Conservatives and moderates need to build a parallel economy in the US
American conservatives are in the midst of political and cultural warfare with the left’s ideology. The only way to avoid having to play by the left’s rules is to get creative, make a few sacrifices and put our money where our mouth is.
Conservatives and moderates have been sounding the alarm for some time now over the left’s “long march through our institutions,” referring to the attempted Marxist takeover of American culture and life. The march has indeed been long and spans decades, and while most can’t agree on where or when exactly it all started, many Americans are waking up to where it’s going. As conservatives, we are grappling with radical gender and race ideologies, ‘woke’ corporations and cancel culture, mob mentality, attacks on the nuclear family, and assaults on our Constitution and the framework of our society. It feels at times like normal America is on a hijacked plane and all the passengers want off, but the pilot and crew are suicidal. Quick thinking is of the essence.
I don’t mean to sound cynical, and I pray daily that America won’t come crashing down, but in many ways, much of what our founding fathers built has already been destroyed. And realistically, it would take generations to rebuild every aspect of American civil society after the left’s plundering. I doubt universities will see any near-future reform back to teaching classical education, as opposed to liberal indoctrination. The government’s education system – especially higher education – is much too far gone. I also doubt we are going to see, in our lifetime, an honest, uncorrupted mainstream American media. Likewise, much of the tech industry will remain branches of the political left, as will Hollywood entertainment. But this does not mean all is lost for conservatives and moderates, who together make up the majority of the American population.
What needs to be done now to salvage what we can – with the hope of reclaiming ground later on – is going to take the kind of hard work and determination not seen since America’s founding. We the People must be more determined than ever to retake control of our future as a free society. To achieve our ambition to ‘make America great again’, we are going to have to do more than defeat the left at the polls. Elections are important, and being involved in politics is very important. But outside of government, we need to look to the private sector and the economy it generates, because that’s where we are still free to make immediate change. America runs on free market capitalism. We have more power than we realize, but we haven’t yet harnessed it. Instead of focusing so much on what we’ve lost, what can we build to counter the damage?
The tech industry has thus far been a great place to start. When Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube began their mass censorship and banning of conservative (and even politically moderate) accounts several years ago, social media had long become the town square of sorts for how we communicate. So when half the country is being silenced, we have a major problem. It took a sitting president of the United States being banned from the largest social networks for Americans to truly wake up to the encroaching threat to free speech. As a result, multiple alternate social media platforms have since popped up. The rise of Rumble, Truth Social, Gettr, Gab, and Parler are hopeful signs of parallel infrastructure. Conservative-friendly internet servers, web hosting companies, and job boards have also emerged.
All of this is really just the tip of the iceberg. We are going to need payment processing systems, financial institutions, and other businesses that won’t cave to extremist demands. This became obvious when PayPal, Venmo, and Go Fund Me decided that if you share a view that doesn’t align with leftism, you can’t conduct business or even receive donations using their platforms. Just this month, the coalition Gays Against Groomers had their Venmo and PayPal accounts disabled. Their crime? Holding the position that it is not OK for children to be sexualized. And who can forget when Go Fund Me froze the donations for the Canadian truckers convoy? Alarm bells should be going off.
There are numerous other alarming examples of accounts being frozen or shut down over political dissent against leftist views. We cannot allow this to go unchecked. The only answer, at least for the moment, is to create new ways of communicating and doing business, just as we may need to build other crucial infrastructure in order to survive. Most importantly, we must be able to think differently, and put our money where our mouth is. Being lazy and uninformed is no longer an option. If business is the new battlefield, nobody has the luxury of sitting on the sidelines.
Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither was the United States. We can all start very simply by choosing to support businesses that align with our values over ones that don’t. It may not always be convenient, but where we choose to spend our money – and where we choose not to spend it – has consequences, and is powerful. It sure beats relying on a handful of politicians to save us.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
