PragerU and False Intellectualism

Clean visuals and constant appeals to authority produce seemingly legitimate content, despite countless flaws along the way.

For years, a pseudo-intellectual platform and organization known as PragerU — short for Prager University — has been booming on YouTube. Despite their name, they have absolutely nothing in common with the average academic institution and simply churn out blatantly incorrect videos about all sorts of topics. These topics range from celebrating colonial exploration to anti-racism to why what they deem to be the (so-called) “left” is actually the worst thing on this planet.

Photo by Alfons Morales on Unsplash

According to their own website at the time of publication, they describe themselves as follows:

“Prager University is the world’s leading conservative nonprofit that is focused on changing minds through the creative use of digital media. Taking full advantage of today’s technology and social media, we educate millions of Americans and young people about the values that make America great.”

Outside their admission of simply being a “nonprofit” organization as opposed to an accredited institution, PragerU is most notorious for their short semi-animated videos that garner millions upon millions of views on YouTube. At the time of writing…