Information icon.svg Results for the 2024 RationalWiki Moderator Election have now been posted. Thank you for participating in this election, and congratulations to the winners!
Bronze-level article

Dennis Prager

From RationalWiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
"Urine and feces. Yes! Urine and feces!"[1]
Parroting squawkbox
Pundits
Icon pundit.svg
And a dirty dozen more
v - t - e
“”America is engaged in two wars for the survival of its civilization. The war over same-sex marriage and the war against Islamic totalitarianism are actually two fronts in the same war — a war for the preservation of the unique American creation known as Judeo-Christian civilization. One enemy is religious extremism. The other is secular extremism. One enemy is led from abroad. The other is directed from home.
—Dennis Prager on one of his bad days[2]
“”There is not one iota more wisdom in the medical profession than in any other profession.... Science is what the media agrees with, not real science.
—Dennis Prager[3]

Dennis Urine and Feces Prager (1948–) is an American neoconservative radio host, professional tone troll, anti-vaxxer,[4] conspiracy theorist, and human/slug hybrid who believes that the United States is a Christian nation, and that it's under attack from "secular leftists" who control the media, universities, public education system, and other institutions.

Unfortunately, for every reasonable position he has, he seems to say at least ten things that are either blatant lies or mind-fuckingly bizarre. He is also notable for having one of the worst cases of psychological projection ever, even by wingnut standards and for possibly being a worse offender of Jonanism than Jonah Goldberg himself. He is well known for his opposition to "the left" allowing their "feelings" to get in the way of policy, but when policy hurts his "feelings", he loses his freakin' mind. Hmm…

Prager is rarely countered, due to the fact that nobody to the left of the radical right takes him seriously anymore.[5] Despite this, he has a small group of very devoted fans.

The Dennis Prager Method For Choosing Viewpoints™® is to take the opposite viewpoint of a leftist, since "the Left lies about everything".[6]

Anti-environmentalism[edit]

Prager pushes anti-environmentalism through global warming denialism ("leftist hysteria" apparently) and myths around DDT bans.[7][8] He's also ventured into weird "Environmentalism is replacing God" territory:

Nothing comes close to environmentalism in generating left-wing enthusiasm. It is the religion of our time. For the left, the earth has supplanted patriotism. This was largely inevitable in Europe, given its contempt for nationalism since the end of World War I and even more so since World War II. But it is now true for the elites (almost all of whose members are on the left) in America as well.[9]

Gay marriage[edit]

See the main article on this topic: Same-sex marriage

Prager is notable for having a history of being extremely homophobic despite denying it every ten seconds in his articles and radio show. He has claimed that the legalization of gay marriage is a greater threat to America than economic depression.[10] He claims that this is because legalizing gay marriage will redefine the concept of "gender itself". He is credited with writing the 1993 essay Judaism's Sexual Revolution: Why Judaism rejected Homosexuality in which he writes:

Judaism cannot make peace with homosexuality because homosexuality denies many of Judaism's most fundamental principles. It denies life, it denies God's expressed desire that men and women cohabit, and it denies the root structure that Judaism wishes for all mankind, the family.[11]

Imagine his reaction when he realizes that most of today's US Jews vote Democratic (and the state of gay rights in Israel). Moving on:

But the major reason for anyone concerned with women's equality to be concerned with homosexuality is the direct correlation between the prevalence of male homosexuality and the relegation of women to a low social role. The improvement of the condition of women has only occurred in Western civilization, the civilization least tolerant of homosexuality.[11]

Which is why in Iran, where homosexuality is punishable by death, there is perfect gender equality, right? And the crowning gem of the article:

While the typical lesbian has had fewer than ten "lovers," the typical male homosexual in America has had over 500.[11]

Except he states no evidence for that at all. Also notice how he basically says "I'm cool with lesbians but gays are gross." Many of Prager's fans will cry out "he wrote it in 1993, he could've changed his views since then!" If that is the case, then he certainly shows no remorse over writing it since he has not apologized for the article and rarely brings it up, probably hoping everyone will forget he wrote it. The essay in question is still used by openly homophobic sites such as the Catholic Education Resource Center.[12] Besides, even if Prager has completely changed his views since then, he really shouldn't act dumbfounded when people think he's homophobic, since this article is the first result on Google for "Dennis Prager" + "homosexuality". Acting as if he's being persecuted by gay activists for his beliefs when called out for his apparent homophobia is ridiculous.

