Years ago I issued a warning: The U.S. must not follow the path of Western Europe in a profoundly crucial arena, and the Church must act decisively to help. Or at least stop making things worse.
The disaster I saw in Europe and foresaw in America was this: A total separation between patriotic, populist, reality-based political movements and principled Christian citizens. In Europe, the parties alive to the existential threat of non-Western immigration, political Islam, and globalist attacks on national sovereignty are mostly thoroughly secular. They’ve fallen completely silent on unborn life, the institution of marriage, and other social issues which are absolutely crucial, in the long run, to the survival of their countries. The foundation of their house is cracked and starting to crumble, but these conservative parties are no longer paying attention.
Why? Because the house is on fire, and structural reinforcement doesn’t seem as urgent as putting out the flames. When thousands of jihadists stupidly imported from war zones march through the streets of German cities demanding sharia, and hundreds of churches in France burn down after arson attacks, and British girls are trafficked by Muslim grooming gangs whom it’s literally a crime to complain about … arguments over abortion or the LGBTQ agenda tend to get pushed onto the margins.
In the past, conservative parties would be expected to march along both tracks, to fend off foreign invasion and cultural subversion. Pro-life, pro-family policies were part and parcel of sane, conservative platforms in Europe, as they were in the U.S. right up through 2020. But first in Europe, and by 2024 in America, these movements began to splinter. Trump’s winning platform this year was heavily diluted, markedly less conservative on social issues than Mitt Romney’s was in 2012. (Not that Romney or the GOP really meant any of it, but they felt constrained to pretend.)
What happened and who’s at fault? Not the secular politicians, who follow public opinion rather than form it. The villain of this piece is in fact the Church and its leaders. (For this piece I’ll focus on my own Roman Catholic Church, but the lessons apply equally to leading Evangelical bodies, especially those thought leaders whom critics such as Megan Basham rightly calls “regime Christians.”) […]
— Read More: stream.org
Independent Journalism Is Dying
Ever since President Trump’s miraculous victory, we’ve heard an incessant drumbeat about how legacy media is dying. This is true. The people have awakened to the reality that they’re being lied to by the self-proclaimed “Arbiters of Truth” for the sake of political expediency, corporate self-protection, and globalist ambitions.
But even as independent journalism rises to fill the void left by legacy media, there is still a huge challenge. Those at the top of independent media like Joe Rogan, Dan Bongino, and Tucker Carlson are thriving and rightly so. They have earned their audience and the financial rewards that come from it. They’ve taken risks and worked hard to get to where they are.
For “the rest of us,” legacy media and their proxies are making it exceptionally difficult to survive, let alone thrive. They still have a stranglehold over the “fact checkers” who have a dramatic impact on readership and viewership. YouTube, Facebook, and Google still stifle us. The freer speech platforms like Rumble and 𝕏 can only reward so many of their popular content creators. For independent journalists on the outside looking in, our only recourse is to rely on affiliates and sponsors.
But even as it seems nearly impossible to make a living, there are blessings that should not be disregarded. By highlighting strong sponsors who share our America First worldview, we have been able to make lifelong connections and even a bit of revenue to help us along. This is why we enjoy symbiotic relationships with companies like MyPillow, Jase Medical, and Promised Grounds. We help them with our recommendations and they reward us with money when our audience buys from them.
The same can be said about our preparedness sponsor, Prepper All-Naturals. Their long-term storage beef has a 25-year shelf life and is made with one ingredient: All-American Beef.
Even our faith-driven precious metals sponsor helps us tremendously while also helping Americans protect their life’s savings. We are blessed to work with them.
Independent media is the future. In many ways, that future is already here. While the phrase, “the more the merrier,” does not apply to this business because there are still some bad actors in the independent media field, there are many great ones that do not get nearly enough attention. We hope to change that one content creator at a time.
Thank you and God Bless,
JD Rucker
