Is Conservative Media the Answer?

I've had enough time on the free speech (viz. conservative) social media platforms, Gab and CloutHub, to form something of an opinion in answer to this post's title question, is conservative media the answer? The best I can give you is a wishy-washy probably not. 

First, the pros. I don't spend anywhere near the time on these two platforms as I once did just on Facebook. This is primarily because I don't know anyone on them personally! Alas, none of my Facebook friends have come to find me in either place. I have, however, joined some groups, and that has been a fine experience. The first one I joined was the #WalkAway Campaign, which was the reason I signed up for CloutHub. Speaking of which...

I found out only Friday that on Monday, Brandon Straka was arrested in connection with the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol. That's a whole other story, but one thing I heard was that some of the "evidence" against him included comments he made on YouTube, and it was a family member who turned him in. Statements made to Fox News also got him in trouble. So this kind of leads into a related question, as to whether anyone is actually safe using any kind of online media. 

We can find safer options, such as email and internet servers that block ads, don't share your info, and protect your privacy. We can choose social media platforms like Gab that are entirely self-owned and don't censor or fact-check you or spy on what you're doing other places on the web. So you could say that leaving Big Tech and switching to safer options is something of a solution. 

However, if the Leftist mob can shut you down, they will. They are going after the high profile people who have had a strong influence against them first, like poor Brandon. I believe they will eventually fry as many of the smaller fish as they can as well. Unless the whole scheme blows up in their face, which I think is a reasonably likely outcome. I have no doubt that they will start eating each other before it's all said and done. 

Right now I'm leaning toward the conclusion that social media is a plain old bad idea. It's a distraction, an addiction, and largely a waste of time. Following the news, whether it's the big Democrat controlled conglomeration or smaller, more sane alternatives, typically does nothing for one's mental health. Is the solution to cut back, to be very picky about who and how much you read and listen to, or would it be best to cut it all out of your life as entirely as you can? I find that most of my attempts at moderation fail. Once I get started consuming, it's a giant, rolling snowball. I suppose the first step is admitting you have a problem, so I'm probably ahead of the pack by virtue of simply asking these questions. 

What about you? Are you still slogging your way through fruitless sessions on Twitter and Facebook? Have you discovered some better options, but perhaps find them only minimally satisfying? Does viewing the news make you crazy? So then you turn to a Netflix or Hulu binge for escape? 

Where does it all end??? There must be a better way to live. No, I don't necessarily think that getting 100% off the internet is the answer. My family depends on it for a large part of our income, so we must have it. In our personal lives, though, I really don't think it would be hard to live without it. Because I'm old enough that I have. I like blogging, which by now is pretty much old school. I enjoy a TV series now and then. I have been in this place before, and I feel stuck. What changes should be made, and how, if I'm going to live a life around the three themes of this blog for 2021?

I think that wiping the slate clean first would be a feasible approach. Cut it all out and then decide on what, very specifically, to let back in, and how much time to allow for it. For Lent, beginning in 17 days, I could give up all internet but blogging (say, a maximum of once per week), what is needed for work and homeschooling, using the library catalogue online, and a daily, one-hour limit for TV (including YouTube). But no news on any forum and no social media. Okay, I'm going to sleep on that, and then I will proceed to share with you how I'm preparing for Lent and this working plan. I might even give up coffee too, if I'm feeling particularly ascetic!!

The Domestic Monastery

 

I think, in a certain way, it would be easier to form a domestic monastery if I had a house full of young children. There would be so much less time for distractions, as I would have very little time to myself. Busy mothers have extremely limited space in their days for prayer and contemplation, but they have much more motivation for developing regular routines and sticking to them. 

So I begin the discussion of my third blog theme for the year, the domestic monastery, at something of a loss. My spirit is restless, and I feel anxious for the future of my country, with Joe Biden's presidential inauguration just a day away. I have a vague vision of the life that I long for, but turning away from the world seems so difficult right now. The urge to stay informed is strong. 

The idea of the domestic monastery, or domestic church, in Catholic tradition is simply the practice of putting God at the center of family life. Like life in a monastery, domestic life is ordered around regular times of prayer, work, meals, study, and rest; always keeping the focus on growing in faith and virtue, with an eye toward Heaven, our final destination. It is the raising of saints and the cultivation of an inner life of contemplation. 

I'm beginning today with re-reading Ronald Rolheiser's slim volume, Domestic Monastery. I'm also listening to Marsha Sinetar's series of recordings on YouTube, "Marsha Sinetar - A Casual Contemplative's Archive."

