One of the most highly regarded books of the 20th century was Ernest Becker&#8217;s &#8220;The Denial of Death.&#8221; Winner of the 1974 Pulitzer Prize, the book is regarded as a classic for its analysis of how human beings deny their mortality.
But there is something people deny more than mortality: evil. Someone should write a book on the denial of evil; that would be much more important because while we cannot prevent death, we can prevent evil.
The most glaring example of the denial of evil is communism, an ideology that, within a period of only 60 years, created modern totalitarianism and deprived of human rights, tortured, starved and killed more people than any other ideology in history.
Why people ignore, or even deny, communist evil is the subject of a previous column as well as a Prager University video, &#8220;Why Isn&#8217;t Communism as Hated as Nazism?&#8221; I will, therefore, not address that question here.
I will simply lay out the facts.
But before I do, I need to address another question: Why is it important that everyone know what communism did?
Here are three reasons:
First, we have a moral obligation to the victims not to forget them. Just as Americans have a moral obligation to remember the victims of American slavery, we have the same obligation to the billion victims of communism, especially the 100 million who were murdered.
Second, the best way to prevent an evil from reoccurring is to confront it in all its horror. The fact that many people today, especially young people, believe communism is a viable — even morally superior — option for modern societies proves they know nothing about communism&#8217;s moral record. Therefore, they do not properly fear communism — which means this evil could happen again.
And why could it happen again?
That brings us to reason number three. The leaders of communist regimes and the vast number of people who helped those leaders torture, enslave and murder — plus the many more people who reported on their neighbors for saying something objectionable to the communists — were nearly all normal people. Of course, some were psychopaths, but most were not. Which proves that any society — including free ones — can devolve into communism or some analogous evil.
Now some facts:
According to the authoritative &#8220;The Black Book of Communism,&#8221; written by six French scholars and published in the United States by Harvard University Press, the numbers of people murdered — not people killed in combat; ordinary civilians trying to live their lives — by communist regimes were:
Latin America: 150,000.
Vietnam: 1 million.
Eastern Europe: 1 million.
Ethiopia: 1.5 million.
North Korea: 2 million.
Cambodia: 2 million.
The Soviet Union: 20 million (many scholars believe the number was considerably higher).
China: 65 million.
These numbers are quite conservative. For example, in Ukraine alone, the Soviet regime and its Ukrainian Communist Party helpers starved 5 to 6 million to death within a two-year period. It is almost inconceivable that only 14 to 15 million other Soviet citizens were murdered.
And, of course, these numbers do not describe the suffering endured by hundreds of millions of people who were not murdered: the systematic stripping people of their right to speak freely, to worship, to start a business or even to travel without party permission; no noncommunist judiciary or media; the near-poverty of nearly all communist countries; the imprisonment and torture of vast numbers of people; and, of course, the trauma suffered by the hundreds of millions of friends and relatives of the murdered and imprisoned.
These numbers don&#8217;t tell you about the many starving Ukrainians who ate the flesh of people, often children, sometimes including their own; or the Romanian Christians whose communist prison guards forced them to eat feces to compel them to renounce their faith; or the frozen millions in the vast Soviet Siberian prison camp system known as the Gulag Archipelago; or the Vietnamese communists&#8217; routine practice of burying peasants alive to terrorize people into supporting the communists; or Mao Zedong&#8217;s regular use of torture to punish opponents and intimidate peasants, like leading men through the streets with rusty wires through their testicles and burning the vaginas of wives of opponents with flaming wicks — Mao&#8217;s techniques to terrorize peasants into supporting the Chinese Communist Party in its early days.
Sources for the above:
Ukraine: Anne Applebaum, &#8220;Red Famine: Stalin&#8217;s War on Ukraine.&#8221;
Romania: Eugen Magirescu, &#8220;The Devil&#8217;s Mill: Memories of Pitesti Prison.&#8221; (Cited in Paul Kengor&#8217;s &#8220;The Devil and Karl Marx: Communism&#8217;s Long March of Death, Deception, and Infiltration.&#8221;)
Vietnam: Max Hastings, &#8220;Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, 1945-1975.&#8221;
China: Jung Chang and Jon Halliday, &#8220;Mao: The Unknown Story.&#8221;
I return to the theme of the denial of evil.
People associate evil with darkness. But that is not accurate: It is easy to look into the dark; it is very hard to stare into bright light. One should therefore associate evil with extreme brightness, given that people rarely look at real evil. And those who do not confront real evil often make up evils (such as &#8220;systemic racism,&#8221; &#8220;toxic masculinity&#8221; and &#8220;heteronormativity&#8221; in 21st-century America) that are much easier to confront.
The Book of Psalms states, &#8220;Those of you who love God — you are to hate evil.&#8221;
In other words, you can&#8217;t love God if you don&#8217;t hate evil.
And if you don&#8217;t believe in God, here&#8217;s another way of putting it: &#8220;Those of you who love people — you are to hate evil.&#8221;
If you don&#8217;t hate communism, you don&#8217;t care about, much less love, people.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host and columnist. His latest book, published by Regnery in May 2019, is &#8220;The Rational Bible,&#8221; a commentary on the book of Genesis. His film, &#8220;No Safe Spaces,&#8221; was released to home entertainment nationwide on September 15, 2020. He is the founder of Prager University and may be contacted at dennisprager.com.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Communism

PRAGER: Support For Communism Shows A Denial Of Evil

China

Leftism

Readers Pass

Soviet Union

One of the most highly regarded books of the 20th century was Ernest Becker&#039;s &quot;The Denial of Death.&quot; Winner of the 1974 Pulitzer Prize, the book is

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Given how flawed human nature is, America has been a remarkable moral achievement.
This is the truism that separates the wise man from the fool.
This is the truism that separates the Left from the anti-Left.
Those who acknowledge how flawed human nature is compare America to reality. Those who do not, compare America to some utopian image: a country free of inequality, prejudices, intolerance, sexual misbehavior, greed, etc. This divide helps explain why those who hold a biblical worldview — usually religious Jews and Christians — are more likely to appreciate America than those who do not. It is fundamental to Judaism and Christianity that &#8220;the will of man&#8217;s heart is evil from his youth&#8221; (Genesis 8:21).
I offer a partial list of bad traits inherent to human nature. When perusing it, one can only marvel at how good a country America became.
No. 1: A yearning for power over others.
This yearning is what has animated nearly every political leader in history. There are people who do not have a personal craving for power and seek positions of power solely because of a calling. But these people are rare.
The American Founders understood this. They created a unique political system to minimize power and to maximize checks on power. That is the reason for the division of power among three coequal branches of government and the reason states were given so much power. Thus, America was established to be a republic, not a pure democracy. In addition, the Founders did not trust the majority with great power, which is the reason for two nondemocratic institutions: the Electoral College and the Senate. And that is why the Left, which is rooted in a desire for power — and therefore a desire for evermore powerful government — loathes the Electoral College and the Senate.
No. 2: A yearning for fame and recognition.
This, along with the yearning for power, is what drives and has driven nearly all politicians in world history, but it is hardly isolated to politicians. For example, it is largely what animates Hollywood actors. That is one reason no other profession gives itself as many awards as does Hollywood. Increasingly, however, being a star is also what animates journalists and, to the extent possible, academics and other intellectuals.
No. 3: A yearning to feel and be considered important and morally superior.
This is nearly universal. People — historically men, but increasingly women — ache to believe they are important. There is nothing inherently wrong with this yearning. However, it can lead people to engage in irresponsible, even evil, behavior — solely because it makes them feel important. This explains why the Left fights largely nonexistent evils such as &#8220;systemic racism,&#8221; &#8220;white supremacy,&#8221; &#8220;white privilege&#8221; and &#8220;capitalism.&#8221; Fighting evil, even make-believe evils, makes one feel important and morally superior to those who do not fight these evils.
No. 4: The sex drive.
Consider how many men have lost everything — their money, reputation, livelihood, even their family — in order to gratify their sex drive. The reason there has been so much irresponsible and sometimes evil sexual behavior is not because of &#8220;sexism&#8221; or &#8220;patriarchy,&#8221; but because of this drive. The wonder is not how much sexual impropriety exists in America; the wonder is how little there is compared to the past, compared to virtually every society in history and compared to many societies today.
This has largely been the result of the influence of Judeo-Christian ethics. Prior to the baby boomer generation, most American men were raised to believe that manhood was defined by marriage and by taking care of a family. With the Left’s assault on Judeo-Christian religions, more and more young men feel free to revert to their animal-like sexual nature, which is not monogamous and not naturally inclined to getting married and making a family.
No. 5. Greed.
The desire for more money and material possessions is built into the human condition. There is nothing wrong with wanting to make more money and have a nicer home. In fact, it is usually a good thing; it is what animates people to work hard and invent things. Greed, however, is the word we use to describe a yearning for material wealth so great that it overpowers moral considerations — which it has throughout history. It is the reason for corruption, an evil that constitutes the single greatest reason countries do not develop. Like every other country, America has always had its share of greedy individuals, but there has generally been far less corruption in America than elsewhere — a major reason for America&#8217;s unique prosperity.
This, too, is rapidly changing. Like the other negative impulses of human nature, greed was held at least somewhat in check by religion. Every Bible-based religion taught its followers self-control. With the demise of religion, the only thing left to control people is the state. But when the state becomes a substitute for religion in attempting to control human nature, one ends up with a police state, which may well happen here.
No. 6: Ingratitude.
Gratitude is not built into human nature. That&#8217;s why good parents tell their children thousands of times, &#8220;Say &#8216;thank you.'&#8221; Gratitude needs to be cultivated. And throughout American history, it was. The great majority of Americans and new immigrants to America were profoundly grateful to be American. Of course, many Blacks had legitimate reasons not to be grateful to be American. But, over time, that has changed. However, the Left has told every group other than white males that they should have no gratitude for being American. One could say that most college and graduate school degrees today are degrees in ingratitude. The Left knows it can only win elections when the majority of Americans are ungrateful.
Given human nature, America has been an extraordinary accomplishment. However, given the Left’s largely successful elimination of Judeo-Christian and middle-class values — and the consequent unleashing of human nature — that accomplishment may not survive.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host and columnist. His latest book, published by Regnery in May 2019, is &#8220;The Rational Bible,&#8221; a commentary on the book of Genesis. His film, &#8220;No Safe Spaces,&#8221; was released to home entertainment nationwide on September 15, 2020. He is the founder of Prager University and may be contacted at dennisprager.com.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