A glaring problem with Dennis Prager's opposition to gay marriage is the fact he's been divorced twice and married thrice. He actually talks about this on occasion, saying that the argument that divorce threatens marriage is a non sequitur. He goes on to defend his position with a hilariously non sequitur argument himself, saying that "divorce itself no more undermines the institution of marriage than car crashes undermine the institution of driving."[13] This is, of course, an example of a false analogy, since you don't swear to be with your car til death do you part.

Ferghtin der Mooslims![edit]

“”...America will not change the attitude of a single American-hating Muslim by allowing Ellison to substitute the Koran for the Bible. In fact, the opposite is more likely: Ellison's doing so will embolden Islamic extremists and make new ones, as Islamists, rightly or wrongly, see the first sign of the realization of their greatest goal -- the Islamicization of America.
—Dennis Prager[14]

When Muslim Congressman Keith Ellison was elected to office, Prager decided to harass him in the most assholish way possible, writing an article on Townhall that Ellison should not be allowed to take the oath on the Koran but instead the Bible, which would essentially violate Article VI of the Constitution.[14]

He states in the article that allowing Ellison to use the Koran would be more devastating to American values than 9/11. This was a manufactroversy since, according to the Anti-Defamation League: "No Member of Congress is officially sworn in with a Bible. Under House rules, the official swearing-in ceremony is done in the House chambers, with the Speaker of the House administering the oath of office en masse."[15] Only in private ceremonies held after the official ceremony can religious texts be used. Prager also ignores the Establishment Clause, but it's likely the Constitution isn't American enough for Prager. He attempted to bullshit his way out of what he wrote on Hannity,[16] saying that he was merely making a "request" for Ellison to not use a Koran, despite his article explicitly saying "He (Ellison) should not be allowed to do so — not because of any American hostility to the Koran, but because the act undermines American civilization." He later attempted to state that the liberal media was on Ellison's side, a sign that he was being persecuted for his "Islamophobia". He is probably too stupid to recognize that there is a difference between criticizing Islam itself and targeting the human rights of a single Muslim who isn't breaking the law, hurting someone, or even a fundamentalist for that matter.

Most confusingly, Prager said that Ellison's beliefs were irrelevant, it was the ceremony that mattered since it was an "unbroken tradition" since George Washington. This is incorrect since John Quincy Adams was sworn in on a law book, Franklin Pierce also used a law book and simply affirmed the oath as opposed to being sworn in, LBJ used a Catholic Missal, and Congressman Henry Waxman never used a Christian Bible. Some Jewish officeholders, such as Governor Linda Lingle, have also been sworn in on the Tanakh, but Prager said this was irrelevant since any Jews who used the Tanakh were "secularists who didn't believe what was in it anyway". Of course, this contradicts Prager's claim that the officeholder's belief is irrelevant and that it's only the ceremony that matters.

Prager's comments led to him being criticized by the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee, and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. Only the theocratic American Family Association and Virgil Goode supported Prager.

Creepiness[edit]

“”The rape of a name can be as vicious a crime and as destructive an act as the rape of a body. Sometimes the rape of a body is worse, sometimes the rape of a name is worse. But they are both rapes.
—Dennis Prager[17]

One of the most disturbing articles he's written is "The Rape of a Name Is Also Rape" in which he writes that being falsely accused of rape is just as bad, if not worse, than actual rape.[17] While such a false accusation is a terrible crime, it is obviously not on par with rape, but again that is somehow a "leftist" view.

