You’ve heard the name Dennis Prager before. You’ve probably even seen one of his little videos. They’re cute and have nice music and they’re full of absolute bullsh*t. Dennis has fallen victim to a serious illness after a fall, and at 75 years old, he and others are worried that he could be looking at something more than just a protracted sickness.

But if they’re looking for sympathy, it’s been awfully hard to come by. Because Dennis Prager didn’t so much burn his bridges — he went back in time and killed the builder of them.

Dennis used to be a far-right radio host, à la Rush Limbaugh or Michael Savage. But then the internet happened, and Dennis moved his entire schtick online, founding Prager University.

What kind of school is Prager University? Well, it’s not one. Dennis is just obsessed with the idea that actual colleges and universities are liberal cesspools, whose resident scholars and professors are masters at brainwashing young minds with ideas about silly things like fascism being bad, or the notion that people should be nice to their gay neighbors.

Prager “University” (henceforth PragerU for our purposes) was therefore founded to counteract those nefarious tricksters and set youngsters straight about how racism doesn’t exist anymore and that being gay should be illegal. The site — yes, PragerU is just a website — produces 5-minute videos geared toward young people that promote the conservative view of immigration and economics and social issues and the like.

Let me give you an example. In one video, the narrator, Kelly Shackelford, describes a dismantling of the religious portion of the First Amendment. He starts the video framing religious freedom as being “under threat,” despite the fact that two-thirds of Americans still identify as Christian. In fact, some 88% of Congress are Christian, and even the Supreme Court is made up of six Catholics, two Protestants, and one Jewish justice.

America has never had a president who was not some flavor of Christian. You’d never know that watching this clip of one of the 5-minute videos:

It raises eyebrows to hear someone say that religion is under attack, so you start looking up what you’re watching. You find that Kelly Shackelford, far from being a “teacher” at PragerU, is a hard-right fundamentalist lawyer who deals exclusively in cases where religious people, groups, companies, or organizations are accused of discrimination because they practice their faith at the expense of others.

Think bakers who won’t make cakes for gay weddings or coaches that make their players pray before a high school football game. Think businesses that stayed open during the pandemic, endangering everyone and dragging out the ordeal, refusing to wear masks or get vaccines because of their “religious freedom.”

Now take that duplicity you see in just the 23-second clip of that video there and multiply it by every video they produce. Many would argue that Dennis Prager has been at least as harmful to the minds of American young people as the alt-right movement, Turning Point USA, or even Joe Rogan. What Sean Hannity is for your mother-in-law, Dennis Prager aims to be for your sons and daughters.

Maybe that’s why the tweets from his supporters asking for prayers for Prager are being met with scorn.

Please continue to pray for Dennis Prager. His condition has changed in a not so great direction. He has been diagnosed with pneumonia. Pray for ⁦@SuePrager⁩ and the Prager family. ⁦@prageru⁩ pic.twitter.com/EUPyqqUJBN

— Dr. Carol M. Swain (@carolmswain) November 22, 2024

That woman describes herself as a “Compulsive Truth Speaker and Liberal Academician’s Worst Nightmare.” The problem is, people like Carol Swain and Dennis Prager believe that anyone who teaches the ugly history of American slavery, or speaks of diversity and inclusion, or even hints at alternatives to unfettered capitalism is a “liberal academician” who must be silenced.

I bet Carol almost wet herself when she saw the responses.

praying the pneumonia works faster 🙏🏼

— beth (@bethbourdon) November 24, 2024

Already looking forward to laughing at his obituary.

— Gritty is the Way (@Gritty20202) November 23, 2024

Lying to the public makes you uglier & kills you from the inside out.

— Liger (@EdbieLigerSmith) November 24, 2024

So, he dead yet, or do I need to keep praying?

— Howard T. Duck (@HowardTDuck01) November 25, 2024

But why are all of these comments SO harsh? I mean, there are a million right-wingers out there, and with a few notable exceptions, most people don’t get giddy at the prospect of that person being gone from this earth. What gives?

Well, if you’ve ever read an article with the sentence “Here are eight reasons for a woman not to allow not being in the mood for sex to determine whether she denies her husband sex,” it was probably by Dennis Prager. Now, read that as many times as you need to until you understand he’s saying women should have sex out of obligation to their husbands if their husband wants sex.

Now look at this cherubic face again:

He’s just a charming old man, how can he say things like that? It’s because Dennis is a true believer in everything he says, and he wants to make you one, too. That’s why his content isn’t just limited to a website you have to actually go to. You can find classrooms showing videos aimed at literal children depicting Christopher Columbus and Frederick Douglass defending slavery. You can find classrooms where videos, again, aimed at kids, compare BLM protesters with “Mexican cartel members.”

Just to be clear, I myself have been a BLM protester. If what Dennis means by me being like a cartel member is that they ALSO have been maced by the Seattle PD at least a dozen times for daring to suggest that Black people shouldn’t be murdered for selling loose cigarettes on the street, then maybe he’s right.

Or maybe he’s a loon who’s getting a mere fraction of the hate he’s dished out over the years in lollipop-sweet form.