American flag

PRAGER: Given How Flawed Human Nature Is, America Has Been A Remarkable Moral Achievement

Morality

Religion

United States

Given how flawed human nature is, America has been a remarkable moral achievement. This is the truism that separates the wise man from the fool. This is

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Ten years ago, I wrote a column reflecting on my reactions to visiting Vietnam. Given the lack of revulsion to, and even flirtation with, communism (or its more mildly named version, socialism) among many young Americans, it is worth revisiting.
It was difficult to control my emotions — specifically, my anger — during my visit to Vietnam. The more I came to admire the Vietnamese people — their intelligence, love of life, dignity and hard work — the more rage I felt toward the communists who brought them (and, of course, us Americans) so much suffering in the second half of the 20th century.
Unfortunately, communists still rule the country. Yet, Vietnam has embraced the only way that exists to escape poverty, let alone to produce prosperity: capitalism and the free market. So, then, what exactly did the 2 million Vietnamese who died in the Vietnam War die for? I would like to pose that question to some of Vietnam&#8217;s communist rulers. &#8220;Comrade, you have disowned everything your Communist Party stood for: communal property, collectivized agriculture, central planning and militarism, among other things. Looking back, then, for what precisely did your beloved Ho Chi Minh and your party sacrifice millions of your fellow Vietnamese?&#8221;
There is no good answer. There are only lies and truths, and the truths are not good.
The lie is the response offered by the Vietnamese communists, repeated by the world&#8217;s noncommunist Left, taught (until today) in virtually every Western university, and spread by virtually every news medium on the planet: The Vietnam communists, i.e., the North Vietnamese regime and the Viet Cong in South Vietnam, were merely fighting for national independence against imperialism, i.e., foreign control of their country. First, they fought the Japanese, then the French and then the Americans. American baby boomers will remember being told over and over that Ho Chi Minh was Vietnam&#8217;s George Washington, that he loved the American Constitution, after which he modeled his own, and that he wanted nothing more than Vietnamese independence.
Here is the truth: Every communist dictator has been a megalomaniacal, cult-of-personality, power-hungry, bloodthirsty thug. Ho Chi Minh was no different. He murdered his opponents, tortured God only knows how many innocent Vietnamese (burying peasants alive was a favored method), so as to scare millions of peasants into fighting for him — yes, for him and his blood-soaked Vietnamese Communist Party, backed by the greatest murderer of all time, Mao Zedong. But moral idiots in America chanted &#8220;Ho, ho, Ho Chi Minh&#8221; at anti-war rallies, and depicted America as the real murderers of Vietnamese — &#8220;Hey, hey, LBJ: How many kids did you kill today?&#8221;
The Vietnamese communists were not fighting America for Vietnamese independence. America was never interested in controlling the Vietnamese people, and there is a perfect parallel to prove this: the Korean War. Did America fight the Korean communists in order to control Korea? Or did 37,000 Americans die in Korea so that Koreans could be free? Who was (and remains) a freer human being — a Korean living under Korean communist rule in North Korea or a Korean living in that part of Korea where America defeated the Korean communists?
And who was a freer human being in Vietnam — those who lived in noncommunist (but authoritarian) South Vietnam or those who lived under Ho, ho, Ho Chi Minh&#8217;s communists in North Vietnam?
America has fought to liberate countries, not to rule over them. It was the Vietnamese Communist Party (and China), not America, that was interested in controlling the Vietnamese people. But the lie was spread so widely and so effectively that most of the world — except supporters of the American war effort in Vietnam, the Vietnamese boat people and Vietnamese who yearned for liberty — believed that America was fighting for tin, tungsten and the wholly fictitious &#8220;American empire,&#8221; while the Vietnamese communists were fighting for Vietnamese freedom.
I went to the &#8220;Vietnam War Remnants Museum,&#8221; the Communist Party&#8217;s three-floor exhibit of anti-American photos. Nothing surprised me — not the absence of any truth about the communist North Vietnamese or the Viet Cong; not a word about the widespread threats on the lives of anyone who did not fight for the communists; not a word about those who risked their lives to escape by boat, preferring to risk dying by drowning, being eaten by sharks or being tortured or gang-raped by pirates than to live under the communists who &#8220;liberated&#8221; South Vietnam.
Equally unsurprising is that there is little difference between the history of the Vietnam War as told by the Communist Party of Vietnam and what just about any college student will be told in just about any college by just about any professor in America, Europe, Asia or Latin America.
I will end with the subject with which I began — the Vietnamese. It is impossible to visit Vietnam and not be impressed by the people. I hope I live to see the day when the people of Vietnam, freed from the communist lies that still permeate their daily lives, understand that every Vietnamese death in the war against America was a wasted life, one of the more than 100 million human sacrifices on the altar of the most bloodthirsty ideology in history: communism.
Share this with your son or daughter who knows nothing about communism and has no idea why decent people hate it, along with fascism and Nazism.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host and columnist. His latest book, published by Regnery in May 2019, is &#8220;The Rational Bible,&#8221; a commentary on the book of Genesis. His film, &#8220;No Safe Spaces,&#8221; was released to home entertainment nationwide on September 15, 2020. He is the founder of Prager University and may be contacted at dennisprager.com.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Communist symbol

PRAGER: Trip To Vietnam Reconfirmed My Hatred Of Communism

Vietnam

Ten years ago, I wrote a column reflecting on my reactions to visiting Vietnam. Given the lack of revulsion to, and even flirtation with, communism (or

