Tag: PragerU

Education

Dennis Prager’s PragerU: Distorting History, Exterminating ‘Woke’ Agenda and Raking In Millions | The Smirking Chimp

When it comes to child development, it’s been said that the most crucial milestones in a kid’s life occur by the age of 7. In fact, the great Greek philosopher Aristotle once said, “Give me a child until he is 7 and I will show you the man.” As a parent, taking this theory to heart can cause waves of anxiety
By applying the practices of scriptural inference to Google searches, this report also implicates Google in reaffirming people’s existing beliefs. Conservatives in this study repeatedly describe the importance of “doing their own research” before believing any news coverage. In their effort to expand out from their ideological positions, they are unaware that their queries will simply return information that reaffirms their beliefs depending on what phrase they choose to type into the search engine. While the empirical evidence in this report only scratches the surface regarding Google’s role in maintaining our filter bubbles, it opens up the opportunity for future studies. It is also of utmost importance that more research investigates the relationship between alternative media networks and the radicalization/conspiracy content created by the “alt-right.”

The Florida Department of Education says it “reviewed PragerU Kids and determined the material aligns to Florida’s revised civics and government standards.”

According to Media Matters for America’s John Knefel, “PragerU Kids videos are a mix of animated and live-action shorts, broken up into different recurring series. Some are more overtly political than others, but the roughly 350 videos on the outlet’s YouTube channel seem largely intended to push a right-wing agenda to one extent or another. Now, any of them could be shown in public school classrooms throughout Florida.” (Knefel reviews some of the videos here.)

“The state of Florida just announced that we are now becoming an official vendor,” said PragerU CEO Marissa Streit in a video. She claimed that schools have “been hijacked by the left” and “used by union bosses” to pursue an agenda “not for our children. We are just getting started — additional states are signing up,” Streit added.

As part of a study titled “Searching for Alternative Facts: Analyzing Scriptural Inferences in Conservative News Practices,” the sociologist Francesca Tripodi wrote that Prager’s project creates “a dense network of extremist thinkers” that “allows for those who identify as mainline conservatives to gain easy access to white supremacist logic.”

PragerU has come a long way in a very short time.

 

Source: Dennis Prager’s PragerU: Distorting History, Exterminating ‘Woke’ Agenda and Raking In Millions | The Smirking Chimp