I have learned that gratitude is a far more powerful way of living in this world. I was given an ALS diagnosis 3.5 years ago with an initial start a year before, so I seem to be ahead of the averages. As my world shrinks, I am able to read such great things as TFP. I read of the ideologies, i.e., woke, that present resentment as a dominant world view driven by anger, angst, and strong envious desire for what one does not have and what others have. I am thankful for many things including reading the thoughtful views of so many people.
I have learned that our Congress will work for everyone and everything besides Americans (I knew it before, but this year was best example).For proxy wars in Ukraine there seems to be infinite money with no questions asked. For problems at home we have to save because there is no money.
Even this article demonstrates it so clearly.
In Candace Mittel Kahn parts its is written clear as day "The ER was understaffed that Sunday". How did we come to this??? That with all our spending on healthcare our ERs in one of our Major cities are understaffed??
But answer is clear in Sebastian Junger part, only little hidden and obfuscated. "And smaller nations like Ukraine stand a reasonable chance of fighting off much more powerful aggressors. " But what his part is missing, how is Ukraine able to do it. Well our Congress that is not able to do anything, as suddenly seen light and approved over $100 billion with 0 accountability to one of most corrupt nations in Europe. As of today we have given 20 times more money than EU + UK have given, and they are supposedly in direct danger of Russia. Their GDP rivals ours and have 150 million people more than we. But somehow, US that sits on different continent, is main sponsor of this entire charade.
If son of our president was getting rich of shady deals in Eastern Europe before the war, I will not be surprised that in 10 years we will be reading how family of current congressmen got rich during this war.
When this war started, I wrote on this site, that first package ($40 billion) will be just beginning, but I couldn't have dreamt that we will cross $100 billion and more to come.
At same time inflation is ravaging destroying what is left of middle class. Sometimes I think, that our biggest enemy is not across the seas, but in rampant corruption in Washington DC, that is rotting our nation from within.
After Ukraine war finishes, I dont know the outcome, but one thing I am certain, our ruling elites will find next place where we will pour billions upon billions that we dont have. I have seen this movie to many times (Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan...).
If fraction of money that was spent abroad in last 30 years was spent at home and Congress was interested in fixing things at home instead of abroad, we probably wouldn't have understaffed ERs
Well, I have learned during 2022, thanks to all of you and many more in these spaces on Substack, that I am NOT alone: as much as the government, media, the establishment tried to control what we thought, read and believed by separating and scaring us but they could not. The second thing learned this year is that the truth can and will come out thanks to spaces like this. Community of ideas and truth will always find a way. Happy New Year.
I learned that one young woman, combined with the First Amendment - can make the worker bees of corporate media wish they had her skill. And the drones in those hives wishing they had her courage.
Thank you Ms. Weiss for what you accomplished this year - and I hope that you are even more successful in 2023.
My father was diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia a year ago. He passed in October. His decline was gut wrenching. My mother was his main care giver, and I was her back up. Thankfully, we had home hospice care. I’m just now processing all the things I learned... I learned that my mother is made of steel, that my father’s physical toughness was legendary, that my parents sticking out the hard times, and staying married 50 years is the most desirable way. I learned that I am incredibly calm in crisis, and what that means for my role in our family. I learned (I already knew) that my husband is one of the history books, and kept all the trains on the tracks. I learned that letting my children see the process of dying, and caring for the dying is healthy. I learned just how difficult it is to get care for someone in a mental health crisis. I hope to take all these things into 2023, and use them well.
I learned that the antidote for resentment, envy and regret is gratitude. Negativity is often the result of an unhealthy preoccupation with the perceived “empty places” in your life. Unlike physical hunger, however, you can cure this by changing your preoccupation. It’s hard to feel resentful, envious or regretful when you focus relentlessly on what you have to be thankful for. And if there are influencers in your life who keep trying to pull you back to negativity, cut them off and leave them behind - at least for a while.
Alex Perez’ piece resonates. I’m from a suburb of Chicago and once upon a time looked down on my old friends as “uneducated.” Over the past few years it’s become all too clear that “educated” means morally superior without basis and prone to promote dumb ideas with no cognizance of cause and effect. It’s such a relief to get around my old friends, those “uneducated” louts, who would never think to dump me over my resistance to gender ideology (and other obviously insane beliefs) who all see that the emperor has no clothes. And now, ironically, because I’m the only person pushing back in faculty meetings, it’s my turn to be looked down upon.
