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...

In what many citizens concerned with the survival of Austria as a European nation-state are calling a demographic tipping point, Muslims have now become the largest religious group in Vienna’s compulsory schools, comprising a striking 41.2% of all students across primary, secondary, and vocational education levels. The stark demographic shift has sparked outrage among conservatives and nationally-minded citizens in Austria, with the Freedom Party (FPÖ) warning that the capital is being culturally transformed beyond recognition. “This is no longer immigration. This is displacement,” said Maximilian Weinzierl, national council member and leader of the FPÖ’s youth wing. “41.2% of Muslim students—that’s...

Friday on FNC’s “Jesse Watters Primetime,” former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he saw Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) emerging as a leader in the Democratic Party. He predicted a civil war with Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) lining up against former President Joe Biden, former Vice President Kamala Harris, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY). “[T]he DNC is supposed to unite the party, but what we’re watching live is a civil war inside the Democratic Party, and they’re fighting for new leadership,” he said. “And this...

CV NEWS FEED // Progressive theological shifts may be contributing to the steep declines in both membership and finances that mainline Protestant denominations in the United States continue to face, according to a recent report from the Associated Press (AP). While circumstances vary, the March 14 AP News report highlighted a shared pattern among several groups: internal divisions and declining participation often follow moves toward more progressive positions on doctrine and culture. The United Methodist Church, for example, lost a quarter of its U.S. congregations amid debates over the ordination and marriage of LGBT individuals. Its denominational workforce has shrunk...

Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos' explained his decision to have his paper's editorial pages "shift toward defending the two pillars of a free society: personal liberties and free markets," saying "a big part of America's success has been freedom in the economic realm and everywhere else. Freedom is ethical — it minimizes coercion — and practical — it drives creativity, invention, and prosperity. I'm confident that free markets and personal liberties are right for America. I also believe these viewpoints are underserved in the current market of ideas and news opinion. I'm excited for us to fill that void." Opinion...

We had a limited-purpose government in place at the national level That began to change when, on April 12, 1937, the Supreme Court lawlessly “amended” the Constitution Mario Nawfal✓@MarioNawfal ELON: WE NEED TO GET THE GOVERNMENT OUT OF PEOPLE’S LIVES “I've had many conversations with President Trump, who is very much aligned in thinking that we need significant government reform. We need to get the government out of people's lives. And have America be the land of liberty, which is what has made America great. It's the land of liberty and opportunity. You maximize people's personal freedom, and make sure...

Are we seeing the end of global leftism? Probably not. For one thing, politics is sort of a fuzzy spectrum; there will always be a left and a right, although things are a little more complicated than that. But there is a reason the Overton Window is a thing, and it can't go all the way to one side or another, and there will always be people and systems to the left and to the right of that window. But modern leftist politics, defined by socialism and its fuzzy-headed cousin "progressivism" (which may be taken to mean "progress on the...

Apple's board of directors has recommended shareholders vote against a proposal to end the company's diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, going against the grain of decisions by other large US corporates. The National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative think tank, proposed Apple shareholders consider ending the firm's DEI program to prevent lawsuits following a 2023 Supreme Court's ruling against affirmative action in universities. But the Apple board has recommended voting against the proposal when it meets late this month. "The proposal is unnecessary as Apple already has a well-established compliance program," said the board, which includes Tim...

Meet historical fascism’s true heirs.In the famous anecdote usually attributed to Bertrand Russel, a scientist lecturing on the earth’s position in the solar system is corrected an old lady who says the earth is actually supported by a giant turtle. When the scientist asked what supports the turtle, she triumphally answered, “It’s turtles all the way down!”Since the Twenties and the rise of Italian Fascism and German Nazism––which eventually become the main referent of the word––the term has become an all-purpose question-begging epithet so promiscuously abused in the Thirties that, as George Orwell said in 1944, “The word Fascism has...

Reprinted with permission from Tablet magazine. In the September debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, Trump said something so ludicrous that many viewers must have dismissed it out of hand. “She did things that nobody would ever think of,” Trump said, while rattling off a list of some of the vice president’s most radical “Now she wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison.” The idea that the vice president “wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison” seemed so patently absurd that The New Yorker’s Susan Glasser cited it in...

Below is my column in USA Today on the most chilling moment from the Vance-Walz debate when the Democratic nominee showed why he is part of the dream ticket for the anti-free speech movement. Here is the column: In the vice presidential debate Tuesday, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz pulled the fire alarm. His opponent, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, cited the massive system of censorship supported by Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate. Walz proceeded to quote the line from a 1919 case in which Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said you do not have the right to...