When it comes to relationships there's no one to go to for worse advice than the Pragernater. This is made especially apparent in his essay "When a Woman Isn't In the Mood: Part II" where he gives eight reasons as to why women should submit to having sex with their husbands even when they’re not in the mood.[18] He is just able enough to write it in a way so he can plausibly deny that he was advocating for marital rape. However, he sure as hell wasn't being sensitive to victims of marital rape and at one point calls "childhood trauma" one of the "myriad" of reasons that women try to get out of sex. By the way if you take his advice by constantly pressuring your wife into having sex as opposed to trying to "get in the mood" together the relationship will probably end in resentment and divorce.[note 1] Also, having sex with someone who's not in the mood doesn't sound pleasant to most sane people.

Later, in an article on Todd Akin's rape comments, he is impressively hard on Akin, showing some hope that he will be sensitive to rape victims.[19] He ends up blowing this opportunity when he tries to say that some rapes may not really be rape, so long as they're not "forcible rapes." Of course if you point out his borderline sociopathic attitude towards rape victims he will just call you another "leftist" who lets "feelings" get in the way of "logic" (a.k.a. his feelings).

Not as fucked up as the above, but Prager also has bizarre views on sexual harassment. He once claimed that liberal teachers and CBS News (it doesn't make much more sense in context) were responsible for "indoctrinating" young girls with feminism which was making them "oversensitive" to men's advances, which in turn explained the reason higher levels of sexual harassment were being reported by young girls.[20] The idea that girls had a better idea of what sexual harassment was and weren't as afraid to report it seems never to have crossed his mind.

Prager's creepiness reached its height when he wrote an article that was horribly titled "Sandusky Abused Children, NCAA Abuses History" in which he attacked the NCAA for stripping Penn State of their football wins in the aftermath of the Jerry Sandusky pedophilia scandal.[21] He accused the NCAA of trying to rewrite history and then went off on a separate rant on how the evil libs in California were "rewriting" history to include minorities. Most of the creepiness came from how callous he was towards the rape victims, thus proving that he's not one of those touchy-feely lefties who are controlled by emotion. For those who believe this to be an exaggeration the article includes this paragraph:

The lesson the NCAA is teaching young people — that history and truth don’t matter if enough powerful people don’t want them to matter — can be as injurious to society as the cover-up was to the victims of Sandusky.[21]

One would think that if the media was as liberal as Prager claimed they are they could've simply used this single, fucked up sentence to destroy his career but instead it was largely ignored and the article itself still managed to get 34 Facebook "likes."

Fear-mongering[edit]

“”I write the words ‘civil war’ with an ache in my heart. But we are in one. Thank God this civil war is non-violent. But the fact is that the left and the rest of the country share almost no values. The American value system and the leftist value system are irreconcilable. If the left wins, America’s values lose.
—Dennis Prager[22]

Prager's greatest enemy is not the gays, or even the feminists, but instead "the left". Who Prager believes the left consists of is unclear since his definition of the left apparently means that Barack Obama is our first leftist president, with the possible exception of FDR.[23] This is another blatant lie since JFK, LBJ, Carter, and even Nixon and Eisenhower governed to the left of Obama. The left is also working hard to turn university students into bisexuals.[24] He has even accused the "secular left" of being anti-Semitic (that must be a lot of Jews, then); during a debate Christopher Hitchens confronted him on this claim and Prager couldn't back it up, which led to Hitchens accusing Prager of being "evasive".[25]

Basically, "the left" is based off of overgeneralizations that are built on either straw man logical fallacies or the spotlight fallacy if he bothers to find some left-wing fringe group. Ironically, he repeatedly accuses the pinko liberals of generalizing the poor conservatives.[26][27] Sadly, his fans pretty much buy into whatever he says and seem utterly convinced he is one of the greatest intellectuals of our time, even though he basically just scares them into thinking that everyone (the media, public schools, universities, Hollywood) is out to turn them and their children into liberal homosexuals which can only be avoided by listening to Prager's show or buying his books so he may show you what American values really are. Groupthink at its very best.

