Based Underground is now a conservative news aggregator AND curated newsletter.
(FEE)—Americans are angry and divided—perhaps more than at any time since the Civil War. Holding strong opinions, especially in defense of truth, is no vice. But failing to bridge our differences and resolve them peacefully is no virtue either. Here’s my “to do” list if you want to be part of the solution instead of the problem.
- Choose someone you disagree with and start a dialogue. Make friends even if neither of you changes your mind.
- Find common ground, avoid epithets, and presume goodwill on the part of others unless and until their actions suggest otherwise.
- Embrace America as an imperfect, unfinished product—and one whose future depends on a respect for those principles that made it largely free and exceptional in the first place. No country is without flaws, and few countries in world history have accomplished as much for life and liberty as America.
- Think twice before using political connections and influence to get something you can’t secure voluntarily from others in the marketplace. Cronyism diminishes respect for both you and for the free enterprise system it corrupts.
- Judge every individual by “the content of his character” and the merit of his actions, not by the group to which he was assigned by birth, origin, faith, color, or politics.
- Elevate the importance of personal character in your life. No society can flourish if it denigrates virtues such as honesty, humility, patience, responsibility, tolerance, courage, gratitude, self-discipline, and respect for the lives, rights, property, and choices of others.
- Choose liberty over power, persuasion over force. Find ways in which you can leave the world not only a better place, but a freer one as well, for life without liberty is both unthinkable and unlivable.
- Live your life as though politics is but a corner of it, not consumed by it. Recognize the incalculable value of intact families, vibrant and voluntary associations, community engagement, loving relationships, and institutions created and sustained outside the divisive realm of politics.
- Ask yourself every day, “Am I good enough for liberty?” Then dedicate yourself to self-improvement if you can’t honestly answer “yes.” Reforming the world starts with reforming oneself.
- Defend the free speech of all people. If you catch yourself attempting to intimidate, shut down, or frighten others into submission, shake it off before the impulse turns you into an antisocial monster. “Cancel” nobody except those who insist on canceling others.
- Revere truth and the honest search for it. Never let truth be obscured or destroyed by claims that it doesn’t matter or that it is nothing more than a subjective whim of the moment. There is no such thing as “his truth” or “her truth,” only “the truth.”
- Seek diversity of opinion. Minds that try to stigmatize or close the minds of others, or that pretend that color, sex, and religion are all that matter, are enemies of the “diversity” that matters most.
- Love peace more than you love force, conflict, compulsion, and intolerance. Work toward a society in which individuals choose to do right because they want to, not because they’re forced to.
- Reject nihilism, cynicism, and pessimism. People of goodwill and character can shape the future for the better. It’s never too soon or too late to start.
- Learn from history; don’t rewrite it. Lessons from the past can make us better people in the future. Don’t twist your underwear into a knot over an old statue. Never allow the poison of “presentism” to corrupt your perspective.
- Celebrate the “uncommon.” It is the uncommon to whom we owe the greatest debt—those who speak truth to power, invent and innovate, turn failure into success, and add value to society. No one should encourage a child, for example, to aspire to nothing more than “commonness.” Respect and encourage the exceptional.
The former U.S. Senator from Maine, George Mitchell, once said, “I believe there’s no such thing as a conflict that can’t be ended. They’re created and sustained by human beings. They can be ended by human beings. No matter how ancient the conflict, no matter how hateful, no matter how hurtful, peace can prevail.”
I hope he’s right. But in any event, no peace of any kind can prevail so long as we nurture conflict within and between ourselves. No peace of any kind can long be imposed from the outside in. It must begin on the inside, as a matter of conscience, one conscientious individual at a time, and then grow outward into a course of action.
These sixteen suggestions constitute a course of action for each reader to consider.
Jack Smith’s 165-Page Motion Arguing Against Presidential Immunity in Trump J6 Case Unsealed
by The Post Millennial
District Judge Tanya Chutkan unsealed on Wednesday a 165-page filing from Biden-Harris administration special counsel Jack Smith regarding upcoming presidential immunity proceedings in the January 6 case against Trump. Smith argued that Trump did not have presidential immunity for the crimes the DOJ alleges Trump committed, as “his scheme was…
Dr. Robert Malone Sounds Alarm on Self-Replicating RNA Vaccines: ‘Japan is the World’s Guinea Pig’
by RAIR Foundation
At the “Rescue the Republic” rally in Washington, D.C., Dr. Robert Malone delivered a sobering message about a new medical development that he reports could have dangerous consequences for global health freedom. Just returning from Tokyo, Dr. Malone warned of the imminent deployment of self-replicating RNA vaccines in Japan. These…
Launching the RIGHT REPORT to Fight the Real Enemies
by Publius
According to Ecclesiastes 10:2, A wise man’s heart inclines him to the right, but a fool’s heart to the left. The implications are stunning when we consider society today. That may not be the original intent of the verse but it clearly applies to the modern world. But what is…
Do You Want Your Prepper Bar Shipped to Your Home or Added to Your IRA?
by Sponsored Post
The massive shift of money being exchanged for physical precious metals started in 2022 with Central Banks across the globe breaking records. The frenzy caught on with large investment firms and financial institutions like BlackRock and JPMorgan in 2023. 2024 has been the year of regular citizens making the same…
No, Endorsing Kamala Harris for President Isn’t What Jesus Would Do
by The Federalist
Christians should reject the backward theology of teachers who twist the character of Christ to punish their political enemies. “Never Trump. This time Harris. Always Jesus.” These were the words not of Taylor Swift or Pete Buttigieg but of Ray Ortlund, a card-carrying member of “Big Eva,” in a recent…
The New Data on Illegal Alien Crime Is Shocking
by John R Lott Jr
(RealClearWire)—The new data on all the criminal noncitizens coming into the U.S. is shocking. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) checks the background of illegal aliens they have in custody. But, the administration’s letter to Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) shows that as of July 21, 2024, ICE let 435,719…
Antony Blinken’s Op-Ed Got Obliterated in Real-Time
by Townhall
For some reason, Joe Biden has been seen as a foreign policy guru, despite everyone thinking he was a clown. Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates was apt in his observation, noting that Biden has been wrong on every major foreign policy initiative over the past 40 years. He’s been rolled…
4% of Haiti’s Entire Population Has Entered U.S. Under Biden-Harris – And That’s Not All
by Woke Spy
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have been importing an astonishing number of third-world Haitians into the country. That’s right. The administration has been actively arranging and paying for Haitian “migrants” to fly into the U.S. More on this below, but first, we need to prepare the ground….
Meat Substitutes Still a Tiny Sliver of Us Meat Market
by Zero Hedge
Over the past few years, plant-based meat substitutes have come closer and closer to mimicking the real thing, with brands like Beyond Meat having even sussed out how to create fake meat that “bleeds”. But, as Statista’s Anna Fleck details below, after an initial boom, the company has rapidly come…
Box Office Bomb: Netflix Cancellations Explode After Co-Founder Gives Huge Donation to Kamala
by Red State
I admit it, I like Netflix. During the pandemic, when our Overlords here in California demanded we stay in our living rooms for two years, I watched countless terrible movies as well as some quality entertainment—it’s always hit or miss with the streamer. But I may soon vote with my…