“Media discourse is polarized but the citizenry knows that America works.
James FreemanSept. 23, 2022 4:30 pm ET
This column is still waiting for someone to name a great civilization built by progressive leftists. But just because the wokesters don’t create anything of enduring value, that doesn’t mean they aren’t highly competent when it comes to transmitting their grievances via modern media. In fact, so successful have they been in promoting the false idea that America is an unjust society that these days one can feel almost subversive expressing unapologetically patriotic views.
Specifically, the survey found that a full 74% of participants agreed with the following statement:
America is the greatest country in the world.
Not just above average, not just great, but the greatest.
According to the WSJ survey results, nearly as many people also think that the right to rise is alive and well in the U.S. A sturdy 68% of respondents agreed with the following statement:
If people work hard, they are likely to get ahead in America.
Some readers may be distressed that the number isn’t even higher. Still, given the number of voluble politicos and pundits who’ve spent so much of the last several years claiming that U.S. society is rigged and racist, it’s notable how decisively they have failed to persuade. The logical conclusion is that the progressive left’s critique of the free society doesn’t square with the experience of people who live in it.
Perhaps patriotic Americans are just too numerous to cancel!”
Z- WELL, who knows? We know that Republicans have said they’re ‘afraid’ to say they voted Republican……..maybe this number is even higher? Anyway, a friend emailed it to me yesterday and I, in my newfound optimism, thought I’d print it today!
WE CAN HOPE!!!
geeez2014
GeeeZ .... 
What are you hoping for?
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My solution is to give neither time nor credence to polls, pundits, prognosticators, or politicians.
Polls are conducted and published to support agendae and prove unprovable points. The questions they ask are leading and suggestive, and their findings are suspicious.
Pundits are driven by publish or perish, knowing that if they keep a constant stream of imaginary “bombshells” directed against the studio wall, some of it’s bound to stick.
Prognosticators are noisy self-appointed nuisances whose primary talents are bandwagon leaping and conclusion jumping.
Politicians are mealy-mouthed professional bullshit artists who stick their ethics and morals to the political fence as class clowns do their chewing gum on the desk bottoms in detention hall.
Where government is involved, looking for or expecting truth from today’s media is analogous to considering The View a scholarly documentary.
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I agree with Brother Freeman — no doubt, America is the greatest country on earth. But the problem is that most Americans rely on others to make that argument (and back it up). What I mean is that Americans rely on our military to protect what Americans value, or they rely on politicians to validate and protect our society’s institutions — just as most Americans rely on their minister to remind everyone that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God, who died on a cross so that we may find eternal life. So, MY question is, if Americans think so highly of their great country, why aren’t THEY stepping up to defend their faith and their country? And my concern remains, if this lethargy continues, there won’t be an America or a Christian faith. Americans need to grow a pair and step up. Do something, America!
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I knew for sure I’d not get support of Freeman’s actual polling ….but I’m glad I put it here because it did not get much coverage, of course….
MUSTANG< how do you visualize Americans (or any other Western country) "stepping up to defend their faith and their country?" We usually have military volunteers (until COVID), the national guard is hugely helpful, I know many pastors myself, and know they're across our country… .
How do you picture an active America "Stepping up to defend their faith and their country?"
BOCOPRO…I do believe in many polls.,… Particularly from reputable poll companies…James Freeman isn't someone who'd risk his reputation on BS.
The big problem is that most Conservatives have apparently told many pollsters they're too shy to mention being Republican , etc…because of the Leftwing hate machine which mocks and humiliates half of America for their point of view.
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Well, Z … somewhere around 1 percent of the American people join their country’s all-volunteer force. That’s not very many people “stepping up.” I don’t have any percentages (of course) but according to Pew studies, most Americans seem ashamed to admit that they’re Christians. So in answer to your question, it would seem self-evident that we need Americans to JOIN the military (put their butt on the line for America’s security), demand members of congress pursue PRO-American policies, and (ahem) DEFEND their faith. Or, have I not understood your question?
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MUSTANG…how else could I have posed my question that you’d have not understood it?
As I said above, Americans are less “ashamed” to admit they’re Christians than very private about it because of the media move away from our faith “you’re not cool” “You’re old fashioned” “You aren’t inclusive”…ALl rubbish, but we see that a lot. Not sure I know anyone ashamed to admit it, but reticent, for sure.
Oddly, most TV programs these days have young women dressed beautifully and wearing crosses very visibly….Most of the FOX hosts do……..many on QVC wear crosses, design their own lines of crosses, too, recently……………I see a LOT of crosses here in L.A.
Not sure what the percentage of Americans joining the military is when there’s no ‘real war’ going on, so I can’t address that. Seems like our National Guard is quite well represented?
How would YOU “DEFEND the faith?”
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I’m honestly interested in what people who are hoping are hoping for.
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The country that was great does not exist. It’s a paper layer on top of a massively corrupted tribe filled with rudderless sheep. And leaders who, like those in Hosea’s time, “are like men who move boundary stones; I will pour my fury out upon them like water” says the Lord (Hosea 5:10). That’s the best description of what’s happening in our country, political leaders who take what is not theirs to have by deception or force. (The picture is of moving a property marker of your neighbor to take his land.) Not everyone. And there are fighters. We’re on a very precarious line.
