Mercedes Schlapp

The Weaponization of Loneliness offers the first deep dive into how power elites weaponize the fear of loneliness to enforce social conformity and wage war on the private sphere of life. Do you keep your opinions to yourself because you’re afraid people will reject you? Do you sign on to a cause just because everyone around you acts like it’s the right thing to do? Welcome to The Weaponization of Loneliness. Tyrants of all stripes want to tell you what to believe and how to live your life. They get away with it by using the most potent weapon at their disposal: your fear of ostracism. This book explains how dictators—from the French Revolution to the Communist Party of China to today’s globalists—aim to atomize us in order to control us. We fall for it because our need to connect with others and our fear of social rejection are so hardwired that they trigger our conformity impulse. These dynamics can even cause us to comply with evil orders. We all need a better understanding of how the merchants of loneliness—power elites in Big Tech, Big Media, Big Government, academia, Hollywood, and the corporate world— exploit our terror of social isolation. Their divide-and-conquer tactics include identity politics, political correctness, and mob agitation. Their media monopoly spawns the propaganda essential to demonization campaigns, censorship, cancel culture, snitch culture, struggle sessions, the criminalization of comedy, and the subversion of society’s most fundamental institutions. It all adds up to a machinery of loneliness. Ironically, people tend to comply with this machinery to avoid loneliness, but such compliance only isolates us further. The Weaponization of Loneliness offers a message of hope. We can resist this psychological warfare if we have strong bonds in our families, faith communities, and friendships. Let’s resolve to talk to one another openly and often, especially about the consequences of giving in to social pressures and media hype. Indeed, totalitarians always seek to destroy private life because it is the very fount of freedom.

The enemy is no longer hidden in the dark but instead operates in broad daylight. Its attacks on Americans are clear and intensifying: cancel culture, wokeness, public shaming, urban violence, “whiteness,” and critical race theory. The enemy also seeks to undermine the sacredness of human life, failing to provide basic protection for the lives of the unborn. This enemy is called the Desecrators. The Desecrators tear down not only monuments but human nature, the biblical-natural conception of marriage, the family, parental rights, fact-based education, traditional moral values, and the Church. The Desecrators are taking over the media, publishing, educational institutions, corporate boards, labor unions, amateur and professional sports, foundations, and professional associations ranging from the American Medical Association to the Chamber of Commerce. They leave nothing untouched. In this powerfully provocative book, Deal W. Hudson and Matt Schlapp provide firsthand accounts of the Desecrators’ actions and intentions, including their remarkably angry and uncharitable treatment of President Donald Trump, which Hudson and Schlapp uniquely observed. The authors also describe how Catholics have been stifled for years because many bishops have failed to confront pro-abortion Catholic politicians. But fortunately, there is hope. As Hudson and Schlapp lay bare the Desecrators’ path of destruction, they also lay out a plan for the faithful to turn things around. Here is a book that will embolden all people of faith and good will to make their voices heard once again in the public square and political realm by countering the enemy with reason, faith, and hope. Here is a vision to build up rather than tear down.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “Uncontrolled Spread is everything you’d hope: a smart and insightful account of what happened and, currently, the best guide to what needs to be done to avoid a future pandemic." —Wall Street Journal “Informative and well paced.”—The Guardian “An intense ride through the pandemic with chilling details of what really happened. It is also sprinkled with notes of true wisdom that may help all of us better prepare for the future.”—Sanjay Gupta, MD, chief medical correspondent, CNN Physician and former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb asks: Has America’s COVID-19 catastrophe taught us anything? In Uncontrolled Spread, he shows how the coronavirus and its variants were able to trounce America’s pandemic preparations, and he outlines the steps that must be taken to protect against the next outbreak. As the pandemic unfolded, Gottlieb was in regular contact with all the key players in Congress, the Trump administration, and the drug and diagnostic industries. He provides an inside account of how level after level of American government crumbled as the COVID-19 crisis advanced. A system-wide failure across government institutions left the nation blind to the threat, and unable to mount an effective response. We’d prepared for the wrong virus. We failed to identify the contagion early enough and became overly reliant on costly and sometimes divisive tactics that couldn’t fully slow the spread. We never considered asymptomatic transmission and we assumed people would follow public health guidance. Key bureaucracies like the CDC were hidebound and outmatched. Weak political leadership aggravated these woes. We didn’t view a public health disaster as a threat to our national security. Many of the woes sprung from the CDC, which has very little real-time reporting capability to inform us of Covid’s twists and turns or assess our defenses. The agency lacked an operational capacity and mindset to mobilize the kind of national response that was needed. To guard against future pandemic risks, we must remake the CDC and properly equip it to better confront crises. We must also get our intelligence services more engaged in the global public health mission, to gather information and uncover emerging risks before they hit our shores so we can head them off. For this role, our clandestine agencies have tools and capabilities that the CDC lacks. Uncontrolled Spread argues we must fix our systems and prepare for a deadlier coronavirus variant, a flu pandemic, or whatever else nature -- or those wishing us harm -- may threaten us with. Gottlieb outlines policies and investments that are essential to prepare the United States and the world for future threats.

Reject our society's liberal bias against conservative women and learn how traditional principles will secure a better future for us all with this inspiring guide from a political powerhouse. The Mind of a Conservative Woman challenges women to improve their place in life and open doors for themselves and the next generation through the courage of their convictions. Senator Blackburn expounds upon why beliefs labeled as "traditional" have common ground and can improve all of society, such as: Protecting the next generation, the family, and the freedom of faith and values,Supporting a free market that rewards women who apply their talents and rise to great heights,Respecting the institutions in our nation to make change from the inside,Securing an effective government that will not overreach, and Honoring and respecting those who hold differing opinions. Though it is politically liberal women who receive the attention of left-leaning media and universities, it is conservatism that guarantees what most women hold dear. Blackburn addresses the frustrations of working women and the false perceptions of women presented by the media in general. Her maxim "Leave Things in Better Shape Than You Found Them" will challenge you to improve your place in life and create opportunities you never dreamed possible for yourself and those around you.