WTW89: PragerU Is Not a Grift and That Is Actually More Concerning.

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors — the audio is the record.

0:00:03 Clip: What's so scary about the woke mob? How often you just don't see them coming. Anywhere you see diversity, equity, and inclusion, you see Marxism and you see woke principles being pushed. Wokeness is a virus more dangerous than any pandemic hands down. The woke monster is here and it's coming for everything.

0:00:33 Clip: Instead of go-go boots, the seductress green M&M will now wear sneakers.

0:00:41 Thomas: Hello, and welcome to Where There's Woke. This is episode 89. I'm Thomas. That over there is Lydia. A prager to you.

0:00:47 Lydia: And a prager to you.

0:00:50 Thomas: I'm supposed to say a prager you too, because this is the second episode of Prager U. Oh, sorry. Hold on. We want to do my full title. Oklahoma certified teacher, Thomas Smith, professor, Mr. Smith, everyone. Everyone. Teaching PE, I can't teach anything else. I could teach math, actually. I can teach math or PE. That's all I got.

0:00:53 Lydia: I know I've gotten like religious mode. Certified. Yes. He is the certificate to prove it, guys.

0:01:13 Lydia: Yeah. And all the gender questions that they throw at you during math.

0:01:15 Thomas: Computers. Oh yeah, that's right. All the subjects now are just who has a penis and who has a vagina. That is the entire curriculum of red states. So anyone could teach that. That Is easy. Are you certified or is it just me? I think you are too. We are as a couple. Yeah. All right. Well, we are moving to Oklahoma, everybody.

0:01:31 Lydia: I think our whole show is certified. Maybe our patrons are also certified. Maybe that's one of the patron benefits. Fits.

0:01:36 Thomas: I will tell you, they all could easily be by going and taking the easiest fucking stupid nonsense test I've ever heard of. Sorry, we're moving on from that. What are we talking about today?

0:01:43 Lydia: We are moving on from the test. Today, we're going to talk about the second reason why I wanted to discuss PragerU, and it involves our friends at the White House.

0:01:52 Thomas: I don't have any friends at the White House.

0:01:53 Lydia: Yeah, I know, me neither.

0:01:55 Thomas: Even in the best of days, I don'T have any. All right.

0:01:58 Lydia: There's some particularly creepy reasons why we're gonna be talking about that. And then, of course, we have to dig into what Prager U is, who's behind it, the funding, the content, tent and debunking some of the videos that they have going on on their website. So we got a lot to do today.

0:02:16 Thomas: Well, I'm excited to get to it. Hey, if people want to support the show and this kind of stuff and, you know, as teachers, teacher salaries, especially in Oklahoma, they're not much. If you want to help us out. Yeah.

0:02:25 Lydia: A meager bonus that Ryan Walters offered us too is $43.

0:02:29 Thomas: We have to bring supplies and an entire classroom and apparently a curriculum because they don't give us one other than gender or whatever

0:02:36 Lydia: Well, we have the PragerU lesson plans we can download. So they

0:02:39 Thomas: Still they should support us and where can they do

0:02:43 Lydia: Can do that at patreon.com/wheretheresWoke.

0:02:46 Thomas: That thanks so much wokies is that our name for them I forget thanks wokies you guys are

0:02:48 Lydia: Yeah, they're the wokies. They are awesome. They're the best.

0:02:52 Thomas: Awesome all right well after this break we'll get to

0:02:58 Ad: [Ad break 1 — ad music]

0:02:58 Lydia: Before we get deeper into to who PragerU is and why people are worried that they might become the new PBS, I'm going to make us watch one of their videos that they made for the Founders Museum. And I'm gonna warn you, it's fucking creepy.

0:03:10 Thomas: It cool oh creepy huh okay I was expecting oh oh

0:03:27 Clip: I am John Adams. Blunt. Stubborn.

0:03:29 Lydia: So we get an AI John Adams. The portrait of John Adams comes to life.

0:03:34 Thomas: It's a portrait and then it haunts your dreams it's in your closet right now when you go to sleep tonight god good thing this is the only reason we play this is because it's audio medium we don't oh this is The Official White House too sorry if I might have spaced on that oh they've turned comments off on the YouTube oh my god

0:03:54 Lydia: Yeah also you can go through like there's a physical museum in the white house and you can scan the qr code while you're visiting portraits to then be

0:04:04 Thomas: Haunted get your free hot things here

0:04:04 Lydia: Yeah literally like taken possession of by these ai videos

0:04:09 Thomas: Okay do we want to hear what this says or just it was that creepy okay I want to watch that fucking horror movie transitioning I know this isn't this is just for me purely for me. I know the listeners got nothing. Oh, wow. Yeah, that's that's scary.

0:04:11 Lydia: Oh yes you have to keep going yeah oh

0:04:26 Clip: I am John Adams, blunt, stubborn, and the indispensable voice for independence in the It called me obnoxious and disliked.

0:04:35 Thomas: What is what? What was that accent? If this is AI?

0:04:42 Lydia: My god they're all so bad they're also bad

0:04:44 Thomas: Yeah, well, I mean, to be fair, I don't know that we know exactly what they would have sounded like at that precise time. It's going to be some combination of like they're not that far away from, you know, British accent. But that that went into like Cockney for a second and then it was like Irish. I don'T know what the computer thinks.

0:04:57 Lydia: It's very

0:05:01 Clip: Facts are stubborn things, and whatever may be our wishes or inclinations, they cannot In other words, friend, facts do not care about our feelings.

0:05:13 Thomas: I was literally just going to make the joke that he's going to say facts don't care about your feelings I wish I didn't have the subtitles on because I still would have said it jesus

0:05:14 Lydia: Strange yep yep yeah

0:05:24 Clip: While Jefferson penned the Declaration, I drove the debate, won the votes, and dared to speak when others hesitated. I stood on principle, even when it cost me popularity. My Abigail, my conscience, my counselor, carried the burdens of home while steady in my heart with her wisdom.

0:05:33 Thomas: What

0:05:47 Clip: I became Vice President, then Conscience, my Counselor.

0:05:44 Lydia: My dutiful

0:05:51 Thomas: This is so fucking creepy you have to picture it's an ai face that's doing inappropriate uncanny valley expressions like micro expressions the whole time when he says the ab hold on

0:05:54 Lydia: Woman yes

0:06:04 Clip: Carried the burdens of home while steady in my heart with her wisdom.

0:06:06 Thomas: When he said this oh my god he literally the well he I don't fucking the algorithm whatever this is does it eyebrows up like it's a like a sexy times thing I'm not a picture I know I'm sorry it's audio picture a fucking sentient painting talking to you with ai everybody yeah but worse and picture him doing an eyebrow raise when he says uh my heart was something about the

0:06:24 Lydia: Harry Potter. Yeah.

0:06:34 Clip: Carried my burdens of hope while steady with her heart with my wisdom. I became vice president, then president, but my proudest title was always Patriot.

0:06:37 Thomas: Heart

0:06:39 Lydia: Are these the AI that people are falling in love with?

