Free Republic

The term “kafkatrapping” describes a logical fallacy that is popular within gender feminism, racial politics and other ideologies of victimhood. It occurs when you are accused of a thought crime such as sexism, racism or homophobia. You respond with an honest denial, which is then used as further confirmation of your guilt. You are now trapped in a circular and unfalsifiable argument; no one who is accused can be innocent because the structure of kafkatrapping precludes that possibility. The term derives from Franz Kafka’s novel The Trial in which a nondescript bank clerk named Josef K. is arrested; no charges...

Unfortunately for the Bidens, just hours before Hunter’s press conference, the transcript of the latest testimony of Ziegler and Shapley was published by the House Ways and Means Committee. Ziegler is a registered Democrat and is regarded as the most talented criminal investigator in the IRS team described as the “SEAL Team 6” of international tax-fraud investigations. His supervisor, Shapley, is a registered Republican and equally well-regarded, having managed some of the largest cases in IRS history, and recovered more than $3.5 billion for the US taxpayer. Georgia Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Ga.) stepped on the first landmine when she asked...

To anyone who tracks the efforts of environmentalists, their policies often have an ulterior motive. They neither result in a better society nor do they produce better habitats. Their policy preferences also do not consider how using the land improves the land for man and wildlife. Instead, many environmentalists advocate for policies at the expense of farmers, miners, and others who create usable, tangible, societal benefits from the land. This often leaves observers to wonder: what are environmentalists really after? The answer is power and money. On September 29, the SEC, at the request of the NYSE, proposed a rule...

On what political propositions are Americans apparently agreed? There are two. The first is that the President currently in the White House should be replaced. Not by being tossed out on last February's impeachment rap, but replaced when his term finally ends. The second proposition is that no presidential candidate currently striving to succeed the incumbent is an exhilarating alternative. What's the problem? If the incumbent is so bad, shouldn't we be enthusiastic about at least one of the contenders? After all, there are two Democrats out there to choose from, and six Republicans. So whom are the American people...

The great tragedy of our time is that liberals vote left. Virtually every value liberals have held for a century is now held by conservatives and scorned by leftists. Therefore, America, in serious jeopardy of being lost, will be saved when people convince the liberals in their life that the left, not the conservative, is their enemy. This process begins by establishing whether a friend or relative is a liberal or a leftist. If it turns out that he or she is a liberal, it is worth engaging in respectful dialogue on the issues of the day. If the friend...

Since Galileo’s time the physical sciences have leaped forward, explaining the workings of the tiniest quarks to the largest galaxy clusters. But explaining things that reside “only in consciousness”—the red of a sunset, say, or the bitter taste of a lemon—has proven far more difficult. Neuroscientists have identified a number of neural correlates of consciousness—brain states associated with specific mental states—but have not explained how matter forms minds in the first place. As philosopher Colin McGinn put it in a 1989 paper, “Somehow, we feel, the water of the physical brain is turned into the wine of consciousness.” Philosopher David...

'Diversity, Equity and Inclusion' and 'Environmental, Social, and Corporate governance' are the real systemic racism backed by the system.A recent survey revealed that 1 in 6 hiring managers had been told to avoid hiring members of a particular gender and race. Normally editorials and cable news hits would have been scheduled, politicians would have held hearings and the civil rights apparatus of every federal and state agency, including the Department of Labor, would have launched massive investigations.But since the group being discriminated against were white men, civil rights professionals and the media gave each other a thumbs up and congratulated...

Wisconsin’s gerrymandering case has garnered national attention. But a little-explored aspect of the suit — the pervasive presence of “Swiss cheese” districts — could have huge ramifications for the outcome.

America’s Founders fought a bloody revolution in order to escape the “absolute despotism” to which they had been reduced under the hereditary monarchy of the British government, a system that Thomas Paine said “laid the world in blood and ashes.” After that revolution was won, the Founders’ singular focus was to create a republic that would safeguard individual freedom and state sovereignty by vesting only limited, specifically enumerated powers in a federal government. The Constitution’s first ten amendments (the Bill of Rights), Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, as well as the Ninth and Tenth Amendments establish clear limitations...

Israel’s defenses took a giant leap forward this week when — for the first time ever — it used a laser beam to shoot down an incoming rocket fired by terrorists in Gaza. This isn’t science fiction, but the product of years of research and experimentation. The US military is doing its own laser-beam or “directed energy” research, and Israel and the United States cooperate. Lockheed Martin and Israel’s Rafael are developing Iron Beam, and ultimately it can mean not only ground-based laser defenses but lasers to mount on ships and planes as well. Israel fielded the weapon for the...