Breakdown[edit]

“”For the Left, tolerance does not mean tolerance. It means first, acceptance. And second, celebration. That is totalitarianism: You not only have to live with what you may differ with, dear citizen, you have to celebrate it or pay a steep price.
—Dennis Prager[28]

After Barack Obama's reelection and the repeal of DOMA, Prager grew increasingly crazy. He compared the repeal of California's Prop 8 to the Egyptian coup,Wikipedia because he believed it was anti-democratic. He blamed the repeal of Prop 8 on the "Supreme Court of the United States, colluding judges and the Democratic Party of California".[29] After all this is the first time courts have overridden the will of the majority.

He went even further off the rails and wrote a column about how efforts to promote LGBT tolerance would lead to a fascist takeover of America.[28][30] Never mind that fascism is inherently a right-wing ideology; what tolerance has to do with a nationalistic, corporatist, and anti-democracy political philosophy that believes in quashing the rights of minorities, we can't be entirely sure of. He still thinks it's the left that's hysterical, by the way (remember what we said about psychological projection?).

In an article on Intelligent Design, he basically pulled the old "atheists have more faith than creationists",[31] and then exaggerates the theory of a multiverse as being more influential than it actually is.

Fun facts[edit]

“”Ever since I attended college, I have been convinced that either “studies” confirm what common sense suggests or that they are mistaken.
—An inspiring quote from Dennis Prager[32]

Prager constantly spouts something outrageous and batshit crazy. Here are few of his greatest hits:

  • Prager wrote an article in 2011 that "predicted" that during Obama's State of the Union address the "Under God" motto in Congress would not be shown based off how it hadn't been seen in recent years due to godless cameramen.[33] The first statement was incorrect, since about five minutes into the address the motto is seen several times and the second statement was a blatant lie as seen by a picture of the 2010 State of the Union address.[34]
  • He claimed that feminism and women abandoning marriage for careers were responsible for higher depression rates among women,[35] despite housewives reporting higher rates of depression than working women.[36][37] Whoopsie!
  • He persistently claims that his preference for children to be raised by heterosexuals over homosexuals is a perfectly rational one despite studies showing it makes no difference.[38][39][40]
  • Prager took a Dorito ad[41] way too seriously and believed it to be racist against African-Americans, even though the race of the actors was irrelevant.[42]
  • Prager managed to anger Randroids and Ron Paul fans in the past, mainly when he raged on Paul for saying that blacks are disproportionately executed.[43] Unfortunately for Prager, Ron Paul was actually right in this case.[44] Also, the fact that Prager accuses Paul of being a "radical lefty" during his rant makes his definition of a "leftist" even more confusing.
  • He is fervently opposed to Obamacare and has used disproven talking points to back his arguments.[45] deconstructs said talking points quite nicely and proves how intellectually lazy Prager is.
  • Even the libertarians have taken potshots at Prager due to his anti-marijuana legalization stance.[46] Plus, he basically lumped them in with "leftists" (again). Wonkette went after him as well, briefly uniting libertarian and liberal bloggers in their disdain for the man.[47]
  • He has called COVID-19 lockdowns "the greatest mistake in human history".[3]
  • After he contracted COVID-19, he went on a bizarre anti-vax rant in which he said that natural immunity is "infinitely preferable to vaccine immunity"[48] and claimed that he wanted to contract the virus the whole time, and said he used hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin (so much for natural immunity).[4]
  • He has accused atheists of supporting incest, or at least having no valid reason to oppose it.[49]

Prager "University"[edit]

See the main article on this topic: PragerU
Logo
“”George Orwell's fictionalized world where Big Brother reigns supreme is no longer a figment of the imagination, but a prophetic vision of present-day threats... Big Tech is making Orwell’s 1984 a 21st century reality.
—A PragerU video that runs as an advertisement before YouTube videos. Really.[50]

Prager runs a non-profit online program called Prager University.[51] Watch two or three YouTube videos and you'll be assaulted with an ad of theirs. Keeping up with his paranoia around universities turning students into secular bisexual leftists, the "university" has the totally not bizarre motto "Undoing the damage of the University… five minutes at a time." Since it doesn't offer degrees, the "University" does not even rise to the level of diploma mill.

