Texas To Implement Fascist Propaganda Outlet, PragerU In Schools

Republicans in Texas are bringing propaganda and white nationalist indoctrination to our public schools.

Yesterday, the far-right propaganda outlet announced they were now an approved vendor for the State of Texas. The announcement included a short video featuring white supremacy advocate and January 6th insurrectionist, SBOE member Julie Pickren.

Fascist movements in history have always targeted education as a means to control and manipulate public perception, molding the minds of the younger generation to align with their ideological agenda.

PragerU, if you’ve been fortunate enough not to see them, promote white supremacist and fascist ideas, and package them into short videos with cartoons and right-wing commentators. One recent video featuring an animated Frederick Douglas calling slavery a “compromise.” The same video claimed that believing the lives of Black people held value would lead to higher crime.

PragerU’s videos contain widely considered misleading and false content promoting climate change denial. Historians and political scientists have also criticized PragerU’s videos for containing deceptive and inaccurate claims about topics such as slavery and racism in the United States, immigration, and the history of fascism. PragerU has been accused of promoting anti-LGBT politics.

PragerU started the modern movement of Southern Strategy denial.

This is a blatant indoctrination attempt by white nationalists targeting the young minds of Texas.

The only thing PragerU has ever taught is lies that make white supremacists feel warm and fuzzy on the inside. Florida was the first state to accept PragerU as a vendor, which led to a massive outcry after discovering that one of the PragerU lessons taught that Black people benefited from slavery because they learned a trade.

The manipulation of young minds through misleading educational content is a significant threat with far-reaching consequences. When students are exposed to skewed narratives, distorted facts, and ideologically driven content, it hampers their ability to engage in critical thinking. Exposure to misinformation can foster prejudices, misconceptions, and intolerance.

In PragerU’s announcement, Julie Pickren mentioned how this fascist implementation was made possible by HB 1605, passed in the 88th Legislature. It’s important to note that every single Republican voted in favor of this Nazi bill. Considering the bill doesn’t even go into effect until September 1st, it’s likely that many of them knew about this ahead of time.

Unfortunately, several Democrats did cross the aisle to vote for this bill. Many of the usual suspects voted in favor, but some surprises as well.

If your House Rep. voted for this bill, you should call them and ask them, “What the fuck?”

The Senate also saw a few Democrats cross the aisle to enable white supremacist propaganda in our public schools.

Gaslighting kids by feeding them propaganda from PragerU is a new low for Texas Republicans, and as we already know, there is no floor.

This is yet another reason to vote the Republicans out and stop supporting Democrats in the Legislature that crosses the aisle to give the GOP a leg-up in turning Texas into a fascist hellscape.

While we can expect a massive outcry on the local level if various school boards try and pick up PragerU as an indoctrination device, the quickest way to end this nonsense would be to replace the four Republican School Board of Education members in the upcoming 2024 election. That includes:

• SBOE District 10 - Tom Maynard.

• SBOE District 11 - Pat Hardy.

• SBOE District 12 - Pam Little.

• SBOE District 15 - Aaron Kinsey.

Unfortunately, due to racial gerrymandering, we face an uphill battle in these districts.

Are you paying attention? Have you gotten involved yet?

Republicans are leading us down a very dark path. This isn’t a “what-if.” We have very clear comparisons with historical movements that show the outcomes of what happens when fascist movements use education as a tool for propaganda and control. They want to mold the beliefs and attitudes of future generations to maintain a compliant population. The best response to that is non-compliance.

If you haven’t gotten involved yet, please get involved in any way possible. The alarm bells are ringing, and it’s time to act. Join your local county Democratic Party or Progressive group, volunteer with local political grassroots movements, attend city council meetings, or run for office.

Fascism isn’t coming, it’s already here, and unless we can collectively get the 9.5 million non-voters to the polls, it will only get worse.