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Let us begin with this fact: The Left always suppresses speech. Since Vladimir Lenin and the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917, there has been no example of the Left in control and not crushing dissent.
That is one of the important differences between liberal and Left: Liberalism and liberals believe in free speech. (The present leftist threat to freedom in America, the greatest threat to freedom in American history, is made possible because liberals think they have more to fear from conservatives than from the Left. Liberals do not understand that the Left regards liberals as their useful idiots.)
The Left controls universities. There is little or no dissent allowed at universities.
The Left controls nearly every &#8220;news&#8221; medium. There is little or no dissent in the mainstream media — not in the &#8220;news&#8221; sections and not in the opinion sections.
The Left controls Hollywood. No dissent is allowed in Hollywood.
That is why we have &#8220;cancel culture&#8221; — the silencing and firing of anyone who publicly dissents from the Left, and even &#8220;publicly&#8221; is no longer necessary. The National Association of Realtors has just announced that if you express dissenting views (on race, especially) in private, you may be fined and lose your membership in the organization — which effectively ends your career as a realtor.
So, we return to the opening question: Why does the Left need to crush all dissent? This is a question made all the more stark because there is no parallel on the Right: Conservatives do not shut down dissent or debate.
The answer, though the Left will not acknowledge it, is the Left fears dissent. And they do so for good reason. Leftism is essentially a giant balloon filled with nothing but hot air. Therefore, no matter how big the balloon — the Democratic Party, The New York Times, Yale University — all it takes is a mere pin to burst it.
Leftism is venerated by intellectuals. But there is little intellectual substance to leftism. It is a combination of doctrine and emotion. The proof? Those with intellectual depth do not stifle dissent; they welcome it.
That is why universities are so opposed to conservatives coming to speak on campus. One articulate conservative can undo years of left-wing indoctrination in a one-hour talk or Q and A. I know this from personal experience on campuses. You can, too. Watch the speeches given by any conservatives allowed to speak on a campus — many of these talks are still on YouTube — and you will see large halls filled with students yearning to hear something other than left-wing pablum. Look at their faces, filled with rapt attention to ideas they never heard that are clearly having an impact. Universities are entirely right to fear our coming to speak. We come with the pin that bursts their $50,000-a-year balloon.
That is also why it is so hard to get any of them to debate any of us. In 35 years of radio, I have never mistreated or bullied a guest. I was unfailingly polite to an icon of the Left, Howard Zinn, the America-hating author of the America-hating &#8220;A People&#8217;s History of the United States.&#8221; I even invited a UCLA political science professor and violinist, one of seven members of the Santa Monica Symphony Orchestra who refused to play when I conducted the orchestra in a Joseph Haydn symphony in the Disney Concert Hall — solely because I&#8217;m a conservative. Despite his public letter, in which he accused me of holding &#8220;horribly bigoted positions&#8221; and wrote, &#8220;Please urge your friends to not attend this concert, which helps normalize bigotry in our community,&#8221; I nevertheless invited him on my national radio show. He agreed. I had him in studio for an entire hour and treated him and his wife (who accompanied him) with great respect, despite my contempt for his false accusations and his advocacy of the cancel culture. Every American should hear that hour.
Unfortunately for the emotional and intellectual health of our society, he, Zinn and a few others were anomalies. Of the 100 or so left-wing authors, professors and columnists invited to appear on my show, almost none has responded in the affirmative. They prefer NPR, where they are never challenged.
The opposite, however, is not true: Every conservative intellectual I know says yes to every one of the (very few) left-wing invitations we receive. Of course, we are almost never invited. We regularly invite leftists. Leftists almost never invite us. They claim it&#8217;s because we are not up to their intellectual level and they have no desire to waste their time. One would think that the opportunity to publicly show how vapid we conservatives really are would be too good to pass up.
Leftists do not debate us or appear as guests on our shows and prevent us from speaking whenever possible, because they (correctly) fear conservatives. Race-baiters such as Ibram X. Kendi or Ta-Nehisi Coates or &#8220;White Fragility&#8221; author Robin DiAngelo would never debate Larry Elder, for example. Why won&#8217;t they? Because they would be shown to be the intellectually shallow purveyors of hate they are. Deep down, they know it. Larry Elder is one of many conservative black intellectuals who left-wing blacks (and whites) refuse to debate.
Now you know why the Left suppresses free speech: because they have to. If there is free speech, there is dissent. And if there is dissent, there is no more Left.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host and columnist. His latest book, published by Regnery in May 2019, is &#8220;The Rational Bible,&#8221; a commentary on the book of Genesis. His film, &#8220;No Safe Spaces,&#8221; was released to home entertainment nationwide on September 15, 2020. He is the founder of Prager University and may be contacted at dennisprager.com.

Censored

PRAGER: Why The Left Has To Suppress Free Speech

Free Speech

Let us begin with this fact: The Left always suppresses speech. Since Vladimir Lenin and the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917, there has been no

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I am writing this column upon returning home to California after five days in Florida. For the first time since my first trip to Los Angeles in 1974 and moving there two years later, I dreaded going to California.
That first trip, as a 25-year-old New Yorker, I experienced the palpable excitement looking at the American Airlines flight board at JFK airport and seeing &#8220;Los Angeles.&#8221; For most Americans, the very name &#8220;California&#8221; elicited excitement, wonder, even envy of Californians, and most of all &#8230; freedom. While America always represented freedom, within America, California exemplified freedom most of all.
Yet, here I am, sitting in a state where corruption reigns (one of the leading Democrats of the last half-century told me years ago that politicians in California are window dressing; the real power in California is wielded by unions) and where, for nine months, normal life has been shut down, schools have been closed and small businesses have been destroyed in unprecedented numbers.
During these last five days in Florida, a state governed by the pro-freedom party, I went anywhere I wanted. First and foremost, I could eat both inside and outside restaurants. At one of them, when I stood up to take photos of people dining, a patron who recognized me walked over and said, &#8220;I assume you&#8217;re just taking pictures of people eating in a restaurant.&#8221; That&#8217;s exactly what I was doing. I even took my two grandchildren to a bowling alley, which was filled with people enjoying themselves playing myriad arcade games as well as bowling.
None of that is allowed almost anywhere in California. It is becoming a police state, rooted in deception and irrationality.
Restaurants have been shut down (except for takeout orders), even for outdoor dining, for no scientific reason. After ordering Los Angeles county restaurants closed, the health authorities of Los Angeles county acknowledged in court that they had no evidence that outdoor dining was dangerous; they ordered restaurants closed, even to outdoor dining, solely in order to keep people home.
The Left’s claim to &#8220;follow the science&#8221; is a lie. The Left does not follow science; it follows scientists it agrees with and dismisses all other scientists as &#8220;anti-science.&#8221;
Science does not say that eating inside a restaurant at least six feet from other diners, let alone outside a restaurant, is potentially fatal, but eating inside an airplane inches from strangers is safe.
Science does not say mass protests during a pandemic (when people are constantly told to social distance) are a health benefit, but left-wing scientists say they are — when directed against racism. In June, Jennifer Nuzzo, a Johns Hopkins epidemiologist, tweeted: &#8220;In this moment the public health risks of not protesting to demand an end to systemic racism greatly exceed the harms of the virus.&#8221; She cited the former head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Tom Frieden: &#8220;The threat to Covid control from protesting outside is tiny compared to the threat to Covid control created when governments act in ways that lose community trust. People can protest peacefully AND work together to stop Covid. Violence harms public health.&#8221;
Even The New York Times, in July, acknowledged the double standard: &#8220;Public health experts decried the anti-lockdown protests as dangerous gatherings in a pandemic. Health experts seem less comfortable doing so now that the marches are against racism.&#8221;
Science does not say, &#8220;Men give birth&#8221; or, &#8220;Men menstruate.&#8221; But the Left routinely argues that &#8220;science says&#8221; such things and that &#8220;science says&#8221; there are more than two sexes, many more.
The last time I felt I was leaving a free society and entering an unfree one was when I visited the communist countries of Eastern Europe. As a graduate student majoring in communism, during the Cold War, I would travel through the countries known as Soviet satellites: Poland, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. In the middle of my trips, I would stop in Austria to breathe free air.
Never did I imagine I would ever experience anything analogous in America, the Land of the Free, the land of the Statue of Liberty and of the Liberty Bell. But I did yesterday, when leaving Florida and returning to California.
There is no question that America is becoming, if it hasn&#8217;t already become, two countries: one that values liberty, from small businesses being allowed to operate to people being allowed to say what they believe, and one that has contempt for liberty, from eating in restaurants to free speech.
I am asked almost daily by friends around the country and by callers to my national radio show whether I intend to stay in California. Were it not for all the close friends who live here and the synagogue I and a few friends founded, the answer would be no. But at a given point, I am sure that I will leave this Soviet satellite for a free state. The bigger and far more important question is: How long will the Soviet states of America and the free states of America remain the United States of America?
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host and columnist. His latest book, published by Regnery in May 2019, is &#8220;The Rational Bible,&#8221; a commentary on the book of Genesis. His film, &#8220;No Safe Spaces,&#8221; was released to home entertainment nationwide on September 15, 2020. He is the founder of Prager University and may be contacted at dennisprager.com.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

