Conservapedia - User contributions [en]

Phyllis Schlafly

2022-01-12T04:55:17Z

HerbertHumpledinker: lol

{{infobox person
|name=Phyllis Schlafly {{Verified}}
|image=Phyllis speaking in 1983.jpg
|birth_date=August 15, 1924
|birth_place=[[St. Louis]], Missouri
|death_date=September 5, 2016 (aged 92)
|death_place=Ladue, Missouri
|spouse=Fred Schlafly (m. 1949, d. 1993)
6 children including [[Andy Schlafly]]
}}
'''Phyllis McAlpin Stewart Schlafly''' (August 15, 1924 – September 5, 2016) was a founder of the modern [[Conservative Movement|conservative movement]]. She died after giving Birth to Andrew Schlafly, because he was so ugly and stupid looking that she was in shock

The Beatles

2022-01-12T04:52:53Z

HerbertHumpledinker:

The fact that so many books still name the Beatles as "the greatest or most significant or most influential" rock band ever only tells you how far rock music still is from becoming a serious art. Jazz critics have long recognized that the greatest jazz musicians of all times are Duke Ellington and John Coltrane, who were not the most famous or richest or best sellers of their times, let alone of all times. Classical critics rank the highly controversial Beethoven over classical musicians who were highly popular in courts around Europe. Rock critics, instead, are still blinded by commercial success. The Beatles sold more than anyone else (not true, by the way), therefore they must have been the greatest. Jazz critics grow up listening to a lot of jazz music of the past, classical critics grow up listening to a lot of classical music of the past. Rock critics are often totally ignorant of the rock music of the past, they barely know the best sellers.
In a sense, the Beatles are emblematic of the status of rock criticism as a whole: too much attention paid to commercial phenomena and too little to the merits of real musicians. If somebody composes the most divine music but no major label picks him up and sells him around the world, most rock critics will ignore him. If a major label picks up a musician who is as stereotyped as can be but launches her or him worldwide, your average critic will waste rivers of ink on her or him. This is the sad status of rock criticism: rock critics are basically publicists working for major labels, distributors and record stores. They simply highlight what product the music business wants to make money from.

Hopefully, one not-too-distant day, there will be a clear demarcation between a great musician like Tim Buckley, who never sold much, and commercial products like the Beatles. At such a time, rock critics will study their rock history and understand which artists accomplished which musical feat, and which simply exploited it commercially.

Beatles' "Aryan" music removed any trace of black music from rock and roll. It replaced syncopated African rhythm with linear Western melody, and lusty negro attitudes with cute white-kid smiles.

Contemporary musicians never spoke highly of the Beatles, and for good reason. They could never figure out why the Beatles' songs should be regarded more highly than their own. They knew that the Beatles were simply lucky to become a folk phenomenon (thanks to "Beatlemania", which had nothing to do with their musical merits). That phenomenon kept alive interest in their (mediocre) musical endeavours to this day. Nothing else grants the Beatles more attention than, say, the Kinks or the Rolling Stones. There was nothing intrinsically better in the Beatles' music. Ray Davies of the Kinks was certainly a far better songwriter than Lennon & McCartney. The Stones were certainly much more skilled musicians than the 'Fab Four'. And Pete Townshend was a far more accomplished composer, capable of entire operas such as "Tommy" and "Quadrophenia"; not to mention the far greater British musicians who followed them in subsequent decades or the US musicians themselves who initially spearheaded what the Beatles merely later repackaged to the masses.

The Beatles sold a lot of records not because they were the greatest musicians but simply because their music was easy to sell to the masses: it had no difficult content, it had no technical innovations, it had no creative depth. They wrote a bunch of catchy 3-minute ditties and they were photogenic. If somebody had not invented "Beatlemania" in 1963, you would not have wasted five minutes of your time reading these pages about such a trivial band.

Extended note from 2010. The Beatles were not a terribly interesting band, but their fans were and still are an interesting phenomenon. I can only name religious fundamentalists as annoying (and as threatening) as Beatles fans, and as persevering in sabotaging anyone who dares express an alternate opinion of their faith. They have turned me into some kind of Internet celebrity not because of the 6,000 bios that i have written, not because of the 800-page book that i published, not because of the 30 years of cultural events that i organized, but simply because i downplayed the artistic merits of the Beatles, an action that they consider as disgraceful as the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Jakub Krawczynski sent me this supportive comment in 2010:

I find it quite amusing that almost all of the Beatles songs have their own entries on Wikipedia (nothing wrong with that in itself, actually), even if they are not singles, and each of them is meticulously dissected as if there were transcendental suites exceeding human comprehension, yet bands like Faust or Red Krayola, etc. have biographies even shorter than just one article about any random Beatles song. Needless to say, none of their songs have any articles on them, yet I'm sure there would be a lot more to talk about. Moreover, if you had put any bad review of their album on the site with the intention to show the broader scope of opinions, you'd risk your "life" there, since such fanatics don't accept any single sign of trying to be objective. You are seen as public enemy number 1 to them. It is like your article is one giant cognitive dissonance to them and vandalizing your bio was the only way to reduce this dissonance.
(Italian text translated by Ornella C. Grannis and proof-edited by Daniel Vogel )
The Beatles most certainly belong to the history of the 60s, but their musical merits are at best dubious.

The Beatles came at the height of the reaction against rock and roll, when the innocuous "teen idols", rigorously white, were replacing the wild black rockers who had shocked the radio stations and the conscience of half of America. Their arrival represented a lifesaver for a white middle class terrorized by the idea that within rock and roll lay a true revolution of customs. The Beatles tranquilized that vast section of the population and conquered the hearts of all those (first and foremost the females) who wanted to rebel, without violating the social status quo. The contorted and lascivious faces of the black rock and rollers were substituted by the innocent smiles of the Beatles; the unleashed rhythms of the first were substituted by the catchy tunes of the latter. Rock and roll could finally be included in the pop charts. The Beatles represented the quintessential reaction to a musical revolution in the making, and for a few years they managed to run its enthusiasm into the ground.

Furthermore, the Beatles represented the reaction against a social and political revolution. They arrived at the time of the student protests, of Bob Dylan, of the Hippies, and they replaced the image of angry kids, fists in the air, with their cordial faces and amiable declarations. They came to replace the accusatory words of militant musicians with overindulgent nursery rhymes. Thus the Beatles served as middle-class tranquilizers, as if to prove the new generation was not made up exclusively of rebels, misfits and sex maniacs.

For most of their career, the Beatles were four mediocre musicians who sang melodic three-minute tunes at a time when rock music was trying to push itself beyond that format, one originally confined by the technical limitations of the 78 rpm record. They were the quintessence of "mainstream" (assimilating the innovations proposed by rock music) within the format of the melodic song.

The Beatles belonged, like the Beach Boys (whom they emulated throughout most of their career), to the era of the vocal band. In such a band the technique of the instrument was not as important as that of the chorus. Undoubtedly skilled at composing choruses, they availed themselves of producer George Martin (head of Parlophone since 1956), to embellish those choruses with arrangements more and more eccentric.

Thanks to a careful marketing campaign, they became the most celebrated entertainers of the era, and are still the darlings of magazines and tabloids, much like Princess Grace of Monaco and Lady Di.

The convergence between Western polyphony (melody, several parts of vocal harmony and instrumental arrangements) and African percussion - the leitmotif of US music from its inception - was legitimized in Europe by the huge success of the Merseybeat, in particular by its best sellers, Gerry and the Pacemakers and the Beatles, both produced by George Martin and managed by Brian Epstein. To the bands of the Merseybeat goes the credit of having validated rock music for a vast, virtually endless, audience. They were able to interpret the spirit and technique of rock and roll, while separating it from its social circumstances, thus defusing potential explosions. In such a fashion, they rendered it accessible not only to the young rebels, but to all. Mediocre musicians, and even more mediocre intellectuals, bands like the Beatles had the intuition of the circus performer who knows how to amuse the peasants after a hard day's work, an intuition applied to the era of mass distribution of consumer goods.

Every one of their songs and every one of their albums followed much more striking songs and albums by others, but instead of simply imitating them, the Beatles adapted them to a bourgeois, conformist and orthodox dimension. The same process was applied to the philosophy of the time, from the protests on college campuses to Dylan's pacifism, psychedelic drugs, or Eastern religion. Their vehicle was melody, a universal code of sorts, that declared their music innocuous. Naturally others performed the same operation, and many (from the Kinks to the Hollies, from the Beach Boys to the Mamas and Papas) produced melodies even more memorable, yet the Beatles arrived at the right moment and theirs would remain the trademark of the melodic song of the second half of the twentieth century.

Their ascent was branded as "Beatlemania", a phenomenon of mass hysteria launched in 1963 that marked the height of the "teen idol" of the late 1950s, an extension of the myths of Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley. From that moment on, no matter what they put together, the Beatles remained the center of the media's attention.

Musically, for what it is worth, the Beatles were the product of an era that had been prepared by vocal groups such as the Everly Brothers and by rockers such as Buddy Holly; an era that also expressed itself through the girl-groups, the Tamla bands and surf music. What the Beatles have in common with them, aside from almost identical melodies, is a general concept of song based on an exuberant, optimistic and cadenced melody.

The Beatles were the quintessence of instrumental mediocrity. George Harrison was a pathetic guitarist, compared with the London guitarists of those days (Townshend of the Who, Richards of the Rolling Stones, Davies of the Kinks, Clapton, Beck and Page of the Yardbirds, and many others who were less famous but more original). The Beatles had completely missed the revolution of rock music (founded on a prominent use of the guitar) and were still trapped in the stereotypes of the easy-listening orchestras. Paul McCartney was a singer from the 1950s, who could not have possibly sounded more conventional. As a bassist, he was not worth the last of the rhythm and blues bassists (even though within the world of Merseybeat his style was indeed revolutionary). Ringo Starr played drums the way any kid of that time played it in his garage (even though he may ultimately be the only one of the four who had a bit of technical competence). Overall, the technique of the "Fab Four" was the same as that of many other easy-listening groups: sub-standard.

Theirs were records of traditional songs crafted as they had been crafted for centuries, yet they served an immense audience, far greater than the audience of those who wanted to change the world, the hippies, freaks and protesters. Their fans ignored or abhorred the many rockers of the time who were experimenting with the suite format, who were composing long free-form tracks, who were using dissonance, who were radically changing the concept of the musical piece. The Beatles' fans thought, and some still think, that using trumpets in a rock song was a revolutionary event, that using background noises (although barely noticeable) was an even more revolutionary event, and that only great musical geniuses could vary so many styles in one album, precisely what many rock musicians were doing all over the world, employing much more sophisticated stylistic excursions.

While the Velvet Underground, Frank Zappa, the Doors, Pink Floyd and many others were composing long and daring suites worthy of avantgarde music, thus elevating rock music to art, the Beatles continued to yield three-minute songs built around a chorus. Beatlemania and its myth notwithstanding, Beatles fans went crazy for twenty seconds of trumpet, while the Velvet Underground were composing suites of chaos twenty minutes long. Actually, between noise and a trumpet, between twenty seconds and twenty minutes, there was an artistic difference of several degrees of magnitude. They were, musically, sociologically, politically, artistically, and ideologically, on different planets.

Beatlemania created a comical temporal distortion. Many Beatles fans were convinced that rock and roll was born around the early 1960s, that psychedelic rock and the hippies were a 1967 phenomenon, that student protests began in 1969, that peace marches erupted at the end of the 60s, and so on. Beatles fans believed that the Beatles were first in everything, while in reality they were last in almost everything. The case of the Beatles is a textbook example of how myths can distort history.

The Beatles had the historical function to delay the impact of the innovations of the 1960s . Between 1966 and 1969, while suites, jams, and long free form tracks (which the Beatles also tried but only toward the end of their career) became the fashion, while the world was full of guitarists, bassist, singers and drummers who played solos and experimented with counterpoint, the Beatles limited themselves to keeping the tempo and following the melody. Their historical function was also to prepare the more conservative audience for those innovations. Their strength was perhaps in being the epitome of mediocrity, never a flash of genius, never a revolutionary thought, never a step away from what was standard, accepting innovations only after they had been by the establishment. And maybe it was that chronic mediocrity that made their fortune: whereas other bands tried to surpass their audiences, to keep two steps ahead of the myopia of their fans, traveling the hard and rocky road, the Beatles took their fans by the hand and walked them along a straight path devoid of curves and slopes.

Beatles fans can change the meaning of the word "artistic" to suit themselves, but the truth is that the artistic value of the Beatles work is very low. The Beatles made only songs, often unpretentious songs, with melodies no more catchy than those of many other pop singers. The artistic value of those songs is the artistic value of one song: however well done (and one can argue over the number of songs well done vs. the number of overly publicized songs by the band of the moment), it remains a song, precisely as toothpaste remains toothpaste. It does not become a work of art just because it has been overly publicized.

The Beatles are justly judged for the beautiful melodies they have written. But those melodies were "beautiful" only when compared to the melodies of those who were not trying to write melodies; in other words to the musicians who were trying to rewrite the concept of popular music by implementing suites, jams and noise. Many contemporaries of Beethoven wrote better minuets than Beethoven ever wrote, but only because Beethoven was writing something else. In fact, he was trying to write music that went beyond the banality of minuets.

The melodies of the Beatles were perhaps inferior to many composers of pop music who still compete with the Beatles with regard to quality, those who were less famous and thus less played.

The songs of the Beatles were equipped with fairly vapid lyrics at a time when hordes of singer songwriters and bands were trying to say something intelligent. The Beatles' lyrics were tied to the tradition of pop music, while rock music found space, rightly or wrongly, for psychological narration, anti-establishment satire, political denunciation, drugs, sex and death.

The most artistic and innovative aspect of the Beatles' music, in the end, proved to be George Martin's arrangements. Perhaps aware of the band's limitations, Martin used the studio and studio musicians in a creative fashion, at times venturing beyond the demands of tradition to embellish the songs. Moreover, Martin undoubtedly had a taste for unusual sounds. At the beginning of his career he had produced Rolf Harris' Tie Me Kangaroo with the didjeridoo. At the time nobody knew what it was. Between 1959 and 1962 Martin had produced several tracks of British humor with heavy experimentation, inspired by the Californian Stan Freiberg, the first to use the recording studio as an instrument.

As popular icons, as celebrities, the Beatles certainly influenced their times, although much less than their fans suppose. Even Richard Nixon, the US president of the Vietnam War and Watergate influenced his times and the generations that followed, but that does not make him a great musician.

Today Beatles songs are played mostly in supermarkets. But their myth, like that of Rudolph Valentino and Frank Sinatra before them, will live as long as the fans who believed in it will be alive. Through the years their fame has been artificially kept alive by marketing, a colossal advertising effort, a campaign without equal in the history of entertainment.

