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A Great Awakening Decades in the Making
American Thinker ^ | 23 Feb, 2023 | J.B. Shurk

Posted on 02/23/2023 4:48:00 AM PST by MtnClimber

Should America disappear from the map, it will be because decades of government corruption and abuse were never addressed until it was simply too late.

Over at The Conservative Treehouse, Sundance has again managed to generate a treasure trove of anecdotal history, evidence, and analysis from those who visit his site.

Last month, he asked readers: if "[y]ou did not take the COVID-19 shot, why not?" The thousands of personal responses were illuminating and created a kind of timeline showing how irreconcilable conflicts pitting available scientific knowledge and common sense against the government's own actions, orders, statements, and censorship heightened public distrust of COVID mandates and "vaccines," until various tipping points spilled over into outright rejection of political, medical, and media authorities.

This month, Sundance asks a more foundational question: "When did you start really paying attention?" In other words, when did you "recognize that things around you, things you perhaps didn't pay attention to before, were not what you thought they were"? What was the moment when "your political awakening began"?

The thousands of responses to this simple question are a cornucopia of rich history, personal reflection, and insightful analysis. Just as last month's COVID question created a powerful timeline documenting the last three years of COVID-1984 insanity, this month's more general question has generated nothing less than a near-century's worth of details and stories tracking people's "aha moments" as they discovered that the promises of American self-government are often but an ornamental fabrication plastered upon the stratagems of ruthless government actors pushing propaganda, accumulating power, and sacrificing American lives. Interestingly, they come from people traversing back and forth across the political spectrum. From a research point of view, the collected information is staggeringly comprehensive, impressive, and invaluable. From a personal point of view, the selfless entries and

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Society
KEYWORDS: corruption; covid
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1 posted on 02/23/2023 4:48:00 AM PST by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

When did I realize something was seriously wrong? Over 30 years ago when the lies and propaganda in the MSM were so ridiculous that I couldn’t watch anymore.


2 posted on 02/23/2023 4:48:14 AM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

Affirmative Action was totaly unconstitutional and that was my awakening in the 70’s. We are not a nation of laws.


3 posted on 02/23/2023 4:52:08 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
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To: MtnClimber
I lost all confidence in “the system” back in my early teenage years.

It was the bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut that did it for me. The bombing itself was bad enough … it never made any sense to me for me for the U.S. government to put military personnel in harm’s way in an Islamic sh!t-hole like that.

But what really sealed for me was the post-incident reporting where it was revealed that the barracks were being guarded by Marine sentries who were not allowed to have ammunition in their weapons.

4 posted on 02/23/2023 4:58:51 AM PST by Alberta's Child
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To: MtnClimber
It's not simply a recognition that things are going wrong the author is pointing to.

We have all seen the many instances of the left doing horrible things to tear apart our culture.

He's talking about the recognition that if nothing is done to correct course soon, the great freedoms that form the best of our culture are gone. Looking for the moment we either wake up, fight this war like genuine warriors, or go simpering into the night watching as ruin and loss take hold.

5 posted on 02/23/2023 5:05:33 AM PST by Lakeshark (Trump. He stands for the great issues of the day. Stay the course!)
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To: MtnClimber
"When did I realize something was seriously wrong?"

When I got sober in '92 - once my mind cleared I thought: "what the hell have I been sleeping through"?

By '95 I was fully engaged in the fight.

6 posted on 02/23/2023 5:09:47 AM PST by Psalm 73 ("You'll never hear surf music again" - J. Hendrix)
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To: Lakeshark
Part of the problem here is that this “war” is being fought in institutions that never should have existed in the first place.

I have no time for people or conservative politicians who run around braying about “fixing our schools,” for example. A BLM-Marxist-LGBTQWERTY agenda in our public schools is not the problem here. The problem is that the public schools even exist at all.

And until we recognize this, we really are just wasting our time and energy.

7 posted on 02/23/2023 5:29:09 AM PST by Alberta's Child
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To: Psalm 73
My awakening occurred during 77-79, during my first 3 years in Germany. My Chaparral/Vulcan battery was beset by manpower shortages and aged equipment.