0:06:45 Thomas: Yeah

0:06:46 Clip: Now the charge is yours. Guard liberty well, for once lost, it is lost forever.

0:06:56 Lydia: And then he goes back into his painting. Yeah, yeah. So there's literally so many of these. They have the women of

0:06:56 Thomas: The white house brought to you by prager you wow god

0:07:06 Lydia: The founders kind of thing, the founding women, Abigail Adams, Phillis Wheatley, Dolly Madison etc and then yeah just all the signers and stuff and it's just CYA

0:07:16 Thomas: This is interesting I I want to read this fine print that I'm sure you saw. The White House is grateful for the partnership with PragerU and the U .S. Department of Education in the production of this museum. This partnership does not constitute or imply U .K. government or U .N. Department of Education endorsement of Prager U. Interesting. Yeah, I guess. Huh. So they figured out that Prager you is like so abundantly well financed that like they figured Out that this isn't really a grift. It's just them trying to get ideology into to government like is that what we think's going on here because my first thing was like grift but now maybe they're just like nope there's just a partnership it's free if if pepsi just decides to give stuff to the government I guess it's fine or whatever you know is it that

0:07:35 Lydia: I guess yeah yeah I know yeah I I do think so there um there are a couple scholarly articles that look into PragerU specifically and one of them in particular titled the kids are alt -right an introduction to Prager U and its role in radicalization in the United States this came out in 2022 and the authors for this study they argue that Prager U functions as a legitimizing hub for the far right in America, that it cultivates a veneer of moderation and credibility. They have so many presenters, but when the presenters go on for their videos, it's not like the Matt Walsh that you get on Daily Wire. It's not the Jordan Peterson that you get with Jordan Peterson. They have a script, right?

0:08:34 Thomas: They launder they give them like the better version the kind of tame version

0:08:39 Lydia: Exactly. Dennis Prager is not like, he's not an Alex Jones, you know, raving lunatic.

0:08:43 Thomas: Yeah he's not yeah well okay he wasn't last I heard him 20 years ago I guess I don't know what the fuck any who knows now but But yeah, well, we all know that being calm means you're right.

0:08:49 Lydia: He speaks very calmly. You know, his ideology is insane. To your point, yeah, their reputations get laundered. And then when people get introduced to ideas through PragerU, it's from seemingly now reasonable people who seem to know what, sound like they know what they're talking about, right? With short, shareable videos, you know, with animation that keeps your attention. They partner with Daily Wire for a lot of that stuff. Yeah.

0:09:15 Thomas: So, wow. With horrifying AI that will haunt your dreams forever.

0:09:18 Lydia: They even did like a mapping of all the different characters, basically, to show that PragerU unites all of the right -wing factions. They have what they call the Reaganite neoliberals, the Bush -era neoconservatives, the Tea Partiers, the Trumpists, and the contemporary alt -right. Yeah, yeah. Isn't that crazy?

0:09:34 Thomas: Yeah, they've kind of triangulated. Right. That makes sense. Smart.

0:09:40 Lydia: And then they're smart with platforms like YouTube. They're smart with how they work social media. They spend most of their money on marketing. We'll talk about that in a bit. But it ends up becoming this recommendation algorithm that you get sucked into. And then eventually, you know, you like the sound of Ben Shapiro on that channel and maybe you're gonna check out his other stuff too. I think that's what it is. They don't need money or lobbying favor even from the government, but it's about the gateway.

0:10:09 Thomas: Well, that's terrifying.

0:10:10 Lydia: It is terrifying.

0:10:11 Thomas: In some ways, I'm like, I was almost more comfortable with a grift. You know, this is like more scary.

0:10:18 Lydia: Let's lighten it up a little bit because in the same way when we took the test, the ideological test and how stupid it is. And then like when we're seeing this John Adams video and they literally have him say facts don't care about your feelings, the Ben Shapiro motto, right? I think there are ways to combat this. It's just, it's going to take a lot of energy. And I had mentioned to you, I was like, man, we just need to go through these videos and debunk their history and make some sort of series related to that. Because let's get into one of their videos from a series for kids. And this is particularly important.

0:10:51 Thomas: Does it have the scary John Adams in it? Is it okay? OK, I'm just picturing like when you're trying to make your brand sticky, you know, it's like either you have a cool jingle or, oh, we can do a horrifying thing that will haunt someone's nightmares for the rest of their life. And then they'll be like, Prager, you.

0:10:54 Lydia: Yeah, no scary John Adams. Yeah. PragerU Kids did not start when Prager U started. Prageru actually started back in 2009. And it was Prager University Foundation. They did a rebrand in around 2015. But PragerU Kids didn't start from what I can see until 2021. And one of their content series that they've created is called Leo and Layla's History Adventures. They have various categories.

0:11:32 Thomas: And Leo has a penis and specifically penises

0:11:36 Lydia: Yeah. You know, these are history videos, quote history, and categories include U .S. presidents, science, Israel, Judeo -Christian values, the Bible. Bible so history is very loose here Abraham from the Bible and here's a history lesson about him so we are going to do the Christopher Columbus video and

0:11:44 Thomas: And vaginas. Oh geez yeah oh I'm awesome I've been wanting to know what really

0:12:03 Lydia: We're just going to do a snippet of this one and get into some of the facts that Christopher Columbus will

0:12:08 Clip: So, what happened when you met the native people? Who obviously discovered the land before you did. The first people we met were great. They were peaceful, curious, and really helpful. I could tell right away that they were highly intelligent. They even were able to quickly mimic everything we said to them. I ordered my men to treat them well.

0:12:29 Thomas: Happened yeah the people I ordered my men to treat them well that's weird well

0:12:31 Lydia: Share all right pause I ordered my men to treat them well that is an unbelievable whitewashing of this history or Columbus washing of this history, right?

0:12:43 Thomas: I also love the implication there like no columbus was a great guy and they were all great back then see he ordered his people to not kill the other like is that a thing you have to do if you're totally cool

0:12:56 Lydia: So he took Taino people captive and seven of them were even brought back to Spain to be taught Castilian and Christianity. And then they were going to be helping convert other people when they came back. There were slave raids that he launched in 1495. He captured around 1600 Tainos and then he took the 500 quote best to to ship to Spain. The rest were distributed among the Spanish colonists in the land. The Spanish crown publicly would like issue these decrees and stuff saying like, you know, we're just really trying to promote the conversion, you Know, of religion, but protect the natives, etc, etc.

0:13:37 Thomas: Really, they even bothered to say that back then? That's crazy.

0:13:39 Lydia: Yeah, but then they said Columbus could treat the Taino as fit to be ordered about and made to work because they said that they were inferior and they were, you know, they were pagan.

0:13:47 Thomas: Jesus. Oh, that sounds specifically the opposite of what this lie just said.