California flag

PRAGER: The Sovietization Of California

California

Coronavirus

COVID-19

Florida

Lockdowns

I am writing this column upon returning home to California after five days in Florida. For the first time since my first trip to Los Angeles in 1974 and

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You may have seen the video of the family thrown off a United Airlines airplane because the 2-year-old daughter would not wear a mask. Though the family wore masks and the father promised to cover his daughter&#8217;s face with a mask that he placed on her face, it made no difference. Though the child was completely asymptomatic, and though it is exceedingly rare for a child to transmit COVID-19 to an adult — that is why Sweden kept its schools open all spring and summer, with its students not wearing masks — the airline had its orders, and the flight attendant duly obeyed them.
As I watched the video, I wondered what the flight attendant thought. For example, did he think this was absurd, not to mention cruel? Did he know that 2-year-olds present virtually no health risk? Did he wonder why adults can sit without masks inches from other passengers while eating but a 2-year-old seated only next to family needed a mask?
Or did he think he was performing a noble service in kicking a family off an airplane because their 2-year-old wouldn&#8217;t wear a mask?
I hope he thought he was enforcing an idiotic rule and had no choice. Then there is hope for him and for America. Otherwise, he&#8217;s an irrational automaton, among the scariest people in any society.
Does United Airlines think it&#8217;s enforcing a rational and humane policy, regarding 2-year-olds as dangerous disease spreaders?
Here is what we can assume:
United Airlines has made the calculation that if it doesn&#8217;t enforce every directive from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, two bad things will result: 1) People will be too scared to fly United; 2) If anyone gets COVID-19 after a United flight on which a 2-year-old was allowed to fly without a mask, the airline will be sued.
Regarding children and mask-wearing, the CDC website states, &#8220;Masks should NOT be worn by children under the age of 2.&#8221; The CDC capitalizes &#8220;NOT.&#8221;
So, while the CDC is adamant children under the age of 2 must NOT wear a face mask, a child who just turned 2 constitutes a mortal danger to others on the plane — and must be ejected from the plane if she just won&#8217;t cover her face.
Welcome to America 2020.
It is not overstated to declare the year 2020 the year it became legitimate to question whether America could still declare itself either &#8220;the Land of the Free&#8221; or &#8220;the Home of the Brave.&#8221; Maybe it really is time to replace the national anthem with some other song that doesn&#8217;t have us singing what so many of us no longer believe in. When half of America sings those words, they are no longer referring to themselves or what they want America to be. About half of us — more or less, the half that voted Donald Trump for president — still believes that America should be the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave. But half of us, including the entire elite — the major media; the entire educational system from elementary school through graduate school; national, most state and all major city bureaucracies; and the Democratic Party — neither value freedom nor seek to be brave.
When I see Americans walking outdoors with masks on, my first reaction is to mourn the death of reason and my second is to wonder what college they attended. Because one of the many other awful things colleges do to most of their students is make them afraid: afraid not only of dying if they pass another human being while walking their dog but also of dying from global warming, and afraid of any ideas not inculcated into them by their school. That&#8217;s why they and most of their professors object to conservatives speaking at their school. To the brainwashed, different ideas are frightening and make them feel &#8220;unsafe&#8221; (hence, &#8220;safe spaces&#8221; at so many colleges).
When viruses killed the equivalent of about 165,000 Americans in 1968 and about 225,000 in 1957 (numbers adjusted based on the current U.S. population), healthy Americans did not quarantine; no one hid behind masks; no school closed; no store or restaurant went out of business. Why? Because people understood that viruses and death are tragic parts of life, and it never occurred to them to deprive children of their studies, their friends and their childhood. It didn&#8217;t occur to Americans that because some people contracted a virus and died, 99% of the population should stop living and earning livelihoods. In that America, the news media were not singularly dedicated to frightening Americans. And most important, the Left had not yet succeeded in ruining the country; after all, far fewer Americans went to college at that time, and high school and elementary school teachers still viewed their vocation as a call to teach, not indoctrinate.
All of this explains how we got to the place where United Airlines could throw a 2-year-old girl off an airplane while presumably half the passengers supported her eviction and the other half was cowed into silence.
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host and columnist. His latest book, published by Regnery in May 2019, is &#8220;The Rational Bible,&#8221; a commentary on the book of Genesis. His film, &#8220;No Safe Spaces,&#8221; was released to home entertainment nationwide on September 15, 2020. He is the founder of Prager University and may be contacted at dennisprager.com.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

A girl, wearing a mask, holds her father

PRAGER: When 2-Year-Olds Are Thrown Off Airplanes, You Know America Has Changed

Face Masks

United Airlines

You may have seen the video of the family thrown off a United Airlines airplane because the 2-year-old daughter would not wear a mask. Though the family

https://editorial.dailywire.com/news/prager-when-2-year-olds-are-thrown-off-airplanes-you-know-america-has-changed/