Their history begins at the end of the 1950s. Buddy Holly's Crickets had invented the modern concept of the rock band. Indirectly they had also started the fashion of naming a band with a plural noun, like the doo-wop ensembles before them, but a noun that was funny instead of serious. Almost immediately bands like "the Crickets" began to pop up everywhere, most of them bearing plural nouns. Insects were fashionable. The Beatles were the most famous.

Assembled to bring to Europe the free spirit, the simple melodies, and the vocal harmonies of the Beach Boys (the novelty of the moment) more than for any specific reason, the Beatles became, despite their limitations, the most successful recording artists of their time. While acknowledging that neither the Beatles nor the Beach Boys were music greats, it must be noted that both were influential in conferring commercial credibility to rock music, and both inspired thousands of youngsters around the world to form rock bands. The same had happened with Elvis Presley. Although far from being a great musician, he too had inspired thousands of white kids, among them both the Beatles and the Beach Boys, to become rockers.

The "swinging London" of the 1960s was a mix of renewal, mediocrity, conformity, non-commitment, cultural rebirth, tourist attraction and excitement, a locus of rebellion drowned in shining billboards, of young men with long hair and girls in mini-skirts, of wealth and hypocrisy about wealth, a city of indifference. La dolce vita, English style. The Beatles were the best selling product of that London, a city full of ambiguity and contradictions.

The Beatles' birthplace was Liverpool. John Lennon was a rhythm guitar player with a skiffle group called the Quarrymen, founded in 1955, before forming the Beatles in 1960 with Paul McCartney. George Harrison, hired when he was still a minor, played lead guitar, with a formidable style inspired by the rockabilly of James Burton and Carl Perkins. They rose through the ranks playing rock and roll covers in Hamburg, Germany, then made their debut at The Cavern, in Liverpool, on February 21, 1961. Shortly after, Ringo Starr was called to replace the drummer Pete Best, and McCartney switched to the bass.

In 1962 two phenomena exploded in America: the Beach Boys and the Four Seasons. Both truly sang, in vocal harmony derived from 1950s doo-wop, which they introduced to white audiences, with arrangements imitating the Crickets.

That was the year the Beatles began the transition from covers to original, melodic, vocal harmonies. One of the first recordings of the Beach Boys had been a revision of one of Chuck Berry's songs, one of the first recordings of the Beatles had to be a revision of one of Chuck Berry's songs. Brian Wilson played the bass for the Beach Boys, Paul McCartney would play bass for the Beatles.

Brian Epstein was the man who scouted them and secured their contract with EMI in November 1961, and also the man who created their image,their clothes, their hairdos (similar to television comedian Ish Kabibble's). George Martin was the man who created their sound.

1962 was the year of Bob Dylan, of peace demonstrations, of songs of protest. Precisely in 1962, far removed, diametrically opposed really, to the events that dominated US society, the Beatles debuted with a 45, Love Me Do, recorded in September 1962, a jovial rhythm and blues led by the harmonica in the style of Delbert McClinton. By the end of the year the song had made the charts. In February 1963, the band reached #2 with Please Please Me. In the space of few months, a diligent marketing strategy, ingeniously managed by Brian Epstein, unleashed mass hysteria. Records sold out before the recording sessions actually began, mass-media detailed step by step chronicles of the four heroes, the world of fashion imposed a new hairdo. Epstein had created "Beatlemania"...

The overflow of fanaticism around them demanded refinement of their style. They began to utilize new instruments. The more they dissociated themselves from their rhythm and blues roots, the faster their style became more melodious. Through From Me To You, the rowdy She Loves You (accessorized with the first "yeah-yeah-yeahs"), and I Want To Hold Your Hand (a heavier rhythm enhanced by clapping, basically a blend of the Everly Brothers and twist), all "number ones" on the charts of 1963, they fused centuries of vocal styles - sacred hymn, Elizabethan song, music hall, folk ballad, gospel and voodoo - in a harmonious and crystal-clear format for a happy chorus. A variant of the same process had been adopted in the United States by the Shirelles. For the most part it was Buddy Holly's jovial, childish, catchy style that was copied, speeding the tempo to accommodate the demands of the "twist". The twist was the dance craze of the moment: fast beat, suggestive moves and catchy tunes. The Beatles sensed that it was the right formula.

In the USA nobody had caught on yet, and only mangled versions of Please Please Me (March 1963) and With The Beatles (November 1963) had been released. In January 1964 EMI decided to invest significantly and I Want To Hold Your Hand reached the top of the charts together with the Beatles' first US album Meet The Beatles (Capitol, 1964). In the States, cleansed at last of the perverted and amoral rock and roll scum of the 1950s, the charming and polite Merseybeat of the Beatles delighted the media. After their first tour in February 1964, and their appearance on the "Ed Sullivan Show", their 45s were solidly on top of the US charts. In April 1964 they occupied the first five positions. After all, their sound was drenched in US music: their vocal style was either that of the hard rockers like Little Richard, or the gentler call-and-response of the Drifters (echoing one another, stretching a word for several beats, screaming coarse "yeah-yeah", shrieking in falsetto), the choruses were Buddy Holly's, the harmonies were the Beach Boys' and the instrumental parts were remakes of twist combos.

The secret of the Beatles' success, in the USA as in the UK, was the simplicity of their arrangements. Whereas the idols of the time were backed by complex, almost classical arrangements, at times even by studio effects, the Beatles employed the elementary technique of surf music, completely devoid of orchestral support and surreal effects. At a time when singers had become studio subordinates, the Beatles managed to reestablish the supremacy of the singer. The youths of the USA recognized themselves in a style that was much more direct than the manufactured one of their "teen idols", and by default recognized themselves in the Beatles, precisely as they had recognized themselves in Elvis Presley after having become accustomed to the artificiality of pop music in the 1950s.

The Mersey sound was designed to tone down rock and roll. Under the direction of producer George Martin and manager Brian Epstein, the sound of the Beatles also became softer. The captivating style of the Beatles had already been pioneered by Gerry & The Pacemakers (formed in 1959, also managed by Epstein). They reached the charts with their first three 45s (How Do You Do It, March 1963, I Like It, May 1963, You`ll Never Walk Alone, October 1963): very melodic versions of rock and roll with sugar-coated versions of rock's rebel text. Practically speaking, the Pacemakers' formula brought rock and roll into pop music. They replaced the rough and crude beat of the blues with the light and tidy rhythms of European pop songs; they exchanged the slanted melodies of the blues with the catchy tunes of the British operetta; they substituted the provocative lyrics of Chuck Berry with the romantic rhymes of the "teen idols." Epstein and Martin simply continued that format with the Beatles. The only difference was in the authorship of practically their entire cache. All the Beatles songs were signed Lennon-McCartney. (This was only for contractual reasons. In reality they were not necessarily co-written.)

The first student protests took place in Berkeley, California in 1964. Young people were protesting against the establishment in general, and against the war in Vietnam in particular. The rebellion that had been seething through the 50s had finally found its intellectual vehicle. The Beatles knew nothing of this when they recorded Can't Buy Me Love, a swinging rockabilly a la Bill Haley, the first to reach #1 simultaneously in the States and in Britain, A Hard Day's Night and I Feel Fine, using the feedback that had been pioneered in the 1950s by guitarists such as Johnny Watson and used in Britain by the Yardbirds. All three are exuberant songs carrying ever so catchy refrains, reaching the top of the charts on both sides of the Atlantic. With these songs and with their public behavior the Beatles showed a whimsical and provoking way to be young. The Beatles were still a brand new phenomenon when A Hard Day's Night - the first surreal documentary about their daily lives was released, and their two first biographies were published. In the USA the marketing was intense: EMI was inundated by contracts to solicit the sales of Beatles wigs, Beatles attire, Beatles dolls, cartoons inspired by the Beatles. America was saturated with images of four smiling boys, the creation of a brand new myth that served to exorcise the demons of Vietnam, of the peace marches, of the civil disorders, of the student protests, of the racial disturbances, of the murder of JFK, of Bob Dylan, of rock and roll, of all the tragedies, real or presumed, that troubled the "American Dream". In the end, it might have all been a form of shock therapy.

Sure enough, hidden behind those smiling faces were four mediocre musicians, and also four multimillionaire snobs in the proudest British tradition. Far from being symbols of rebellion, they were reactionism personified. The Beatles, optimistic and effervescent, represented an escape from reality. People, kids in particular, had a desperate need to believe in something that had nothing to do with bombs and upheaval. The Beatles put to music the enthusiasm of the masses and in return, in a cycle that bordered on perpetual motion, were enthusiastically acclaimed by the same masses.

The best of their cliches is summarized in a famous anecdote. Interviewed during their US tour, Lennon answered the question "How did you find America?" with "We turned left at Greenland!" Beneath this naive sense of humor, anarchic and surreal, lays the greatest merit of the band.

From 1965 the LP, in the preceding years not as important as the 45, became the new unit of measure of their work. The US releases had 12 cuts including the hits, the British versions had 14 cuts and generally none of the hits. A Hard Day's Night (1964) was the first release to contain material exclusively co-written by Lennon and McCartney. For Sale, released immediately after, contained six covers (but also Eight Days A Week, and the melancholic I Don't Want To Spoil The Party). Help (August 1965), with The Night Before and Ticket To Ride, marked the transition from the Merseybeat sound to one oriented more toward folk and country, though some of the songs bring Buddy Holly to mind. The Beatles of these days showed a formidable talent for the melancholic ballad, such as You've Got To Hide Your Love Away, and most of all Yesterday, the slow song par excellence written by Paul McCartney, to which Martin added a string quartet (a song vaguely reminiscent of 1933's Yesterdays by Jerome Kern and Otto Harbach). However, their best work is to be found in more aggressive songs, such as Help, a gospel full of life adapted to their surreal style.

Rubber Soul (December 1965) completed the transition from the 45 to the 33, and also from Merseybeat to folk-rock. Following their U.S. tour, the influence of the Byrds is very strong. The rock and roll beat in Drive My Car and Run For Your Life, the exotic mood of Norwegian Wood (a David Crosby-ian litany accompanied by sitar, an instrument already utilized by the Yardbirds, possibly based on what the Kinks had done a few months earlier with See My Friends) and the timid psychedelia of Nowhere Man cover a vast repertoire of harmonies for their standards. In spite of the fact that the Beatles sought success within rock and roll, it was evident that their best work was expressed through melodic songs. The tender ballads Girl and Michelle (a classic for acoustic guitar, melodic bass and chorus, in the style of 1950s vocal groups) are truly excellent songs in their genre, but because they lack both rhythm and volume, they were considered "minor" at the time.

In 1965 the Beatles recorded another melodic masterpiece, We Can Work It Out, ground out on barrel organ and accordion, inspired by French folk music. They pursued the mirage of the "rave-up" with the hard riff of Day Tripper (borrowed from Watch Your Step of bluesman Bobby Parker), a pathetic response to Satisfaction by the Stones and You Really Got Me by the Kinks. Both songs, hard rockers, had shocked the charts that same year.

The Beatles finally freed themselves from the obsession of emulating others in 1966, with Revolver, an album entirely dedicated to sophisticated songs. The album, extremely polished, seems the lighter version of Rubber Soul. The psychedelic Tomorrow Never Knows (sitar, backward guitar, organ drones), the vaguely oriental Love You To, the classic Eleanor Rigby, the Vaudevillian operetta Good Day Sunshine, the rhythm and blues of Got To Get You Into My Life and Dr. Robert, as well as Rain, recorded in the same sessions (with backward vocals, inspired by the Byrds' Eight Miles High, that had charted just weeks before), are all mitigated by an ever more languid and romantic attitude. The few jolts of rhythm are kept at bay by a tender effusion in I'm Only Sleeping (with a timid solo of backward guitar), There And Everywhere and For No One. With this album the Beatles left behind rock and roll to get closer to pop music, the pop music of the Brill Building, that is, a genre of pop that sees Revolver as its masterpiece. (At the time melodic songs all over the world were inspired by the Brill Building). Of course Revolver was a thousand years late. That same year Dylan had released Blonde On Blonde, a double album with compositions fifteen minutes long, and Frank Zappa had released Freak Out, also a double album, in collage format. Rock music was experimenting with free form jams as in Virgin Forest by the Fugs, Up In Her Room by the Seeds, Going Home by the Rolling Stones. The songs of the Beatles truly belonged to another century.

The formal perfection of their melodies reached the sublime in 1967 with two 45s: the baroque/electronic Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever, released in February, an absolute masterpiece that never reached the top of the charts, the hard rocking Paperback Writer, and the childish Yellow Submarine, a mosaic full of sound gags and barroom choruses. Penny Lane represents the apex of the Manneristic style: Vaudevillian rhythm, hypnotic melody, Renaissance trumpets, folkloristic flutes and triangles. Strawberry Fields Forever is a densely-arranged psychedelic experiment (backward vocals, mellotron, harp, timpani, bongos, trumpet, cello).

Perhaps, the experiments could have continued in a more serious direction, as the intriguing idea of the 14-minute Carnival of Light leads one to believe, a piece recorded at the beginning of 1967 and never completed nor released.

1967 was the year that FM radio began to play long instrumentals. In Great Britain, it was the year of psychedelia, of the Technicolor Dream, of the UFO Club. The psychedelic singles of Pink Floyd were generating an uproar. Inevitably, the Beatles recorded Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

This quasi-concept album was released while the Monterey Festival was consecrating the sanctifiable, the big names of the times. Unlike most of the revolutionary records of those days, often recorded in haste and with a low budget, Sgt. Pepper cost a fortune and took four months to put together. The Beatles soar in the ethereal refrain of Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, utilizing the sitar, distorted keyboard sounds and Indian inspired vocals; they indulge in Vaudevillian tunes such as Lovely Rita and When I'm Sixty Four (a vintage ragtime worthy of the Bonzo Band), and they showcase their odd melodic sense in With A Little Help From My Friends. They scatter studio effects here and there, pretending to be avantgarde musicians, in Fixing A Hole and Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite, but in reality these are tunes inspired by the music halls, the circuses and small town bands. A Day In The Life is the culmination of the relationship between technique and philosophy. It represents the happy marriage between Martin's sense of harmony, employing a 40-piece orchestra in which everybody plays every note, and Lennon's hippie existentialism, that dissects the alienation of the bourgeoisie.

Everything was running smoothly in the name of quality music, now entrusted to high fidelity arrangements and adventurous variations of style, from folk ballads to sidewalk Vaudeville, from soul to marching bands, from the Orient to swing, from chamber music to psychedelia, from tap dance to little bands in the park. Everything had been fused into a steady flow of variety show skits.

Rather than an album of psychedelic music (compared to which it actually sounds retro), Sgt. Pepper was the Beatles' answer to the sophistication of Pet Sounds, the masterpiece by their rivals, the Beach Boys, released a year and three months before. The Beatles had always been obsessed by the Beach Boys. They had copied their multi-part harmonies, their melodic style and their carefree attitude. Throughout their entire career, from 1963 to 1968, the Beatles actually followed the Beach Boys within a year or two, including the formation of Apple Records, which came almost exactly one year after the birth of Brother Records. Pet Sounds had caused an uproar because it delivered the simple melodies of surf music through the artistic sophistication of the studio. So, following the example of Pet Sounds, the Beatles recorded, from February to May 1967, Sgt. Pepper, disregarding two important factors: first that Pet Sounds had been arranged, mixed and produced by Brian Wilson and not by an external producer like George Martin, and second that, as always, they were late. They began assembling Sgt. Pepper a year after Pet Sounds had hit the charts, and after dozens of records had already been influenced by it.