What I learned: 1) I’m married to my husband, not my job 2) quality of friends trumps quantity and 3) family will always be family, down to the annoying in-laws who get on your very last nerve! Great post, y’all. Happy new year, and keep fighting the good fight!
I usually find year-end pieces boring. Not this one. I think I got wiser in the timeI spent reading it. I have one issue, though. This year I began to Tweet MORE. Why? Because I had been silent in the face of the massive cultural onslaught that I was sure would die out. It didn’t die out, but rather intensified and I felt the need to speak out so that maybe others who were also silently boiling over would do the same. This forum also gave me that opportunity. I took it and now see that a lot of people are like minded, which gives me hope. Speak out. You are not alone.
What I have learned: Do not inflate love by trying to give it to everyone, but love your family and friends unconditionally. Money and fame don't buy happiness (looking at you Megan Markle) and absolute power corrupts absolutely ( too many examples to innumerate), to keep the Shakespeare's reference going. For next year, keep faith in a better world, continue to learn something new everyday, and to quote my dear mother, "Don't let the bastards get you down".
Because of the Twitter Files, I think we all learned what those often labeled as “conspiracy theorists” have been predicting and alleging for the past 20 years were right: the people who we think are in charge aren’t really in charge.
It’s toxic at a small unit level and it’s downright dangerous at the societal level.
What I learned this year: that there are a lot of really bright, funny, and informed people out there who write for and subscribe to this site. In the past, I subscribed to my national newspaper, Canada's The Globe and Mail. I would read comments posted by fellow subscribers and ask myself if I was reading the same paper. Comments were profane, bullying, inaccurate, lazy, and semi-literate. It's so encouraging to come here to The Free Press and to discover, first, that free speech is alive and well and, second, that that there is a thinking, engaged audience for the variety of views expressed here, and that readers are capable of forming complete sentences! Happy New Year to all!
I agree with all of the above and applaud each of them for their experiences and willingness to work towards truth.
I am slower in that I had to really think about why so many so called Americans prove over and over they hate America. Yet the number one country people want to come to is America. Legal immigrants really, really get how good it is. Yes, some illegals also get it but most are really looking for free stuff because they come from a shit hole country with the only history is corruption and cruelty.
I have learned people who keep voting for elected officials who only get rich and live off us, are truly ignorant and should be ashamed they accept that and a government who cares more for criminals and illegals than they do for America and its citizens.
I would also say the lack of a truly good actual news industry but knew that already. Plus the whole COVID thing should have so many elected and appointed people in jail but again I knew that.
Last is I learned how bullshit filled Liberals are when they are willing to watch Iranian , African, and Afghan women raped, persecuted, and murdered while they complain about what makes them feel safe. Can we please just all start telling them to shut the hell up. I know I do.
2023 I identify as as I do everyday of my life as a proud American!
Jay Bhattacharya, like others here who are exercising their natural right of freedom of speech, would be awarded the Medal of Freedom by a legitimate president. G-d bless all of you for speaking your minds leading to the truth.
Donald Trump is a total and complete a-hole, HOWEVER, so many of the arguments and points he made have ended up being 100% true or at least valid. I can’t help but return to the thought that the collaboration of major institutions in censoring was purely because many of those arguments were first brought into the spotlight by him. I’m not talking about his extreme points, I’m talking about the more reasonable ones.
I thought from the very beginning of his first campaign that the media was so focused on how he was saying things that they failed to recognize or even touch upon any of the underlying points that he was trying to make. The goal was always to distract from the real argument at hand. Millions of Americans saw right through it and stood with him despite his unsavory character.
Every so called “elite” institution was shook to the core. What were they so afraid of? They made sure to manipulate the rest of the world into hating him for superficial reasons so that the could protect their much deeper interests.
You weren’t just manipulated about how you saw COVID, you’ve been manipulated for much longer about much more important matters.
I loved “What We Learned in 2022” and that I’m a recent subscriber. You’re articles are so much better than what I read in the MSM. I congratulate you on charting your own course; and hope you are all wildly successful for our sake.