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Question: What book is the opposite of the Left?
Answer: the Torah.
The Torah is the Hebrew name of the first five books of the Bible, the &#8220;Five Books of Moses.&#8221; The Torah is the foundation of the rest of the Bible and the rock on which both Judaism and Christianity stand. No Torah, no Judaism. No Torah, no Christianity. No Torah, no God, no divine creation, no Exodus, no Ten Commandments, no &#8220;love your neighbor as yourself,&#8221; no Judeo-Christian values, no Western civilization and no America.
As I am about to finish the third volume of my five-volume commentary on the Torah (&#8220;The Rational Bible&#8221;), I can say with some authority that the Torah is the antithesis of left-wing ideas and values. It is not the antithesis of liberal ideas and values; it is the antithesis of left-wing values and ideas. A serious and committed Jew or Christian can be a liberal or a conservative; he or she cannot be a leftist. Left-wing Jews and Christians use Judaism and Christianity as covers for their real values — left-wing values.
Here are examples of basic laws and values in the Torah that are the opposite of what the Left advocates:
No. 1: &#8220;Do not show favoritism to a poor person in passing judgment&#8221; (Exodus 23:3). &#8220;Do not pervert justice. Do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly&#8221; (Leviticus 19:15).
The Left advocates judging the poor differently. A poor man who commits almost any crime, including a violent crime, is not to be held to the same legal or moral standard as other people. As reported last week in the City Journal:
&#8220;In October, the Seattle City Council floated legislation to provide an exemption from prosecution for misdemeanor crimes for any citizen who suffers from poverty, homelessness, addiction, or mental illness. Under the proposed ordinance, courts would have to dismiss all so-called &#8216;crimes of poverty&#8217; — which, according to the city&#8217;s former public-safety advisor, would cover more than 90 percent of all misdemeanor cases citywide.&#8221;
Since Karl Marx, the Left has not divided the world between right and wrong, as the Torah, Judaism and Christianity do, but between rich and poor.
No. 2: &#8220;Honor your father and mother&#8221; (the fifth of the Ten Commandments — Exodus 20:12 and Deuteronomy 5:16).
Parental authority (as much as divine authority) is probably the greatest single obstacle to the Left attaining control over a society. Therefore, the Left, like all totalitarian movements and like all cults, has always sought to undermine parental authority. That is precisely what has been taking place in America over the past few generations. In every case, the diminution of parents&#8217; authority over their children is portrayed as reasonable and even morally necessary, but the end is clear: Allow left-wing laws and institutions to direct your children.
Your 9-year-old daughter says she is a boy? Your 9-year-old son says he is a girl? Neither you nor any therapist has a right to tell him or her otherwise. Your minor-age daughter says she is a boy and wants to start hormone therapy and even have her breasts surgically removed? You are in no position to stop her.
Parents who allow their young children to take walks by themselves are increasingly reported to child protective services. The authorities — not you, the parents — will determine at what age your children can take walks unaccompanied by an adult.
Even school breakfasts undermine parents&#8217; authority. One of the most fundamental things parents do for their children is feed them. But increasingly, progressive cities provide not only lunch but also breakfast for your child. The message is clear: We, not your parent(s), will take care of your needs.
No. 3: &#8220;Male and female He created them&#8221; (Genesis 5:2).
The distinction among human beings between male and female is built into creation. It is the only human distinction other than good and evil that matters. In the Torah, there is no built-in ethnic or racial distinction among human beings; God couldn&#8217;t care less about race. But the male-female distinction is a fundamental part of the divine order.
No. 4: Race means nothing.
The creation of one human being, Adam, whose race is unknown, made it impossible to argue that race matters. This is another major conflict between the Left and the Torah, given how important race is to the Left. Adam, and therefore every human being, is created in the image of God — and, of course, God has no color.
No. 5: Distinctions.
Distinctions lie at the very heart of creation. The Left’s war on the Judeo-Christian religions is rooted in its war against distinctions.
Male-Female: The Left seeks to destroy this fundamental human distinction. The issue is not trans rights. If a person of majority age seeks to change his or her sex, the Torah is silent on that issue. The issue is the blurring of the male-female distinction — forcing people to lie about reality and say, &#8220;Men give birth&#8221; and, &#8220;Men menstruate&#8221; or having men who identify as men, look like men and have a man&#8217;s name publicly wear women&#8217;s clothing, as Harry Styles did on the cover of Vogue.
Man-God: Karl Marx wrote, &#8220;Man is God.&#8221; The Left has always sought to displace God with man. The desire to be a god — meaning the one who, rather than God, determines good and evil — has tempted human beings since Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
Good-Evil: On the Left, good and evil are subjective. In the Torah, they have an objective reality. Moreover, the Left’s moral compass does not divide human beings and their actions between good and evil but between rich and poor, white and nonwhite, strong and weak.
God-Nature: The opening verse of the Torah ushered in one of the most radical innovations in history: God created nature; God is not part of nature. On the Left, however, nature is God.
Human-Animal: On the Left, human beings are just another animal. In the Torah, only man is created in God&#8217;s image.
The Left knows the Bible and the Judeo-Christian values that emanate from it are its enemy. The rest of us should, too.
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host and columnist. His latest book, published by Regnery in May 2019, is &#8220;The Rational Bible,&#8221; a commentary on the book of Genesis. His film, &#8220;No Safe Spaces,&#8221; was released to home entertainment nationwide on September 15, 2020. He is the founder of Prager University and may be contacted at dennisprager.com.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Torah

PRAGER: The Torah Versus The Left

Judeo-Christian Values

Question: What book is the opposite of the Left? Answer: the Torah. The Torah is the Hebrew name of the first five books of the Bible, the &quot;Five Books of

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I always thought no one — including Israel — could pull off something as incredible as the July 4, 1976, raid on Entebbe, Uganda. To remind readers what happened that day: A week earlier, on June 27, two Palestinian and two German terrorists hijacked an Air France Tel Aviv to Paris flight with 248 passengers on board, which they diverted to Entebbe Airport in Uganda. At the airport, the hijackers and four additional terrorists, aided by Uganda&#8217;s Idi Amin regime, held the Israeli and other Jews, and allowed the 148 non-Jewish passengers to fly on to Paris. The terrorists announced that unless 53 Palestinian prisoners — 40 in Israel and 13 elsewhere — were released, the kidnapped Jews (and the Air France crew, all of whom heroically remained with the Jewish passengers) would be killed.
On July 4, the Israelis flew a disguised transport plane filled with Israeli commandos 2,500 miles from Israel to Entebbe. After refueling in Kenya, they landed in Entebbe, killed the terrorists and saved nearly every hostage — all in 53 minutes.
No one had seen anything quite like the raid on Entebbe, considered at the time to have achieved the impossible &#8230; until last week.
On Friday, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the Iranian scientist considered to be &#8220;the driving force behind Iran&#8217;s nuclear weapons program for two decades&#8221; (The New York Times) was assassinated in Iran. To appreciate how remarkable this operation was, consider this: Fakhrizadeh traveled a different route to work every day, traveled in a bulletproof car and was accompanied by three personnel carriers that transported heavily armed bodyguards.
The assassins had cut off electricity to the area surrounding the assassination and disabled all video cameras in the area. They exploded a car next to Fakhrizadeh&#8217;s car and had a remote-control machine gun fire at Fakhrizadeh. The entire operation took three minutes. None of the assassins were killed or even wounded. All 12 (the number of assassins, according to Javad Mogouyi, a documentary filmmaker for Iran&#8217;s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps) got away.
Fakhrizadeh was the fifth Iranian nuclear scientist killed in the last 13 years. One must assume that most, if not all, of these assassinations, whether Israel was involved or not, were carried out by Iranians — which only shows how many Iranians loathe their liberty-suppressing, life-suppressing, women-suppressing, Islamo-fascist regime. Too bad Western countries and the Western media also don&#8217;t loathe the Iranian regime (what they loathe is labeling the Iranian regime &#8220;Islamo-fascist&#8221;).
One would think that every decent human being would welcome the elimination of a man whose life was dedicated to the annihilation of another country. There is, after all, no parallel in the world to the Iranian regime&#8217;s repeatedly stated goal of annihilating Israel. And Israel — to the consternation of European leaders, the United Nations and major American media — does whatever it takes to prevent itself from being annihilated.
John Brennan, the head of the CIA under President Barack Obama, strongly condemned the Fakhrizadeh assassination. Brennan, who has never abandoned the moral values he held when he was a communist, condemned the assassination as &#8220;a criminal act&#8221; and &#8220;highly reckless&#8221; and labeled it &#8220;murder&#8221; and &#8220;state-sponsored terrorism.&#8221; He asked Iran to &#8220;resist the urge&#8221; to retaliate and &#8220;wait for the return of responsible American leadership on the global stage.&#8221; In other words, wait until the Holocaust-denying, Islamo-fascist, America-hating, genocide-seeking Iranian regime is appeased by a Democrat in the White House — something guaranteed by, among other developments, Joe Biden&#8217;s appointment of Brennan&#8217;s former deputy director at the CIA, Avril Haines, as his director of national intelligence.
A United Nations spokesman said, &#8220;We condemn any assassination or extrajudicial killing.&#8221;
A spokesperson for the European Union called Fakhrizadeh&#8217;s killing &#8220;a criminal act&#8221; that &#8220;runs counter to the principle of respect for human rights the EU stands for.&#8221;
A New York Times opinion piece said the assassination &#8220;could strengthen hard-line factions in Iran arguing against a return to diplomacy.&#8221; This statement embodies the naivete of the world&#8217;s Left, including liberals: that evil regimes are composed of &#8220;hard-line factions&#8221; and &#8220;moderate factions.&#8221; The author of the Times opinion piece, Barbara Slavin of the Atlantic Council, added that the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany should &#8220;issue a statement condemning the assassination as illegal under international law and damaging to the cause of nonproliferation. &#8230; It would be the ultimate tragedy if Israel&#8217;s aggression now led Iran to change its calculus and go for weapons.&#8221;
To the Left around the world, Israel is the villain here, not Iran.
Upon returning to France, Michel Bacos, the heroic captain of the Air France plane hijacked to Entebbe, who refused the opportunity to return to France and insisted on remaining with the kidnapped Jews, &#8220;was reprimanded by his superiors at Air France and temporarily suspended from duty&#8221; (The Jerusalem Post, Aug. 3, 2006). Such are the values of our European allies.
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host and columnist. His latest book, published by Regnery in May 2019, is &#8220;The Rational Bible,&#8221; a commentary on the book of Genesis. His film, &#8220;No Safe Spaces,&#8221; was released to home entertainment nationwide on September 15, 2020. He is the founder of Prager University and may be contacted at dennisprager.com.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Israel