0:13:54 Lydia: Yeah, exactly. He started a tribute system. So they had to offer golden cotton to Columbus and the Spanish colonists. And if they didn't comply, he would do things like trigger warning, amputation of hands, ears, or noses. Spanish colonists, including Columbus himself, there is some, you know, research to back this up, engaged in sexual abuse and violence against Taino women women, with pregnant women sometimes giving birth to children who were thrown to dogs. This is horrible. The Taino tried to fight back as much as they could. They ended up killing 39 Spaniards at one of the settlements. There were a lot of uprisings. It was violent and awful and horrible. And the plummet of the Tainu population, they, you know, had around 300 ,000 around, you know, like the 1490s. And within a few decades, it was almost completely wiped out. And it's widely recognized, the genocide of these people is widely recognized as a direct consequence of Columbus's actions and the policies that he established in that land. And they're just going to say, they literally just said, you know, how wonderful the first people I met there were the Tainos. And they, you Know, learned our language and they were kind and helpful. And I ordered my men to treat them well. If you keep playing, then he's going to talk about who the antagonist is. He never talks about, like, fighting with the Tainos, ever.

0:14:15 Thomas: Footage. No, I'm just kidding. Oh, here we go. Hmm. That's interesting.

0:15:21 Clip: I'm sorry, Mr. Columbus, but I heard at school that you spoiled paradise and you brought slavery and murder to peaceful people.

0:15:30 Thomas: Spoiled paradise?

0:15:31 Lydia: Mm -hmm.

0:15:32 Thomas: Nobody teaches that.

0:15:32 Clip: Sorry. It's what I read and heard at School. Caramba! Those are some accusations.

0:15:38 Thomas: This is where they introduce Columbus's catchphrase!

0:15:38 Clip: The place I discovered was beautiful, but it wasn't exactly a paradise of civilization, and the native people were far from peaceful. But you just said the Taino were peaceful. They pretty much are. But there are other tribes who aren't. The Taino I had met had cuts and scars and bruises all over them. I asked why, and they told me about the Caribs, who are vicious, warring cannibals.

0:16:01 Thomas: They said you did that.

0:16:08 Clip: Right? Hey, all the things that are bad in the world I come from, jealousy, lying, murder, war, it all exists in the land I just found too. But in Europe, we draw the line at things like eating people and human sacrifice.

0:16:24 Lydia: All right, pause.

0:16:25 Thomas: This is unbelievable.

0:16:26 Lydia: That is so, so ridiculous. So, Caribs, this is actually debated. Columbus did say that they were cannibals, but there were other explorers who decidedly said they were not.

0:16:39 Thomas: Right, yeah. Yeah, because that could be a fucking lie or it could be just like, again, deep xenophobia. And look, I'm not going to get like everybody would have been xenophobic back then. One thing I want to point out, I think it's really funny because this description of this video says this animated episode explains why we honor Columbus and teaches elementary students not to judge events of the past by the standards of today.

0:17:02 Thomas: What does that mean? Because like it said, it just says, no, he was great by the standard of today, the point of the video is no, no, he was awesome. You know, it's kind of weird. Why did you say that? Why do you say not to judge by the standards of today? Because it sounds like you're saying actually he was great by the standards of Today.

0:17:17 Lydia: Yeah. There are some scholars who think that talking point, basically, that Caribs were cannibalizing people. Yeah, that they created it to justify killing and enslaving them. Caribs, you know, like they were known as like a warrior tribe and battles happened and all that stuff happened.

0:17:21 Thomas: It could be propaganda. Yeah.

0:17:31 Lydia: But when the Tainos were being brutalized by the Spanish colonists, the Caribs allied with them. Like they were often fighting alongside them, trying to get these European colonizers off of their land to leave them alone, to stop hurting them, to start harming their families. It's just such a terrible, terrible rumor that they are continuing to perpetuate. Descendants of the Carib people have said right out this is an offensive myth. So it's just, I had to stop because I can't not address that.

0:17:31 Thomas: Yeah, for sure. Well, and the thing, look, I'm no historian. I just know that people are people everywhere. And I think that people on the left, I don't do this often, but I will actually go ahead and say, like, I think maybe if people on the Left talked about this a little differently, it might blunt this bullshit a little little bit because I do think there's a tendency of people on the left to get carried away with the like it was an idyllic land where everybody was peaceful and they also natives are magic and like a lot of stuff that it kind of gets into the like I don't know where this is coming from um yeah it's like that I'm sure it was very violent just like europe was and you know just like everybody was and so I but it's also like it's interesting to think about why there's such a reaction to this?

0:18:32 Lydia: Well, yeah, humans are always going to be human.

0:18:44 Thomas: Why are they so offended by judging history appropriately? There's nothing that rides on. That's what drives me nuts. Way back when we did that fucking thing that launched this show with the asshole talking about presentism and judging people of yesterday by today's standards.

0:18:59 Lydia: Yeah, James Webb.

0:19:01 Thomas: It's like, what is the function of that? I don't know if I'm explaining myself properly, but it's not like we're canceling Columbus. Does that matter in any way? First first off, yes, we should cancel Columbus. Secondly, does that affect Columbus? Like, I don't understand. It's just looking at history realistically. It would be one thing if we were always taught this history with open eyes and some people were like, yeah, we think he's awesome. And other people were Like, no, we don't. But like, we're not even taught this. This stupid fucking video is the exact opposite. The kids should be like, really? I was taught you were awesome and you shared corn with the native americans and then columbus be like oh no I fucking killed and enslaved them are you kidding me I wow what idiot what what woke asshole taught you that I just want history to be accurate because that's all it is like this is just whitewashing and they get so offended at the whitewasher I think there's nothing wrong with judging history by the standards of today why I don't even understand why that would be a bad Yeah.

0:20:03 Lydia: I think it also makes for like really interesting conversations. When you're talking about an educational environment, you know, you could say like the country that we live in now might not have existed if it weren't for Columbus. But, like, we need to weigh that against the atrocities that were committed and the people that were impacted and, you know, what kind of decisions would you make in that situation? And, you – I just think that there's so many opportunity for really good teaching moments there.

0:20:25 Thomas: Well, I guess. But but even that, I think, is more value-laden than it even needs to be. Like, I don't know. I wonder if that's where it comes from with them, where they it's like they can't envision teaching history without teaching about the great white men of history. Like they can't envision because to me, history would just be like, OK, well, Columbus had this goal because he lived in a society and a time that wanted these things and also did not really value people who were different color than, you know, like and like therefore they did these things like you could just teach what it was, you know, and it's not I don't think there's any point in trying to entertain, you know, the idea of like, well this country wouldn't exist if it's like why is even the point of that? There isn't any ethical decision that we're making about that right now. There's no judgment that matters about that. There's nothing to be done about it if really what he did was fucking horrible.

0:21:19 Thomas: You know, there's no it's not like we shouldn't bear any guilt over that. We didn't do it. I think these people can't fathom history in a way that's just like not worshiping great white men.

0:21:29 Lydia: Yeah. No, I agree with that. Please continue playing because

0:21:31 Ad: [Ad break 2 — ad music]

0:21:32 Thomas: Oh, my God. It's so bad.