I am feeling like I need to get back to basics, move toward taking a sabbatical from the internet, and refocus my energy on simplicity and minimalism. My plan right now is to substantially reduce time spent on social media, the news, and YouTube videos, and to only check my email once daily. This will be a jumpstart on making plans for Lent, which begins Feb. 17. I will also, of course, keep blogging here as I am so inspired by the Holy Spirit, but I can't say how often that might be. My prayer is to have insights to offer to others, but I must fill my own well first. If you have any experience to share, I hope to receive your comments! 

Godspeed, Rita Michele 

The Literary Life | Big Tech Purge a Blessing in Disguise?

 

Having begun the discussion on one of my three blog themes for 2021, the preservation of liberty, I will now introduce the second, the literary life. When I originally determined my themes, I didn't recognize a connection between these two concepts; but now their close relation strikes me as startling. Perhaps I can open the conversation of the literary life by sharing my own experience in a world before the dominance of the internet and social media on people's lives. 

The majority of folks now seem to live their lives directly on social media and do not know how to function otherwise. It's a true addiction. But earlier this week I deleted my Facebook accounts, and it really didn't hurt! Because of what this "platform," which is really a publisher, recently pulled, in cahoots with other Big Tech companies, I could rise above the personal and leave on principle, an ability that I can attribute to having once lived a literary life. 

As an English major in college, I learned that literature teaches us about life and the human condition, and that by reading high quality works that have stood the test of time, we can gain wisdom and understanding. Additionally, by analysing the ideas found in great works of literature, philosophy, and religion, then developing a thesis and arguing our point in writing based upon the text, we grow in our critical thinking skills. 

Today the focus is on information, and the power to control it, and this information largely comes in the form of video. I enjoy watching YouTube videos myself, and I spend much more time on those channels than I do reading blogs online or consuming print books. Even when people do read books, it's often on a hand-held device, so an inordinate amount of time is spent in front of screens. People work on computers, check their social media constantly, sit for long hours in front of the television, and have very little time left for more traditionally human pursuits. 

When I lived alone for most of my 20s in the 1990s, I had the bare minimum of technology available at the time. My computer came from an office that had replaced their system. All it did was spreadsheets, which I didn't use, and word processing. I typed my poems on it, saved them, and printed them out. That's all I used it for. To access my hotmail account, I had to walk down the street to the coffee shop and sign up for time on the shared computer. There were maybe two people that I emailed. I bought a cell phone, which only made and received calls, and I used it predominantly in the car. I don't remember if it even had texting. None of my jobs involved computer work, except for being a library clerk, and that was in a situation of interacting directly with people. Every job I had required that I work in direct service of others, in person and face-to-face. 

In my free time I took a lot of walks, watched a little TV on the 3 or 4 channels that my 13-inch television was able to receive, went to see movies, plays, and art exhibits, wrote poetry and went to poetry readings, hung out at bookstores and coffee shops, spent time with friends, and regularly went out dancing. Oh, and I read a ton and wrote daily in my journal. I took classes to learn things like calligraphy and writing for children, in person, and then became a student of belly dance after I was married in 2002. I was a well-rounded woman with a variety of interests and was comfortable both in social situations and by myself. 

As a mother, I homeschooled my child in the Charlotte Mason method, which is based in classic literature and nature study in the field. Lots of time with living books, engaging mind-to-mind with the ideas found in them, and as many hours as possible spent outdoors were emphasized in Miss Mason's philosophy. So there is always a cognitive dissonance experienced when people assume that we homeschool online. My daughter, now 16, uses an online math program and some other online resources, but the bulk of her learning comes straight from actual books. 

Unfortunately, I have in great part lost the comforts and benefits of the literary life I once so much enjoyed, and I spend a great deal too much time on my Kindle. I can only imagine the self-imposed isolation of life on a smart phone!

Our path to preserving liberty is not ultimately going to be found in big government, public schools, Big Tech, or mainstream media. It's going to be found in libraries, homeschooling, private schools, churches, and local governments and communities. It has to start in the home first and foremost, and with the cultivation of our own minds and the development of character and virtue in the classic sense. It has to do with the re-education of our senses to wake us up to the real world around us and the redirecing of our hearts to the True, the Good, and the Beautiful. We have to get back to Nature, to self-reliance, to in-person interactions, and to a literary life. 

Perhaps we will find that the Big Tech purge of conservative voices will be a blessing in disguise. If more and more of us find the courage to leave the likes of Facebook and Twitter, and to cut our dependence on social media even when we find good alternatives; and we reinvigorate ourselves physically, intellectually, creatively, emotionally, and spiritually in the ways human beings have done for thousands of years, we will have the edge when we we need it most. And that time is fast approaching. 

In upcoming posts, we will continue to explore the connections between the preservation of liberty and the literary life, and how this all finds its foundation in the domestic monastery. 

Big Tech Treachery | A Patriots' Underground Railroad?

