The Conservative TreeHouse, also known as The Last Refuge, is a right-leaning website and collective with freedom and liberty as some of its central values.
It provides an alternative news source to the mainstream media and a way for people to come together and discuss various political issues and current events with like-minded people.
However, what is The Conservative Treehouse really about? How was it started, who is behind it, and why was it started?
Today, I will be reviewing The Conservative Treehouse, providing some background history on the site and its creators and revealing more about why and how it came about.
The Conservative Treehouse History
On the About page of The Conservative TreeHouse, the goals and mission of the site are laid out pretty clearly. It has several points in its mission statement, including:
- Not tolerating hate and division
- Upholding faith in a loving God
- Affirming the dignity and right to privacy of the members of The Conservative Treehouse
- Accurately disseminating the truth
It also calls itself the Last Refuge because it acts as a last refuge for people who are unhappy with the current political environment in the United States and the way society is.
Whether you don’t believe in current governmental policies or just hate the “liberal media,” The Conservative Treehouse aims to provide a safe place for conservatives to get quality news and information that the mainstream media may be hiding.
However, not much is known about the history of the Conservative Treehouse or its owner. According to the ICANN lookup tool, TheConservativeTreehouse.com was first created in 2011, over a decade ago.
However, the owner is not revealed, as the registration is private, so we don’t know who actually owns the Conservative Treehouse. There are various writers contributing to the blog, with usernames such as Sundance and Menagerie, but there is not much information about them either.
On the about page of The Conservative Treehouse, there is no information about who the owner is, only what the site is aiming to provide.
It does reveal a lot about the creator’s viewpoints, though. He certainly identifies as a conservative and feels like modern liberals are trying to control the world.
He also believes that conservatism is about self-empowerment and that the conservative has internal strength that provides happiness, while the liberal is always trying to blame others and never accepts responsibility for their own actions.
One thing notable about The Conservative Treehouse’s about page is that it talks in terms of “we,” suggesting that there is more than one creator or director of the site. However, it is not entirely clear if that is the case or how many owners there are.
What is clear is that The Conservative Treehouse’s owner is trying to maintain anonymity. That is not surprising and very understandable.
In this day and age, where “doxxing” is commonplace, it is often better for people to hide their identities online. If you are running a controversial site such as The Conservative Treehouse, that is even more important for your own safety.
Nevertheless, the owner’s name has leaked, and while his identity can not be proved 100% without a doubt, he has been referred to as someone by the name of Mark Bradman.
That is the man behind the “Sundance” username – the author of most of the blog posts on The Conservative Treehouse.
The Daily Beast is one of the most prominent outlets to identify Sundance as Mark Bradman in a blog post. He has also been identified as Mark Bradman in an AIM4Truth blog post.
According to one of the most famous conservative radio talk show hosts in the United States, Mark Levin, Mark Bradman is just a disgruntled former grocery clerk. He used to have a job working in Publix, a supermarket chain.
There was a bit of a feud between Mark Bradman and Mark Levin, with Bradman accusing Levin of being in the tank of Senator Ted Cruz’s campaign back in 2016. Bradman is a big Trump supporter.
You may think that The Conservative Treehouse is some inconsequential site, but the truth is that it is actually well-known in conservative circles. In fact, Donald Trump liked the site and even retweeted it at times.
Furthermore, the commenters and authors on the site were influential in spreading certain conspiracy theories and ideas, especially during the Zimmerman trial.
The Conservative Treehouse Traffic
It is not precisely clear how much traffic The Conservative Treehouse gets every month, as different estimation tools give different numbers.
Ultimately, while all of these estimation tools are helpful, the only person who can really know how much traffic a site is getting is the site’s owner – assuming they are using a tool like Google Analytics to track their website traffic.
According to SimilarWeb, the site gets between two million visits to three million visits per month, depending on the month. Most likely, when The Conservative Treehouse is in the news due to some controversial opinion on a current event, traffic spikes.
That might seem like quite a lot. Other traffic estimation sites are not so generous.
For example, Ahrefs Traffic Checker gives a rough estimate of around 136,000 visits per month, which is just a fraction of the previous estimate. However, that only accounts for organic traffic – traffic coming from organic searches.