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ↑ Sound familiar?

References[edit]

  1. ↑ urine and feces. Weasley111 on YouTube, 25 March 2019.
  2. ↑ San Francisco and Islamists: Fighting the same enemy. dennisprager.com, 2 March 2004.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Fireside Chat Ep. 176 — Is It the Greatest Mistake in Human History?, PragerU, YouTube, 4 March 2021.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Conservative radio host Dennis Prager announces he tested positive for COVID-19, which he said he was intentionally trying to contract 'the entire time', Azmi Haroun, Business Insider 18 October 2021
  5. ↑ Prager persuades? Really? freethoughtblogs.com, 21 August 2011.
  6. ↑ Dennis Prager, Assume the Left Lies, and You Will Discover the Truth. National Review, 26 March 2019.
  7. ↑ Leading Australian Earth Scientist Debunks Global Warming. Archived from dennisprager.com, 27 April 2009.
  8. ↑ Dennis Prager, Environmentalism and Human Sacrifice. Town Hall, 26 February 2013.
  9. ↑ Judaism, Christianity, Environmentalism. dennisprager.com, 1 April 2014.
  10. ↑ Dennis Prager Thinks Gay Marriage Bigger Threat Than Bad Economy. heathr456 on YouTube, 12 April 2009.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Dennis Prager, Judaism’s Sexual Revolution: Why Judaism (and then Christianity) Rejected Homosexuality. Archived from catholiceducation.org, 5 June 2004.
  12. ↑ Dennis Prager, Judaism's Sexual Revolution: Why Judaism Rejected Homosexuality. catholiceducation.org. Reposts in whole Prager's awful 1993 essay.
  13. ↑ The divorce-threatens-marriage lie. dennisprager.com, 12 April 2005.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Dennis Prager, America, Not Keith Ellison, decides what book a congressman takes his oath on. Town Hall, 28 November 2006.
  15. ↑ ADL Statement on Dennis Prager's Attack On Muslim Congressman for Taking Oath of Office on Koran. Anti-Defamation League, 1 December 2006.
  16. ↑ Malik Shabazz Embarrasses Dennis "The Bigot" Prager. Hatalles on YouTube, 1 December 2006.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Dennis Prager, The Rape of a Name Is Also Rape. creators.com, 25 June 2007.
  18. ↑ Dennis Prager, When a Woman Isn't In the Mood: Part II. Town Hall, 30 December 2008.
  19. ↑ Dennis Prager, Worse Than Wrong: The pro-life movement must disavow Todd Akin’s comment. Archived from the National Review, 21 August 2012.
  20. ↑ Dennis Prager, Liberalism and Victimhood. humanevents.com, 3 June 2008.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Dennis Prager, Sandusky Abused Children, NCAA Abuses History. National Review, 31 July 2012.
  22. ↑ Dennis Prager, It's a civil war: What we do now. Wing Nut Daily, 23 March 2010.
  23. ↑ Dennis Prager, Americans Are Beginning to Understand the Left. Town Hall, 21 July 2009.
  24. ↑ College taught her not to be a heterosexual. dennisprager.com, 19 April 2005.
  25. ↑ Part 4 - D'Souza, Hitchens, and Prager. tothesource on YouTube.
  26. ↑ Dennis Prager, For the Left, Opponents Cannot Have Decent Motives: The Ground Zero Example. Town Hall, 24 August 2010.
  27. ↑ Leftism Makes You Meaner. dennisprager.com, 10 January 2012.
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 Dennis Prager, Tolerance, Health, and Fascism. National Review, 27 August 2013.
  29. ↑ Dennis Prager, Egypt's coup ... and ours. Wing Nut Daily, 8 July 2013.
  30. ↑ Luke Brinker, NRO's Dennis Prager: LGBT Non-Discrimination Efforts Breed “Fascism”. Media Matters, 27 August 2013.
  31. ↑ Dennis Prager, Why some scientists embrace the 'multiverse'. Wing Nut Daily, 17 June 2013.