 

I'm sure you've all heard by now about Friday's Big Tech purge. Twitter kicked President Trump off its platform and even deleted his tweets from the official POTUS account. The app for Parler, a free speech alternative to Twitter, was removed by both Google Play and Apple; and as of midnight tonight, Parler's website server will be taken down by Amazon, effectively wiping it off the internet. Parler says it has plenty of others competing to be its new server, so there is still some hope.  

Facebook also made sweeping purges of users and groups, most notably for me the #WalkAway Campaign, a group of over 500,000 people, founded by Brandon Straka. All of the group's admins' personal accounts were wiped as well. #WalkAway was the most diverse group you can imagine, with people of all races and ethnicities, many members of the LGBT community, teenagers to senior citizens, folks from all walks of life. The common ground is that they have all walked away from the Democrat Party, and the group's purpose was to provide a place for testimonials and support. #WalkAway has no history of violent rhetoric or action, either online or in person. They broke no Facebook rules. 

Brandon is working right now to get his group reinstated on Facebook, but he realizes it's time to find a new home. He asked for viewers at his YouTube channel to find the group at clouthub.com. I joined CloutHub today myself, and it looks like a user friendly, alternative social media platform for Patriots. Brandon had previously asked followers to sign up at the #WalkAway website for the email list, only to have Leftist trolls report him as spam, resulting in getting kicked him off his email provider! 

On the news media front, CNN has launched a campaign to pressure cable providers to no longer host Fox News, News Max, and One America News! Both the social media and news media giants have been engaged in censorship and information manipulation for a long time. With the Democrat Party soon to be in nearly complete power of the federal government, the Communist coup will be a done deal. It's the end of the Republic as we know it. But are all the nails on the coffin pounded shut?

I doubt the effort to remove Fox News, OAN, and News Max will be successful, and even if it is, there are other options, such as LifeSite News, Church Militant, and EWTN, all conservative Catholic outlets. YouTubers such as Timothy Gordon, Patrick Coffin, the Rubin Report, Candace Owens, Dr. Taylor Marshall, and Matt Walsh of The Daily Wire group are all good resources for news and commentary. (Please note that I don't necessarily agree with all opinions or viewpoints expressed on these platforms.) Of course, conservatives on YouTube have also been enduring a great deal of censorship, needing to resort to speaking in code in some cases, so alternatives to that platform will likely be necessary too. I've heard Rumble mentioned in this regard. 

Just as Patriots may need to geographically relocate, concentrating themselves in red states, we will need to regroup online, finding new venues for communication. I think email, which has been making a comeback, is going to be instrumental as a way to ensure privacy and communicate to large groups of people. I've recently started using Proton Mail, a secure server out of Switzerland, and I'm very happy with it. 

One caveat to all this is that the conservative movement, by which I don't mean the Republican Party specifically, must remain entirely peaceful (while keeping in mind that self-defense could become necessary). Violent extremists should not be welcome. What happened at the Capitol last week did nothing to further the "Patriot Party" cause and gave Big Tech just the excuse they needed to launch their assault. 

I'm thinking in terms of a Patriots' Underground Railroad to get us off the "Democrat Plantation," as conservative author and activist Candace Owens puts it in Blackout. We need to find a new home court advantage. Mixing it up on platforms like Facebook and Twitter is counterproductive. No, we don't want to get lost in our own echo chamber like radical Leftists are, but we desperately need the support of like-minded communities, the ability to speak freely and safely, and places to organize our plans. 

Since Blogger is owned by Google, even this little corner of Organic Mothering may eventually have to find a new home...

The Preservation of Liberty

 

In my Jan. 4 post, I listed three themes that Organic Mothering will be centered around this year. Considering the storming of the Capitol in D.C. during the Electoral College hearings yesterday, and the imminency of the Biden/Harris presidency, I will begin with the theme, the preservation of liberty. 

Like tens of millions of other Americans, many of whom believe that we just witnessed a fraudulent presidential election, I see disaster awaiting us with the new regime. The idea of the USA becoming a satellite of the Chinese Communist Party no longer seems like a dystopian fantasy. The Biden family has close ties to China, as was unearthed via the Hunter Biden laptop scandal. Joe Biden's will be a highly compromised administration at best. As vice president, Kamala Harris will have the power to break any tie in the Senate, which is now split 50/50 along party lines. The House has a Democrat majority. So the Executive and Legislative Branches will be under nearly unchecked Leftist control. The only possible checks and balances I see would be sane Senate Democrats brave enough to vote against any overreach or unconstitutional moves by the Exective Branch, and the supposedly conservative majority of the Supreme Court. That isn't much to bank on. 