I have learned that gratitude is a far more powerful way of living in this world. I was given an ALS diagnosis 3.5 years ago with an initial start a year before, so I seem to be ahead of the averages. As my world shrinks, I am able to read such great things as TFP. I read of the ideologies, i.e., woke, that present resentment as a dominant world view driven by anger, angst, and strong envious desire for what one does not have and what others have. I am thankful for many things including reading the thoughtful views of so many people.
I have learned that our Congress will work for everyone and everything besides Americans (I knew it before, but this year was best example).For proxy wars in Ukraine there seems to be infinite money with no questions asked. For problems at home we have to save because there is no money.
Even this article demonstrates it so clearly.
In Candace Mittel Kahn parts its is written clear as day "The ER was understaffed that Sunday". How did we come to this??? That with all our spending on healthcare our ERs in one of our Major cities are understaffed??
But answer is clear in Sebastian Junger part, only little hidden and obfuscated. "And smaller nations like Ukraine stand a reasonable chance of fighting off much more powerful aggressors. " But what his part is missing, how is Ukraine able to do it. Well our Congress that is not able to do anything, as suddenly seen light and approved over $100 billion with 0 accountability to one of most corrupt nations in Europe. As of today we have given 20 times more money than EU + UK have given, and they are supposedly in direct danger of Russia. Their GDP rivals ours and have 150 million people more than we. But somehow, US that sits on different continent, is main sponsor of this entire charade.
If son of our president was getting rich of shady deals in Eastern Europe before the war, I will not be surprised that in 10 years we will be reading how family of current congressmen got rich during this war.
When this war started, I wrote on this site, that first package ($40 billion) will be just beginning, but I couldn't have dreamt that we will cross $100 billion and more to come.
At same time inflation is ravaging destroying what is left of middle class. Sometimes I think, that our biggest enemy is not across the seas, but in rampant corruption in Washington DC, that is rotting our nation from within.
After Ukraine war finishes, I dont know the outcome, but one thing I am certain, our ruling elites will find next place where we will pour billions upon billions that we dont have. I have seen this movie to many times (Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan...).
If fraction of money that was spent abroad in last 30 years was spent at home and Congress was interested in fixing things at home instead of abroad, we probably wouldn't have understaffed ERs
Well, I have learned during 2022, thanks to all of you and many more in these spaces on Substack, that I am NOT alone: as much as the government, media, the establishment tried to control what we thought, read and believed by separating and scaring us but they could not. The second thing learned this year is that the truth can and will come out thanks to spaces like this. Community of ideas and truth will always find a way. Happy New Year.
I learned that one young woman, combined with the First Amendment - can make the worker bees of corporate media wish they had her skill. And the drones in those hives wishing they had her courage.
Thank you Ms. Weiss for what you accomplished this year - and I hope that you are even more successful in 2023.
My father was diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia a year ago. He passed in October. His decline was gut wrenching. My mother was his main care giver, and I was her back up. Thankfully, we had home hospice care. I’m just now processing all the things I learned... I learned that my mother is made of steel, that my father’s physical toughness was legendary, that my parents sticking out the hard times, and staying married 50 years is the most desirable way. I learned that I am incredibly calm in crisis, and what that means for my role in our family. I learned (I already knew) that my husband is one of the history books, and kept all the trains on the tracks. I learned that letting my children see the process of dying, and caring for the dying is healthy. I learned just how difficult it is to get care for someone in a mental health crisis. I hope to take all these things into 2023, and use them well.
I learned that the antidote for resentment, envy and regret is gratitude. Negativity is often the result of an unhealthy preoccupation with the perceived “empty places” in your life. Unlike physical hunger, however, you can cure this by changing your preoccupation. It’s hard to feel resentful, envious or regretful when you focus relentlessly on what you have to be thankful for. And if there are influencers in your life who keep trying to pull you back to negativity, cut them off and leave them behind - at least for a while.
Alex Perez’ piece resonates. I’m from a suburb of Chicago and once upon a time looked down on my old friends as “uneducated.” Over the past few years it’s become all too clear that “educated” means morally superior without basis and prone to promote dumb ideas with no cognizance of cause and effect. It’s such a relief to get around my old friends, those “uneducated” louts, who would never think to dump me over my resistance to gender ideology (and other obviously insane beliefs) who all see that the emperor has no clothes. And now, ironically, because I’m the only person pushing back in faculty meetings, it’s my turn to be looked down upon.
