Free Republic

Today we have a new audio book release, this time from Edward Bernays with his 1928 work "Propaganda". Download the audio here. There is a lot to learn about progressivism in this book. Among other things (prior post on this) Bernays believed the following items which were captions on a newer reprint cover: As civilization has become more complex, and as the need for invisible government has been increasingly demonstrated, the technical means have been invented and developed by which opinion may be regimented(Page 39)Nowadays the successors of the rulers, those whose position or ability gives them power, can no...

For many years, Rush Limbaugh was fond of the phrase "phony baloney, plastic banana, good time rock'n roller." He used this often times as descriptors for people, but he also used it for events and other things. This storyline about Trump and Theodore Roosevelt? That's definitely phony baloney with a very strong helping of plastic bananas. Check out this clowning article from The Atlantic: The Wannabe Tough-Guy PresidencyOk, here's how you can sum up the Theodore Roosevelt Presidency, in three simple words. This is as simple as it gets. You ready? Destroying the Constitution. That's it. And it's accurate as...

Sometimes, the best way to highlight an ugly fact is simply to let them speak about the things they love most. There were not many microphones in 1910, but that's ok we can make up the difference. In 1910, Journalist Hamilton Holt wrote traces the history of getting to a place where international government is a mainstream idea. Some guys hundreds of years ago had some nebulous thoughts about it, among others mentioned are Kant, and also Hugo and Burritt, but Holt really spends most of the meat of his article discussing the much-less-theoretical. First, the Hague, and second, President...

From time to time, I like to re-evaluate things and see if there is something I am missing. Mostly, this is a lengthy process of elimination based off of the realities of life. I usually do this in quiet where nobody can see. But let's examine it openly this time. For example, I'm not a billionaire. I'm lucky to have more than $1000 in the bank at a lot of times which does perhaps put me ahead of a lot of people, but the reason I mention the money means I don't have a future creating a movie. So culturally,...

The Life of Frederick William Von Steuben: Major General in the Revolutionary Army - tells the story of Baron Steuben, who had been an officer in the Prussian army. Considered one of the fathers of the United States Army, he had a leading role in improving the Continental Army during the American Revolution and turning them into a professional fighting force. https://librivox.org/the-life-of-frederick-william-von-steuben-by-friedrich-kapp/

There are a lot of people out there who think I have a lost my marbles for coming to the conclusion that a large percentage of books written prior to the 1900s are the only books you can trust when it comes to American History. What people fail to understand, is that the 1619 Project is actually not new. Sure, it's relatively "new" to use racial issues as the focal point, but manipulating U.S. history to advance progressivism goes back to the Progressive Era itself. In his book "American inquisitors; a commentary on Dayton and Chicago", Walter Lippmann wrote the...

The Study of Administration (1887), by Woodrow Wilson, sets the stage for the bureaucracies that would follow it a little over a dozen years after it's publication. Starting roughly in the 20th century, the progressive era saw the explosive growth of administrative agencies lacking any oversight whatsoever, a malady we suffer under to this day over 120 years later. Unique among all generations of Americans before them, the progressives hated the United States Constitution, and Administration was their answer once and for all to get around this pesky obstacle we have all come to know and love.

Frederick Douglass defends the Constitution. Many abolitionists in his day had misguided views about the Founding Fathers and the Constitution. Douglass was ready to set them straight.

I mainly just want to ask the question, see what kinds of responses I may get or what other discussions flow from it. What could we do to automate conservatism? This can be both in the form of reaching new people as well as helping educate others around us of new things they may not have known. So far the most prominent answer I have found for myself is the audiobooks. I will be creating those for many years to come as the opportunities for education are immense. Over the years I have tried to get out of my comfort...

In understanding why progressivism and liberalism are not the same thing and even moreso, why progressivism hates liberalism, there are two inescapable facts: 1) During the progressive era, progressives were everywhere. 2) Today, progressives are everywhere. Well, what's in the middle? For some reason, no matter where I go there is an extreme resistance on the part of conservatives to admit (out loud or even perhaps even to themselves) that progressives re-labeled themselves as liberal and are now wearing camoflage. Why is this? I don't know. Every now and then you see someone attempt to dig it out and they...

After four years of arduous work, the solo recording of Herbert Croly's The Promise of American Life is now completed. From the viewpoint of "what is progressive ideology", this book explains it better than perhaps any other I could offer. This book is entirely free, it is in the public domain. This is NOT. for sale. The book can be downloaded from here, and using what I could find which was written by others, I wrote the following book summary: The book is said to "offer a manifesto of Progressive beliefs" that "anticipated the transition from competitive to corporate capitalism...