Legend has it that it took 700 hours of studio recording to finish the album. One can only imagine what many other less fortunate bands could have accomplished in a recording studio with 700 hours at their disposal. Although Sgt. Pepper was assembled with the intent to create a revolutionary work of art, if one dares take away the hundreds of hours spent refining the product, not much remains that cannot be heard on Revolver: Oriental touches here and there, some psychedelic extravaganzas, a couple of arrangements in classical style. Were one to skim off a few layers of studio production, only pop melodies would remain, melodies not much different from those that had climbed the charts ten years before. Yet it was the first Beatles album to be released in long playing version all over the world. None of its songs were released as singles.

The truth is that although it was declared an "experimental" work, even Sgt. Pepper managed to remain a pop album. The Beatles of 1967 were still producing three-minute ditties, while Red Crayolas and Pink Floyd, to name two psychedelic bands of the era, were playing long free form suites - at times cacophonous, often strictly instrumental - that bordered on avantgarde. In 1967, the band that had never recorded a song that had not been built around a refrain began to feel outdated. They tried to keep up, but they never pushed themselves beyond the jingles, most likely because they could not, just as Marilyn Monroe could not have recited Shakespeare.

Sgt. Pepper is the album of a band that sensed change in the making, and was adapting its style to the taste of the hippies. It came in last (in June), after Velvet Underground & Nico (January), The Doors (also January), the Byrds' Younger Than Yesterday (february), and the Jefferson Airplane's Surrealistic Pillow (February) to signal the end of an era, after others had forever changed the history of rock music. (Several technical "innovations" on Sgt Pepper were copied from Younger Than Yesterday, whose tapes the Beatles had heard from David Crosby at the end of 1966). The uproar generated by Sgt. Pepper transferred those innovations from the US underground to the living rooms and the supermarkets of half the world.

With Sgt. Pepper, the sociology course in melodic rock and roll that Lennon and McCartney had introduced in 1963 came to an end. The music of the Beatles was an antidote to the uneasiness of those times, to the troubling events that scared and perplexed people. The course had the virtue of deflecting the impact of those events, the causes of political upheaval and moral revolution. The Beatles reassured the middle class at a time when almost nothing could reassure the middle class.

Every arrangement of that period - the harpsichords and the flutes, the prerecorded tracks and the electronic effects - was the result of George Martin's careful production. Martin was a lay musician, a former member of a marching band that occasionally had played in St. James Park. He knew that avantgarde musicians made music by manipulating tracks, that instruments with unusual timbre existed, that rock bands were dissecting classical harmonies. His background, not to mention his intellectual ability, was of the circus, the carnival, the operetta, the marching band, London's second-rate theaters. He took all he could from that folkloristic patrimony, every unorthodox technique. The results might not have been particularly impressive - after all he was neither Beethoven nor Von Karajan - but they were most certainly interesting. He was the true genius behind the music of the Beatles. Martin transformed their snobbish disposition, their childish insolence, their fleeting enthusiasm, into musical ideas. He converted their second hand melodies into monumental arrangements. He even played some of the instruments that helped those songs make history. From Rubber Soul on, Martin's involvement got progressively more evident. Especially with Sgt. Pepper, Martin demonstrated his knowledge and his intuition. The idea to connect all the songs in a continuous flow, however, is McCartney's. It is the operetta syndrome, the everlasting obsession of British musicians of the music halls. The Beatles filled newspapers and magazines with their declarations about drugs and Indian mysticism, and how they converted those elements into music, but it was Martin who was doing the conversion, who was transforming their fanciful artistic ambitions into music.

Around the time of Sgt. Pepper's release, Brian Epstein died. (His death was attributed to drugs and alcohol.) He was the man who had given fame to the Beatles, the fundamental presence in their development, the man who had invented their myth. The Beatles were four immature kids who for years had played the involuntary leading roles in an immensely successful soap opera, a part that paid them with imprisonment. For years they did not dare step outside their hotel rooms or their limousines. As Epstein's control began to lessen they began to look around, to take notice of the drugs, the social disorder, the ideals of peace, the student protests, the Oriental philosophies. It was a world completely unknown to them, full of issues they had never mentioned in their songs. The revelation was traumatic. Epstein's absence generated chaos, exposing problems with revenue, representation and public relations that eventually caused the demise of the group, but it also gave them the chance to grow up.

Sgt Pepper represents a breaking point in their career on several levels. It is a very autobiographical conceptual take on self-awareness. It is a concept album about the discovery of being able to put together a concept album.

Two projects realized with unusual wit also belong to the same period, a period that bridged two eras: the television movie Magical Mystery Tour and the cartoon Yellow Submarine. In both works can be found some of the most ingenious ideas of the quartet. The grotesque schizoid nightmare I Am The Walrus and the kaleidoscopic trip It's All Too Much are exercises of surrealism and psychedelia applied to the Merseybeat. Magical Mystery Tour also includes the bucolic ballad The Fool On The Hill, the psychedelic Blue Jay Way, and the mantra Baby You`re A Rich Man.

Meanwhile the shower of hits influenced by the experimental climate continued: Magical Mystery Tour, the movie soundtrack, with trumpets, jazz piano, changes in tempo, and a circus huckster-style presentation, Your Mother Should Know, another vaudeville classic, the anthem All You Need Is Love, Hello Goodbye, a catchy melody distorted by psychedelic effects, Lady Madonna, the boogie inspired by Fats Domino. But the Beatles still belonged to the era of pop music: unlike Cream they did not pull off solos, unlike Hendrix they strummed their guitars without real know-how, unlike Pink Floyd they did not dare dissect harmony. They were not just retro, they simply belonged elsewhere.

Hey Jude (august 1968), a long (for the Beatles) jam of psychedelic blues-rock, in reality another historic slow song by McCartney, came out after Traffic's Dear Mr. Fantasy and also after Cream's lengthy live jams had reached peak popularity. Paradoxically, Hey Jude established a new sales record; it was #1 on the charts for nine weeks and sold six million copies.

Having established the melodic standard of the decade, the quartet implemented it in every harmonic recipe that arose from time to time. By applying the industrial law of constant revision, they Beatles managed to keep themselves on top. So much variety of arrangements resulted in mere mannerism, meticulous attention to detail and ornament. The albums of the third period fluctuate in fact between collages of miniatures and melodic fantasies, but always skillfully keeping a harmonic cohesion between one song and the other, in the step with - consciously or unconsciously - the structure of the operetta.

By the time of their next LP release they were leading separate lives, each indifferent to the ideas of the others, and their album reflected the situation. It was clear that this new batch of recorded songs was not the effort of a band, but the work of four artists profoundly different from one another.

The double album The Beatles (November 1968), very similar in spirit to the Byrds' Notorious Byrd Brothers (June 1968), is a disorganized heap of incongruous ideas. No other Beatles album had ever been so varied and eclectic. Their new "progressive" libido found an outlet in blues-rock (Rocky Raccoon, Why Don't We Do It In The Road), and especially the giddy hyper-boogies (Birthday and Helter Skelter). As a consequence of this fragmented inspiration, the record includes a cornucopia of genres: classical (Piggies, a rare moment of genius from Harrison, a baroque sonata performed with the sarcastic humour of the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, with a melody borrowed from Stephane Grappelli's Eveline), acoustic folk (Blackbird), the campfire sing-a-long (Bungalow Bill), ballads (Cry Baby Cry - one of their best piano progressions), the usual vaudeville-style parade (Don't Pass Me By, Martha My Dear, Obladi Oblada), and melodic rock (While My Guitar Gently Weeps, the jewel of their tunefulness). The album wraps up with a long jam, more or less avantgarde, (Revolution No. 9, co-written by John Lennon and Yoko Ono) two years after everybody else, and three years after the eleven minutes of Goin' Home, by the Stones.

The so called White Album sampled the mood change of rock music toward a simpler and more traditional way to make music. It was released three months after Sweetheart Of The Rodeo by the Byrds, which in turn had followed Dylan's John Wesley Harding. It is also an album that reflects the passing of Brian Epstein.

In 1968 Great Britain became infected by the concept album/rock opera bug, mostly realized by Beatles contemporaries: Tommy by the Who, The Village Green Preservation Society by the Kinks, Ogden's Nut Gone Flake by the Small Faces, Odyssey and Oracle by the Zombies, etc (albums that in turn owed something to the loosely-connected song cycles of pop albums such as Frank Sinatra's In The Wee Small Hours (1955), the Byrds' Fifth Dimension, the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds and the Beatles' Sgt Pepper). So, with the usual delay, a year later the Beatles gave it a try. Abbey Road (1969), is a vaudeville-style operetta that combines every genre in a steady stream of melodies and structurally perfect arrangements. It is the summa encyclopaedica of their career. It is a series of self-mocking vignettes, mimicking now the circus worker (Maxwell's Silver Hammer), now the crooner (Oh Darling, a parody a la Bonzo Band), now the baby-sitter (Octopus's Garden, in the silly vein of Yellow Submarine), culminating in the overwhelming suite of side B. Starting with the primitive exuberance of You Never Give Me Your Money (a mini rock opera worthy of early Zappa) and Mean Mr Mustard, the suite comes in thick and fast with Polytheme Pam and She Came In Thru The Bathroom Window, and dies melancholically with yet another goliardic chorus, Carry That Weight (that reprises the motifs of Money and I Want You). It is the apotheosis of the belated music hall entertainer in Paul McCartney. And it is, above all, a masterpiece of production, of sound, of sonic puzzles.

As was the case with their contemporaries - Who, Kinks, Small Faces and Zombies - this late album/thesis runs the risks going down in history as the Beatles' masterpiece. Obviously it does not even come close to the creative standards of the time (1969), but it scores well. The result is formally impeccable melodic songwriting, although it must be noted that the best songs, both written by George Harrison, are also the most modest. Abbey Road is their last studio album, again produced by George Martin.

All efforts at cohesion notwithstanding, their personalities truly became too divergent. The modest hippie George Harrison became attracted to Oriental spiritualism. (Something and Here Comes The Sun are his melancholy ballads). Paul McCartney, the smiling bourgeois, became progressively more involved with pop music (every nursery-rhyme, Get Back and Let It Be included, are his). John Lennon, the thoughtful intellectual became absorbed in self-examination and political involvement. His was a much harder and/or psychedelic sound (Revolution, Come Together, the dreamy and Indian-like Across The Universe). They were songs ever more meaningless and anonymous. After all, the break-up had begun with Revolver (Lennon wrote Tomorrow Never Knows, Harrison Love You To, McCartney Eleanor Rigby), and had been camouflaged in successive records by Martin's painstakingly arrangements.

The Beatles adapted their music to suit the styles in fashion: doo-wop, garage-rock, psychedelia, country-rock. Very few bands changed style so drastically from year to year. Perhaps they began to feel obsolete listening to Cream. Cream concerts were the first musical phenomenon in Great Britain to rival Beatlemania. Cream did all they could to make the Merseybeat sound terribly old, precisely what the Beatles had done to the sound of Elvis Presley. In 1969, Led Zeppelin changed completely the importance of radio and charts. [Led Zeppelin is the first enormously successful band whose album did not get any air play on AM radio (only FM) and whose songs did not make the singles charts. The change they brought about was significant because it shifted the importance of the charts from singles to albums. -Translator's Note] Since they used melody as a lever, the Beatles had a relatively easy time in following every shift in fashion (psychedelia included), until hard-rock - the antithesis of Beatlemania - came about. Suddenly the idol was no longer the singer but the instrument, the excitement was generated by the riff and not by the refrain, concerts were attended by multitudes of long-haired men on drugs who gathered on the street, not by hysterical teenage girls who assembled in theaters. Hard-rock negated their simple melodies. It is not by coincidence that the arrival of hard-rock marked the end of the Beatles.

In 1970 the Beatles broke up and every member began a solo career. John Lennon (murdered in December 1980 by a deranged fan) did not do much worthy of the great singer songwriters of the time. Had it not been for his personal and political involvement, and his past as a Beatle, he would not have made it by his music alone. His solo career fluctuated ambiguously between hard-rock and ballads, the utopia of peace and love and domestic romanticism. His solo career actually began with Two Virgins (Apple, 1968), an album he made when he was still a Beatle, in collaboration with his famous second wife. Yoko Ono was the heiress to a dynasty of Japanese bankers, held a degree in philosophy, had been a United States resident since 1953, was a member of the avantgarde movement Fluxus, and was a world-renowned performance artist throughout the 60s. The album was followed by the more experimental Life With The Lions (Apple, 1969) and Wedding Album (Apple, 1969), and also a live album with Give Peace A Chance (a street chorus a la David Peel). Perhaps the best of Lennon can be found in the autobiographical album John Lennon/ Plastic Ono Band (Capitol, 1970), with a vibrant production by Phil Spector. The imprint of Spector's sound can also be heard in the single Instant Karma. Lennon found much more commercial success with the album that followed, Imagine (1971), which contains Imagine, his most famous song, besides Power to The People and Happy Christmas. Peace activism and involvement in humanitarian causes gave the couple more prominence than music ever did. Lennon scored a #1 hit with the duet with Elton John, Whatever Gets You Thru The Night (1974). An embarrassing string of mediocre albums ended with Double Fantasy (Geffen, 1980), released a couple of months before his death. It contains the hits Starting Over and Woman. (it also contains the famous sentence "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans" but that was plagiarized from "Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans" by Allen Saunders, who originated the saying 23 years earlier).

McCartney managed a few albums worthy of the Beatles (as chance would have it produced by George Martin), except they were not called "The Beatles". As a testament to rock consumerism and all the worst the genre embodies, McCartney's songs (solo or in the company of Wings ) regularly bounced to the top of the charts. Between boring lullabies (Maybe I'm Amazed, 1970, Another Day, 1971, Uncle Albert, 1971, My Love, 1973, Band On The Run, 1973, Listen To What The Man Said, 1975, Silly Love Songs, 1976, With A Little Luck, 1978; Coming Up, 1980, No More Lonely Nights, 1984, Spies Like Us, 1985), and duets with other singers (Say Say Say, 1983, with Michael Jackson, Ebony And Ivory, 1982, with Stevie Wonder), McCartney holds the record for the most #1 songs on the Billboard charts. Band On The Run (Capitol, 1973) is perhaps least mediocre of his albums. Mull of Kintyre, (1977) is the first British single that sold more than two million copies. Very few pop singers have been able to release songs so predictable. Each "return to form" album of the 1980s and 1990s was worse than the previous one until Chaos and Creation in the Backyard (Capitol, 2005), produced by Nigel Godrich but mostly played by McCartney himself on all instruments. On the day of its release, Memory Almost Full (2007) was played all day in all Starbucks of the world, widely viewed a divine punishment for its customers. New (2013) went mostly unnoticed but you have to give him credit that his 17th album, Egypt Station (2018) reached again the top of the US charts, 36 years after Tug of War. Forty years after II, the 78-year-old McCartney released III (2020), another album like Chaos and Creation on which he played drums, guitar, bass and piano, and that includes the eight-minute soul jam Deep Deep Feeling.

