other man, turned our history books on their heads, and in a way, changed the contemporary course of history." Honestly, I'm not sure that's true. In comparing Zinn to Charles Beard, one of the main issues is the simple expanse of time. Sure, Zinn is more acute in the lies he has written, but Beard has had over a century for his poison to become foundational thinking. Here's the thing: Howard Zinn never knew the real America, so...

Common knowledge has it that the Red Scare involved Joseph McCarthy, HUAC, and Cold War highlights. While all of this is true, that's the second Red Scare of the 1960's. The first Red Scare is far more interesting. The first Red Scare involved progressives using the force of big government against their ideological opponents, the communists. While it is true that (probably) the two most high profile people to be deported were Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman - both anarchists(not communists) - that does not change the fact that one of the main goals of the 1917-1919 purge was to...

(Skip) So why are these left-wing extremists attacking one of their own liberal comrades? The answer is simple: they are not liberals. They are illiberal, left-wing fascists. These so called “activists” are not interested in dialogue — one of them said exactly that in a video of their confrontation. They are only interested in their political agenda being enacted at all costs, without any negotiation with dissenters. To me, that mentality is inherently illiberal and undemocratic. It is close enough to fascism to warrant use of the label “fascist” at this point. (Skip) As a label, “social justice warrior” just...

Professor Bret Weinstein, who has been at the center of the chaos unfolding at Evergreen State College, gave an interview to Joe Rogan Friday in which he describes what has been going on at the college both before and after this story became national news. It’s a long interview but a compelling one. I’ve transcribed some of the most interesting bits for those who don’t have time to listen to all two and a half hours of it. Many of the points Weinstein makes here have been made by conservatives many times, but the fact that he is a progressive...

Initiate a discussion about welfare, and inevitably the name of Franklin Delano Roosevelt pops up. Often times FDR comes up in the first sentence. Problem is, this simply is not historically accurate. It is true to say that FDR supercharged welfare, but anything else is fake history. Not only did welfare in America exist prior to FDR, but the first welfare program for citizens was repealed in 1929. The interesting story, however, is that it was not people who were first at being put on welfare by the federal government. That's what makes the issue of the first 48 welfare...