As a Maintenance Officer, I started my tenure with stringent inspections of our vehicles, leading to a 4 page deadline report, earning me the enmity of battalion maintenance NCO's. One vehicle had so many things wrong with it, I inserted a simple notation, "MFB", Mother F-----'s Broke. My wry annotation was not well received...lol.

The Octobers of 77 and 78 were greeted by government shutdowns, and a two week delay in our paychecks. It hit my soldiers especially hard, particularly those with families.

When you're put in charge of 20-40 men (I was a Platoon Leader for both Chaparral platoons for much of 77), your life changes...mine certainly did.

As the Platoon Leader, I was responsible for everything my platoons did, or failed to do. You can't make excuses like our politicians and Pentagon generals do.

8 posted on 02/23/2023 5:30:12 AM PST by Night Hides Not (Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad! Remember Gonzales! Come and Take It!)
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To: Alberta's Child
Yes.

The problem in figuring out the best ways to effectively fight is huge. The psy-ops (intentional delusions everywhere) of evil is a major battle.

9 posted on 02/23/2023 5:34:10 AM PST by Lakeshark (Trump. He stands for the great issues of the day. Stay the course!)
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To: MtnClimber

Years ago I used to not bother getting a flu shot. I came down with a cold only around once every 2-3 years. So I didnt see the need for it.

Still, every year my doctors used to try to talk me into getting a flu shot. So one year I caved in and agreed to let my doctor give me my vwry first flu shot. The following year I came down with a cold about 2-3 times.

The next year I gave in again to my doctors prodding about getting another flu shot. Only for me to come down with the flu a handful of times within the year.

My 3rd time I got a flu shot, that year I still came down with a cold once every 1-1 1/2 months! I couldn’t believe it. I went from getting a cold only once every 2-3 years to once almost every month. That was the very last time I ever got a flu shot. From then on, every year to this day, I turned down getting a flu shot no matter how much my doctors suggested it. One of which insisted to me there was no way I could’ve come down with a cold so frequently because of the flu shot.

Fast forward years later to the covid pandemic. Just like the more established fly shots, I was skeptical of the new vaccine. It didn’t help that every now and then on the internet I was reading about how some people were having some kind of bad, negative reactions directly after getting the vaccine. So, I decided to really hold out on this one.

In the meantime, my mother got the vaccine (and a couple of boosters) because her place of employment (a government job) required her to do so or face being fired. Afterwards she still came down with covid and had to be quarantined as a result. Her health worsened in the following couple of years.

I do not know if this is from natural aging or whether or not the vaccine has contributes to her health decline. She has seen numerous doctors for her various ailments, been to those urgent care walk in centers countless times, and has been held overnight in the hospital to try to see what’s wrong. But they haven’t been able to exactly pinpoint what’s wrong. Recently she was fitted with a heart monitor. Something she’s never had to wear before

My brother, a far leftist who thinks all us Republicans ought to be shot (as in by firing squad), got the vaccine because he fell for all the pro vaccine propaganda and got the vaccine because he felt it was out of a sense of duty to his community and the public at large. He was not only protecting himself, but his fellow man, the way he saw it. On more than one occasion he lectured me to get the vaccine, which I ignored.

He, like mother, has come down with more physical ailments so painful and severe, he had me bring him to the emergency room at the hospital a couple times so far. Like mother, they were unable to diagnose what was wrong with him, much less a way to heal him.

I on the other hand, still unvaccinated, I came down with covid. I do not know how I caught it. From my brother? From my mother? From a total stranger I ran across the few times I left my house? Either way, it was like a very mild cold. But instead of running its course in a few days like a normal cold, it lasted me a whole month. Now I have natural immunity and none of the medical side effects my brother and mother are possibly suffering from.


10 posted on 02/23/2023 5:40:18 AM PST by lowbridge ("Let’s check with Senator Schumer before we run it" - NY Times)
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To: Lakeshark

From the time I realized there was something wrong things have continuously gotten worse. Yet I think over half of the country does not see it. I don’t know what will wake them up. How many people do you need to change the course of the national culture?