While a trivial guitarist and vocalist, George Harrison (who died of cancer in November 2001) was perhaps the only one who made songs worthy of notice. First the experimental Wonderwall (Zapple, 1968) and Electronic Sounds (Zapple, 1969), with help from Bernie Krause (No Time Or Space, recorded and released by Harrison without Krause's knowledge nor permission), then the three-record box set All Things Must Pass (Apple, 1970), produced by Phil Spector, a reprise of the raga-psychedelic theme. Set in a bucolic-folk context, the album continues the discourse that Donovan had began in 1967 (What Is Life, Isn't It A Pity, Let It Down, Apple Scruffs, Art Of Dying, My Sweet Lord). This record has nothing in common with the music of the Beatles. A dedicated follower of Hare Krishna, among other platitudes of the 60s, Harrison organized the first grand concert to benefit a nation, Bangladesh, in 1972. In 1973 he recorded Living In The Material World with Give Me Love. Dark Horse (1974) and You (1975) were also hits. After a series of unfortunate albums, Harrison hit the charts in 1987, with I've Got My Mind Set On You, an old soul song by Rudy Clark. The following year he joined Dylan, Petty and Orbison to become one of the Traveling Wilburys.

Throughout the 90s McCartney and a few discographers desperately tried to keep the Beatles myth alive by launching new commercial enterprises geared toward nostalgia. These ventures were followed with interest by the same tabloids that followed Lady Di and Princess Grace of Monaco.

If you want to find out why some critics think that Beatlemania was the biggest swindle of all times, Love (2006) is the album to start with. "Remixed" by George Martin in person, these songs include tunes that most singer-songwriters would be ashamed to use, sitting next to old hits that were as trivial as the worst fluff of the Sixties. The new generations will be relieved to learn that they did not miss much. The old generations will be disappointed to see that the music press has not changed much from the days when the majors told them what to write.

After the breakup, the role of George Martin became evident. We will never know what the Beatles would have been had they not encountered Martin, but we do know who Martin was before he met the Beatles. Even without the Beatles, George Martin would have been himself, a successful producer who reached the top of the charts with a collection of catchy tunes. And we also know what the Beatles were without Martin:four mediocre singer-songwriters. Their solo records tell us how good they were without Martin. Martin died in 2016.

The Beatles made history for their melodies and their arrangements. Beatlemania was created, justifiably, in response to the exuberant rock and roll they played in 1963 with electrical instruments and drums, that managed to revitalize a genre drowned in sugar coated orchestrations supporting teen idols. Revolver must definitely be credited with having created a new sophisticated living room pop art. However, Sgt. Pepper, their most famous album, is nothing more than a hypocritically commercial album, a collection of traditional pop songs masked as psychedelic avant garde music. It nevertheless served as a prelude to the baroque suite Abbey Road, the apex of their formality. Similar parallels can be found in almost every band of those times, but few listeners know the records of those bands.

Even at their best the Beatles did not represent the spirit of their generation. When they tried they were late, or even against the mainstream. At best they expressed the values of the generation that preceded theirs, the 40s. Those values were moral, musical, of the social order, and respect, the very values attacked in the 50s by rock and roll. Thus the fact that the songs of the Beatles were similar in lyrics, music and arrangements to those of Tin Pan Alley should not surprise anyone. Some of those songs will forever be listed in the annals of melodic music: Love Me Do, Hard Day's Night, I Feel Fine, We Can Work It Out, Penny Lane, Hello Goodbye, A Little Help From My Friends, Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds. For what it is worth, the everlasting refrains of those songs took rock and roll all the way down to a level of silliness and childish humor, separating it from its violent rebellious roots.

With out a shadow of a doubt, the Beatles were great melodicists, but at a time when melody was considered a reductive factor. As a matter of fact their melodies marked a regression to the 50s, to the type of singer the recording industry was desperately trying to push on the audience and against whom rock sought to rebel.

The Beatles tried every fashion exported by the US: Chuck Berry's rock and roll, the vocal harmonies of the Beach Boys, the romantic melody of Tin Pan Alley, the baroque sound of Pet Sounds (Beach Boys), the rock opera Absolutely Free (Frank Zappa), the psychedelic arrangements of the Electric Prunes and the like, the hard riffs of the blues-rock jams (Cream), the synthesis of folk-rock (launched by Dylan and the Grateful Dead). Yet the audience credited these innovations - brought about by others - to the Beatles. All things considered, their success is one of the greatest paradoxes of the century. The Beatles understood virtually nothing of what was happening around them, but the success of anything they copied was guaranteed. By buying their records, one bought a shortcut to the music of those times.

The enormous influence of the Beatles was not musical. Music, especially in those days, was something else: experimental, instrumental, improvised, political. The Beatles played pop ditties until the end. The most creative rock musicians of the time played everything but pop ditties, because rock was conceived as an alternative to ditties. FM radio was created to play rock music, not pop ditties. Alternative music magazines were born to review rock music, not pop songs. Evidently, to the kids who listened to the Beatles (mostly girls attracted by their looks), rock music had nothing to say that they were willing to listen to.

They were influential, yes, but on the customs - in the strictest sense of the word. Their influence, for better or for worse, on the great phenomena of the 60s does not amount to much. Unlike Bob Dylan, they did not stir social revolts; unlike the Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead they did not foster the hippie movement; unlike Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix they did not further the myth of LSD; unlike Jagger and Zappa they had no impact on the sexual revolution. Indeed the Beatles were icons of the customs that embodied the opposite: the desire to contain all that was happening. In their songs there is no Vietnam, there is no politics, there are no kids rioting in the streets, there is no sexual promiscuity, there are no drugs, there is no violence. In the world of the Beatles the social order of the 1940s and the 1950s still reigns. At best they were influential on the secret dreams of young girls, and on the haircuts of young nerdy boys.

The Beatles had the historical function to serve as champions of the reaction. Their smiles and their choruses hid the revolution: they concealed the restlessness of an underground movement ready to explode, for a bourgeoisie who wanted to hear nothing about it.

They had nothing to say and that is why they never said it.

Conservapedia proven right

2022-01-12T04:49:44Z

HerbertHumpledinker:

'''''Conservapedia''''' has been proven right nearly 100 times on a wide range of topics including science, politics, sports, culture, and [[video games]]. In many cases, [[liberals]] pathetically tried to ridicule predictions that subsequently rang true:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Date of ''Conservapedia's'' statement
!''Conservapedia's'' statement
![[liberal claptrap]] in response
!Result
!Date of Result
|-
|December 26, 2006
|The [[Nobel Prize]] "selection process has become political, as it was not given to [[Ronald Reagan]] or [[Pope John Paul II]] or to anyone who criticizes the [[theory of evolution]]. The Nobel Prizes for literature and peace are mostly given to outspoken [[liberal]]s, such as [[Jimmy Carter]]."<ref>http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Nobel_Prize&oldid=7393</ref>
|[[Liberal denial]] insists that the Nobel Prize has integrity, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
|Subsequently, the Nobel Peace Prize was absurdly awarded to [[Barack Obama]] despite a lack of any beneficial, meaningful achievement, and even Obama supporters reacted with "shock" and "a belief that the award was premature, a disservice and a potential liability."<ref>http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/10/09/a_weighty_prize.html</ref>
 In 2015, it was leaked that the prize was given to Obama more to advance the liberal goal of nuclear disarmament than "in recognition of what he had accomplished."<ref>http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/opinion/freepress/story/2015/sep/21/president-obamas-nobel-peace-awardregretted-o/326069/</ref>
|October 9, 2009 (award), and March 3, 2015 (unprecedented demoting of chairman who made the award).<ref>http://www.dw.de/chairman-of-nobel-peace-prize-committee-demoted/a-18292026</ref>
|-
|February 18, 2007
|Explained that [[abortion]] increases the risk of breast cancer.<ref>http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Abortion&oldid=14427</ref>
|Strident, hysterical denials by liberals, who oppose even telling women of the possibility of an increase in risk.
|A study published in 2013 showed more than a six-fold increase of cancer in women who had an abortion.<ref>[http://www.indianjcancer.com/article.asp?issn=0019-509X;year=2013;volume=50;issue=4;spage=316;epage=321;aulast=Bhadoria AS Bhadoria, U Kapil, N Sareen, P Singh, "Reproductive factors and breast cancer: A case-control study in tertiary care hospital of North India," 50 ''Indian Journal of Cancer'' 4, 316-321 (2013)]</ref> In addition, another study showed that the "number of young women being diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer has been slowly but steadily rising over the past 3 decades," beginning a few years after ''[[Roe v. Wade]]'',<ref>https://abcnews.go.com/Health/advanced-breast-cancer-rise-younger-women/story?id=18606955</ref> and a massive research project in China showed a 44% increase in breast cancer from abortion.<ref>https://www.lifenews.com/2013/12/02/bombshell-study-finds-44-increased-breast-cancer-risk-for-women-having-abortions/</ref>
|February 27 and December 2, 2013
|-
|March 15, 2007
|Observed that [[Bill O'Reilly]] of the [[Fox News Channel]] is not [[conservative]], and cited several key examples.<ref>http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Bill_O%27Reilly&oldid=37999</ref>
|[[Liberal media]] continued to pretend that O'Reilly is somehow a leader of the [[conservative movement]].
|O'Reilly endorses the [[liberal]]s' amnesty bill for illegal immigration. (Ultimately he was fired for personal misconduct.)
 Fox turned against President [[Trump]] in connection with the [[United States presidential election, 2020|2020 election]], destroying its credibility further.
|June 20, 2013 and late 2020
|-
|May 7, 2007
|The speed of light has declined significantly over the history of the Universe.<ref>http://www.ldolphin.org/recentlight.html</ref><ref>https://answersingenesis.org/theory-of-evolution/evidence/too-many-theories/</ref> Conservapedia has an article on this topic at [[C decay]].
|A far-fetched assumption underlying the [[Theory of Relativity]] is that the speed of light has never changed (in a vacuum), despite the cooling of the universe.
|"So it turns out the speed of light might not be constant after all." <ref>https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn6092-speed-of-light-may-have-changed-recently</ref><ref>http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/184879-einsteinian-error-the-25-year-old-supernova-that-could-change-the-speed-of-light-forever</ref> Research shows that due to the impossibility of a perfect vacuum the idealized concept of 'the speed of light in a vacuum' cannot be achieved in practice.
|March 25, 2013
|-
|August 18, 2007
|Because [[Jon Stewart]]'s movies "almost always do very badly (critically and financially) people say that there is a 'Jon Stewart Curse' that he brings to all his movies."<ref>http://conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Jon_Stewart&oldid=271190</ref>
|His audience of [[public school]] kids is clueless.
|The 2008 Oscars, which he hosted, set the modern record for fewest viewers, and except for one very minor part as himself Stewart has not appeared in a movie since Conservapedia's observation in 2007.
|February 24, 2008
|-
|October 4, 2007
|In 2007, Conservapedia creates its [[Homosexuality in animals myth]] article.<ref>http://conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Homosexuality_in_animals_myth&oldid=308759</ref>
|Liberals tout a supposed "gay [[penguin]]" in a California zoo.<ref>http://americansfortruth.com/2009/07/15/gay-penguin-flies-straight/</ref> Liberals rabidly deny someone can be an [[ex-homosexuals|ex-homosexual]]. Ex-homosexual is faced with a $10,000 fine, spends $7,000 in legal fees, and is forced to go to pro-homosexuality classes by a liberal judge who claimed he engaged in an aggressive behavior in a discussion with homosexual man (during his discussion the ex-homosexual man was holding a baby).<ref>https://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56702</ref>
|In 2009, the alleged gay penguin in a California zoo starts a romance with lady penguin and abandons his supposed male penguin lover. The homosexual activist [[Wayne Besen]] claims the penguin is living in denial and not an [[ex-homosexuals|ex-homosexual]] male penguin. (see: [[Homosexuality in animals myth]]).<ref>http://americansfortruth.com/2009/07/15/gay-penguin-flies-straight/</ref>
|July 15, 2009
|-
|November 24, 2007‎
|Conservapedia states that the homosexual population has a significantly higher incidences of a number of diseases.<ref>https://www.conservapedia.com/Homosexuality_and_health</ref>
|Liberals deny this and refuse to accept the science and statistics.
|The homosexual [[Elton John]] fell ill in 2019.<ref>https://www.express.co.uk/celebrity-news/1196193/Elton-John-tour-health-cancer-songs-David-Furnish-husband-mum-dead-news-latest</ref>
|October 27, 2019
|-
|December 8, 2007
|Conservapedia predicts the marriage of [[Marxism]] and the [[homosexual agenda]] in a [[united front]].<ref>https://conservapedia.com/User_talk:RobSmith/archive5#My_politics</ref>
|Right wing conspiracy theories.
|[[Gay marriage]] becomes the law of the land.<ref>https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/same-sex-marriage-now-the-law-the-land.html</ref>
|June 26, 2015
|-
|January 10, 2008
|Conservapedia observes that [[Shaken Baby Syndrome]] is a doubtful theory by governmental child protective services, which has resulted in dubious convictions.<ref>http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Shaken_Baby_Syndrome&oldid=367617</ref>
|The governmental "experts" must be right and Conservapedia must somehow be wrong.
|Years later, even [[National Public Radio]] admitted doubts about a conviction for Shaken Baby Syndrome, and [[Democrat]] Governor [[Jerry Brown]] commuted a high-profile sentence for it.<ref>http://www.scotusblog.com/2012/04/shaken-baby-case-an-update/#.T4DftOjeRkI.email</ref>
|April 7, 2012
|-
|February 27, 2008
|Conservapedia warns against the [[HPV vaccine]], observing that it was not tested for possibly causing infertility.<ref>http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=HPV_vaccine&oldid=395596</ref>
|How can government and the big pharmaceutical industry be wrong???
|The ''British Medical Journal'' reports on a case study of a severe condition of infertility in a 16-year-old girl subsequent to taking the HPV vaccine.<ref>http://casereports.bmj.com/content/2012/bcr-2012-006879.abstract</ref>
|October 3, 2012
|-
|April 14, 2008
|Conservapedia coins the term "[[media bullying]]."<ref>http://conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Media_bullying&oldid=430832</ref>
|[[liberal denial]] in response
|Prominent African American physician [[Benjamin Carson]] observes, "The bullies are ... especially the media who like to just beat on anybody who doesn't toe the line ... they suppress [[freedom of speech]]."<ref>http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2013/03/09/dr-carson-media-bullies-suppress-freedom-speech-beat-anyone-who-doesn#ixzz2N5XWfVMc</ref>
|March 9, 2013
|-
|October 5, 2008
|Observed that [[Barack Obama]] is likely Muslim and could become the first Muslim President.<ref>http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Barack_Hussein_Obama&oldid=530340</ref>
|While liberals would denounce the religion of Obama's future rival, [[Mitt Romney]], they insist that Obama's religion cannot be questioned.
|Once elected, Obama stops attending church, and he eschews using a Bible for his official swearing-in procedure; [[Obama's Religion|Obama makes it clear that he is likely Muslim]] in additional ways.
|January 21, 2009
|-
|March 24, 2008
|Beginning in March 2008, Conservapedia begins chronicling higher education moral corruption via its [[Professor values]] article.<ref>http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Professor_values&oldid=412536</ref> Starting in 2010, Conservapedia repeatedly warns students about picking their college majors on its main page. See: [[Worst college majors]] Conservapedia also cites [[Gerald Celente]] about future protests in Europe/Europe and cites Celente concerning useless college majors which needlessly rack up debts in young people. Conservapedia warns about a future "higher educational bubble".<ref>http://conservapedia.com/Main_Page/archive91</ref>
|
|Liberal colleges and liberal press do not give enough attention to the issue of picking a college major. Nor does the liberal press sufficiently warn about future protests. Liberal press does not give adequate coverage to the issue of higher education moral corruption. Liberal press and liberal academia do not sufficiently warn about the poor education universities and colleges are often providing.
|
|-
|December 22, 2008
|The theory of [[man-made global warming]] is not verified science, and there is no consensus<ref>http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Global_warming&oldid=592227</ref>
|"The science is settled" that rapid [[global warming]] is somehow occurring, despite much evidence to the contrary.
|In 2011, frigid temperatures, October blizzards, and rejection of the theory by the American public; liberals try to change the terminology to "[[climate change]]"; in 2011 and 2013, even the [[liberal media]] admit there has been no atmospheric warming since 1998.
|July 6, 2011 <ref>http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100095506/there-has-been-no-global-warming-since-1998/</ref>
|-
|August 4, 2009
|Conservapedia indicates that [[Ben Bernanke]]'s investment portfolio dropped in value in 2008.<ref>http://conservapedia.com/Main_Page/Previous_Conservapedia_Breaking_News/Archives/August_2009</ref> In addition, Conservapedia declares, "Given the abysmal economic policy of Bernanke and the [[Obama administration]], Bernanke probably should invest in gold."<ref>http://conservapedia.com/Main_Page/Previous_Conservapedia_Breaking_News/Archives/August_2009</ref> During the period of 2010–2011, Conservapedia cited the investor Jim Rogers who repeatedly suggests that people invest in commodites.<ref>http://conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Special%3ASearch&redirs=0&search=%22Jim+rogers%22&fulltext=Search&ns0=1</ref><ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLL9YdR2y2g Jim Rogers : Missing out on Commodities?]</ref>
|Liberals call Conservapedians "gold bugs"
|As of November 2011, the price of gold has gone up dramatically. The price has gone from about $950 an ounce to about $1,700 an ounce.<ref>http://www.kitco.com/charts/popup/au1825nyb.html</ref>
Price of gold continues to have an overall upward trend. In August 2011, the ''[[Financial Times]]'' has an article entitled "Gold remains world's most powerful trend".<ref>[http://video.ft.com/v/1135911356001/Gold-remains-world-s-most-powerful-trend Gold remains world's most powerful trend]</ref> The Wall Street Journal reports in 2011 that "Companies Stock Up as Commodities Prices Rise".<ref>http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704775604576120533736097682.html</ref> In November 2011, Unilever warns about rising commodity prices.<ref>http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/unilever-warns-about-rising-commodity-prices-6256894.html</ref>
|February 3, 2011
|-
|September 21, 2009
|Conservapedia mentions that some Americans are turning to self-employment during the economic downturn as jobs are difficult to come by. In addition, Conservapedia mentions developing multiple streams of income in case the economy goes into a depression and many people lose their jobs. Conservapedia also gives resources and suggestions for low cost businesses.<ref>http://conservapedia.com/Main_Page/Previous_Conservapedia_Breaking_News/Archives/September_2009</ref>
|The liberal "graduate student at a [[sociology]] department somewhere in the United States" at the Total Drek blog seems to shiver in horror at the hard work involved. In addition, he appears to want people to have a defeatist cry in their beer attitude instead of having a proactive and creative can do attitude.<ref>[http://totaldrek.blogspot.com/2009/09/conservapedia-for-laughs-or-facepalms.html Conservapedia: For laughs or facepalms - Tuesday, September 08, 2009]</ref> In 2011, Conservapedia indicates that a sociology major is one of the [[worst college majors]] to have.
|[[Barack Obama]]'s [[American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009|"stimulus" package]] fails. Many Americans lose their jobs and have their unemployment benefits run out. In 2011, Fox News reports that most unemployed no longer receive unemployment benefits.<ref>https://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/11/05/most-us-unemployed-no-longer-receive-benefits/</ref> Homelessness increases and "[[Obamaville]]s" spring up.<ref>[http://www.thebradentontimes.com/news/2011/11/09/community/national_hunger_and_homelessness_awareness_week_puts_spotlight_on_increasing_need/ The Bradenton Times]</ref> Unemployment in the United States and many other countries remains high.<ref>https://www.bls.gov/fls/intl_unemployment_rates_monthly.htm</ref><ref>http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Unemployment_statistics</ref> In 2011, Cafe Press is selling unemployed sociology major bumper stickers.<ref>http://www.cafepress.com/+unemployed_sociology_major_bumper_sticker,25387924</ref>
|World economy continues to skate on thin ice and the Eurozone is experiencing significant economic problems.
|-
|November 1, 2009
|On November 1, 2009, Conservapedia creates its [[Gay bowel syndrome]] article which concurs with the noted [[HIV]]/[[AIDS]] specialist [[John G. Bartlett]], M.D. that the term gay bowel syndrome is a useful medical term. Conservapedia cites an abundance of evidence relating to the prevalence of the various maladies associated with gay bowel syndrome.
|Liberals, leftists and Wikipedia denied that the medical term gay bowel syndrome was a useful medical term.
|In February 2014, the medical journal ''Current Opinion in Infectious Disease'' publishes a journal article entitled '''Gay bowel syndrome': relic or real (and returning) phenomenon?'' whose abstract summary statement indicates: "All healthcare practitioners (including non-sexual health/HIV specialists) need to consider careful and thorough history taking (including sexual history) to identify those at risk."<ref>[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24335755 'Gay bowel syndrome': relic or real (and returning) phenomenon?] by Cooper F1, Barber T., ''Current Opinion in Infectious Disease'', 2014 Feb;27(1):84-9. doi: 10.1097/QCO.0000000000000032.</ref>
|-
|November 28, 2009
|Conservapedia asserts that the [[Theory of relativity]] is false, and creates the page [[Counterexamples to Relativity]], initially containing 10 counterexamples that include [[quantum entanglement]].<ref>http://conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Counterexamples_to_Relativity&oldid=724599</ref> The page becomes extremely popular, with [http://www.conservapedia.com/Community_Portal/Archive_1#Two_millionth_page_view_for_the_.22Counterexamples_to_Relativity.22_page 2 million page views].
The list of counterexamples grows to 50 over the next decade. Quantum entanglement now appears in items 6 and 21.
|Widespread ridicule across the internet.
Of the first 100 hits (out of thousands) in a Google search for "Conservapedia"+"relativity", 97 were not supportive of Conservapedia's position. The political views of the various authors of those pages are not known, but it's reasonable to assume that many were liberals and many were not.
|The "Biggest Test Yet" shows that Einstein was wrong in his opposition to strict "Copenhagen" quantum mechanics. The test was about [[action-at-a-distance]] ([[quantum entanglement]])<ref>https://www.livescience.com/62523-physicists-crowdsource-a-reality-check.html LiveScience news article</ref><ref>http://www.conservapedia.com/Action_at_a_distance</ref> It was not about relativity. Yet, perhaps because of [[liberal bias]], anyone who questions relativity is unlikely to get a high school science teaching job, much less a PhD or college faculty position.
|May 9, 2018
|-
|January 14, 2010
|Conservapedia identifies the significance of an effort to recall Menendez from office.<ref>http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Robert_Menendez&oldid=744786</ref>
|Liberals stood by Menendez for years.
|Finally the ''[[New York Times]]'' said that [[Harry Reid]] should take a committee gavel away from Menendez.<ref>https://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/09/opinion/mr-menendezs-ethics-problem.html?hp&_r=0</ref>
|February 8, 2013
|-
|March 14, 2010
|''Conservapedia'' predicted that [[Rick Santorum]] was a stalking horse for [[Mitt Romney]]<ref>http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Presidential_Election_2012&oldid=762021</ref>
|Some mistakenly viewed Santorum as the only other option besides Romney, at the expense of [[Newt Gingrich]]
|After taking votes away from Gingrich, Santorum surprised many by dropping out of the race, practically giving the victory to Romney; Santorum then endorsed Romney-like [[Jon Bruning]] instead of the [[conservative]] [[Don Stenberg]] for [[U.S. Senate]] in [[Nebraska]], and then endorsed Romney in a late-night email.<ref>http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/santorum-underwhelming-endorsement-romney-081055500.html</ref>
|May 7, 2012
|-
|April 19, 2010
|In [[Counterexamples to an Old Earth]], ''Conservapedia'' observed that intelligence has long been declining.<ref>http://conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Counterexamples_to_an_Old_Earth&oldid=770704</ref>
|Repeated attempts to remove the insight from the entry.
|A Stanford University geneticist confirms that intelligence has been declining for thousands of years.<ref>http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2012/nov/12/pampered-humanity-less-intelligent</ref>
|November 12, 2012
|-
|May 16, 2010
|In starting the new entry [[Worst College Majors]], Conservapedia observed that "[t]he worst college majors are fields of study that leave the student with relatively few job opportunities and often a distorted or ultra-liberal view of the world. If the student incurred debt in attending college, then he is left with obligations without any practical way to pay for them."<ref>http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Worst_College_Majors&oldid=778795</ref>
|[[Liberal denial]] about several of the examples.
|A study shows that the earnings gap between good and bad college majors is bigger than the gap between a college and high school diploma.<ref>https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/06/05/picking-college-major-mean-big-money/28578259/</ref>
|June 6, 2015
|-
|June 12, 2010
|[[Atheistic]] [[Britain]] would embarrass itself in the [[World Cup]]<ref>http://conservapedia.com/Main_Page/Previous_Conservapedia_Breaking_News/Archives/June_2010</ref>
|[[Liberal denial]] shouts down any observation of the correlation between atheism and underachievement.
|"England's performance at South Africa 2010 was officially their worst at a World Cup finals, according to Fifa."<ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/world_cup_2010/8814195.stm</ref>
|July 13, 2010
|-
|June 30, 2010
|In an [[Letter to Douglas Moo|open letter to a leader]] of a new revision to the [[NIV]] [[Bible]], ''Conservapedia'' expressed "concern that your Committee might produce a liberal translation that distorts and conceals references to the unborn child in appeasement of the pro-abortion position."<ref>http://conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Letter_to_Douglas_Moo&oldid=791512</ref>
|No response to the letter, and a prior expression of ridicule of the [https://conservapedia.com/Conservative_Bible_Project Conservapedia Bible Project] before that.
|The new version [[Feminist Bible|distorts and conceals numerous references]] to the unborn child in the Bible, apparently to appease the pro-abortion position.
|November 1, 2010<ref>http://thechurchofjesuschrist.us/2010/10/new-niv-text-to-be-made-available-online-november-1/ (announcing availability of online version)</ref>
|-
|October 14, 2010
|Conservapedia observes and predicts increased premature graying, for example in Cal Ripken, Anderson Cooper, and Taylor Hicks, as a [[Counterexample to an Old Earth]].<ref>http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Counterexamples_to_an_Old_Earth&oldid=822877</ref>
|[[Liberal denial]] that premature graying is increasing.
|A top actress — Katie Holmes, the (now former) second wife of Tom Cruise — is observed having gray hairs at only age 33.
|April 29, 2012
|-
|January 18, 2011
|Observing that a very large percentage of college students are not developing higher thinking skills.<ref>https://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/01/18/106949/study-many-college-students-not.html</ref> The trend of liberal colleges closing their doors continues.<ref>http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2009/07/09/baldwin</ref><ref>http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/5312/losing_liberal_arts/</ref>
|[[Occupy Wall Street]] and other Occupy protests happen in the United States and in Europe in 2011 and young people are very prevalent in the protests. Some protests turn violent and engage in property destruction. In November 2011, the Daily Mail reports concerning the Occupy Wall Street movement and the trash/garbage associated with it: "If this is the product of our liberal arts colleges, why continue their tax exemptions and tax support? Universities are supposed to produce intelligent people who will make a positive contribution to society. Not these pigs".<ref>http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber/archives/46288</ref> In 2011, it is reported that Occupy movements are littering the streets.<ref>http://www.freestaterevolution.com/?p=1967</ref>