Mark Fisher, a co-founder of a Black Lives Matter chapter in Rhode Island and founder of a new BLM-related organization, is on a media tour advocating for Donald Trump to be president in 2024. "Everybody else sucks," Fisher told host Kim Iversen in a recent interview. After Iversen asked if he thought Trump was simply the best of the worst and "not that great either," Fisher clarified his views. "I like Trump, you know. Personally, and I think right now who we have sitting in the Oval Office is just a deep disappointment, you know? I deeply have disdain for...

The Minneapolis cop convicted of murdering George Floyd in 2020 has been thoroughly scrubbed of his personhood, let alone his rights. Nobody bothered to tell his family or his lawyer that another inmate had attacked him Saturday. Despite being the most notorious ex-cop in America, he wasn’t protected from violent prisoners. The fact he was even in the ill-run federal prison in Tucson, Ariz., 1,638 miles from his family, speaks volumes. His lawyers argued that he had been denied a fair trial because Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill refused to move to a venue outside Minneapolis despite massive pretrial publicity...

Javier Milei, the self-described classical liberal and anarcho-capitalist who won Argentina's presidential election on Sunday, campaigned with a brash message of slashing government programs, cutting taxes, and privatizing state-owned enterprises. Can voters experiencing economic turmoil be persuaded that government is the problem, rather than the solution? Yes. Milei won more than 56 percent of the vote Look how The New York Times summarizes Milei's platform: "lowering taxes; slashing regulations; privatizing state industries; reducing the number of federal ministries to eight from 18; shifting public education to a voucher-based system and public health care to insurance-based; and cutting federal spending by...

In some parts of the country, standing up for Israel is controversial, even dangerous. On the campuses of places like Harvard, Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania, anyone who dares to wave an Israeli flag — or, increasingly, wear a kippah in public — is at risk of being assaulted by angry mobs of people with their faces covered. In Los Angeles, a pro-Israel protester was allegedly killed by a pro-Palestinian computer-science professor. (Judge Ryan Wright slashed the prof’s bail from the original $1 million to just $50,000.) Many parents of Jewish students are concerned, and rightly so, about their...

A separation of science and politics might be called for. Once upon a time, science evoked enthusiasm. Yes, cinematic mad scientists went overboard with body parts and lightning, but real-life researchers brought us innovations, insights, and improved standards of living. But, like many institutions, science got political and cult-y. Thin-skinned narcissists with government jobs hijacked the systematic pursuit of knowledge and rebranded it as an unassailable body of Truth with a capital T. They cast out as heretics well-informed critics who interpreted evidence differently. In the process, they lost the trust of a public which saw insights replaced by bossy...

Side by side comparison. Which one is the conservative and which one is Establishment?

I have a problem. The idiot morons at Facebook insist that I enable something called Facebook Protect. They've locked my account. They insist on two-factor verification from third parties like Google Verify or Duo. They want me to get a code, then come back to FB and input it. These sites are designed to put an app on your phone. I don't have a smartphone (by choice) and I cannot figure out how the heck to get this done on my desktop.

As president, I will restore American strength on the world stage and focus our attention and resources on deterring Xi’s Chinese Communist Party — the greatest economic and security threat facing America today. My goal is straightforward: We win, and they lose. My treasury and commerce secretaries will focus on American interests, not Wall Street’s access to Chinese markets. I will create an Office of Economic Security and Competition to prioritize reshoring and friendshoring critical production, protecting technologies and reducing reliance on adversaries. I will defend American workers and innovators from illicit technology transfer and intellectual-property theft. I will align...

On November 13, Felix Unger was asked to remove himself from his place of residence; that request came from his wife. Deep down, he knew she was right, but he also knew that some day he would return to her. With nowhere else to go, he appeared at the home of his childhood friend, Oscar Madison. Several years earlier, Madison's wife had thrown him out, requesting that he never return. Can two divorced men share an apartment without driving each other crazy?

Michigan Wolverines, SEC or ACC school? Sounds insane, right? Turns out it may not be as crazy as it sounds, if a report from Sports Illustrated’s Michael Rosenberg is to be believed. Rosenberg reported that the University of Michigan’s board of regents met last week to discuss the possibility of leaving the Big Ten conference entirely. The regents were, as of last week, concerned the conference commissioner Tony Petitti might suspend head coach Jim Harbaugh over the Connor Stalions scandal without due process. And then Petitti suspended Jim Harbaugh because of the sign stealing scandal without due process. OutKick’s Trey...