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg went on "Meet the Press" to defend Vice-President Kamala Harris' numerous deviations from her previously professed political views. Host Kristen Welker pointed out that "Vice President Harris has shifted her position on several policy issues from when she first ran for president in 2019. She initially wanted to ban fracking, now she says she doesn't. She supported Medicare for all and now she says she doesn't. To the voters who have concerns about this, if she's elected, why won't she change her mind again?" In response, Buttigieg replied "politics is the art of the possible. As...

As the talk of socialism becomes more widespread on the Left, particularly within Democratic party politics, and as anger at President Trump boils over, the advocacy of political scientists will become even clearer: first, Progressivism, then socialism, and ultimately, Leninism.... A contrary example both of the theory and practice of politics, because its focus is on advancing the principles of the Declaration of Independence, are the panels and scholarship sponsored by the Claremont Institute—recently honored at the White House with the National Humanities Medal. So Claremont has its work cut out for it. How far will the Left take political...

This is the most powerful explanation of the evil of abortion I've seen. This two minute video on abortion is worth watching. There is no accompanying text with the video of Seth Gruber with Pastor Jack Hibbs. Yes, it was originally posted on TikTok, but don't let that deter you. It has been reposted on X by Brandon Morse with the explanation "I’ve never seen abortion described this way as a concept and now I’ll never look at it the same. It truly is a display of contempt against Christ when you strip away all the window dressing."

The new VP candidate has made enemies and allies in Silicon Valley, while on a quest to regulate the tech cartel. Last night, Sen. JD Vance officially accepted the Republican nomination for vice president at the 2024 Republican Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, sending optimism to Silicon Valley and the tech community. A right-wing populist, Vance has been critical of the old right’s market fundamentalism in favor of the new right’s pro-worker economic nationalism — one that calls for antitrust crackdowns on Big Tech. A New York Times article described Vance as “pro-labor, a fan of crypto and the F.T.C.'s Lina...

Over a century ago Washington laid the corner stone of the Capitol in what was then little more than a tract of wooded wilderness here beside the Potomac. We now find it necessary to provide by great additional buildings for the business of the government. This growth in the need for the housing of the government is but a proof and example of the way in which the nation has grown and the sphere of action of the national government has grown. ... As a matter of personal conviction, and without pretending to discuss the details or formulate the system,...

The Anti-Social Contract: Chicago, Illinois and the Failures of Modern ProgressivismChicago and Illinois are in trouble. You know it. I know it. Your neighbors know it. Yet, somehow, it’s considered rude, bordering on sacrilege, to acknowledge in polite company. Best to sweep this inconvenient truth under the rug. To obscure it behind a façade of inspiring lakefront imagery. But just open your eyes. Our problems are as ubiquitous as they are obvious. Rising crime, unsustainable debt, economic malaise, failing schools, dilapidated infrastructure, population loss. Each a fraying thread in a bleak tapestry of urban blight. There’s no need to rehash...

From the Wrong Side of History,” Nellie Bowles, a former New York Times journalist grown disillusioned with both the mainstream media and the left, writes about the year 2020, when the combustible confluence of the pandemic, the murder of George Floyd and the prospect of Donald Trump’s reelection made politics and culture go “berserk.” She describes a liberal intelligentsia “wild with rage and optimism,” brimming with “fresh ideas from academia that began to reshape every part of society.” Her name for this phenomenon, often derided as “wokeness,” is the “New Progressivism,” and her book attempts, with varying degrees of success,...

Delaware Governor John Carney has signed the state’s Handgun Purchaser Licensing bill into law.Following years of consistent engagement by dedicated advocates and legislators, a purchaser licensing bill, sometimes referred to as permit-to-purchase, passed the final hurdle in Delaware and has been signed into law by Governor John Carney. When enacted, the law will require all who seek to purchase a handgun, unless they have a valid Delaware concealed carry permit, to submit fingerprints, undergo a more thorough criminal background check, and complete live firearm safety training. Research shows that if Delaware had adopted a Handgun Purchaser Licensing law when Connecticut...

Last night, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed House Bill 311, restricting firearms on college campuses and college-owned properties, even for concealed carry permit holders. This legislation is now eligible for a floor vote. Please contact your state senator by using the Take Action button below and urge them to OPPOSE this legislation. HB 311 could lead to confusion among concealed carry permit holders who may not realize they are on property owned by a college or university. HB 311 adds all colleges and universities to the Safe School Zone criminal offense so that any person who knowingly possesses a firearm...