PRAGER: The Israelis Are Amazing — And So Is The Left

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh

I always thought no one — including Israel — could pull off something as incredible as the July 4, 1976, raid on Entebbe, Uganda. To remind readers what

https://editorial.dailywire.com/news/prager-the-israelis-are-amazing-and-so-is-the-left/

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Regarding race and much else, America&#8217;s students are not taught history. In fact, they are not taught; they are indoctrinated. With anti-Americanism.
The purpose of all teaching about race in American schools is to engender contempt for America. They are, therefore, &#8220;taught&#8221; the lies of The New York Times&#8217; &#8220;1619 Project&#8221; — that the United States was founded to preserve and protect slavery — and of such works as Robin DiAngelo&#8217;s &#8220;White Fragility.&#8221;
So, then, what should American schools teach about race?
They should, of course, teach students about slavery and racism.
But, if truth and moral clarity are to matter, students must also learn that slavery was universal. They would therefore learn about Muslim-Arab slavery, slavery among Africans, slavery among Native Americans and Native South Americans, and slavery in Asia and India.
They would learn that it was the West, beginning with England and America, that abolished slavery. And they would learn that the abolitionists were overwhelmingly religious Christians, animated by the Bible and Judeo-Christian values.
They would learn that, unlike the slaves under Arab-Muslim rule, most black slaves in America were allowed to have children and form families. They would read Herbert Gutman&#8217;s &#8220;The Black Family in Slavery and Freedom, 1750-1925,&#8221; about which The New York Times wrote when it was published in 1976: &#8220;Gutman has performed an immense service in burying the idea that slavery destroyed the black family.&#8221; For the record, Gutman was a professor of the Left and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
They would learn that the tens of millions of African slaves under Islamic-Arab rule were not allowed to form families (most males were castrated). They would learn that while about 340,000 African slaves were transported to America, 12 million were transported to Brazil. They would learn that far more blacks — about 3 million from Africa and the Caribbean — have come to America willingly than came as slaves. They would read a 2005 article from The New York Times called &#8220;More Africans Enter U.S. Than in Days of Slavery,&#8221; in which they would also learn how much less racist America is than any other country: &#8220;Agba Mangalabou, who arrived from Togo in 2002, recalls his surprise when he moved here from Europe. &#8216;In Germany, everyone knew I was African,&#8217; he said. &#8216;Here, nobody knows if I&#8217;m African or American.'&#8221;
They would learn about white slavery, too, from one of the greatest economists of the last half-century, Thomas Sowell, who wrote: &#8220;More whites were brought as slaves to North Africa than blacks brought as slaves to the United States or to the 13 colonies from which it was formed. White slaves were still being bought and sold in the Ottoman Empire, decades after blacks were freed in the United States.&#8221;
None of that would be taught to diminish the evil of the transatlantic black slave trade, let alone to justify it. America&#8217;s schoolchildren should, of course, be taught about the horrors of the slave auctions, of the separation of many families, of the rapes, the beatings and the lynchings. But nothing in history is understandable without perspective.
As regards the Arab-Muslim slave trade, students should read Ghanaian professor and minister John Azumah&#8217;s book &#8220;The Legacy of Arab-Islam in Africa,&#8221; in which he said:
&#8220;While two out of every three slaves shipped across the Atlantic were men, the proportions were reversed in the Islamic slave trade. Two women for every man were enslaved by the Muslims.
&#8220;While the mortality rate of the slaves being transported across the Atlantic was as high as 10%, the percentage of the slaves dying in transit in the trans-Saharan and East African slave market was a staggering 80 to 90%.
&#8220;While almost all the slaves shipped across the Atlantic were for agricultural work, most of the slaves destined for the Muslim Middle East were for sexual exploitation as concubines in harems and for military service.
&#8220;While many children were born to the slaves in the Americas, the millions of their descendants are citizens in Brazil and the United States today, very few descendants of the slaves who ended up in the Middle East survived.
&#8220;While most slaves who went to the Americas could marry and have families, most of the male slaves destined for the Middle East were castrated, and most of the children born to the women were killed at birth.&#8221;
They would read some of the Left’s favorite &#8220;America-is-racist&#8221; books, such as the national bestseller &#8220;White Fragility.&#8221; But, unlike any school in America that assigns that book, they would also assign a black professor&#8217;s review of it. In The Atlantic, John McWhorter, a Columbia University professor of linguistics, wrote that &#8220;White Fragility&#8221; &#8220;is actually a racist tract. &#8230; the book diminishes Black people in the name of dignifying us. &#8230; White guilt and politesse have apparently distracted many readers from the book&#8217;s numerous obvious flaws. For one, DiAngelo&#8217;s book is replete with claims that are either plain wrong or bizarrely disconnected from reality.&#8221;
They would read and listen to a variety of black thinkers and authors, not just those who detest America. Here is a partial list, in alphabetical order, including one of their books:
Larry Elder, &#8220;What&#8217;s Race Got to Do With It?&#8221;
Ward Connerly, &#8220;Creating Equal&#8221;
John McWhorter, &#8220;Losing the Race&#8221;
Deroy Murdock, any of his many columns
Candace Owens, &#8220;Blackout&#8221;
Jesse Lee Peterson, &#8220;The Antidote&#8221;
Jason Riley, &#8220;Please Stop Helping Us&#8221;
Thomas Sowell, &#8220;Intellectuals and Race&#8221;
Shelby Steele, &#8220;White Guilt&#8221;
Carol Swain, &#8220;Abduction&#8221;
Clarence Thomas, &#8220;My Grandfather&#8217;s Son&#8221;
Walter Williams, &#8220;Race and Economics&#8221;
That these brilliant thinkers are unfamiliar to most Americans is proof of the bias and superficiality that pervades American academic and intellectual life.
If they read these books and are taught the truths about race outlined in this article, it is perfectly acceptable for them to read black and white leftists on race. In fact, it would be advisable.
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host and columnist. His latest book, published by Regnery in May 2019, is &#8220;The Rational Bible,&#8221; a commentary on the book of Genesis. His film, &#8220;No Safe Spaces,&#8221; was released to home entertainment nationwide on September 15, 2020. He is the founder of Prager University and may be contacted at dennisprager.com.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Lockers

PRAGER: What American Schools Should Teach About Race, Racism And Slavery

Education

Racism

Slavery

Regarding race and much else, America&#039;s students are not taught history. In fact, they are not taught; they are indoctrinated. With anti-Americanism. The

https://editorial.dailywire.com/news/prager-what-american-schools-should-teach-about-race-racism-and-slavery/