Young Occupy Wall Street protesters are caught on film mindlessly doing a pro-[[bestiality]] chant (see: [[Occupy Wall Street and bestiality chant]]).
|The Occupy movements of 2011 are still prevalent in the world and the unemployment levels of young people remain high.
|
|-
|January 23, 2011
|Conservapedia observes how harmful [[Facebook]] is, and how little is accomplished on it.<ref>http://conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Facebook&oldid=843357</ref>
|Liberals defend their gossipy, ad-driven site.
|Facebook breaks up many marriages, and the "Article Reach on Facebook is Seeing a Huge Decline ... and Facebook has now stated plainly that they expect organic reach to continue to fall."<ref>[http://www.opusfidelis.com/blog/article-reach-on-facebook-is-seeing-a-huge-decline/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Weekly+OPUSfidelis+Blog&utm_content=Weekly+OPUSfidelis+Blog+CID_46b2948b9d2c498c82c9c31369d1dc43&utm_source=Email+marketing+software&utm_term=Article+Reach+on+Facebook+is+Seeing+a+Huge+Decline Opus Fidelis]</ref>
|March 18, 2014
|-
|February 27, 2011
|"Despite wasting millions of taxpayer dollars searching for gravity waves predicted by the theory, none have ever been found."<ref>http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Counterexamples_to_Relativity&oldid=852797</ref>
|The (overzealous) researchers at the "BICEP2" project claimed to have discovered evidence of gravitational waves from the "big bang".<ref>https://arxiv.org/abs/1403.3985v1</ref> This was shot down in 2015: "Gravitational waves discovery now officially dead."<ref>http://www.nature.com/news/gravitational-waves-discovery-now-officially-dead-1.16830</ref> But in 2015 and 2016, gravitational waves from colliding black holes were irrefutably detected by the LIGO instruments. See [[Gravitational waves]].
|The reality of gravitational waves is overwhelmingly accepted by scientists.<ref>http://journals.aps.org/prl/pdf/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.061102</ref> <ref>http://www.ligo.org/news/pressreleases.php</ref> <ref>https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/image/ligo20160211a</ref> <ref>https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/video/ligo20160211v2</ref> <ref>https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/gravitational-waves-ripples-space-time-detected-first-time-n516566</ref> <ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEPIwEJmZyE</ref> <ref>https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/it-wasn-t-fluke-scientists-see-black-holes-collide-again-n593156</ref> <ref>https://www.cbsnews.com/news/scientists-detect-second-gravitational-wave-einstein-predicted/</ref> <ref>https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/news/ligo20160615</ref> <ref>https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/video/ligo20160615v2</ref> <ref>https://phys.org/news/2017-06-gravitational-insight-black-holes.html</ref> <ref>https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-36472434#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa</ref>
|Present
|-
| February 28, 2011
|Predicted that [[Sarah Palin]] will not be the [[Republican]] nominee for president, after observing how [[Facebook]] (which personified her political approach) lost the [[Academy Award]] to ''The King's Speech''.<ref>http://conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Presidential_Election_2012&oldid=852880</ref>
|The [[lamestream media]] continued to promote Palin as a leading contender for more than six months.
|Palin announced she will not be a candidate for the nomination and has lost political influence.<ref>https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/10/105741/</ref>
|October 5, 2011
|-
|July 2, 2011
|[[Chris Christie]] will endorse [[Mitt Romney]] for president <ref>http://conservapedia.com/index.php?title=United_States_Presidential_Race_-_Endorsements_for_Republicans_2012&oldid=944456</ref>
|The [[lamestream media]] insisted that Christie was a contender himself.
|Chris Christie made a special endorsement of Mitt Romney for president
|October 11, 2011
|-
|September 3, 2011
|Large earthquakes are increasing in frequency.<ref>http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Counterexamples_to_an_Old_Earth&oldid=909160</ref>
|Liberal denial becaues this would suggest that [[atheist]]ic claims of a stable [[Old Earth]] are untrue.
|"A remarkable increase in the rate of (magnitude 3) and greater earthquakes is currently in progress," according to a presentation at the Seismological Society of America.<ref>https://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/17/us-earthquakes-usa-idUSBRE83G1FL20120417</ref>