0:21:32 Lydia: There's more. Yeah.

0:21:33 Clip: Some of the native folks from where I just left do those things regularly. So, these people in your time who think it was a peaceful paradise are misinformed. Or lying yeah but what about slavery you didn't deny that deny no slavery is as old as time and has taken place in every corner of the world even amongst the people I just left being taken as a slave is better than being killed no I don't see the problem well in our time we view slavery as being evil and terrible ah Magnifico that's wonderful I am glad humanity has reached such a time But you said you're from 500 years in the future?

0:22:17 Thomas: Oh, so this is the don't judge by. Okay, gotcha.

0:22:17 Clip: How can you come here to the 15th century and judge me by your standards from the 21st century?

0:22:20 Lydia: Yeah.

0:22:22 Thomas: He's so offended by these time travelers.

0:22:23 Clip: For those in the Future to look back and do this is, well, estupido.

0:22:28 Lydia: Es estúpido.

0:22:31 Clip: Certainly not. I can tell you're a very smart young lady.

0:22:31 Thomas: Wow, you nailed that.

0:22:35 Clip: But the idea of throwing away the past because of your present values is...

0:22:38 Thomas: Throwing it away? What does that mean?

0:22:39 Lydia: Yeah

0:22:40 Clip: Listen, I love and am thankful for the ancient Greeks, but they did lots of things that here in 1493 I do not agree with. They permitted lifestyles and worshipped gods that, as a Christian, I think is very bad.

0:22:55 Lydia: Okay pause that's crazy equates slavery and like the actions that he committed against people the murder the rape like like these horrific things I had to say on the air like and he equates it to lifestyle choices of the ancient greeks because some of them were gay and that they worshipped more than one

0:22:59 Thomas: That's so good. Look. Oh, my God. Look, yeah. Ancient Greeks might have had gay marriage or something. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Oh, my God. Hold on. What are the kids doing in this stupid fucking cartoon that he's not doing there? They're just saying like, yeah, but slavery is wrong. And he's saying, yeah.

0:23:27 Lydia: Crazy yeah

0:23:37 Thomas: Worshipping other gods is wrong? What is the difference? I don't understand. It's just the celebration thing. It is just that I guess because he said like, oh, I revere them or something. It's like, yeah,

0:23:36 Lydia: Yeah yeah exactly the setup to this was like we want to learn more about you because some people have been talking about in our schools about you know that we shouldn't be celebrating you and it should be indigenous people's day you know instead that's why we get this there's one other thing in this piece that I do want to talk about so please keep playing

0:23:53 Thomas: We shouldn't. If anything, sure. Sure.

0:24:03 Clip: But that doesn't mean I shouldn't respect and honor all the incredible and amazing things they did.

0:24:03 Thomas: God, it's so good.

0:24:09 Clip: So, good and bad is based on the time you live in?

0:24:10 Thomas: Yeah, man.

0:24:12 Clip: That is a great question. I told you I knew you were smart. Some things are clearly bad, no matter when they happen. But for other things, before you judge, you must ask yourself, what did the culture and society of the time treat as no big deal? Not everyone can time travel as you do and see how normal becomes when they happened and honor all the incredible and amazing things they did.

0:24:19 Thomas: Oh, but not slavery. Okay. Like slavery. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. What could be on that list? That's the slavery is not like what?

0:24:23 Lydia: It yeah

0:24:35 Thomas: How in what world is slavery? Not like the very worst fucking thing. Because slavery, they're just going to pretend, obviously, that slavery. Oh, no, you're just instead of killing him. We just took them on. There's a bud. They're kind of a buddy, you know, and yeah, they did some favors for us.

0:24:35 Lydia: Yeah

0:24:51 Thomas: They did some, some chores. No, slavery at this time entitled rape and murder and torture and horrible things.

0:24:49 Lydia: Oh my god so crazy horrible

0:24:57 Thomas: That's what slavery, slavery literally contains every worst moral thing you, and is every worst moral thing. You could possibly imagine, but I love this so much.

0:25:07 Lydia: Most things that we are not taught in school and like like we're already learning there's like stuff I did not know about that

0:25:11 Thomas: Yeah. And a lot of it, we were like, it's horrible. Sure.

0:25:15 Lydia: I have seen as I was looking into this a little bit that we're learning a whitewashed version of slavery it's still like we are learning horrible horrible things, but even that is whitewashed.

0:25:20 Thomas: Yeah, even that version is, yeah. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. But the point is, I love that this is because they're anticipating the next point and they're so religious. They're like, wait a minute, but morality can't be relative because one of their biggest things is that it has to be all time. Yeah, God given. And so he's like, oh, okay. Yeah no, smart. Yep. Here's my answer to that.

0:25:34 Lydia: Yeah. God -given.

0:25:40 Thomas: Some things are wrong no matter what, like being gay, but things like slavery, rape and murder, those, it just depends on the time.

0:25:41 Lydia: Yeah, like worshiping more than one god or being gay. Yeah yeah yeah.

0:25:55 Thomas: That's incredible. I want to go hear that again. This is so good. Oh, this is the best.

0:26:01 Clip: So, good and bad is based on the time you live in? That is a great question. I told you I knew you were smart. Some things are clearly bad, no matter when they happen. But for other things, before you judge, you must ask yourself, what did the culture and society of the time treat as no big deal? Not everyone can time travel as you do and see how normal becomes very not normal.

0:26:24 Thomas: No big deal. Oh my God.

0:26:29 Clip: Some things aren't, some things aren' t. It is, and so is life, and history can be too. If people in your time want to celebrate me for being a perfect hero, then they are very mistaken. Only my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is perfect, and I hope to spread his teaching to all the lands I find that don't know his name.

0:26:50 Thomas: Oh yeah. It's what's ruining our schools currently.

0:26:53 Clip: But if people in their time want the guts I had to get this journey approved, approved, start it, survive it, and get back to tell about it, well, that seems pretty

0:27:00 Thomas: Yeah, man. Yeah. What is the celebration? That's the part I just cannot connect with. I realize it must be such a difference in mindset. Think about how pathetic those accomplishments are that he's talking. No, oh, if they want to sell, I worked really hard to get the finances approved for this trip. Like, okay, like how many other accomplishments are there in history that are way more than that? It's fine to, again, nobody on the woke left is saying don't teach history. It's the exact opposite. We want real history to be taught. The problem is these assholes learned fake history and will never, ever be convinced that they learned the fake history.

0:27:06 Lydia: Here's another piece of the fake history. At the beginning of the video, Christopher Columbus is telling his life story a little bit, And he says that Europe was looking for a different trade route to Asia for the Silk Road because Muslims blocked the Silk Road.

0:27:56 Thomas: Really? That's funny.