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As far as HuffPost and the rest of the American Left are concerned, no non-left-wing idea should be allowed to enter an American school. Not even for five minutes.
This past month, Maumee High School, a high school near Toledo, Ohio, offered its students a way to receive some extracurricular credit. In the words of the Maumee City Schools administration office — released before the HuffPost-induced uproar:
&#8220;Students were offered an extra credit assignment intended to challenge their critical thinking skills &#8230; A second option in the extra credit assignment asked students to view a video from a conservative website, analyze it and explain what they may have learned from it, and how it may have challenged or supported their own beliefs. &#8230;
&#8220;We believe that students deserve a balanced presentation of materials and we support our educators in using a variety of instructional tools and materials in their teaching, expecting them to always exercise good judgement.&#8221;
In an open and liberal society, the stated aims of Maumee High School are not only not controversial but also laudable. They are exactly what good parents and educators would want for students.
So, who finds these aims revolting?
Only an anti-liberal ideology. Namely, the Left.
It all started with one — yes, one — parent. She so objected to a PragerU video being offered as a conservative option that she withdrew her child from the class. And then she contacted HuffPost.
Thus began a national left-wing uproar over students being offered extra credit if they chose to view a five-minute conservative video.
The HuffPost headline: &#8220;Videos From Right-Wing Site That Preaches &#8216;The Left Ruins Everything&#8217; Assigned In Ohio School.&#8221;
A few observations about the headline:
First, on the Left, everything non-Left is &#8220;right-wing.&#8221; The reason? Because &#8220;conservative&#8221; is not inflammatory enough.
Second, the video &#8220;The Left Ruins Everything&#8221; was never &#8220;assigned.&#8221; No specific video was assigned.
Third, the HuffPost writer, Rebecca Klein, chose the most controversial title she could find out of approximately 450 PragerU videos.
Fourth, the video makes clear that it is about leftism, not liberalism.
Fifth, ironically, this whole story validates the video: Look at what the Left is doing to schools, to liberal education and to open inquiry.
As the HuffPost itself reported:
&#8220;Andrea Cutway, the mother of 16-year-old student Avery Lewis, brought the assignment to the attention of Maumee City Schools administrators and immediately pulled her daughter out of the class. &#8230; Lewis was immediately alarmed when she started her extra credit assignment last week. The assignment asked her to watch PragerU videos and then answer questions about how the videos challenged her beliefs. &#8230; Cutway, Lewis&#8217; mother, was similarly shocked when her daughter showed her the assignment. &#8230; &#8216;It&#8217;s ALT RIGHT propaganda,&#8217; Cutway said in the email to the school principal.
&#8220;Lewis met with school administrators soon after to discuss the issue. Together, they came up with a solution — that the student could also include viewpoints from the opposite side, Cutway said.
&#8220;For Cutway, though, this ignored the larger issue — that PragerU videos be assigned at all and that school administrators did not see a problem (italics added) &#8230;
&#8220;&#8216;When I talked to the principal and vice principal, they acted like this was just another assignment,&#8217; said Cutway, who works as a juvenile parole officer for the state. &#8230; &#8216;This really is some scary stuff,&#8217; Cutway said of PragerU. &#8216;I do feel like they have found a way to get into the public school system.'&#8221;
As a result of the HuffPost article, mainstream media went nuts, contemplating the possibility that American students might watch five minutes of non-Left thought.
NBC TV in Toledo tweeted:
&#8220;HuffPost reports that a Maumee High School class is offering students extra credit for viewing videos from a right-wing source. Are you a Maumee parent? How would you feel about this?&#8221;
ABC TV in Toledo headlined:
&#8220;Maumee parent raises concerns over controversial assignment.&#8221;
And the station broadcast a report on &#8220;Maumee High School alumni petition politics in the classroom&#8221; about more than 200 alumni objecting to the use of any PragerU video. The broadcast featured a 2001 graduate of the school, Catherine Wood, the organizer of the petition, who told the ABC-TV station, PragerU videos &#8220;kind of deny the humanity of many groups of students: people of color, women, LGBTQ members.&#8221;
Catherine Wood lied. There is nothing in any PragerU video that demeans or in any way &#8220;denies the humanity&#8221; of people of color, women or LGBTQ members. Not to mention that we have women, people of color and gays presenting videos. Her libel exemplifies something I have said all my life: Truth is not a left-wing value.
But left-wing lies often work. Within days, the inevitable took place. As The Toledo Blade headlined: &#8220;Maumee Removes Conservative Content From Class Syllabus.&#8221;
For the record, here is a small sample of PragerU presenters:
Four Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists.
Three former prime ministers — of Denmark, Spain and Canada.
Professors at MIT, Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, Vanderbilt and many other universities.
The late Charles Krauthammer.
At least four &#8220;Never Trumpers&#8221; (George Will, Bret Stephens, Jonah Goldberg and Michael Medved).
Liberal Democrat Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz.
Jewish historian Rabbi Joseph Telushkin.
Wall Street Journal columnists Kimberley Strassel and Jason Riley.
Economists Lee Ohanian (University of California, Los Angeles) and Walter Williams (George Mason).
British historians Paul Johnson, Andrew Roberts and Niall Ferguson.
Mike Rowe of &#8220;Dirty Jobs&#8221; fame.
Philip Hamburger, the Maurice and Hilda Friedman Professor of Law at Columbia Law School.
Peter Caddick-Adams, fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
Five-time Emmy award-winning journalist Sharyl Attkisson.
Dr. Stephen Marmer, psychiatrist and clinical faculty at UCLA Medical School.
Would any of these people join PragerU if it were a &#8220;right-wing, ALT-RIGHT demeaner of people of color, women, and LGBTQ&#8221;? (Incidentally, PragerU has a video titled &#8220;What Is the Alt-Right.&#8221; Those of the Left accusing PragerU of &#8220;alt-right propaganda&#8221; would do well to watch it.)
Moreover, PragerU has videos on happiness, forgiveness, the ethics of speech, the Ten Commandments, anger management and raising good children, among many others that have nothing to do with politics.
But none of this matters to HuffPost or to the 200 alumni of Maumee High School.
All that matters to them is that an effective, responsible, thoughtful conservative voice never be heard at Maumee or any other high school.
Probably a thousand teachers have shown PragerU videos, and many more are refusing to be intimidated by the bullies of the Left.
Leftists fear that five minutes of conservative thought will undo four years of left-wing teaching.
Their fear is justified. Their opposition isn&#8217;t.
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host and columnist. His latest book, published by Regnery in May 2019, is &#8220;The Rational Bible,&#8221; a commentary on the book of Genesis. His film, &#8220;No Safe Spaces,&#8221; was released to home entertainment nationwide on September 15, 2020. He is the founder of Prager University and may be contacted at dennisprager.com.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

High school lockers

PRAGER: What Happened When A High School Offered A PragerU Video

Prager University

As far as HuffPost and the rest of the American Left are concerned, no non-left-wing idea should be allowed to enter an American school. Not even for five

https://editorial.dailywire.com/news/prager-what-happened-when-a-high-school-offered-a-prageru-video/

