Does "Leftism" Destroy Everything It Touches? Or Is That Just Another Slogan from P.U.?

Dennis Prager, right-wing commentator posing as professor at "Prager U" (he isn't a real professor, and P.U. isn't a real university) put together a video alleging that "Leftism" "destroys everything it touches". The "lecture" is actually a good example of right wing propaganda at its worst. One of our forum participants posted it on a thread where it was way off topic, along with the challenge: "Really want to expose that "bad man" and his "false claims"? Go through the video (the left ruins everything) point by point and put together a counter point for each point of his. Without disparaging any person in the process, just the ideas. Let's see how well that turns out."
The challenge poses the usual dilemma: besides the waste of time refuting nonsense, there's the danger of dignifying nonsense by seeming to take it seriously. But I think it might be worth it. Dennis Prager seems to have convinced weak minded right wingers that they're getting university quality knowledge from his screeds, instead of the vapid rants they are. Subjecting his propaganda to close scrutiny might be enlightening to those who have been fooled by it, if they are capable of following logical analysis.

So here is the video.

Comments?

 

Let's begin. Prager's video is an example of ideological propaganda masquerading as objective analysis. By "ideology" I mean a system of prepackaged doctrines that functions as a kind of secular religion substituting for independent critical thinking. Prager U Will Make You Dumber — Dan From The Internet Prager serves the needs of the busy businessman or working person for "rational ignorance"--providing canned ideas so that they can go about their daily lives without thinking. He is a Right wing ideologue, meaning that his message serves the interests of wealth and privilege against their challengers. And it is propaganda, communications deliberately designed to influence others for predetermined ends--in Prager's case the ends of his right wing billionaire paymasters: the Wilks brothers of Texas, the Bradleys of Wisconsin, and the ubiquitous Koch brothers. .

The opening lines of the video illustrate some of the propagandists handiest tools: juicy generalities and hyperbole. Interestingly, Prager starts with a disclaimer. "If what I'm about to tell you is true..." Big if. Then he proceeds with the astonishing generalization "almost everything we most treasure, freedom, beauty, reason, the family, and goodness" is in jeopardy from "Leftism" which he characterizes as "the most powerful ideology of the last 100 years". Holy hyperbole!. Well, at least he said "almost". Motherhood may be in peril with the family, but at least baseball, hotdogs, the flag and apple pie seem to be left out for now. For "the most powerful ideology in the last 100 years, Leftism seems to be having difficulty holing its own against "Rightism"., which has taken defeated Soviet Communism, taken over the U.S. Presidency, and is gaining ground among the nations of Europe. But let's not quibble. Prager thinks Leftism "destroys everything it touches." Really? The environment? I think it's certainly arguable that progressivism has helped that immeasurably through the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, etc., while the right wing policies of the Trump Administration have undermined those noble efforts of the seventies. Prager is a climate change denier whose course in climate change spreads disinformation and promotes environmental destruction.

 

Before going further, what is Leftism? We are told it isn't liberalism, and that it is progressivism. And what is that? Prager doesn't tell us. Google it and you find references to the ideology of Republican President Teddy Roosevelt, the Progressive Movement at the turn of the twentieth century, and John Dewey's theories of education. I doubt that's the distinction Prager has in mind. Progressivism in the twenty-first century context differs from liberalism in its more radical emphasis on social reform to achieve social justice. We should note how Prager's vague, sweeping use of the term allows him to lump Social Democrats together with Socialists, Communists, Anarchists and Antifa militants, thus enabling him to use sleight of hand in painting his ideological opponents with the same broad brush. Am I a "Leftist"? I think of myself as a moderate. I'd say I'm somewhat left of center in favoring policies that promote social justice and a decent environment, but I'm a strong institutionalist who is generally satisfied with the framework of American government and concerned about the threat's which Trump and his populist Know Nothing base present to it. I tend to vote for candidates who have personal integrity, character, and intelligence. I'm not impressed by Elisabeth Warren's proliferation of programs nor Bernie's calls for even democratic socialism, by which he seems to mean Scandanavian-style social democracy. Social reform is fine, but I also attach a lot of importance to fiscal responsibility, which both parties seem to have abandoned. I do think that the kind of right wing bilge that Prager and Trump put out is a greater challenge to our democracy than "Leftism". I think Prager's deceptive efforts to mess with our minds needs to be exposed, and hope to contribute to that effort. (More to come)

 

That picture reminds me of every government agency which Trump and the Right Wing Extremist Republicans have attacked.

 

Okie, civil war has just broke out in Oregon. Some Republican state lawmakers have left the state to avoid voting and have teamed up with armed militias in Idaho and Oregon. They have also made threats against the state police. The Oathkeepers made threats against the governor. It's a real strange deal!

 

We need a new video, "Conservative Morality Is An Oxymoron". Studies of morality have shown that most people who call themselves moral apply their standards to others, but not themselves. Surveys of Wall Street traders concluded that, regardless of their espoused beliefs, their work ethics went up and down with the stock market. Studies have also shown that people from extended families and those who regularly use their own two hands in service to their fellow man, tend to live up to their own moral standards and thrive better in the long run. In other words, nature has given humanity our own innate metaethics, while abstract morality has proven to be political bullshit for the most part, and morality with intimacy with your community is a contradiction.