    ...it is atheistic dogma, not science, to dismiss design as unscientific. The argument that science cannot suggest that intelligence comes from intelligence or design from an intelligent designer is simply a tautology. It is dogma masquerading as science.

  32. ↑ Dennis Prager, Why young Americans can't think morally. Wing Nut Daily, 19 September 2011.
  33. ↑ Dennis Prager, God and Congress. National Review, 25 January 2011.
  34. ↑ 2011 State Of The Union-Enhanced & HD. Michael McIntee, YouTube, 27 January 2011.
  35. ↑ Dennis Prager, Why Are So Many Women Depressed? Town Hall, 24 June 2008.
  36. ↑ Elizabeth Mendes, Lydia Saad, and Kyley McGeeney, Stay-at-Home Moms Report More Depression, Sadness, Anger. Gallpu, 18 May 2012.
  37. ↑ Livia Gershon, What Really Made 1950s Housewives So Miserable. JStor Daily, 8 June 2017.
  38. ↑ Marriage of Same-Sex Couples – 2006 Position Statement. Canadian Psychological Association, 2006.
  39. ↑ Brief Of The American Psychological Association, The California Psychological Association, The American Psychiatric Association, And The American Association For Marriage And Family Therapy As Amici Curiae In Support Of Plaintiff-appellees. Kristen Perry, et. al., v. Arnold Schwartzenegger, Appeal from United States District Court for the Northern District of California, 25 October 2010.
  40. ↑ Stephanie Pappas, Gay Parents Better Than Straight Parents? What Research Says. The Huffington Post, 16 January 2012.
  41. ↑ Doritos Commercial - Slap - Super Bowl 44 Spot. wrfilmshd, YouTube, 7 February 2010.
  42. ↑ Dennis Prager, The Doritos Ad Was Not Funny. Town Hall, 16 February 2010.
  43. ↑ Dennis Prager: "Ron Paul Is A Sickening Liar And Should Leave Office." libertyangel500, YouTube, 17 February 2012.
  44. ↑ Race and the Death Penalty. American Civil Liberties Union.
  45. ↑ Cutting the Crap: Dennis Prager's 10 Health Care Lies -- er, Questions. Archived from pleasecutthecrap.typepad.com, 7 August 2009.
  46. ↑ Dennis Prager’s War on Drugs. Archived from Before It's News, 20 March 2013.
  47. ↑ Stegan BC, Dennis Prager Urges Kids To Take Up Tobacco In Place Of Their Marijuana Cigarettes. Wonkette, 12 March 2013.
  48. ↑ Dennis Prager Coughs Through Saying He Got Covid On Purpose | The Kyle Kulinski Show, Kyle Kulinski, The Young Turks 20 October 2021
  49. ↑ Dennis Prager: ‘There's No Secular Argument against Adult Incest.’ Media Matters for America, 11 October 2022.

    There's no secular argument against adult incest. Brother and sister want to make love, what's your argument? That they're going to produce mentally retarded offspring? That's nonsense. It takes many generations of inbreeding to do that. There is a religious argument - sex cannot enter family life. It's a big taboo.

  50. ↑ Big Tech Is Big Brother. PragerU, YouTube, 3 June 2019.
  51. ↑ PragerU at YouTube.
Retrieved from "https://rationalwiki.org/w/index.php?title=Dennis_Prager&oldid=2696174"