Many of the site’s visitors likely visit the site directly. After all, the site has a core group of fans who visit it regularly and join the discussions (which they call branches) in the comment sections.
The Conservative Treehouse Reviews
The Conservative Treehouse has proven controversial even in conservative circles. Some people have praised it, but others accuse it of spreading false and misleading conspiracy theories that have no basis in reality and ruining the good name of conservatives.
Media Bias, in its review, gave The Conservative Treehouse a “Low” score. It characterizes The Conservative Treehouse as a questionable source.
Media Bias classifies the following types of sites as questionable sources:
- Those with extreme bias
- Those that promote conspiracy theories or propaganda
- Those that don’t have any sourcing or only have poor sourcing
- Those that spread fake news
According to Media Bias, the site has failed numerous fact checks and promotes conspiracy theories with no basis in reality. It achieved a low credibility score.
Some of the reasons for the low score were that The Conservative Treehouse spreads:
- Propaganda
- Fake news
- False claims
According to FactCheck.org, an organization working with Facebook to debunk fake news, The Conservative Treehouse “sometimes” spreads misinformation. It also uses Domains by Proxy to hide the owner registration information.
According to an article in USA Today, The Conservative Treehouse misstated the estimated viewers for Biden’s Address to Congress on his 100th day in office, saying it had less than 12 million viewers on TV when, in fact, it had almost 27 million.
Not only that, but according to HealthFeedback.org, The Conservative Treehouse (aka The Last Refuge) misrepresented a study by researchers and claimed that the study said the opposite of what it really said. Therefore, you can’t really rely on The Conservative Treehouse, even when it cites a source, as it might be misrepresenting or twisting what the source said.
All in all, we can see that The Conservative Treehouse has issues when it comes to reliability. While it might be interesting to read, you can’t believe everything it says, and you must take any claim it makes with a grain of salt.
With that being said, the site is legit in the sense that it does not spam you or spread viruses. It is safe to visit the site, according to EasyCounter, which aggregates information from sites like SiteAdvisor and MyWOT.
On EasyCounter, there are only a few reviews, with most of them being positive (although one reviewer accurately points out that their review focuses on the safety of The Conservative Treehouse as it relates to viruses and spam rather than the accuracy of the information on it).
On MyWOT itself, it currently has a rating of 3.5 (with a trustworthiness score of 70/100 – this score refers to the reliability of the reviews). However, most of the negative reviews seem to be politically motivated, and they do not say that the site has fraudulent or spreads malware.
Overall, it is pretty safe to say that it is okay to visit The Conservative Treehouse from a cybersecurity perspective, and you should not expect any kind of viruses or safety issues from doing so. Nevertheless, if you are looking for a trustworthy source of information, it’s probably not the best place to go.
Alternatives to The Conservative Treehouse
In either case, there are alternatives to The Conservative Treehouse, whether you are looking for a site that does not push such outlandish theories or you simply want a different crowd to hang out with online – conservatives with different viewpoints, perhaps.
Besides, Sundance isn’t a very good writer, to be honest. There are conservative sites with much better writers who actually tackle real issues.
There are many conservative sites that are reliable – you don’t have to rely on sites that have pushed unsubstantiated conspiracy theories or which misstate studies and misrepresent information.
Here are the best alternatives to The Conservative Treehouse for conservatives and everyone interested in news stories not being covered by the mainstream media.
1. Zero Hedge
Zero Hedge tackles issues that the mainstream media and even other conservative sites do not. It does honest, thorough reporting of real issues, and it has excellent writers.
One of the things that characterize it is that its investigative journalists really do an exceptional job of discovering information.
It focuses a lot on financial and economic news, but not exclusively. One of its recent headlines is, “SEC Charges Mormon Church For Concealing $32 Billion Portfolio.”
That’s just one example of a story you might not see elsewhere. It also has a lot of opinion pieces that are interesting to read.
Find out more platforms like Zero Hedge in this post.
2. The Federalist
The Federalist is a conservative news site and news aggregator. One of its most recent headlines is, “The ‘Twitter Files’ Reveal Big Tech’s Unholy Alliance With The Feds Exists To Control You.”