0:27:56 Lydia: Yeah, that's not accurate. Basically, what happened was the various Islamic empires over centuries acted as facilitators along the Silk Road between Europe and Asia. But then once maritime exploration started increasing, Christians in Europe didn't want to have to work with Muslims anymore. More so then they were like okay columbus like find a different way for us to get to asia so we don't have to work with these people that we don't like that are a different color than us that worship different things than us but it's presented in this video that the bad evil Muslims blocked the Silk Road and so they were unable to trade with Asia anymore yeah

0:28:27 Thomas: Those scummy Muslims just to be assholes so fucking stupid as though yeah that's hilarious to think like oh man those villains it's like what were Christians doing back then

0:28:41 Lydia: Yeah I know the cartoons that they do of them too are like they're so gross yeah let me see if I can find the time stamp for it yeah I

0:28:46 Thomas: Oh really this is incredible they actually do the oh there it is oh okay what is that supposed to be

0:28:56 Lydia: Don't know they just call them Muslims they don't specify like the empire

0:29:00 Thomas: Okay who knows they maybe they know something I don't but this caricature you describe or I'll say this This character, because I don't, I'm not a fucking historian. It looks like a Mongolian guy with a samurai hat or a samurai helmet, doesn't it? But then, yeah, he also has the jean shirt and the scimitar, you know, like the curved sword. So that's like the Arabic thing that they have. Ah, those Muslims. They just block the trade route because, just because of who they are and their dirty religion. It's like, what the, do they teach about the Crusades on PragerU?

0:29:13 Lydia: And like genie shoes yeah yeah and that's a Muslim, yeah just because You know, actually, I haven't seen that yeah yeah exactly so obviously this video has gotten a lot of flack you mentioned you know you had heard about this a while back

0:29:35 Thomas: You oh they probably do but like in a positive way god it's a fucking hate crime yeah well yeah back when it came out I

0:29:46 Lydia: It has gotten so much flack they actually have a section on their FAQ on the website about this video.

0:29:51 Thomas: Think about here's why we're doubling and tripling down

0:29:55 Lydia: Yeah, so the question is, what is PragerU's response to media criticism that Prager U Kids minimizes slavery in cartoons featuring Frederick Douglass, which we did not watch, and Christopher Columbus? And their response regarding the Christopher Columbus piece specifically. This is a long response. In another cartoon episode, Leo and Layla visit Christopher Columbus, who makes the following statement, slavery is as old as time and has taken place in every corner of the world, Dot, dot, dot. I don't see the problem. Critics on the left seem to dislike the way Columbus speaks about slavery in this cartoon. But had he condemned it, that would have been inaccurate.

0:30:29 Lydia: Slavery was commonplace from the dawn of history until centuries after Columbus's death. From his perspective, it was just the way the world worked. PragerU never minimizes the evils of slavery. Our critics choose to either ignore or lie about Prager U's condemnation of slavery as an awful part of American history in these cartoons and many other pieces of content. While some paraphrasing is useful for relaying complex ideas to a young audience, PragerU is meticulous about thoroughly researching the facts, clearly representing accurate history, and offering important age -appropriate context, something that is sorely lacking in the contemporary teaching of history. Based on the backlash we receive, it is evident that our critics do not hold themselves to the same standards. I mean, we just spent a lot of time talking about various problems in that video, not just about slavery.

0:30:32 Thomas: Yeah man uh Uh-huh uh though wow yeah there's a lot it's just lies yeah

0:31:19 Lydia: They are very inaccurate, very, very inaccurate. And here, this answer, they think that they're 100 % representing the facts.

0:31:27 Thomas: It does minimize slavery favorite but

0:31:29 Lydia: And it does. It does minimize slavery, especially when you look at like that they excluded that Columbus and other Spanish colonists that, you know, came over because of his efforts, enslaved Taino people. And it only ever says that the Taina people were nice

0:31:29 Thomas: It does though it does exactly the thing they're saying they don't yeah and they were clearly intelligent

0:31:46 Lydia: And that the bad Caribs were the ones harming them. And so they had to stay to protect the nice, intelligent Tainos. Yeah. Insane. I want to talk a little bit about, you know, I mentioned I don't think this is grift. I want to talk a little bit about the structure of PragerU. It is a 501c3, so we're looking at a nonprofit organization that's not supposed to participate in political activities. It was founded in 2009, and just in case anyone is curious, no, it is not an academic institution. It is not accredited. You cannot get a degree from there. They started as Prager University Foundation and then, as I mentioned, rebranded to PragerU. They consider themselves –

0:32:25 Thomas: Incredible yeah no yeah whenever when you say prager university foundation I just think of big ben

0:32:40 Lydia: Oh, yeah.

0:32:40 Thomas: Clock like it's like yeah it's Prager University Foundation not a

0:32:45 Lydia: It was started by Alan Estrin and Dennis Prager. Alan Estlin is a name I haven't really heard at all. Like when you hear Prager U, you think of Dennis Praker because he's the namesake. But Alan Estin is a key, key, part of this. They have this documentary on their YouTube about the beginnings of PragerU. And so from what I understand, yeah, yeah. From what I understood, like they were on, I don't know how Alan and Dennis knew each other, but they like were on a cruise.

0:33:02 Thomas: University I'm sure it's really meta in that it also whitewashes their history

0:33:17 Lydia: Yeah, a cruise in like the Indian Ocean, I think is what they say. And they were talking about how they would love to do, you know, videos to teach about different things that are happening in the world.

0:33:17 Thomas: Oh wow hey do you like bullshit whitewashed history yeah I love it do I

0:33:34 Lydia: So Alan Estrin, one reason why this was something that was exciting for him is he was a screenwriter. Really, he was actually a screen writer. He wrote episodes of Boston Public, Touched by an Angel, The Practice. He also co -wrote Pocahontas 2 with his brother, Mark. He lectures at the American Film Institute, or he did. I don't know if he he still does, specifically for screenwriting. And he originally envisioned PragerU to be like a brick and mortar type university, but then they decided to switch to short videos online, lean on the internet. He credits Jeremy Boring, formerly of The Daily Wire, like that I get to say formerly, with helping to develop the animation style that they use in their videos. And then Dennis Prager, conservative talk radio host, had been doing it for a very, very, very long time, decades. Some just quick little comments here. He has been a fierce advocate for Jews all across the world and has done a lot of work to protect the Jewish people and like some I think really important work early in his career for that. But in 1994, the Anti -Defamation League issued a report about anti -Semitism in the Christian right movement. And he went after the ADL as a result and said that conservative Jews should be open to working with the Christian right, regardless of the anti -Semitism,

0:34:07 Thomas: Not at all that oh wow

0:34:57 Lydia: Because that doesn't actually matter to him anymore. That was 1994. That's crazy.

0:35:03 Thomas: Wow oh that was back when the ADL didn't suck oh

0:35:06 Lydia: Yes. Yes, when they were calling out anti -Semitism from the Christian right and saying like, this is a problem. We're seeing this in this movement, et cetera, et cetera.