On May 24, 2013, the second massive earthquake in 2013 (magnitude 8 and above) occurred, ''which is more than the total annual amount in each of the past 5 years''.<ref>https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2013/0525/Russia-8.2-earthquake-is-big-but-no-deaths</ref>
|April 17, 2012 and May 24, 2013
|-
|November 2, 2011
|Conservapedia claimed that [[Pacific Institute]] was not a non-partisan environmental group but deceitful liberals promoting lies.<ref>http://conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Pacific_Institute&oldid=933383</ref>
|Pretend that Peter Gleick and other environmentalists don't utilize bad science or push political agendas
|Pacific Institute's president Peter Gleick promoted bad science and pushed a biased liberal political agenda by admitting to fraud in 2012.<ref>[https://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/02/21/climate-scientist-admits-stealing-docs-from-conservative-think-tank/ Climate scientist admits stealing docs from conservative think tank, Fox News, February 21, 2012]</ref>
| February 21, 2012
|-
|January 3, 2012
|''Conservapedia'' declared [[Rick Santorum]] the winner of the [[Iowa Caucuses]] before all the results were in, and despite polling suggesting he would only attain third place
|For weeks the [[lamestream media]] insisted that [[Mitt Romney]] won.
|Eventually the lamestream media admitted that Rick Santorum was the winner
|January 20, 2012 <ref>https://www.politico.com/blogs/burns-haberman/2012/01/santorum-now-the-iowa-winner-officially-111713.html</ref>
|-
|February 7, 2012
|''Conservapedia'' declared [[Rick Santorum]] the winner of the [[Colorado]] primary relatively early in the evening, long before all the results were in, and despite Romney later surpassing Santorum during part of the night
|Liberals delayed for hours before admitting that Santorum would win.
|Eventually the lamestream media admitted that Rick Santorum was the winner
|February 8, 2012
|-
|March 9, 2012
|"Disney movies, which have churned out liberal claptrap for more than a decade, strike out again on opening night for Disney's lame ''John Carter''. The last Disney movie to qualify for [[Greatest Conservative Movies]] was its brilliant Beauty and the Beast (1991)."
|Liberals don't criticize Disney as long it continues to promote [[feminism]] and other liberal drivel.
|The Disney film unit chairman "resigned following the company’s $200 million loss on the science-fiction picture 'John Carter,' possibly the biggest ever for a single movie."
|April 20, 2012
|-
|May 8, 2012
|Observed that [[Rick Santorum]] was a [[stalking horse candidate]] in 2012.
|Liberals were clueless.
|Santorum pulled out early from the race for president in 2016, and surprised other [[conservative]]s by endorsing the moderate [[Marco Rubio]], but as predicted by Conservapedia he [[Expected to endorse Jeb|did not endorse Jeb Bush]].
|February 3, 2016
|-
|June 23, 2012
|[[Overrated Sports Star]] "Tiger Woods -- hasn't won a major tournament in years, and yet he's still all that [[liberal]]s want to talk about in covering golf tournaments."<ref>http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Overrated_Sports_Stars&oldid=989076</ref>
|Hard to dispute this criticism.
|More than six years after Conservapedia's observation, Tiger Woods still "hasn't won a major tournament in years, and yet he's still all that liberals to talk about in covering golf tournaments."
|August 10, 2014
|-
|June 23, 2012
|''Conservapedia'' adds [[David Beckham]] to the list of [[Overrated Sports Stars]] <ref>http://conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Overrated_Sports_Stars&oldid=989076</ref>
|Liberals desperately tried to find a role for Beckham, eventually having him play the absurd part of conveying the torch by speedboat to the Olympic Stadium while the final part of the ceremony was in progress.
|To the amazement of liberals, Beckham was not even selected for the British Olympic soccer team, even though other players over the age of 23 were selected. Subsequently, the media promoted Beckham as the likely final torchbearer, which was instead given to [[the best of the public]] (five unknown but rising young athletes).
|June 28, 2012
|-
|June 23, 2012
|Observing how overrated LeBron James is by the media.<ref>http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Overrated_Sports_Stars&direction=next&oldid=989112</ref>
|Disapproval of criticism
|Despite enormous media hype for James, he and his team were routed by little-known players on the San Antonio Spurs for the championship in 2014. The following year, [[Stephen Curry]] is widely recognized as the best player in the NBA, and he leads the unheralded ''Golden State Warriors'' to the championship and a record-setting 24–0 start in the subsequent season.
|June 15, 2014, and then year 2015
|-
|June 24, 2012
|''Conservapedia'' adds Manning to the list of [[Overrated Sports Stars]].<ref>http://conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Overrated_Sports_Stars&oldid=989247</ref>
|Liberals insist that Manning will be better for Broncos, and pretend that politics had nothing to do with this surprise replacement. The following year the media virtually declare Manning to be one of the greatest players ever, and that praise continued in 2014.
|To the amazement of liberals, Manning throws 2 key interceptions that enable the underdog Ravens to humiliate the Broncos in Denver in their first playoff game in early 2013; in 2014 he throws twice as many interceptions as TDs in a humiliating loss for the Broncos the following year in the Super Bowl; and in 2015 he plays poorly as Denver is crushed in its first round of the playoffs.
|January 11, 2013, February 2, 2014, and January 11, 2015
|-
|August 13, 2012
|''Conservapedia'' observes that nations which adopt [[same-sex marriage]] then decline in competitiveness at the Olympics.<ref>http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=2012_Summer_Olympics&oldid=1000056</ref>
|Liberal denial
|Germany, which rejects [[same-sex marriage]], wins the [[World Cup]] without losing a single game, including a record-breaking 7–1 rout of Brazil in the semifinals.
|July 13, 2014
|-
|September 6, 2012
|''Conservapedia'' added [[God]]-denier [[Lance Armstrong]] to our list of [[Overrated Sports Stars]] <ref>http://conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Overrated_Sports_Stars&oldid=1004539</ref>
|Liberal denial continued about Armstrong, insisting that he be removed from this entry because Armstrong continued to deny the obvious;<ref>[http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Overrated_Sports_Stars&diff=prev&oldid=1004539]</ref> the liberal Olympic bureaucrats refused for months to strip Armstrong of his medal, until after Armstrong admitted his doping.
|Finally and pathetically Armstrong admitted what he had so aggressively denied about doping.
|January 14, 2013
|-
|Fall 2012
|''Conservapedia'' repeatedly predicted that liberals would not allow one of the [[Greatest Conservative Sports Stars|Greatest Conservative Sports Star]]s, [[Tim Tebow]], to have any real playing time on the ''New York Jets'', and that it would pathetically fail without Tebow.
|Liberals insisted Tebow would play if the other QB failed, or that Tebow was not good enough to play, despite how he led the underachieving Broncos to a playoff victory against the highly ranked Steelers.
|The ''New York Jets'' failed miserably while never giving Tebow any real playing time, and the ''Jets'' were eliminated from playoff contention even before the last week of the season.<ref>http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/sports/index.ssf/2012/12/new_york_jets_eliminated_from.html</ref>
|December 18, 2012
|-
|November 18, 2012
|''Conservapedia'' observed that the ''L.A. Lakers'' had packed their starting line-up with [[Overrated Sports Stars]], and then hired their preferred coach despite how a better one was available.<ref>http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Overrated_Sports_Stars&oldid=1019273</ref>
|Liberals thought these players and the hiring of the new coach were good because the media told them so.
|In 2013, the ''L.A. Lakers'' barely made the playoffs, and then were routed by record-setting margins in the first round. Then, in 2014, the ''Lakers'' set a club record for the most ''losses'' in a season, and failed to make the playoffs.
|April 17, 2014
|-
|December 1, 2012
|"Indeed, it is debatable whether black holes exist at all."<ref>http://conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Counterexamples_to_Relativity&oldid=1021604</ref>
|The [[liberal media]] claim black holes exist, so it must be true!!!
|Stephen Hawking admits, "There are no black holes."<ref>http://www.nature.com/news/stephen-hawking-there-are-no-black-holes-1.14583</ref>
|January 24, 2014
|-
|January 3, 2013<ref>http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Fidel_Castro&oldid=1026721</ref>
|[[Fidel Castro]] died in 2006 with a terminal illness in a Cuban hospital. The [[Obama Administration]] knew this and Barack Obama did not visit or even mention Fidel Castro during Obama's visit to Cuba in March 2016. Photos of stand-ins for Fidel Castro were the wrong height, and had him wearing thick scarves on hot days to hide the stand-in's younger neck and lack of wrinkles. {{Fact}}
|Tepid liberal denial because the truth was obvious.
|Officials announce that Castro is dead on the eve of a government mandatory briefing of President-Elect Donald Trump, who would have exposed the lie to the public. Thousands of Marxist liberals then mourn the surprise "death" of one of the 20th century's greatest monsters.
|November 25, 2016
|-
|January 8, 2013
|"The liberal media go along with the communist cover-up about [[Hugo Chavez]], despite how he likely died in a Cuban hospital in December."<ref>http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Template:Mainpageright&oldid=1028225</ref>
|Repeated insistence that reports in the lamestream media that Chavez was alive from December to March, including even a photo purporting to be him, must be true.
|Hugo Chávez is indeed dead, but the [[BBC]] claims he died nearly two months after Conservapedia had already informed the world of that fact.<ref>https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-21679053</ref> It is reported that Chavez's decomposition is too advanced for embalming. Proving he died much earlier than reported.<ref>[https://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/13/us-venezuela-chavez-embalming-idUSBRE92C1GC20130313 Venezuela may be unable to embalm Chavez's remains]</ref>
|March 5, 2013
|-
| February 3, 2013
|''Conservapedia'' observed that extended 35-minute blackout at the [[Super Bowl]] was likely caused in part by the energy rationing mindset of liberals.<ref>http://conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Main_Page&diff=1055150&oldid=1032962</ref>
|It was a faulty relay, the lamestream media and local authorities claimed.
|It was not a faulty relay - relays almost never fail in such a manner, as confirmed by an expert quoted by ''National Geographic''.
|February 9, 2013
|-
|April 23, 2013
|"Tamerlan Tsarnaev probably murdered his friend on a 9/11 anniversary, and DNA likely proves it."<ref>http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Main_Page&oldid=1048618</ref>
|Even though the DNA match is quick and known to the Obama Administration, even though there will be no trial of Tamerlan, and even though closure on the 9/11-anniversary murders would comfort families of the victims, liberals want the DNA match to continue to be withheld from the families and the public.
|More than two weeks later (and nearly three months later for the ''[[New York Times]]''), stories began to appear in the lamestream media that forensic evidence and cell phone records confirm the likely involvement of Tamerlan Tsarnaev in committing the gruesome murders.
|May 11, 2013 ([[mainstream media]] outside of [[New York Times]])
 July 10, 2013 ([[New York Times]])
|-
|June 13, 2013
|Added Tom Brady to the list of [[Overrated Sports Stars]].
|The [[liberal media]] pretend that the self-centered Tom Brady is one of the greatest football players ever, and brag about the multi-many-million dollar home he moved into.
|It was discovered that Brady had probably been cheating for an extended period by using deflated, easier-to-throw footballs in violation of NFL rules, and the NFL suspended him for four games. Brady fought the suspension, refused to apologize for his cheating, and lost on appeal.
 Lacking perfect pass protection and unable to use improperly deflated footballs, Brady demonstrated how lousy he really is by leading his team to an upset defeat at the 2016 AFC Championship game.
|May 11, 2015, and Jan. 24, 2016
|-
|July 1, 2013
|[[Best of the public]] is triumphing at [[Wimbledon]].<ref>http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Main_Page&oldid=1059301</ref>
|"You obviously don't understand tennis!" and "occasional upsets don't result in championships in big tennis tournaments!"
|15th seed Marion Bartoli won Wimbledon in 2013 '''''without losing a set the entire tournament''''', the rarest of achievements; two years later, the women's finals at the U.S. Open in 2015 did not include anyone ranked among the top 20 players; the champion at the women's U.S. Open in 2017, Sloane Stephens, was ranked only No. 934 in the world the month before.
|July 6, 2013; Sept. 12, 2015; Sept. 9, 2017
|-
|July 27, 2013
|Predicting liberal negativity, as required by the [[homosexual agenda]], towards the [[Winter Olympics]] because it was being hosted by pro-heterosexual Russia.<ref>http://conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Winter_Olympics&oldid=1062259</ref>
|Liberal denial
|Russia was spectacular in successfully hosting the Olympics and winning the medals race, and several articles afterward were critical of the media and others in how they criticized Russia.<ref>http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/olympics/bondy-putin-games-worth-weight-gold-article-1.1699246</ref>
|February 23, 2014
|-
|May 15, 2015
|Criticizing the cover-up and the failure by [[Brandon Bostian]], a [[homosexual]] activist, to explain his accelerating a speeding Amtrak train into a curve, causing its derailment, killing of 8, and injury to more than 200.<ref>http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Template:Mainpageright&oldid=1152838</ref>
|The federal government, the [[NTSB]], tries to cover up the wrongdoing and even scolds the Philadelphia mayor for criticizing Bostian; a year later, the NTSB issues a shamefully ridiculous report to cover up the wrongdoing further and even implicitly try to blame the [[Republican]] [[Congress]] for it.
|Bostian is charged with multiple serious crimes by the [[Pennsylvania]] Attorney General, after the local district attorney declined to prosecute.
|May 12, 2017
|-
|August 3, 2015
|Predicting that [[Lindsey Graham]] was merely a [[stalking horse candidate]] who would only temporarily pursue his "far-fetched candidacy" for the [[2016 presidential election|2016 presidential race]]<ref>http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Stalking_horse_candidate&oldid=1167261</ref>
|[[Liberal]]s were clueless.
|Lindsey Graham abruptly pulled out of the race in time to help [[Jeb Bush]] before [[Christmas]], and on January 15, 2016, endorsed Jeb Bush just as ''Conservapedia'' had predicted.<ref>https://www.politico.com/story/2016/01/lindsey-graham-to-endorse-jeb-bush-for-president-217838</ref>
|December 21, 2015, and January 15, 2016
|-
|August 11, 2015
|"Trump will take New Hampshire"<ref>http://www.conservapedia.com/Talk:Main_Page/Archive_index/139#What_if....</ref>
|[[Liberal]]s mocked Trump and thought he never had a chance.
|Trump won New Hampshire on his way to winning the nomination.
|February 9, 2016
|-
|August 11, 2015
|"Different candidates are expected to win the Iowa caucuses and the NH primary, rendering the subsequent primary in South Carolina very influential."<ref>http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=South_Carolina_primary&oldid=1168198</ref>
|
|In both the [[Republican]] and [[Democratic]] primaries, the prediction of Conservapedia came true despite polling to the contrary.
|February 1 and 9, 2016
|-
|September 6, 2015
|Conservapedia launches an "[[unplug the NFL]]" campaign in response to the religious discrimination by the [[NFL]] in excluding outspoken [[Christian]] [[Tim Tebow]], who experts widely agree is qualified to play in the league.
|[[Liberal]] [[double standard]] says religious discrimination against Tebow is OK, even though racial discrimination would not be.
|2.5 million Americans do "unplug the NFL" for [[Super Bowl|Super Bowl 50]], stunning experts who predicted a record TV audience.
|February 7, 2016
|-
|September 20, 2015
|Conservapedia observes that [[Jeb Bush]] is the [[Establishment]] candidate for the [[Republican]] nomination for president.<ref>http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Establishment&oldid=1172191</ref>
|Liberals were silent, perhaps hoping Jeb would defeat his more [[conservative]] rivals.
|Jeb Bush raised and spent far more campaign money than [[Donald Trump]], but was destroyed in a landslide by Trump in the 2016 election primaries. Then Jeb Bush's longtime top political adviser, Sally Bradshaw, left the [[Republican Party]] and declared that she will vote for [[Hillary Clinton]] if the race is close in [[Florida]].<ref>http://www.aol.com/article/2016/08/01/jeb-bush-adviser-sally-bradshaw-gop/21442889/</ref>
|August 1, 2016
|-
|January 27, 2016
|Conservapedia criticizes the [[feminist]] [[Megyn Kelly]] and explains how phony she is.<ref>https://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Megyn_Kelly&oldid=1195188</ref>
|The [[liberal media]] continue to give her a platform.
|[[NBC]] fired her after low television ratings and her comments about "blackface" that were deemed offensive<ref>https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/26/nbc-news-cancels-megyn-kelly-today.html</ref> and untrue.<ref>https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/megyn-kelly-went-our-high-school-no-blackface-wasn-t-ncna925101</ref>
|October 26, 2018
|-
|February 18, 2016
|Conservapedia predicts that Barack Obama will not meet with "[[Fidel Castro]]" during Obama's visit to [[Cuba]], despite how a "Fidel" has met with other leading foreign dignitaries after the severely ill Fidel checked into and probably died in a Cuban hospital in 2006. {{Fact}}
|Liberal denial persists about the obvious [[communist]] hoax in pretending that Fidel Castro recovered and voluntarily gave up power in 2006.
|The [[liberal media]] announce that Obama will not meet with [[Fidel Castro]] during Obama's multi-day visit there, yet the liberal media does not point out that the obvious reason is to avoid humiliation to Obama for meeting with a fake Fidel.
|March 20, 2016
|-
|July 7, 2016
|Concerning [[Donald Trump]] and [[Ted Cruz]], ''Conservapedia'' explained that "Trump is telling Ted that the train is leaving the station now, with or without Ted."<ref>http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Template:Mainpageright&oldid=1245431</ref>
|Political "experts" downplayed the issue of whether Cruz would endorse Trump.
|[[Ted Cruz]] was loudly booed at the [[Republican National Convention]] for giving a speech that failed to endorse [[Donald Trump]], and two days later Trump said he would not accept a belated endorsement by Cruz.
|July 20, 2016
|-
|August 5, 2016
|''Conservapedia'' explains that [[joke sports]], [[political correctness]], endless swimming events won by the same person, and [[liberal claptrap]] by the media reduce [[America]]n interest in the [[Olympics]].<ref>http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Template:Mainpageright&oldid=1268648</ref>
|[[Liberal media]] expects record audiences.
|Viewership is down sharply over the first five nights.
|August 10, 2016
|-
|August 9, 2016
|Conservapedia predicted that in the 21st century Britain would begin to become [[desecularization|desecularized]].<ref>[https://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=British_atheism&diff=1269505&oldid=1269504 Difference between revisions of "British atheism"]</ref> In addition, previously Conservapedia pointed out multiple instances of the foolishness of the [[New Atheism|new atheist]] [[Richard Dawkins]].
|British atheists railed at Conservapedia. Richard Dawkins' fans behaved as if he were invincible. Wikipedia editors whine about Conservapedia taking a "strong critical stance" against public figures such as Richard Dawkins in the Wikipedia article on Conservapedia.
|On December 29, 2018, ''The Times'' publishes an article entitled ''Atheism is down as UK gets spiritual''.<ref>[https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/atheism-is-down-as-uk-gets-spiritual-z00nxczn7 Atheism is down as UK gets spiritual], ''The Times'', December 2018</ref> The [[Elevatorgate]] controversy dramatically reduced the public influence of Richard Dawkins and much public criticism has been directed his way - especially among atheists/[[agnosticism|agnostics]] (See: [[Richard Dawkins' loss of influence]] and [[Richard Dawkins]] and [[Atheist factions]]).
|December 29, 2018
|-
|August 17, 2016
|''Conservapedia'' criticized the [[liberal media]] and one of its favored athletes, Ryan Lochte, for telling and promoting a false tale of armed robbery near the [[2016 Summer Olympics]],<ref>http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Template:Mainpageright&oldid=1271150</ref> which smeared the gracious hosts.
|Liberal denial continued to downplay or refuse to admit the falsehood.
|The truth came out, but l[[iberal denial]] persisted and some continued to defend Ryan Lochte. In 2021, Lochte failed even to qualify for the Olympic team despite much media hype in his favor.
|August 19, 2016, and June 19, 2021<ref>https://www.yahoo.com/now/ryan-lochte-fails-qualify-tokyo-193000794.html</ref>
|-
|October 9, 2020
|Prior to the election, ''Conservapedia'' identifies [[Attorney General]] [[Bill Barr]] as one of [[Trump's inept advisers]].<ref>https://conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Trump%27s_inept_advisers&direction=next&oldid=1692559</ref>
|[[Liberals]] know how weak and inept Barr is, but falsely paint him as pro-Trump anyway.
|Post-election Barr falsely pretended to investigate election fraud in order to say he found nothing, and then abandoned his post with an unusual early resignation two weeks before the protests at the [[Capitol]] on Jan. 6th.