With the federal government basically lost, what can Patriots do to preserve liberty? The best plan seems to be to revert our focus to states' rights and local governments. As Catholic author and YouTuber Timothy Gordon has said, we need to think of each state as it's own Republic. Here is his most recent video, which outlines the plan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8AOib988Ms.

Gordon recommends the introduction and first two chapters of his own book, Catholic Republic, to understand the concepts of nullification and interposition, laid out by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, respectively. Our third president and author of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, wrote "The Kentucky Resolution," and James Madison, our fourth president and author of our U.S. Constitution, wrote "The Virginia Resolution." Their concepts and resolutions reflect the same basic premise, and as these men are fathers of our nation, they can by no means be dismissed as radicals. 

I have ordered Gordon's book and will post my reflections down the road. In the meantime, get it ordered yourself and read the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions, which are both short and can be found together here: http://jackiewhiting.net/ap/TLdocs/KYVAres.htm.

Gordon sees nullification/interposition as first steps to blocking federal tyrrany. He seems to feel that secession movements are in our future. Though he stops short of saying the word in the above video, it is strongly implied. His belief is that Patriots living in blue states need to move to red states ASAP, in preparation for the fight to come. The COVID-19 response has provided us a good picture for which states are the most determined to stay free. 

Godspeed, Rita Michele

A Clutter Free January: Kitchen Drawer

Today I officially began my kitchen project for "a clutter free January," which I wrote about yesterday. My kitchen is actually already in reasonably good order, but there are some things that could be improved and made more functional. I started with the drawer next to my refrigerator. 

Our dining room used to be right next to the kitchen, separated by an open doorway. We use cloth napkins regularly, so they were kept in the dining room. That room also served as my husband's home office, but alas, he would not keep it neat on his own, and he didn't exactly appreciate my efforts to keep him organized. As such, I decided to convert my home dance studio into our dining room, which we've been loving. But retrieving the napkins from the home office has been inconvenient, so today I moved them into the kitchen, in the cabinet area seen at top. 

The drawer was previously a kind of junk drawer, but it held important paperwork for the dogs and house, and also odds and ends like seed packets, pictures, magnets, and recipes. I had forgotten about these recipes so never used them. I sorted through them, recycled what I didn't want, and put what remained with my recipe books. These will further need to be dealt with, but that will be a project for another day.

Once the drawer was empty, I cleaned it out and then transferred the napkins, plus a set of cloth place mats. The paperwork and some of the other odds and ends were swapped into the drawer in the home office. Items that did not belong either place either found a new home, or they were taken upstairs to my bedroom annex for future organizing. Here is the finished drawer: 

This drawer is the closest one in the kitchen to the dining room, so it will be perfectly convenient now to grab the napkins to set the table! The only drawback is that when this drawer is opened, it grazes the refrigerator handle, so I can no longer hang a towel there. But there is always a towel hanging from the oven door handle, and I also keep a work towel on the counter, which I often dry my hands on anyway. I don't anticipate any problem with having one less kitchen towel. 

Originally I planned to set a timer for 15 minutes to work on this project, but I decided to just do it, however long it took. I didn't anticipate it being a terribly long project. However, setting a timer is a great way to help you get started on a chore you don't really want to do, so I recommend it. If you don't finish in the first 15 minutes, you can set the timer for another right away, or you can go do something else for 15 minutes and then come back to it. 

Please share in the comments if you are joining me for decluttering this month, and whether you are starting on your kitchen or somewhere else. I would love to read about your progress! 

My 2021 Blog Themes | A Clutter Free January

 (old monastery turned into a home, homeworldlife.com)

I was delighted today to watch Jennifer L. Scott's first video of the new year at "The Daily Connoisseur" and to learn about a cooperative project of YouTube vloggers called "A Clutter Free January," begun by Dawn at "The Minimal Mom." Another of the participants is "Diane in Denmark," and she has a playlist of all of the videos so far. They have begun with their kitchens. 

I'm joining in this project, not as a vlogger myself, but just to get inspiration and focus my efforts, as I had already decided to set decluttering tasks for my home this month. And this fits nicely into one of my blog themes for 2021, the domestic monastery. My other two themes will be the preservation of liberty and the literary life. I will outline the basics of each theme in the days to come. 

We experienced so many alarming things in 2020, which unfortunately promise to continue well into this new year, and many people are exhausted, frazzled, in grief, and very uncertain of the future. I think the Catholic principle of subsidiarity can help us to navigate these tumultuous times, by teaching us to put first things first, and to begin with what we can most easily and effectively influence and control. 

I will keep it short today, and simply encourage you to check out the videos for A Clutter Free January posted so far. Ruminate on some plans for how you can get started in your own home, beginning today with just 10 minutes in the kitchen, which Diane in Denmark can guide you through.

Peace and joy to you this New Year!!