0:35:13 Thomas: Boy well this guy fucking won that

0:35:15 Lydia: Yeah, he issued an attack on them because of that. He has all the views you'd expect, very anti -LGBTQ, anti -Affordable Care Act, anti-Muslim. He was anti -Trump. He said that he was his 17th choice out of 17 candidates, but he endorsed him anyway. He says that those who didn't get vaccinated against COVID were being treated worse than gay men and drug users during the AIDS crisis. So this is a serious person. Interestingly, his brother is a physician and a professor at Columbia, and his brother is Provax anti -hydroxychloroquine. It's kind of opposite side for a lot of things. He has a son named David who pops up in PragerU financial documents sometimes.

0:35:19 Thomas: Argument wow yeah sure hmm wow hmm

0:36:00 Lydia: There were some issues there with money moving between the organizations that was not disclosed to have his son affiliated with it, and they got in trouble for that. We haven't seen much of him at all lately because he fell in November of last year and had a serious back injury so they say and he's still recovering from it so yeah he's 77 so he's he's up there now those were the two founders and it was just them for some time and then they brought on Marissa Street who I said is the CEO fairly early I want to say it was like 2011 2012 when she joined but they have been like unless you dig into like IRS records and their financial documents, they don't make finding their organizational structure very easy to find online anymore. So they used to have an advisory board page, like a board of directors that was available. It's now only available on Wayback. And I think it's because people were asking some questions during the first Trump administration. They had, you know, a couple executives from this company called Wedgwood Incorporated, which is a real estate company that buys foreclosed houses at auctions. And then Attorney General Bonta of California in 2021 found them to have engaged in illegal practices to get the houses flipped within weeks, sometimes days, like they were kicking out tenants, not providing utility services, filing false declarations to support their evictions. There was like a big standoff that they had in Oakland. They were basically kicking people out and making them homeless that were squatting in this abandoned building. And and that really blew up. But more interestingly, Charlie Kirk was serving on the board at

0:36:18 Thomas: Oh how I didn't how old was this guy is he like an old old guy oh

0:37:46 Lydia: The time for PragerU of Turning Point USA and Ginny Thomas. Yeah, Ginny Thomas. So they are not on the Board of Directors anymore. But as I said, they really don't want the majority of the public poking around their website to find it. You can still get it from the IRS filings, but that's basically it. They were initially funded by Dan and Ferris Wilkes, who were hydraulic fracturing billionaires, the Bradley Foundation, a lot of fracking. The Bradley Foundation. The Morgan Family Foundation, but also other entities like the National Christian Foundation, the Dick and Betsy DeVos Family Foundation. Their funding, it's disgusting how much it skyrocketed. In 2015, so this is around the the time of their rebrand that I mentioned, when they went from Prager University Foundation to PragerU, they got a new logo, they were updating their website, et cetera, et cetera. They went from their total revenue was $3 .6 million and net assets at $3 and a half million is what they reported in 2015. In 2023, their total revenue was 68 .7 million and their net assets grew to $93 million.

0:38:15 Thomas: Oh fracking oh fracking billionaires oh oh man oh

0:39:02 Lydia: Million that's eight years they went from 3.6 million in revenue to 68.7 million and it continues to grow its donations

0:39:09 Thomas: Yeah in revenue so wait what is their revenue from is it from donations or is that from like I don't know somehow money they make selling these fucking videos okay

0:39:21 Lydia: They do not sell their videos all of them are made available for free

0:39:24 Thomas: Do they make anything anything on like youtube or anything like I guess it would be kind of insignificant

0:39:28 Lydia: They might monetize yeah I'm not sure um on youtube but they've also run into a lot of issues with youtube when years ago they had a number of their movies were set to restricted and there was a lawsuit about it they ended up losing the lawsuit and youtube won because youtube didn't have to platform their content was the finding. But Dennis Prager spoke in front of Congress. Ted Cruz invited him and he got to rant about how they're being censored.

0:39:53 Lydia: And actually, I have his speech handy. Yet Google, which owns YouTube, has restricted access to 56 of our 325-minute videos and to other videos we produce. Restricted means that families that have a filter to avoid pornography and violence cannot see that video. That's not just the only thing. It also means that no school or library can show that video. Google has even restricted access to a video on the Ten Commandments. Yes, the Ten Commandments. We have repeatedly asked Google why our videos are restricted. No explanation is ever given. But of course we know why, because they come from a conservative perspective. Liberals and conservatives differ on many issues, but they have always agreed that free speech must be preserved. While the left has never supported free speech, liberals always have I therefore appeal to liberals to join us in fighting on behalf of America's crowning glory free speech yeah

0:40:16 Thomas: Oh the Ten Commandments hmm yeah we're really seeing the truth of that statement nowadays with a fucking literal ideology test an ideological test to be a

0:40:48 Lydia: Otherwise I promise you one day you will say first they came after conservatives and I said nothing and then they came efter me yeah

0:40:54 Thomas: Teacher and it was fucking sweet god I loved it this is my favorite day no the they is always conservatives you fucking idiot it's like saying first they came after the nazis or whatever like first they came for the fascists it's like no that's who's doing the that's the

0:41:15 Lydia: Yeah but um primarily I mean their funding comes from individual donations um and then And their spending is almost all on marketing. Like they have found that that is where it makes sense to spend their money because they want these things to be spread. They want these thing to be pushed. They're doing like these marketing materials and collaborations, et cetera, et cetera. And they've created more content too. From their website, it says that they have 100 million views of their kid shows, 1 ,300 pieces of content. They're an approved educational resource in 10 states.

0:41:51 Lydia: Now, Florida was the first state to partner with them in 2023. And the way that it works in Florida is it's not clear that any classroom is using them. They are allowed to. No one is being mandated to use them.

0:41:50 Thomas: They right I

0:42:08 Lydia: Yeah, but they are like, because they're an approved vendor, you can get reimbursed for any materials you buy from them to support your lesson plans. But the lesson plans are free. I can download the lesson plans and the worksheets that they hand out to kids on their website, like for every single video. And some of those are pretty remarkable, too. So not only do they have stepping into the educational sphere within these states and they have PragerU Kids, they also have podcasts, documentaries. They have a book club video series with Michael Knowles of The Daily Wire. They work very closely with The Daily Fire. They have the book club series with The Weekly Wire. And they have a lot of books. A ton of five -minute videos. That was like their bread and butter, you know?

0:42:06 Thomas: Guess that's something yeah yeah

0:42:47 Lydia: And I have one that I want us to watch a little bit later so we can get a taste of that. But not only do they have content like that they also have something called PragerForce and PragerForce is it is

0:43:01 Thomas: That's their gestapo that kills people that beats teachers that teach the woke

0:43:06 Lydia: An international student organization to promote PragerU videos and ideology and there's a data point in 2020 6500 high school and college students were promoting their videos so when we talk about things like campus reform and other entities like like that, that are utilizing students and universities to help amplify the conservative voice because they are being attacked, because they're being drowned out, because no one wants them. PragerU is an element of that too.