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There are conservatives who lie, and there are liberals who lie, but both conservatism and liberalism hold truth to be a supreme value.
This is not true for leftism.
Truth is simply not a left-wing value.
Lying is to the Left what breathing is to biological life. That is why the father of modern leftism, Vladimir Lenin, named the Soviet communist newspaper &#8220;Pravda,&#8221; the Russian word for &#8220;truth.&#8221; Truth is what a leftist says it is. It is not an objective reality.
The Left has always relied on lies to gain and retain power. This is as true today in the United States as it was in the Soviet Union.
Here are examples of lies Americans are told they must hold lest they be removed from social media, shamed, ostracized and even fired from their jobs.
In no order of importance:
Men menstruate. ACLU tweet, Nov. 19, 2019: &#8220;Men who get their periods are men. Men who get pregnant and give birth are men.&#8221; If this is not a lie, the word has no meaning.
It is fair when males who identify as females compete in girls&#8217; and women&#8217;s sports. In Connecticut, two biological men who are trans women have combined to win 15 girls state indoor or outdoor championship races since 2017. According to The Wall Street Journal, &#8220;19 state athletic conferences &#8230; allow athletes to compete based solely on their expressed gender identity.&#8221; No one with a passing acquaintance with truth could say this is fair.
To be colorblind is to be racist. This left-wing assertion is the opposite of the basic liberal ideal to end racism: to have everyone colorblind, meaning we are all to view and judge people solely as individuals irrespective of race. &#8220;Colorblind is racist&#8221; is not just a lie; it is an Orwellian lie. But it is actually normative on the Left. See, for example, &#8220;Color-Blindness Is Counterproductive&#8221; (The Atlantic, Sept. 13, 2015) or the book &#8220;Colorblind Racism&#8221; by Meghan Burke, associate professor of sociology at Illinois Wesleyan University.
The Trump 2016 campaign colluded with Russia to win the election. This lie has permeated the American media for more than three years. There was never any truth to it. But those on the Left — the Democratic Party and the mainstream media — found it a very useful claim, and they are doing so again in the 2020 campaign.
President Donald Trump said there were &#8220;very fine&#8221; Nazis. This is &#8220;the Charlottesville lie.&#8221; First, the media spread it, and now Joe Biden has run with it, claiming repeatedly that this was the reason he decided to run for president. Of course, what Biden said is a lie; he has wanted to run for president all his life. At Trump&#8217;s press conference on Aug. 15, 2017, right after the Charlottesville march and demonstrations, Trump made it clear he wasn&#8217;t referring to the neo-Nazis when he said there were &#8220;very fine people on both sides.&#8221; He told the press, &#8220;I&#8217;m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists because they should be condemned totally.&#8221; He was referring to the two sides at the protest over statues. See the video &#8220;The Charlottesville Lie&#8221; by former CNN reporter Steve Cortes at <a href="http://PragerU.com">PragerU.com</a>.
Donald Trump is a dictator. This lie has been told since before Trump was elected. It is repeated by virtually every left-wing commentator and politician. See, for example, &#8220;10 Ways Trump Is Becoming a Dictator, Election Edition&#8221; by Harvard professor Stephen M. Walt (Foreign Policy, Sept. 8, 2020) or &#8220;Donald Trump Wants To Be a Dictator&#8221; by Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland (The Guardian, July 5, 2019). It is a lie. The fact is no conservative American politician is a likely dictator because one of the fundamental goals of American conservatives is to shrink the power of the government. A dictatorship in America is far more likely to come from the Left, which seeks to massively increase government power. For example, as reported in Politico on Aug. 21, 2020, Biden has already pledged, &#8220;I would shut it down,&#8221; referring to the American economy and Americans&#8217; freedom of movement to combat the COVID-19 virus.
America is a racist society. This is the greatest national lie since the medieval blood libel, in which Christians accused Jews of slaughtering Christian children to use their blood to bake matzo for Passover. America is, in fact, the least racist country in history. That&#8217;s why, for example, there are so many race hoaxes; the real thing is so hard to find. Jews didn&#8217;t need to concoct anti-Jewish hoaxes to prove there was widespread anti-Semitism in Germany in the 1930s.
Ferguson was an example of racist police brutality. The Ferguson lie is frequently cited by the Left as an example of police racism, including by figures as prominent as Barack Obama. Yet, a grand jury, which included black jurors, declined to indict the white police officer who shot and killed Michael Brown, a black man, because Brown had attacked the officer, sought to steal his gun and was in the process of a second attack when he was killed. The claim that Brown had said, &#8220;Hands up, don&#8217;t shoot&#8221; was also a left-wing lie. Brown never said it. See the PragerU video with Larry Elder.
America was founded in 1619, not 1776. This is the infamous New York Times lie for which the Times was awarded a Pulitzer Prize. This is the same prize awarded to the same newspaper in 1932 for its horrific lie that there was no famine in Ukraine when, in fact, Joseph Stalin was deliberately starving about 5 million Ukrainians to death. Leading liberal scholars of American history have condemned the Times&#8217; rewriting of American history — that the American Revolution was fought in order to preserve slavery — as a lie.
These are just some of the left-wing lies increasing numbers of Americans believe. America&#8217;s survival depends on Americans — especially young Americans — recognizing them as such.
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host and columnist. His latest book, published by Regnery in May 2019, is &#8220;The Rational Bible,&#8221; a commentary on the book of Genesis. His film, &#8220;No Safe Spaces,&#8221; was released to home entertainment nationwide on September 15, 2020. He is the founder of Prager University and may be contacted at dennisprager.com.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Fake News

PRAGER: America Is Drowning In The Lies Of The Left

Donald Trump

Mainstream media

Transgender

There are conservatives who lie, and there are liberals who lie, but both conservatism and liberalism hold truth to be a supreme value. This is not true

https://editorial.dailywire.com/news/prager-america-is-drowning-in-the-lies-of-the-left/

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Attention readers: Dennis Prager co-authored this column with Tim Groseclose, a professor of economics at George Mason University, where he holds the Adam Smith Chair at the Mercatus Center.
Exponential growth. It&#8217;s why plagues are so dangerous and compound interest is so wonderful.
It&#8217;s also why the Democrats&#8217; flirting with court packing could destroy the Supreme Court and, with it, America as we know it.
The following is a reasonable scenario:
Amy Coney Barrett is confirmed to the Supreme Court, which gives conservatives a 6-3 advantage (or 5-4, given that Chief Justice John Roberts has essentially become a swing vote).
Then, in January, having retained the Democrat-majority House, a President Joe Biden and a newly Democrat-controlled Senate decide to undo the advantage. Congress passes and Biden signs a new law expanding the Court to 15 members. Biden appoints six new liberal justices, handing the Left a 9-6 majority—a 60% advantage.
What happens when the Republicans regain power and they want a 60% conservative advantage? As a bit of algebra shows, to reverse the Democrats&#8217; 9-6 advantage, they&#8217;d have to expand the Court by 7.5 members. Of course, they can&#8217;t nominate half a justice, so they&#8217;d probably round up to eight. Regardless, the Republicans, to gain a 60% advantage, must expand the Court by more than the Democrats did—by eight, as opposed to six.
The parties would surely continue to insist upon a 60% advantage, meaning that, with each switch in power, they&#8217;d have to expand the Court&#8217;s size by 50%. The key thing to note is that they would have to expand the court not by a constant number but by a constant percentage. This is what would cause exponential growth. If, for example, one side insisted on a 65% advantage and the other followed suit, they&#8217;d have to expand the Court by 86% at each switch in power.
How often would such switches in power occur? One occurred in 1992, when Democrats won the House, Senate and presidency. Others occurred in 2000, 2008 and 2016. And if the polls are right, another will occur in 2020. Such power switches occur about every eight years, perhaps slightly more frequently.
Let&#8217;s err on the side of being less alarmist and assume that the switch would only occur every 10 years. Let&#8217;s similarly assume that the parties would only insist upon a 60% advantage.
Under these minimal parameters, the Court would expand by 50% every 10 years. In 100 years, the Court would grow by a factor of approximately 58 (1.5 raised to the power of 10), and instead of nine justices, the Supreme Court would consist of 522 justices.
Surely, one would be tempted to think, voters and the two parties would see these problems, and accordingly, such growth wouldn&#8217;t continue. But why not? Imagine the following scenario: In the year 2120, the Court comprises 522 justices (313 conservatives and 209 liberals). That November, the Democrats retake the House, Senate and presidency. Following precedent, they decide to regain their advantage and expand the Court to 783 justices (470 liberals and 313 conservatives).
Some voters might say, &#8220;Enough is enough.&#8221; However, Democrats could reasonably counter that (1) &#8220;It&#8217;s what the Republicans did last time. It&#8217;s our turn now&#8221;; (2) &#8220;Is 783 really that much larger than 522?&#8221;; (3) &#8220;Only by expanding the Court can we do things such as guarantee a woman&#8217;s right to choose and ensure racial and social justice. Do we really want to sacrifice those goals just to keep the Court a smaller size?&#8221;
Further, in such a scenario, no voter would be able to remember when the Court was smaller than 40 justices, much less just nine. Would they really care if it were expanded a little more?
Of course, the scenario would continue to repeat.
In other words, if the Democrats do as many of their leading members want them to do (including Gov. Jay Inslee, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Mayor Pete Buttigieg), as The Atlantic urges them to do, as vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris told The New York Times she is &#8220;absolutely open to,&#8221; and as at least one New York Times columnist advocates, we will no longer have a legislature and a supreme judicial branch. We will essentially have two legislatures (at least when Democratic appointees—justices willing to read left-wing political and social goals into the Constitution—hold the majority of seats).
It will be the end of the Supreme Court as we know it, the end of the balance of power among the three branches of government and, therefore, the end of America as we know it.
Would the Democrats do it? Given the Left’s record of destroying whatever it touches—most obviously, the universities, high schools and journalism, and most recently, sports and the sciences—if you are a betting person, you should bet on it.
This is yet another reason everything is at stake in this election.
Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host and columnist. His latest book, published by Regnery in May 2019, is &#8220;The Rational Bible,&#8221; a commentary on the book of Genesis. His film, &#8220;No Safe Spaces,&#8221; was released to home entertainment nationwide on September 15, 2020. He is the founder of Prager University and may be contacted at dennisprager.com.
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/subscribe">member</a>.

Guardian statue

PRAGER: What Will Happen If The Democrats Pack The Supreme Court

Amy Coney Barrett

Democrats

Supreme Court

Attention readers: Dennis Prager co-authored this column with Tim Groseclose, a professor of economics at George Mason University, where he holds the Adam

https://editorial.dailywire.com/news/prager-what-will-happen-if-the-democrats-pack-the-supreme-court/

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