VDH writes: “Civilization is fragile. It hinges on ensuring the stuff of life. To be able to eat, to move about, to have shelter, to be free from state or tribal coercion, to be secure abroad, and safe at home—only that allows cultures to be freed from the daily drudgery of mere survival.” And “So, the great achievement of Western civilization—consensual government, individual freedom, rationalism in partnership with religious belief, free market economics, and constant self-critique and audit—was to liberate people from daily worry over state violence, random crime, famine, and an often-unforgiving nature.” (https://amgreatness.com/2022/09/28/the-thinnest-veneer-of-civilization/)
And where is the most vocal attack now? One western civ directly. For 50 years. Hey hey, ho ho, western civ has got to go? Be careful what you ask for.
I go down VDH’s list and see all the targets:
**Eat – there is a planetary effort to funnel people into the supra international food profit bucket and constrict choices to those that fill their coffers. This includes the U.S. but we’ve seen it in spades in Europe. Way beyond veggie burgers here
**Move about – The big practice restriction exercise of the last 30 months isn’t the last we’ll see of this (and you thought that locator system in your car was great until someone is threatening to box you in to a 3-mile radius from your home if your social score doesn’t improve; the fact that public officials openly admire China for this – RED FLAG, RED FLAG)
**Free from state/tribal coercion – From the obvious, like Biden’s heavy-handed vaccine mandates, to the coming deluge on digital currency controls (his latest EO) there is a web of intersecting controls designed to create obedience to state agenda. The media tribe, green power mongers, and education cabal have joined in to mau-mau the citizenry and to conquer America’s military pillar of strength through the division of wokeness.
**Safe at home. Not! Chaos at the border, jails emptied of predators who are roaming around doing what they do best.
This has progressed so far it is evident to all but the low level true believers who are vying hard for their share of control over your life. That makes it hard for me to say the current state of affairs is “great” or a good country with this happening en masse. These are not good people. They are cancer, and they are metastasizing.
None of us will hold our breath waiting for that civilization built by ‘progressive’ leftists. Not when they follow the lead of their hero Marx: “everything that exists deserves to perish.” Then what?
No. The U.S. is not alone in this direction. The one bright light? We are alone in our Bill of Rights, still have many judges who follow the law, and (partly to Mustang’s point) legal teams who fight like hell (and often win) to push these Apollyons back into the sea. Alliance Defending Freedom, Institute for Justice and Pacific Legal Foundation get our generous support! They are fighters and we stand behind them. It costs to defend liberty. We do give up something else to pay the fighters.
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KID…sorry I mentioned an optimistic word like HOPE, which I’ve talked about for months here. Not sure how you can be unsure what HOPE means in relation to our country?
BAYSIDER…. I’d answer but there’s no point…tired of the fight.
But, folks…like it or not, I’m not closing GeeeZ. THanks.
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testing
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You’ll be happy to know JP Sears has high optimism too. Certainly more than I but he does base that in God ultimately and this brief collective moment of humanity “resonating “ with being fed bullsh*t. To be continued…
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BAYSIDER…” and this brief collective moment of humanity “resonating “ with being fed bullsh*t.” What’s bullsh*t?
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Bullsh*t? A trickle that has become a fire hose of lies, half truths, cover-ups and general unbelievabilities across medical, social and economic topics that have exploded in the last 3 years. He refers to the near global awakening of “resonance” across the liberal-conservative spectrum of those associated with the pandemic and cultural suicide and amply satires gender BS, greenies, wokeness, Biden’s economic IQ, repression of liberty and – my current favorite – his “My Unbelievable Interview with Biden!” His court jester approach to reining in the king’s errancies is a periodic salve to my sanity.
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BAYSIDER>.sorry, I think it was the way I read the sentence that confused me. I’m not familiar with Sears…thanks.
Had c offee with a 40 yr old Aussie friend of mine today….she knows a lot of libs here and in Australia and says SO MANY OF THEM are TIRED OF THE LIBERAL BS…..they are constantly saying things to her like “This is going to F’ing FAR”, etc…(gender BS, lack of debate, etc.)…
Sounded like music to my ears. But I hate to appear optimistic. 🙂 (like heck!)
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That is encouraging. Now … will there be a concerted action the other way? My liberal tenant who left the state said “I always considered myself a liberal, but California has gone too far.” I wonder if we don’t get used to a higher level of nonsense, so when it’s lowered a little many think VICTORY and stop just when they should be starting.
“Interview with Joe Biden” from the “court jester” 🙂
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Also, while I know people who are fed up with the in-your-face overboard social changes too, there is always the Milgram Effect. Milgram’s the (military funded) researcher who had subjects administer higher and higher shocks to unseen subjects (really, members in the research team) who screamed in pain and begged for mercy over an intercom. Most subjects questioned the order to turn up the juice, but in the end 2/3 of them still did — to what they believed were lethal levels because the ‘experts’ in the white coats reassured them they should do it. This is not a reassuring aspect of human nature. I can only imagine all the mischief they will be willing to do for ‘climate change’ e.g.
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BAYSIDER…it’s the difference of optimism and pessimism. Frankly, I couldn’t live as a pessimist…I’m WAAAY too aware of what’s going on in America (trust me, being hopeful doesn’t mean you’re STUPID or NAIVE or UNINFORMED) and WAY to desirous that things go well.
thanks. I’d never be a SPEARS fan but he’s amusing!!
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I’m not a pessimist, I’m a realist.
Why do you think anyone wants you to close Geeeeez?
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