It also has various categories, such as:
- Corruption
- Foreign Policy
- Economics
- Politics
The articles provide an interesting read, and it’s one conservative news site worth bookmarking. If you enjoy listening to conservative podcasts, The Federalist’s podcast is also a good choice.
3. Newsmax
Newsmax is one of the bigger entries on our list. Not only is it a digital news provider, but it actually provides cable news as well, which is rare for a right-leaning news provider.
It is one of the most powerful voices in conservative media, shaping public opinion and shaping conservative news coverage overall. It has also been around since 1998, long before most other conservative news providers, and while it has attempted to position itself as a competitor to Fox News, it has not quite been successful, as it is not nearly as large.
Donald Trump promoted Newsmax, which was a strong promoter of Trump. Newsmax also leans more to the right of Fox News, so if you are one of those conservatives disgruntled with Fox News but not quite a conspiracy theorist, Newsmax is a great alternative to The Conservative Treehouse.
Nevertheless, in an interview, founder Christopher Ruddy said that Newsmax would always be an independent news channel and would never become Trump TV.
4. Breitbart
Breitbart is another major force in conservative media. Founded in 2007 by Andrew Breitbart, one of the most famous and influential conservative pundits, it underwent some leadership changes once Andrew Breitbart died in 2012.
Once that happened, Breitbart shifted more to the right, under the leadership of Steve Bannon, who later became a Trump advisor. Eventually, it lost a significant portion of its leadership, but it still remains one of the most well-known names in conservative news.
5. Taki’s Magazine
Taki’s Magazine is not really as well known as many of the others, but it’s still an excellent site to bookmark if you are looking for conservative news.
It is a bit different from many of the others. According to the site, it does not believe in political labels, such as liberal or conservative.
If you are looking for an honest, freedom-loving site without labels such as “right-wing” or “conservative,” it might be the best alternative to The Conservative Treehouse for you.
The site’s name takes after its publisher, Taki Theodoracopulos. However, many people write for the site – in fact, you can submit an article via email yourself, although there is no guarantee it will be published.
One of the things I like about Taki’s Magazine is that it has some fascinating and thoughtful opinion pieces about various topics, ranging from Russia to general life stuff. I strongly recommend it.
6. The Gateway Pundit
Founded in 2004, The Gateway Pundit is one of the best alternatives to The Conservative Treehouse. It was actually granted White House press credentials by the Trump administration, setting it apart from most conservative news and opinion blogs, which do not have those credentials.
That meant its reporters were able to attend White House press briefings and ask the press secretary questions at those meetings.
In any case, The Gateway Pundit is a good site, with various breaking news stories you won’t find elsewhere.
7. Project Veritas
One of the best alternatives to The Conservative Treehouse is Project Veritas, founded by James O’Keefe in 2011. It does investigative journalism and breaks new stories often.
A lot of its investigative journalism work is undercover, secretly recording people and discovering what they are saying when they think they are not being recorded.
It has a whole page proving that it has been recognized as a group of legitimate journalists by some prominent organizations, such as the ACLU.
For shocking and eye-opening videos and stories, check out Project Veritas.
8. Infowars
Infowars, run by Alex Jones, is an interesting alternative to The Conservative Treehouse. While it has also been accused of spreading false information, it is a lot more well-known and respected.
It has some great stories, so check it out. One of the things about Infowars is that it is pretty entertaining.
A Note
While all of these alternatives to The Conservative Treehouse are great sites, you should always take them with a grain of salt. At the end of the day, many of these sites spread unreliable information and sketchy stories from time to time, especially sites such as Infowars.
As a general rule, never rely on what you read online to be true. Always do your own investigative reporting and try to get to the root of each issue yourself.
Wrapping It Up
The Conservative Treehouse is a safe site to visit, but much of the information there is not reliable. Besides, the writers aren’t that good.
There are tons of better conservative news channels to read and watch if you don’t like the mainstream media. Newsmax, Breitbart, Zero Hedge, Project Veritas, and The Gateway Pundit are some of my favorite choices.