11 posted on 02/23/2023 5:41:13 AM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

All true and now we have city/state/federal govts that want to control every facet of life. Some govt idiot (forget where - could be CA) wants to make it illegal for you to let your dog stick his head out the window of the car. One-it’s none of the govt business. Two-dogs do this because it’s fun to have the wind in their face. Three-get a life.


12 posted on 02/23/2023 5:41:56 AM PST by klb99 (I now understand why the South seceeded)
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To: MtnClimber

I’m embarrassed to say it was in 2020.

I noticed things before then, but didn’t recognize the scale of the problem.

In 2016 I started to get a clue, but thought maybe I was missing something or was witnessing operations under unusual conditions.

In 2020 I realized the “unusual condition” was that we had an actual American patriot in a position of power. Then I saw...


13 posted on 02/23/2023 5:44:23 AM PST by Sarcazmo ("Sarcasm is the highest form of wit" ~ O. Wilde)
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To: MtnClimber

It was a small number back in the 1700s... but now the school of fish can be controlled in real time.

Imagine if King George had had that ability. We’d still be talking like dorks and eating spotted dick.


14 posted on 02/23/2023 5:46:44 AM PST by Sarcazmo ("Sarcasm is the highest form of wit" ~ O. Wilde)
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To: MtnClimber

For me it was the Oliver North hearings. I watched them and thought the guy was honest and credible. Then i watched the “news” and they painted him like Hitler. Their agenda was obvious.


15 posted on 02/23/2023 5:53:00 AM PST by DouglasKC
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To: MtnClimber

When did I start paying attention? November 24, 1963, the day Oswald was shot. Even as a 6 year old in 1st grade I instinctively knew there were unseen things going on with the” powers that be” that were not good for the country.


16 posted on 02/23/2023 5:55:01 AM PST by VTenigma (Conspiracy theory is the new "spoiler alert")
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To: lowbridge

My situation is remarkably similar to your observations.

When you’re in your foxhole and a round whizzes by close... happenstance. another? Eh... maybe coincidence. A third. You’re under fire, do something quick!

The shills and liberals will tell you you should get out your foxhole and conduct an investigation because correlation is not causality, after all. So find out where the bullets hit, take some measurements, walk back to where they could have come from, interview the dudes in funny uniforms hiding in the brush and just find out what happened. Write everything up, mail it to Quantico and have it analyzed by a subject matter expert. Because without doing that, you really can’t be sure of anything.

That is so ridiculous I can’t believe they still come on here and try to make that case.


17 posted on 02/23/2023 5:57:04 AM PST by Sarcazmo ("Sarcasm is the highest form of wit" ~ O. Wilde)
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To: MtnClimber

My awakenings were in pieces, from the first day of a college (1985) meteorology class where an annoyed professor lectured us all that “there are NOT more tornados today in the US, just more people and tools reporting them!”... soon after, a classic liberal journalism professor pointing out subtle (yes, “subtle”) political bias in media industry... up to 2007 where an entire political party became enamored with a no talent, no voting record junior Senator with a scant personal history - simply because of his skin color and political novelty as a shiney, clean leftist progressive dream with an exotic name. As the greatest generation left us, I realized that the self sacrificing adults were gone and being replaced by spoiled, know nothing children in old people skin - now in every institution.


18 posted on 02/23/2023 6:10:24 AM PST by LittleBillyInfidel (This tagline has been formatted to fit the screen. Some content has been edited.)
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To: MtnClimber

” It is a choice. It belongs to you. Do not be misled. Seize the day.”

How, sir? There is no opposition to the oligarchy that controls the government, the economy, and the media.

We are stuck with the crap we have voted ourselves into until the day arrives when more than 50% of the military and cops in this country conclude that they didn’t sign up to protect THIS s-—t.

Then things get really awful. Hopefully, I will be alive to see it.


19 posted on 02/23/2023 6:26:52 AM PST by L,TOWM (An upraised middle finger is my virtue signal.)
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To: Alberta's Child

Glad to see there are still some clear eyed constitutional readers among the F(R)aithful..


20 posted on 02/23/2023 6:30:33 AM PST by L,TOWM (An upraised middle finger is my virtue signal.)
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