0:43:12 Thomas: Stuff jesus christ

0:43:36 Lydia: Yeah. They also have published a parent action guide to help get Prager U in classrooms and then also like offer tips and tools and tricks and forms to fight against other curriculum. So I have that whole PDF there. It is remarkable. I spoke about one of the scholarly articles that I was looking at in researching for this. There's another case study by McCarthy and Brewer in the Journal of Criminal Justice and Popular Culture. This is titled Hegemony of the Right, a Prager University case study. And they said that PragerU has fundamental overlapping ideologies to the extreme right. And they went through and detailed the methods of persuasion that PragerU uses, where they combine in a way to reflect information that under these like persuasion techniques that are similarly used on online platforms by white supremacists when they're trying to hide racist

0:43:34 Thomas: Such fucking whiny babies

0:44:31 Lydia: Propaganda behind like professional looking websites being very mindful of what language you use um and also you know like as we talked about mindful of the way that you present the information with you as a person as a presenter or Dennis Prager, Ben Shapiro, you know, et cetera, et cetera. And, oh, who did they have? Who's the Project Veritas guy? James O 'Keefe.

0:44:32 Thomas: Movies oh yeah

0:44:53 Lydia: Yeah, he does a video for them.

0:44:53 Thomas: James O 'Keefe yeah wow he's like oh I also make propagandistic bullshit fake live videos I we should we should work together

0:45:02 Lydia: So James O'Skeefe's video with PragerU, it's one of the five-minute videos, American Media, Soviet Tactics. James O'Mkeefe exposes why trust in modern journalism is declining, revealing the need for factual reporting. What a joke. The other pieces of that article were understanding how PragerU intertwines Judeo -Christian morality with national identity. In a lot of their videos, they basically create this narrative that says American morality is inseparable from Judeo Christian values. And so if you reject those values, it's not that you just think differently, but it means that you're rejecting what it means to be American. A lot of videos talk about capitalism as morally virtuous. It's the moral imperative. It's aligned with the Protestant work ethic. Anything related to socialism, they are portrayed as lazy and undermining societal contribution. They have this ridiculous video I watched in PragerU Kids about like Vivi in Venezuela and talking about like the

0:45:39 Thomas: Yeah no watch me do it right now I separated it oh yeah communism

0:46:14 Lydia: Horrors that she experiences in Venezuela and how it can all be tied to the socialism.

0:46:19 Thomas: Or something oh socialism yeah

0:46:20 Lydia: Yeah. Yeah. And that if they didn't do that, then things would have been better in Venezuela because it's a beautiful country and they just needed to lean on their oil production. And then they also found that they say that conservative values, that's just being a patriot. And so conservative is the moral and patriotic choice. They often use war metaphors. So saying like that, you must fight for American values, that it's the cultural front lines and that these are the ideological battle, etc., etc. Yeah. Yeah. Now, when I mentioned, though, that nothing is mandated in these states and the same with Oklahoma, like Oklahoma is partnering with PragerU. The Nation in 2023 ran a piece where it said that of the biggest school districts in Oklahoma, none of them were going to be implementing Prager U curriculum as required in their classrooms kind of thing. But I think there's a couple of reasons why it is a big deal, even though it's not being mandated in the the classroom it honestly comes down to the battle over public education

0:46:51 Thomas: Because we are victims all the

0:46:55 Ad: [Ad break 3 — ad music]

0:47:25 Thomas: Time

0:47:25 Lydia: And I think we can see that with their anti -union messaging as well but from the nation and like their evaluation of this they say founder dennis prager has long been open about the fact that his aim is to indoctrinate kids into right -wing ideas and what he says is like yeah we have doctrines we're trying to share with kids we're indoctrinating them okay so stupid um one five minute video at a time yeah Yeah. Yeah. But he's taking away any sort of the connotation of it. Right. When we say indoctrinating, it usually has a negative connotation. And so he's just like he's he's being very. Yeah, I think he's just being very obtuse. In reality, however, very few students will encounter the PragerU videos denying the link between fossil fuels and climate change or depicting abolitionist Frederick Douglass justifying slavery.

0:47:46 Thomas: Oh he's right I don't know oh yeah it's doctrine and yeah okay yeah sure

0:48:12 Lydia: In New Hampshire, for instance, students can now complete PragerU's courses through the state's Learn Everywhere program, which lets entities other than schools grant academic credit. But Learn Everywhere has been an unmitigated flop. Of the state, 162 ,000 public school students, just 32 have signed up for the program.

0:48:11 Thomas: Yeah so there is some good news

0:48:30 Lydia: Yeah, but then they go on to say, in other words, if the goal of right -wing politicians is to push Prager U into K through 12 classrooms, they're failing miserably. But Prager UK is only one small part of a much larger political project. Conservative leaders aren't trying to force students into PragerU courses. Instead, they're prying open the gates for an entire army of partisan curriculum developers to come marching through our public schools. They talk a lot about how to opt out of things, right? They're really just trying to dismantle the, yeah, yes, yeah. And they really are just trying zu dismantle de public education system by encouraging parents to opt -out, by offering these different things, by being anti -union, by saying, you know, know, parents' rights, parents choice. And then now what are you going to have? You're going to have this weird system of like parents trying to create their own curriculum for their kids within the public education system that doesn't work. So then the public educational system fails.

0:48:59 Thomas: Like a regular school like of actual school yeah yeah gotcha yeah they want to kill public education by design

0:49:27 Lydia: And yeah, so I just think there's insidiousness there with regard to the public educations system and PragerU's involvement there. But then also, as we talked about, like, Prager U does serve as a hub for all of these different conservative factions. And I want us to watch this particular video. We don't have to watch all of it, but we'll get the flavor for it. Because as you are exposed to some of this stuff, they're very smart with their YouTube channel and they create playlists and what they call marathons where they just put a bunch of their videos together with like a thematic element. And so you end up going down that rabbit hole of YouTube to and getting pulled and sucked into the algorithm. And maybe you'll experience a video like the one I just sent you.

0:50:14 Clip: In the first half of the 19th century, 4 million blacks worked as slaves imprisoned on plantations They were prevented from learning how to read, their families were forcibly broken up, and if they tried to escape, they were severely and brutally punished. The owners of these plantations were almost without exception, Democrats. Before the Civil War, slave-owning Democrats used Black bodies to massively increase the number of votes they got in Congress and the Electoral College. Because of the Three-Fifths Compromise, a single Democrat in Georgia who owned five slaves got four times the representation as a single white abolitionist in Pennsylvania

0:50:16 Lydia: Candace Owens. Those Democrats.

0:50:58 Clip: So for Democrats, it has always been about using Black bodies for political power. How they are used may vary but the plantation model remains a constant even today despite the fact that blacks are no longer enslaved many black children barely learn to read in poorly performing schools our families are often shattered by misguided welfare policies and if we try to escape

0:51:03 Thomas: Yeah so good sure why is that is that why oh really wait what what does that

0:51:26 Clip: We still face punishment of course the plantations of the 21st century are not physical they are virtual the owners of these plantations are once again almost without exception democrats

0:51:34 Thomas: Mean they are the woke left no they're private fucking prisons that are run by republicans and evil

0:51:41 Clip: Think about it what today are certain areas of chicago baltimore detroit st louis atlanta milwaukee and philadelphia all run for decades by democrats but virtual plantations many who live in these areas are largely if not totally dependent on their masters the politicians politicians for their food, housing, and health care. It's hardly a fair exchange.