What I learned: 1) I’m married to my husband, not my job 2) quality of friends trumps quantity and 3) family will always be family, down to the annoying in-laws who get on your very last nerve! Great post, y’all. Happy new year, and keep fighting the good fight!
I usually find year-end pieces boring. Not this one. I think I got wiser in the timeI spent reading it. I have one issue, though. This year I began to Tweet MORE. Why? Because I had been silent in the face of the massive cultural onslaught that I was sure would die out. It didn’t die out, but rather intensified and I felt the need to speak out so that maybe others who were also silently boiling over would do the same. This forum also gave me that opportunity. I took it and now see that a lot of people are like minded, which gives me hope. Speak out. You are not alone.
What I have learned: Do not inflate love by trying to give it to everyone, but love your family and friends unconditionally. Money and fame don't buy happiness (looking at you Megan Markle) and absolute power corrupts absolutely ( too many examples to innumerate), to keep the Shakespeare's reference going. For next year, keep faith in a better world, continue to learn something new everyday, and to quote my dear mother, "Don't let the bastards get you down".
Because of the Twitter Files, I think we all learned what those often labeled as “conspiracy theorists” have been predicting and alleging for the past 20 years were right: the people who we think are in charge aren’t really in charge.
It’s toxic at a small unit level and it’s downright dangerous at the societal level.
What I learned this year: that there are a lot of really bright, funny, and informed people out there who write for and subscribe to this site. In the past, I subscribed to my national newspaper, Canada's The Globe and Mail. I would read comments posted by fellow subscribers and ask myself if I was reading the same paper. Comments were profane, bullying, inaccurate, lazy, and semi-literate. It's so encouraging to come here to The Free Press and to discover, first, that free speech is alive and well and, second, that that there is a thinking, engaged audience for the variety of views expressed here, and that readers are capable of forming complete sentences! Happy New Year to all!
I agree with all of the above and applaud each of them for their experiences and willingness to work towards truth.
I am slower in that I had to really think about why so many so called Americans prove over and over they hate America. Yet the number one country people want to come to is America. Legal immigrants really, really get how good it is. Yes, some illegals also get it but most are really looking for free stuff because they come from a shit hole country with the only history is corruption and cruelty.
I have learned people who keep voting for elected officials who only get rich and live off us, are truly ignorant and should be ashamed they accept that and a government who cares more for criminals and illegals than they do for America and its citizens.
I would also say the lack of a truly good actual news industry but knew that already. Plus the whole COVID thing should have so many elected and appointed people in jail but again I knew that.
Last is I learned how bullshit filled Liberals are when they are willing to watch Iranian , African, and Afghan women raped, persecuted, and murdered while they complain about what makes them feel safe. Can we please just all start telling them to shut the hell up. I know I do.
2023 I identify as as I do everyday of my life as a proud American!
Jay Bhattacharya, like others here who are exercising their natural right of freedom of speech, would be awarded the Medal of Freedom by a legitimate president. G-d bless all of you for speaking your minds leading to the truth.
Donald Trump is a total and complete a-hole, HOWEVER, so many of the arguments and points he made have ended up being 100% true or at least valid. I can’t help but return to the thought that the collaboration of major institutions in censoring was purely because many of those arguments were first brought into the spotlight by him. I’m not talking about his extreme points, I’m talking about the more reasonable ones.
I thought from the very beginning of his first campaign that the media was so focused on how he was saying things that they failed to recognize or even touch upon any of the underlying points that he was trying to make. The goal was always to distract from the real argument at hand. Millions of Americans saw right through it and stood with him despite his unsavory character.
Every so called “elite” institution was shook to the core. What were they so afraid of? They made sure to manipulate the rest of the world into hating him for superficial reasons so that the could protect their much deeper interests.
You weren’t just manipulated about how you saw COVID, you’ve been manipulated for much longer about much more important matters.
I loved “What We Learned in 2022” and that I’m a recent subscriber. You’re articles are so much better than what I read in the MSM. I congratulate you on charting your own course; and hope you are all wildly successful for our sake.