Forty years of extensive studies concluded the republican party organizes like chickens, and PBS needs to make an entirely new kind of documentary. Chickens peck each other to ensure they all ignore the same bullshit, and don't waste their time running in circles more often. Conservatives use their morality and fear mongering the same way, explaining why they are currently dropping like flies from alcoholism and sheer stupidity, the more they foam at the mouth. Their own children have abandoned fundamentalist services en mass and are having so few children of their own that their politicians are now begging them to do their "duty" to their lily white country club. As yea sow so shall yea reap, so shut your fucking mouths and learn to look before you leap! Up ahead at the sign post: Dark Territory!

 

Wow! I had no idea it was that bad. I knew Patriot Prayer and Antifa were attacking each other in Portland. How stupid!

 

Attacking your own government is now the patriotic thing to do. If you just attack it nonstop you can't have a government, and the problem is solved.

 

I hope you're being sarcastic. If you don't have a government, the problems are just beginning and will be "solved" at enormous cost and suffering. In Maslow's need hierarchy, physiological and safety needs trump (no pun intended) just about everything else. People need to get a grip!

 

Wall Street runs the country, and anyone who says otherwise is either a liar or clueless. You get the justice you can afford. Neo-Nazis now run the country, so suck it up and cough up the money or the guns. Americans have been voting for whoever advertises the most for over twenty years, and a twenty year study by Princeton concluded whoever was voted into the office, only the wealthy ever got anything they wanted. So I encourage conservatives to argue amongst themselves and die off faster.

Good... Goooood... I can feel... the hate... send in the clowns!
The Mafioso Neo-Nazis leaders are begging them to do their duty to the white race, and make more babies, instead of abandoning their fundamentalist churches and going for that cash with both hands. They take it back, and now say Big Bird was never an evil commie plot, but its still illegal to vote for Mickey Mouse in Libertarian Paradise by the Sea Maryland.

 

I see it now. You don't like wealth and privilege! But why not? Wouldn't you prefer to be wealthy and privileged? Seems like anybody would. I get why people can be sore when they see others higher on the wealth/privilege scale. But what good reason would we have for eliminating the possibility of people earning wealth and privilege? To make low achievers feel better about themselves? To have more people to commiserate with? What then?

Nobody intelligent is denying climate change. The real question is "what are the ramifications?" If you listen to the alarmists, the world was already going to be inhabitable before now, so maybe we're just in the matrix. Deniers say nothing will happen. Truth is, nobody knows. A lot of people think they know, but nobody does. Something will happen, but will it be catastrophic? Highly unlikely. And we're moving to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in a controlled, sensible way. Nuclear power will increasingly come on line and eventually electric vehicles will make sense pollution-wise. If we can just learn how to cut the biggest emissions of all - forest fires - then all this reduction in CO2 might cause plants to start starving.

 

Exciting!

 

If someone wants to be really wealthy, fine. But your privileges don't extend to buying the outcomes of elections and deciding policy for a nation of people who aren't nearly as well off as you are.

 

Its traditional Three Stooges slapstick. Honest Abe Lincoln himself once snuck out the window along with a bunch of his compatriots. In many countries today they literally wrestle on the legislative floor, to prove to their constituents they are fighting for them. Mickey Mouse is my man! He'll be running against PT Barnum and his three ring circus.

 

Wall Street owns the media that runs the advertising that tells you who is or is not worth voting for then Wall Street receives massive perks from the government that just got elected , it's really nice and cozy deal where everyone wins but poor Joe Six Pack.

 

Wall Street isn't an individual, but composed of at least 1,700 international conglomerates that basically run the world economy. All the banks care about is they win and you lose. If Americans want to make it illegal to vote for Mickey Mouse and elect the next Adolf Hitler they could not care less, so long as they get to stomp on their competition. The Pentagon agrees and ensures our economy remains corrupt, because weapons are the single largest export of the US, which is probably the largest exporter now, as far as money making technology goes. Europe couldn't fight their way out of a wet paper bag, the Japanese are almost back up to full strength, and the Chinese navy is now fully prepared to defend their territorial waters.

Russia is Russia, and you never feed the damned bears. India is preparing to do the dance of Shiva as their solution to global warming. Egypt is in such sad shape I can't bare to watch and whirling dervishes can't help them.

 

No, I wouldn't prefer to be wealthy and privileged. I'm satisfied with being middle class and unprivileged. How much satisfaction can a gazillionaire get from the sixth car and the fourth home when others around him are in need? The top 10 percent of Americans make over nine times the income as the bottom 90 percent., and the top 1 percent averages over 40 times more income than the bottom 90 percent .The True Cause of Income Inequality in America Some 33 million workers earn less than the poverty level for a family of four. And the disparities are growing, in reverse of the trend from 1928 to 1973. Apart from empathy and moral decency, political foresight might dictate greater responsiveness to this situation. The political costs of trying to keep the status quo are mounting. I wonder if Marie Antoinette had second thoughts about eating cake.

 

The top six corporations that provide the news in America are:
GE , News Corp , Disney , Viacom , Time Warner and CBS.

Consider for instance that News Corp owns the number one newspaper on three continents besides it's television news outlets.

Note: Time Warner is now owned by ATT .

Together these six control 90% of what we read watch or listen to.

The distance between Wall Street and K-street is very short .

 

Over a trillion dollars was invested in AI research in the last year or so alone, while computers already handle 40% of all Wall Street transactions and it is estimated every bureaucrat in DC can be replaced with AI programs. So I encourage Libertarians everywhere to replace every Mormon bureaucrat in DC with computer programs. I tell people, you are either smarter than the Three Stooges, or you are the stupid chickenshit chicken! Low, low, low as you can go taxes, on sale now at Walmart.

 

tl; dr