Debunking a PragerU Video About U.S. Immigration

Thanks to Define American for their support making this video.
Specifically, thanks to Paul Rivet for providing animations and William Johnston-Carter for help with research.

Music by Electric Needle Room. Produced and hosted by Matt Beat.

Snail mail:
PO Box 1982
Lawrence, KS 66044

Mr. Beat favorites:

Recommended books:

Studio equipment:

Sources/further reading:

PragerU, which is short for Prager University, is an organization that creates short, animated videos to promote a conservative agenda. So what does PragerU’s version of “conservative” look like? Well, their website says they believe in “economic and religious freedom, a strong military that protects our allies, and in the religious values that inform Western civilization, also known as Judeo-Christian values.” So I guess religious freedom is cool to them but they like Jewish and Christian values better?

Anyway, the conservative radio talk show host Dennis Prager and his colleague Allen Estrin created it in 2010 to fight what they perceived a “liberal bias” in the American education system.

It’s propaganda. PragerU is straight up propaganda. Their mission is not to inform and educate, but to indoctrinate. And if you want to release propaganda, that’s fine. I’m quite ok with that. But the problem with PragerU is that they present themselves as a legitimate educational institution.

On their YouTube channel, they state “PragerU is an online video resource promoting knowledge and clarity on life's biggest and most interesting topics. We gather some of the world's best thinkers and distill their best ideas into free, 5-minute videos on things ranging from history and economics to science and happiness.”

My point for reading that is that I’ve found a lot of people don’t know they make propaganda videos. Unsuspecting folks may think they are simply an educational channel, when they are not. When I first came across them, I know I thought that. And PragerU is highly influential, especially to younger folks. Their videos have billions of views. They also recently started a program to try to get their videos in more social studies curriculums. Craig Strazzeri, the chief marketing officer of PragerU, said thousands of educators have already signed up, adding: “Ideally, every school in American would show PragerU videos in the classroom on a regular basis to help educate the next generation.”

Educate? More like “indoctrinate.”

If you Google “PragerU Debunked,” you’ll get thousands of videos and articles debunking PragerU videos. Often however, the videos are like 30 minutes long, because of how much bull crap the debunking videos have to call out.

But that is precisely what I’m going to do in this video. I’m going to fact check a five-and-a-half minute video PragerU made called “A Nation of Immigrants,” and hopefully do it in well less than 30 minutes, although that intro was already way too long.
#immigration #prageru #mrbeat

[iammrbeat]

Should the United States make it easier for immigrants to move there?

[jacobb]

I was doing dishes barely paying attention and he shouted “Jacob! Jacob! Please pay attention” I was actually scared for a second

[GuillermoLG]

I'm an immigrant! It was actually very easy, no problem at all. I immigrated from California to the UK and it was all very straight forward.

[KongVang]

I'm a U.S. citizen and I have been trying to get my fiancee to the U.S. since February of 2014. We now have a five year old son. Still we're waiting to be reunited. The current immigration petition for my family and supporting them through all these years have costed me over $150, 000 and is draining the life out of me every day. Anyone who said immigration is easy don't know what they're talking about. The current immigration system have separated thousands of families and is severely broken.

[WanderingMiqo]

PragerU be like: 1+2+3+4+5=12, 345 immigrants 😱

[BubbleGrunge]

I work in immigration and the "chain migration" talking points drive me up a wall. For instance, some Mexicans who filed 4th Preference I-130 petitions in 1999 are STILL waiting for a law permanent residence visa to become available. The average American has no idea how difficult it is to gain status in this country legally on a permanent basis.

[shediwarelapis]

"No, you don't get to count it twice."
"No, you don't get to count it thrice!"
"No, you don't get to count it quadrice- wait I don't think that's a word..."

[TheGravelInstitute]

Loved this video! Glad to be a part of this project with you and Define American.

[Kisamaism]

If only these debunking videos would get viewed by the people who need to see them most.

[kohga]

Bro him calling me out by name really tripped me the fuck out, I’m high as hell and wasn’t prepared for that

[realdragon]

There was "psychologist" in PragerU teaching about "parenting" who isn't psychologist

[ygabriella]

I'm an immigrant and I apove of this video. He explained exactly what my husband and I had to do to get our green card. It's wasn't easy. My husband is now a USA citizen and I am saving to become one soon.

[Domesthenes]

I recently went through the process of sponsoring my wife for her green card, and I actually think that Mr. Beat got a bit wrong here. It wasn't $535, that was just the filing fee. We also had to pay for a medical examination, pay a processing fee, and show that we had annual income of at least $60, 000 in order for her to get her temporary green card. My wife just got her citizenship in January, but all told I would say that we have spent about $5, 000 on her residence status. $2, 500 of that was on her initial green card. We are just glad that it's over.

And we didn't use a lawyer. Many immigrants have to use one to make sure that their specific situation is covered, and if you make a mistake on your application, then the government keeps the fees you paid and you have to file again, paying the fees over again. This can EASILY reach the tens of thousands of dollars for some.

Not to take anything away from Mr. Beat, he did good work on this video. Just providing a little additional context to those who want it.

[melon_man_dan]

The story about the 300ish Jewish people that sailed to the US before WWII was framed to me as an unfortunate necessity. “It’s so sad we couldn’t accept them because the US had already met it’s quota that year. However, we tried to be as generous as possible and let in the college educated ones.” But now that I’m older it’s just ridiculous how the US couldn’t accept his 300 people leaving a place they were openly oppressed.

[EmperorTigerstar]

PragerU is like the Dunbar School of historians for the modern day.

[AcornFox]

If I were a social studies teacher, I would absolutely play PragerU videos in my classroom.

The students would then be tasked with identifying claims made in the video and putting them on one color of post it note up on the board. Then they would choose one or two, fact check them, and if they found a descrepancy, theyd write it on a different color post it and cover the original claim with the fact.

“Okay kids thats the bell. Look at the board and see why critical thinking is more important than tiktok follower count.”

[yin-sin]

I’m a child of an immigrant mother. She left Japan in order to get a better education and life (late 80’s early 90’s) she worked as a tour guide to get extra money for her education. Not to mention, she was learning English as a second language while in school. She met my dad and they fell in love. However her student visa was almost done and she could be deported back to Japan. Luckily my dad was in the Navy and was able to get her to become a citizen fast.

Hearing families being thousands of miles apart because one of them isn’t a citizen yet hurts me. It’s so expensive and can take years just for one person to become a citizen.

[heimlershistory]

Beat bringing the sauce... This is what public discourse ought to look like.

[honeycomblord]

I saw a PragerU video in social studies class once.

Granted, it was to show why citing from one source is bad and how it can leave you with a biased perspective.

[franktranks]

I like how they whine about the liberal bias in classrooms, yet they try to get their clearly conservative bias videos shown in classrooms for "education."