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Conservatives Must Step Up and Find Courage Before It’s Too Late

Conservatives must take a look in the mirror and find the courage they once had. Now is the time to stand up and be fearless, writes Will Witt, Editor-in-Chief of The Florida Standard.

Many of you who were around in 2015 and 2016 will remember how this New Right movement started. Donald Trump came on the scene as a new, extraordinary voice who blasted the establishment on both sides and took a hammer to the way politics were supposed to be played. He divided the world into the real and the fake and opened up the eyes of millions worldwide to the evils around us. BREXIT was happening in the UK, Antifa was growing, Europe was facing a refugee crisis, and a whole new generation of conservatives was born. I remember wearing my MAGA hat on campus after Trump won and being yelled at by the girls in a “stop hate” prayer circle. The populist, traditional conservative movement that was born attracted an audience of people like myself, who had never been involved in politics before. My entire life, I had been planning to be a veterinarian for wild cats. I never in a million years thought that I’d be part of the face of the New Right movement, speaking to huge crowds, writing books, and making hundreds of conservative videos.

The movement then was wild. It was chaotic. It was a slap in the face to all those who ruled unjustly, and the voiceless became heard for the first time in their lives. What happened in 2016 had never before happened in American politics and the implications of that political fervor has had a lasting legacy. But what is the conservative movement now? Where is the fire in the blood of the people who just a few years ago abandoned all senses of comfortability to join a movement with an enemy that wanted to see them dead?

The question has many answers. Several of our movement’s most prominent leaders were banned outright from social media. Donald Trump, whether by cheating or fairness, lost the 2020 election. January 6 further splintered the Right into those who sided with the Left and those who wouldn’t fall for the lies of a false-flag operation. Then COVID happened and changed the debate entirely, stopping much of the momentum we had. But what seems to me to be the greatest inhibitor of our real growth as conservatives is that our side has been hijacked by cheap talking points, opportunists, and an overall lack of bravery.

Let’s look at COVID. When the vaccines first rolled out, you had a myriad of conservative types come out in support of the “miracle shot,” and if you said anything against it, even to those on the Right, you were an “anti-vaxxer” and even a “conspiracy theorist.” Or how about the Great Reset? Those who called it out first were seen as crazy people, shunned by mainstream conservatism and the established Right. Or how about the Great Replacement theory? Speaking on demographic change and the destruction of your homeland was a “far right” point of view, and only the radicals on the conservative side ever touched it. Zelensky is a corrupt fraud exploiting the massacre of his own people for his own financial gain? The mainstream Right won’t stand for such a statement. Stick to talking about “wokeness” and “capitalism,” that is all you are allowed to say, good little conservative.

But now it has come out the vaccines were a massive failure, the Great Reset is real and happening right in front of us, birth rates in the native populations of Western countries are hemorrhaging as people are being replaced by migrants and illegal immigrants, and most of the countless billions sent to Ukraine end up in a black hole of corruption and money laundering. Everything the “radical, far right, extremists” said turned out to be true, and now that it has all come to light, those who missed out on the party want a piece of the pie.

Now look, there is nothing wrong with people changing their mind on issues as more facts come to the surface and people make their own decisions. But for most of these topics, the facts and data were there the entire time; most people just refused to acknowledge them. They knew the vaccines were a massive government and pharma power play. They knew governments were conspiring against their own people. They knew the Left wanted to replace Western populations with a multicultural hegemony. But they said nothing, because it wasn’t safe to do so. And now that there are new “safe” talking points in conservative media, all these people who never were on board with the “far right” movement before have turned into some of its loudest voices.

Many of the talking points we have as conservatives have become nothing more than a brand. Opportunists have taken them because they know it will gain them prestige, fame, and money for doing so. But they are standing on the shoulders of greater men. People who put everything on the line from the beginning to speak the truth. People like the late Dr. Vladmir Zelenko, who worked tirelessly to save lives with real accurate information at the start of the COVID pandemic. People like Pastor Jack Hibbs who refused to shut his church’s doors despite the government ordering him to do so. People like Tucker Carlson, who day in and day out walks through the fire to bring the real truth to people. These are great men. These are admirable men. And there are still many more like them. They don’t do what they do because it gets them a lot of retweets. They don’t do what they do because they know they can capitalize off of a trend and get millions of views. They don’t do what they do because it builds their profile and makes them famous. They do what they do because it is the right thing to do, not the “approved mainstream conservative” thing to do.

I go on Twitter and I am inundated with the same takes, the same “opinions,” and the same old safety. The bulk of online conservatism has put a life vest on and waded into the kiddy pool. Where is the fearlessness we once had? Where is the fire? Where is the bravery? I don’t see our movement dying on the backs of mindless conservative video content and safe, stale talking points. I see conservatism flourishing and the real truth seekers taking back our world. But we can only do that if we abandon the safety of easy politics and opinions that only further dig in our echo chamber. I say it is time to break new ground, to be daunting, to be a lion in a world of sheep. People will always try and profit off the deeds and ideas of others, but you have the ultimate choice on what you do. Leftism is a religion to many of the nihilists and young people of our age. Don’t let conservatism fall to the same fate, becoming nothing more than a way to brand yourself and dawdle away time as you scroll through right-wing tweets.

Now is the time to take a look in the mirror. Now is the time to find courage. Now is the time to stand up for freedom and liberty. Stand up, before it is too late.

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