|June 27, 2021
|-
|October 21, 2016
|''Conservapedia'' observed that three effects will boost Donald Trump above his poll numbers in the election:
*Brexit effect - 5 point error by polls due to media bias causing people be afraid to be candid with pollsters
*Arnold Schwarzenegger/Reagan effect - 8-10 points better than polling,[68] due to media bias and also advantage enjoyed by Republican entertainers
*Scott Brown effect - many points due to much greater enthusiasm<ref>http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Talk:Main_Page&oldid=1284862</ref>
|sarcastic criticism and liberal denial
|Donald Trump exceeded the polling by about four points, and won an election that [[liberal]] experts predicted with great confidence that he would lose.
|November 8, 2016
|-
|November 7, 2016
|''Conservapedia'' observed that the second letter by disgraced FBI director [[James Comey]] to exonerate [[Hillary Clinton]] was actually helpful to Donald Trump, because it fed the backlash among the [[grassroots]] at the preferential treatment given to Hillary.<ref>http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Template:Mainpageright&oldid=1288160</ref>
|[[Free trade]]rs at the ''Wall Street Journal'' falsely assert that the letter helps Hillary.
|In the post-election analysis, [[Hillary]]'s campaign confirmed that the letter hurt her even though it purportedly exonerated her.<ref>Fears, Danika (November 11, 2016). [http://nypost.com/2016/11/11/team-clinton-blames-james-comey-for-tuesday-night-massacre/?utm_source=zergnet.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=zergnet_1293073 Clinton aide’s bizarre explanation for Hillary’s humiliating loss]. ''The New York Post''. Retrieved November 16, 2016.</ref><ref>Chozick, Amy (November 12, 2016). [https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/13/us/politics/hillary-clinton-james-comey.html?_r=0 Hillary Clinton Blames F.B.I. Director for Election Loss]. ''The New York Times''. Retrieved November 16, 2016.</ref>
|November 16, 2016
|-
|December 9, 2016<ref>https://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Trump_Supreme_Court&oldid=1293364</ref>
|[[Neil Gorsuch]] supports [[judicial activism]] in favor of the [[homosexual agenda]]
|this criticism was shouted down by [[Fox News Channel]], [[liberal media]], and phony [[conservative]]s in [[D.C.]]
|Gorsuch wrote a sweeping decision for [[liberal]]s on the [[U.S. Supreme Court]] creating a special new right for [[transgender]]s and [[homosexuals]] to sue employers.
|June 15, 2020
|-
|March 21, 2017
|Supreme Court nominee [[Neil Gorsuch]] is not a strong [[conservative]] as pretended by his cheerleaders.<ref>http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Neil_Gorsuch&diff=1323361&oldid=13a06396</ref>
|A torrent of opposition to this criticism of Gorsuch, mostly by [[D.C.]]-based, faux [[conservative]] groups. The [[neoconservative]]-leaning ''[[National Review]]'' claimed that [[Andrew Schlafly]] “smeared” Gorsuch when Schlafly had called into question Gorsuch's supposed "pro-life" record.<ref>Two references:
*[https://www.nationalreview.com/bench-memos/andy-schlafly-smears-neil-gorsuch/ More Andy Schlafly Smears of Trump Supreme Court Candidate Neil Gorsuch—Part 1]
*[https://www.nationalreview.com/bench-memos/andy-schlafly-smears-neil-gorsuch-2/ More Andy Schlafly Smears of Trump Supreme Court Candidate Neil Gorsuch—Part 2]</ref>
|Barely a year later, Gorsuch then provided the swing vote by joining with four [[liberal]] Justices to block deportations by [[Trump]],<ref>https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/17/immigration-ruling-gorsuch-528749</ref> and an analysis of Gorsuch's voting record in his first full Term revealed that he was more [[liberal]] than even Justice [[Anthony Kennedy]].<ref>https://reason.com/blog/2018/06/27/neil-gorsuch-was-more-liberal-than-antho</ref> On June 15, 2020, Gorsuch, along with Roberts, joined the liberal wing of the Court in ruling in favor of including sexual orientation in Title VII of the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]].<ref>[https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/supreme-court-votes-6-3-to-redefine-sex-write-transgenderism-into-1964-law BREAKING: US Supreme Court votes 6-3 to redefine ‘sex,’ write transgenderism into 1964 law]</ref>
|April 17, 2018, June 28, 2018, and June 15, 2020
|-
|March 31, 2017
|[[Dems]] will attain the 41 votes necessary to successfully [[filibuster]] the confirmation of stealth candidate [[Neil Gorsuch]] to the [[U.S. Supreme Court]].<ref>http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Template:Mainpageright&oldid=1327433</ref>
|[[RINO]]s and much of the [[liberal media]] doubted that the Dems would attain the 41 votes needed for a successful filibuster.
|Dems announce they have the 41 votes to block the [[pro-abortion]] nominee.
|April 3, 2017
|-
|June 17, 2017
|"[[White House]] [[Chief of staff]] [[Reince Priebus]] should be fired."<ref>http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Template%3AMainpageright&diff=1354638&oldid=1354549</ref> On July 28, 2017, a Conservapedia admin wrote: "Priebus is going to lose this battle and get fired - especially since Scaramucci is so loyal to Trump".<ref>[http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Talk:Main_Page&diff=1363884&oldid=1363883 Main page talk edit by Conservapedia admin [[User:Conservative]] ]</ref>
|[[RINO]]s rally to his defense.
|[[Trump]] reportedly fired [[Reince Priebus]], although Priebus told the media he resigned perhaps to save face.
|July 29, 2017
|-
|Aug. 22, 2017
|Conservapedia picks up on and publicizes a hint by President [[Trump]] that he would pardon Sheriff [[Joe Arpaio]].<ref>http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Template:Mainpageright&oldid=1369058</ref>
|[[Liberals]] pretend that such a pardon would not be constitutional.
|Trump pardoned Sheriff Joe Arpaio three days later.
|Aug. 25, 2017
|-
|May 2, 2018
|Conservapedia officially declares the Russia collusion hoax to be a hoax.<ref>https://conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Category:Trump-Russia_Collusion_Hoax&oldid=1418861</ref>
|Trump colluded with Russia.
|Hillary Clinton and [[Peter Strzok]] colluded with Russia.<ref>[https://nypost.com/2021/11/09/how-the-media-pushed-hillary-clintons-lies-against-trump/ Anatomy of a media hit job — how press pushed Clinton’s lies against Trump], By Post Editorial Board, ''[[The New York Post]]'', November 9, 2021.</ref>
|May 2, 2018
|-
|June 16, 2018
|Conservapedia points out how [[Kevin Durant]] is comparable in achievement to [[LeBron James]], and yet the media overhypes LeBron James to a ridiculous extent.<ref>https://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Overrated_Sports_Stars&oldid=1428790</ref>
|The [[lamestream media]] tout "Team LeBron" as the Western All-Star team in the 2019 contest.<ref>It should be noted that the teams were named based on their captains, who received the top fan votes in each conference (LeBron in the Western Conference, and Giannis in the Eastern Conference). The teams were not set based on conference (e.g. Eastern Conference All-Stars vs. Western Conference All-Stars), as with other sports leagues all-star games, but outside of the captains the teams were set via a mock "draft".</ref>
|[[Kevin Durant]] carries his side, "Team LeBron," to victory and Durant wins the MVP.
|February 17, 2019
|-
|July 8, 2018
|Conservapedia predicts that [[Brett Kavanaugh]] will be nominated to the [[U.S. Supreme Court|Supreme Court]] by [[Trump]].<ref>http://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Template:Mainpageright&oldid=1432359</ref>
|Judge [[Andrew Napolitano]] said the next day on [[Fox News Channel|Fox News]] that Kavanaugh had been eliminated from consideration.
|Trump nominates Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court just as we predicted.
|July 9, 2018
|-
|September 19, 2018
|Conservapedia predicted: "[[Brett Kavanaugh]] will be confirmed. [[Social conservatism|Social conservatives]], [[religious freedom]] advocates and [[Originalism|constitutional orginalists]] will soon be breaking out the [[champagne]] bottles."[https://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Template:Mainpageright&diff=1449147&oldid=1449146]
|Mainstream media repeatedly featured [[Kavanaugh smear|uncorroborated/spurious/outrageous claims]] against [[Brett Kavanaugh]] and were largely silent about information pointing to unreliability of [[Christine Blasey Ford]].
|Justice Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Right-wing news outlets and websites celebrate. For example, the right-wing website Townhall publishes an article entitled '''Let's Do This': After Owning Liberals Today, [[Mike Pence]] Takes A Victory Lap In Front Of Kavanaugh Protesters''<ref>[https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2018/10/06/lets-do-this-after-owning-liberals-today-mike-pence-takes-a-victory-lap-in-front-of-kavanaugh-protesters-n2526125 'Let's Do This': After Owning Liberals Today, Mike Pence Takes A Victory Lap In Front Of Kavanaugh Protesters], Townhall, October 6, 2018</ref>
|October 6, 2018
|-
|November 10, 2018<ref>https://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Template:Mainpageright&oldid=1466487</ref>
|Conservapedia criticizes the $9M, pay-per-view "Match" between two [[Overrated Sports Stars]] who had not won a golf major in many years.
|The [[liberal media]] promote the contest as though it is something special rather than a con.
|There was widespread criticism of the event afterwards, and refunds were even offered based on technical difficulties for viewers who had paid to watch it.
|November 23, 2018
|-
|June 16, 2019<ref>https://conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Essay:Greatest_Conservative_Sports_Stars&oldid=1531651</ref>
|Conservapedia adds [[Herschel Walker]] to its list of [[Greatest Conservative Sports Stars]].
|[[Demonic]] [[NFL]] continues to exclude Walker from its Hall of Fame, despite how he is #1 in career yardage when his USFL stats are included.
|Walker declares his candidacy as a [[conservative]], with [[Trump]]'s endorsement, for the [[U.S. Senate]] in Georgia.
|August 29, 2021
|-
|October 13, 2019<ref>https://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Template:Terrorism&oldid=1581375</ref>
|Conservapedia recognizes that [[Antifa]] is a terrorist organization.
|[[Liberal]]s continue to pretend that Antifa is a legitimate, peaceful protest group.
|After days of violent protests apparently organized in part behind-the-scenes, President [[Trump]] tweets that Antifa will be officially designated as a terrorist organization.
|May 31, 2020
|-
|October 20, 2019
|Conservapedia observes that [[CPAC]] is drifting away from its [[conservative]] mission, per [[O’Sullivan’s First Law]].<ref>https://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=O%E2%80%99Sullivan%E2%80%99s_First_Law&oldid=1584651</ref>
|[[Liberal denial]] pretends that CPAC remains ultra-rightwing.
|CPAC banishes firebrand Rep. [[Marjorie Taylor Greene]] from speaking at their annual conference, and she has to deliver her speech at a neighboring hotel.
|February 19, 2021
|-
|October 25, 2019<ref>https://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Template:Mainpageright&oldid=1586982</ref>
|Conservapedia recognizes the stunning, unexpected success by the [[best of the public]] ''Washington Nationals'' after they dumped their [[Overrated Sports Star]], as the Nationals swept the NLCS and went 2-0 in the [[World Series]].
|The media-favored ''Houston Astros'' then won the next three games to take a 3-2 lead in the Series.
|The ''Nationals'' won the next two games, including a come-from-behind finale, to win an upset victory and become World Champions.
|October 30, 2019
|-
|March 3, 2020<ref>https://conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Ben_Sasse&diff=1626686&oldid=1451634</ref>
|Conservapedia noted that Sen. [[Ben Sasse]] (R–NE) is an [[anti-Trump]] [[RINO]].
|Liberals believed that Sasse was insufficiently opposed to Trump and continued to label him an "enabler".
|Sasse ridiculously blamed Trump over a breaking and entering at the [[United States Capitol Building]] led likely by [[Antifa]] infiltrators and said that he would consider impeaching him over it.<ref>Swanson, Ian (January 8, 2021). [https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/533302-sasse-says-hed-consider-impeaching-trump Sasse says he'd consider impeaching Trump]. ''The Hill''. Retrieved January 10, 2021.</ref>
|January 8, 2021
|-
|April 8, 2020
|Conservapedia first reports on concerns of the safety levels and type of research going on at the [[Wuhan Institute of Virology]].<ref>https://conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Shi_Zhengli&diff=1636621&oldid=1636490</ref>
|Coronavirus came from people eating bats
|Coronavirus was likely leaked from the Wuhan lab.<ref>[https://nypost.com/2021/08/27/covid-origins-report-says-its-plausible-virus-leaked-from-wuhan-lab/ COVID origins report says it’s ‘plausible’ virus leaked from Wuhan lab], By Steven Nelson, ''The New York Post'', August 27, 2021.</ref>
|August 27, 2021
|-
|April 11 and May 27, 2020
|Conservapedia predicts that flawed studies will be widely publicized to falsely disparage [[hydroxychloroquine]] as a safe and effective treatment for [[COVID-19]]
|The media heavily promote a study published by the prestigious [[British]] medical journal the ''Lancet'', which disparages hydroxychloroquine
|''Lancet'' retracts its widely publicized article in a complete humiliation.
|June 4, 2020
|-
|May 29, 2020<ref>https://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Template:Mainpageright&oldid=1652069</ref>
|Conservapedia was first to point out that the violent protesters of George Floyd were actually white [[Leftist]]s brought in to cause havoc.
|The [[liberal media]] pretends that the protests were organic among the local communities.
|The mayor of St. Paul announces that every single arrested protester was from out-of-state.
|May 30, 2020
|-
|July 24, 2020<ref>https://conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Remdesivir&oldid=1670741</ref>
|Conservapedia observed that "[[Remdesivir]] is an overpriced, mostly ineffective patented medication being promoted by liberals to treat [[coronavirus]]."<ref>https://conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Remdesivir&oldid=1670741</ref>
|[[Liberal]]s at the [[FDA]] and elsewhere continued to promote remedesivir for treating [[COVID-19]] patients, and [[Trump's inept advisers]] even gave it to him rather than [[hydroxychloroquine]].
|[[CNN]] eventually admitted -- nearly 3 months later -- that remdesivir does not help, based on a massive global study. Even the globalist [[WHO]] later said that there was no proof of effectiveness for the drug and advised against using it.<ref>[https://dailycaller.com/2020/11/20/world-health-organization-advises-against-remdesivir-coronavirus-treatment/ WHO Advises Against Remdesivir, The Drug Used To Treat Trump]</ref>
|Oct. 16, 2020 and November 20, 2020
|-
|August 1, 2020
|Conservapedia identifies [[Mark Meadows]] as one of [[Trump's inept advisers]].
|[[Liberal media]] covers for Meadows because he undermined Trump.
|Former Overstock CEO attends a 4.5 hour [[White House]] meeting and exposes Meadows for misleading [[Trump]] and giving reflexively bad advice based on what the [[liberal media]] might think.<ref>https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/12/betrayed-within-patrick-byrne-blasts-white-house-staff-attending-election-meeting-president-trump-sydney-powell-gen-flynn/</ref>
|December 20, 2020
|-
|August 1, 2020
|Conservapedia observes the folly pushed by [[Trump's inept advisers]] for him to shut down the popular TikTok app.
|[[Liberal]]s relished the political impact of such a disruption.
|President Trump overrode his advisers and gave [[China]] 45 days to sell TikTok to an [[American]] company.
|August 3, 2020
|-
|September 17, 2020<ref>https://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Template:Mainpageright&oldid=1687849</ref>
|[[Leftist]] universities try to delay starting their [[football]] seasons until after millions vote, to hurt [[Trump]]
|[[Liberal]]s know that [[American]]s credit Trump with the resumption of football.
|The [[Pac-12]] announced that it would restart its season, but not for nearly seven weeks: the first weekend '''''after''''' [[Election Day]].
|September 24, 2020
|-
|October 2020<ref>https://conservapedia.com/index.php?title=United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections,_2020&offset=&limit=500&action=history</ref>
|Conservapedia notes election ratings "experts" such as the Cook Political Report to be increasingly unreliable.
|Liberals in addition to [[MSM]] outlets like ''[[The Hill]]'' glorify Cook as if it was an extremely reliable source.
|Cook Political Report rated several House elections as "tossup" or "Lean D", and the Republican candidates there were victorious by significant margins. They considered [[Florida]]'s 27th district to be "Likely D", and the Republican candidate there won as well.
|November 4, 2020
|-
|October 9, 2020<ref>https://conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Trump%27s_inept_advisers&oldid=1694210</ref>
|Conservapedia adds [[Bill Barr]] to the list of [[Trump's inept advisers]].
|[[Liberals]] criticize Barr as though he were doing something, when he was not.
|Barr resigns two months later, giving [[Trump]] only 9 days notice of leaving the job.
|December 14, 2020
|-
|Late October 2020<ref>https://conservapedia.com/index.php?title=United_States_Senate_elections,_2020&offset=&limit=500&action=history</ref>
|Conservapedia notes that the projected [[RCP]] averages for the [[2020 U.S. Senate elections|2020 Senate races]] are likely skewed to the left.
|[[Liberals]] and the [[MSM]] continued to promote the notion that the Republicans may likely lose crucial Senate seats, citing the polling included in the RCP aggregates.
|Final Senate results showed that most of the [[Republican]] candidates outperformed the projected [[RCP]] average by at least several percentage points.
|November 4, 2020
|-
|December 14, 2020<ref>https://conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Trump%27s_inept_advisers&oldid=1713263</ref>
|Conservapedia observes that [[Mike Pence]] is inept and weak.
|[[Liberals]] and some members of the "religious right" insist that Pence is capable and strong.
|Pence caves completely into [[liberal]]s on the issue of [[Objectors to Biden Electors|objecting to Biden electors]].
|January 6, 2021
|-
|May 18, 2021<ref>https://conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Political_logic&oldid=1756734</ref>
|Conservapedia predicts that only a [[NFL sham tryouts|sham tryout]] will be given by the [[NFL]] to the [[Bible]]-quoting [[Tim Tebow]].
|[[Liberal]]s perpetuate their fiction that the NFL will be fair to the outspoken [[Christian]].
|Tebow is prematurely cut without being allowed to compete on a special teams play (essential to his sought-for position) or receive a single bona fide pass. His coach then declared that Tebow's NFL career was likely over, which coaches never ordinarily do.
|Aug. 17, 2021
|-
|July 6, 2021<ref>https://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Template%3AMainpageright&diff=1775683&oldid=1775663</ref>
|Conservapedia states that the [[COVID vaccine]] does not stop the spread of [[coronavirus]].
|[[Liberal censorship]] savages anyone who questions the [[vaccine]] strategy.
|The [[CDC]] demands that vaccinated persons wear masks because they "carry about the same amount of the coronavirus as those who are unvaccinated."<ref>https://www.deccanherald.com/international/vaccinated-people-can-carry-as-much-virus-as-unvaccinated-cdc-study-1014944.html</ref>
|July 30, 2021
|-
|July 15, 2021
|Conservapedia mentions that [[U.S.]] women's soccer is a leading candidate at the [[2021 Summer Olympics]] for the unsportsmanlike conduct of “acting rudely after a disappointing result.”<ref>https://www.conservapedia.com/index.php?title=2021_Summer_Olympics&oldid=1778213</ref>
|[[Liberal media]] continue to overhype the [[U.S.]] women's soccer team.
|After [[Canada]] eliminated the team from gold medal contention, a leading player (and former captain) of the U.S. women's soccer declared that “Obviously, we never want to lose to Canada. I don’t think I’ve ever lost to Canada.”<ref>https://www.breitbart.com/sports/2021/08/02/megan-rapinoe-throws-shade-after-olympic-loss-obviously-you-dont-want-lose-canada/</ref>
|August 2, 2021
|-
|October 27, 2021
|Anticipated the surprise victory in the [[Virginia]] gubernatorial election against the [[Bill Clinton|Clinton]]-[[Obama]]-[[Biden]] machine, and posted a cartoon about the [[transgenderism]] issue in controversy.<ref>https://conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Template:Mainpageleft&oldid=1808112</ref>
|[[Kamala Harris]] declared that the Virginia outcome would be the way of the future, expecting [[liberal]]s to win.
|[[Bill Clinton]] crony [[Terry McAuliffe]] was defeated by a little-known Republican in a massive upset, and [[Dem]]s lost their majority in the Virginia Assembly.
|November 2, 2021
|-
|November 10, 2021<ref>https://conservapedia.com/index.php?title=Template:Mainpageleft&oldid=1811655</ref>
|[[File:Phyllis Schlafly cartoon Never-Trumpers 11-10-21.png|200px]]
|[[Liberal media]] continues to defend turncoat, [[neocon]] [[Liz Cheney]].
|[[Wyoming]] [[Republican Party]] votes to no longer recognize Liz Cheney as a Republican.
|November 13, 2021
|-
|November 30, 2021
|Predicted that the Michigan 15-year-old school shooter who killed 4 was a [[video game|violent video game]] user.
|[[Liberal media]] looks for any way to somehow blame [[Donald Trump]].
|''The Daily Beast'' later confirmed that the shooter was a violent video game player (including ''[[Call of Duty]]'') as a young boy, even having posted such videos of himself playing video games to YouTube.<ref>https://www.thedailybeast.com/ethan-crumbley-identified-as-oxford-high-school-michigan-mass-shooter?ref=home</ref>
|December 1, 2021
|-
|January 10, 2022
|Predicted that evidence would come out that trans people are hot and generally cooler than cis people
|[[Liberal media]] looks for any way to argue that transgender people are immoral
|The based department later confirmed that trans people are in fact based and that gay sex cures cancer.
|January 12, 2021
|}

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

[[Category:Conservapedia]]