In the course of reading the works of progressivism, it's not uncommon for these elitists to portray how better they are compared to everyone else. That includes the progressives' elitism against socialists. Taft's running mate in 1912, Nicholas Murray Butler wrote quite the scathing anti-socialist work in 1907 called "True and False Democracy" in which he wrote the following: (source) The socialist propaganda, never more seriously or more ably carried on than now, is an earnest and sincere attempt to escape from conditions that are burdensome and unhappy. Despite its most imperfect interpretation of the economic significance of history and...

Progressives hate the states. You see, I could end the blog post right there and nothing else need to be said, but I want to back up that statement anyways. It is the truth after all. Progressives hate the states. They've been telling us this directly and indirectly for our entire lives and theirs. First though, I want to point out the importance of senatorial elections in the first place. At the convention, Elbridge Gerry made the following comment: (July 19th) Mr. GERRY. If the Executive is to be elected by the Legislature he certainly ought not to be re-eligible....

The New York Times does not want you reading Samuel Johnson. You should read Samuel Johnson. Here is what you will find toward the end of the work: (source) Far be it from any Englishman, to thirst for the blood of his fellow-subjects. Those who most deserve our resentment are, unhappily, at less distance. The Americans, when the stamp act was first proposed, undoubtedly disliked it, as every nation dislikes an impost; but they had no thought of resisting it, till they were encouraged and incited by European intelligence, from men whom they thought their friends, but who were friends...

One of the larger myths of progressivism is that they are heralds of liberalism. In order to justify this, they have had to do two things: (both of which, sadly, have been successful) 1) Paint the picture of Enlightenment > Founders(Liberals) > Abolitionists > Feminists > Progressives 2) The hijacking of the word liberal In order to justify their own existence, progressives have sent out their historians over the last several decades to manufacture this concept of progress and tie it all together in a very disorderly and quite frankly, convoluted way. #1 is really the big meme, and the...

An interesting thing recently happened, Planned Parenthood has come out and all but said quite plainly that Margaret Sanger was racist. Writing in the Slimes, we must fully take responsibility for the harm that Sanger caused to generations of people with disabilities and Black, Latino, Asian-American, and Indigenous people.and We will no longer make excuses or apologize for Margaret Sanger’s actions. But we can’t simply call her racist, scrub her from our history, and move on. We must examine how we have perpetuated her harms over the last century — as an organization, an institution, and as individuals.Sanger harms every...

A little over a month ago I asked the question: Progressivism in culture: Where are progressives the weakest?. To recap, here are those cultural items: MediaAcademia/universitiesHollywoodGovernmentSportsProtesting (Not rioting)Religion/ChurchesSocial mediaK12 schoolsCorporationsTechTalk radioScienceLawHistoryA few were added by suggestions, those are italicized at the bottom. I added the last item, which is the subject of discussion here. One of the things I have noticed is how few conservatives engage in history and specifically American history. American history is naturally conservative. The concepts and the reasons for why people did things to get out from under the thumb of authoritarianism and most importantly, the...

I think I have covered this before, but a fresh look might have some value. Immediately below are in-summary bulletpoints, with details after that where necessary: For more than any other reason, I simply don't want to. Every other reason boils down to this one in one way or another.The raw power of free stuff.Every time I release an audiobook, it strengthens and advances conservatism.We need a more educated voter base.The most wide open door is a zero-cost of entry.Having a fascination with progressivism, this greatly reduces potential customers.Past lessons learned from the Tea Party era.For works of the Founders,...

Since this is something progressives want and need, we should favor abolishing it. Government must not recognize corporations, they are not within the scope of the United States Constitution anyways. In the book The Promise of American Life, Herbert Croly (Founder of The New Republic) wrote the following: (These are all from chapter 12 section 2, The Recognition of Industrial Organization) The constructive idea behind a policy of the recognition of semi-monopolistic corporations, is, of course, the idea that they can be converted into economic agents which will make unequivocally for the national economic interest; and it is natural that...

There is a cancer among most conservative websites that devalues and glosses over the importance of history. This glossing leaves a conservative in a position to assert that x is true, because they heard it or saw it or read it somewhere. But then we look foolish, I look foolish because while yes, x is in fact true, what I read didn't carry the necessary follow through. That's how truth becomes a lie while lies remain true. Case in point is this article from The Federalist which glosses over what is arguably the most important fact of the article. The...