0:51:59 Thomas: What are you talking about oh my

0:52:04 Lydia: Offensive.

0:52:05 Clip: The politicians become wealthy. The residents become boat slaves, sustained just barely by government transfer payments. And just like the plantations of yesteryear, which demanded a consistent breakdown of the Black family to reinforce its system of buying and selling slaves, Democrats today incentivize similar family corrosion through their policies fostering dependence not on mom and dad but on the government to give just one example virtually every inner city school provides free breakfast and lunch sounds generous but what it really does is remove the traditional responsibility from

0:52:10 Thomas: God vote slaves

0:52:10 Lydia: Offensive vote slaves

0:52:20 Thomas: No

0:52:42 Lydia: This is nuts oh

0:52:44 Clip: Parents by handing it over to the state yet many do break free from this oppressive system system. Like the fugitive slave Frederick Douglass once did, they run toward a better life. But leaving the plantation still entails great risk. Of course, today it's not the whip or the lash, it's libel and slander. The purpose is to bring Black conservatives within an inch of their professional and sometimes personal

0:52:47 Lydia: My god yeah

0:52:54 Thomas: Oh my oh my God this is amazing yeah what where are you how are you getting this done libel and

0:53:12 Clip: Lives a warning that rebellion will not be tolerated. Don't believe it? Just ask Dr. Dr. Ben Carson, Hoover Institution economist Thomas Sowell, or Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, to cite three prominent examples.

0:53:16 Lydia: Here we go yeah

0:53:19 Thomas: Slander oh oh yeah where is he he's He's dead. Oh, he's a Supreme Court justice.

0:53:27 Clip: Carson, one of the most celebrated brain surgeons of the modern era, has been called stupid by the legacy media because he has conservative political views.

0:53:35 Thomas: Yeah. Sorry. Is that live? Oh, so wait. Oh okay. I thought it was saying like when they try to break free, then they get like accused of libel. Cause I truly didn't think about how stupid this was. So they're, so they're saying the tools we have are saying mean things and look what it did to Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas. I don't even know what he does for a living anymore.

0:53:53 Lydia: Saying mean things if if a black person dares to be conservative yeah oh he's still in the supreme court and he still makes a bunch of money and harlan crowe still gives him tons of money and private jet trips. Yeah. Yeah, we don't have to finish it.

0:54:07 Thomas: God, these these crybabies ultimate victims that's that's

0:54:10 Lydia: But yeah, so you can end up on a place like that. And you know, they just have, they have so much content in their annual report, or maybe it was from one of the videos I watched of Marissa Street. They do 40 pieces of content a week, a week. It's crazy. You look at their website, it is just, it istothebrim. Him. It feels incredibly overwhelming. They have a man on the street video series where someone walks around and just does that kind of segment. They obviously already have a couple of videos talking about the school shooter in Minneapolis and really focusing. This one's called trans terrorism in Minneapolis. Just horrible, horrible things. But they have this infrastructure and And these people who are just so incredibly driven by such hateful things that it feels a little insurmountable,

0:54:26 Thomas: Amazing jesus that's almost as much as we do yeah yeah

0:55:09 Lydia: Honestly, but I think we have to try. And so that's kind of why I was like, oh, I just, I want to at least focus in on the kids stuff maybe and like help break apart some of those things. I don't know. Yeah. So that's PragerU. Yeah.

0:55:21 Thomas: Man it's crazy oh boy I'd probably agree you didn't I don't pray you pardon I didn't think of anything better during the whole thing I was actually just really just uh entranced by this horrific

0:55:39 Lydia: Yeah there's honestly there's so much oh there's this commencement speech that ben shapiro does that's remarkable it's it's just I mean some of these things are just are funny and full of things to debunk you know you thought your woke indoctrination at college was over now that you're graduating but sorry you're going to be exposed to the woke in corporations and dei and blah, blah, like even in the New York Times, this person was fired because they innocently used the N -word in relation to this like story. And I was like, there's no way. And so I looked it up and obviously it took me two seconds and I was Like, oh, that's completely false.

0:55:44 Thomas: Crap oh yeah sure uh -huh yeah uh

0:56:15 Lydia: He said it to a student. There was this group trip and someone said that someone got in trouble for using the N word. And then he responds, oh they got in Trouble for saying and then he says it. And yeah, and that's just the beginning of my research on that. It was like okay, okay, Ben Shapiro, you liar. But yeah, there's so much here. I imagine we'll probably have some opening arguments opportunities here too with Vapid Response Wednesdays. They really like to go after immigration on this stuff. So yeah, lots more of PragerU probably to come. But hopefully people feel like this was a good primer.

0:56:47 Thomas: How's is our certificate coming do we have

0:56:48 Lydia: Oh, let me see if I got it.

0:56:50 Thomas: Print that bad boy out I gotta frame it so proud of my

0:56:51 Lydia: Yeah. Yeah, let me see. Here is your certificate. View certificate. Oh my gosh, I can add it to my LinkedIn profile. I can share my award I can share it on my social media wow and my credential verification I have an ID with this and I have a check mark wow this is serious this is like I mean it's like okay download well if anyone wants to forge this certification I can include this and you can just type over my stuff Ooh.

0:56:55 Thomas: Accomplishments yes yeah yeah we need a woke university one like we need our version of it

0:57:32 Lydia: Can you imagine what our test would be like? Yeah. Oh, man. It would be fun. I did appreciate that I got to explore history and I got to explore some of these various claims.

0:57:34 Thomas: Yeah real actual facts you mean like when you're looking at the right stuff yeah okay gotcha

0:57:48 Lydia: Yes. Yeah. When I was researching, when I was like, there's no way. And so I appreciated this set of episodes for that, for sure, because I did learn a lot and I'm feeling like eager to do it again, honestly. Like you heard me, I could could quote that Christopher Columbus video estupido like I I did that perfectly in time

0:58:07 Thomas: It was it was I didn't folks there was no yeah no manipulation of anything that was that was fully and that was in the moment

0:58:10 Lydia: Yeah no audio manipulation there yeah mm -hmm yeah I don't know I'm kind of looking forward to doing more of these things and and maybe feeling like I'm working towards having an impact here because I I think it's pretty bad that there hasn't been a lot of really focused pushback on the stuff that PragerU is doing.

0:58:33 Thomas: Huh well I'm off to go see someone to get our house D haunted from the John after from from AI John Adams oh really my feelings are that you're fucking horrifying

0:58:38 Lydia: John Adams, who notably said, facts don't care about your feelings. That well -known quote, the well -know quote of John Adams.

0:58:49 Thomas: I'm feeling really haunted right now facts don't care about you back

0:59:14 Lydia: It's fucking creepy.