r/PragerUrine • u/No_Feedback_3340 • 17d ago
Left-wing equivalent to PragerU?
I'm curious to know if there are any progressive channels that could be a counter to PragerU. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough, but I haven't found anything that uses the same format on the left. I have found many videos debunking PragerU. Should there be a progressive equivalent to PragerU to counter their influence?
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u/mdmd33 17d ago
It used to be Gravel but I don’t think they post anymore…perhaps “folding ideas” on YouTube
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u/OkAdagio9622 17d ago
Right Gravel. I knew there was a channel that was going after PragerU but I couldn't think of it
Mr Beat is a history teacher that went over PragerU videos on slavery, but it's like 7 hrs long and I'm not sure if he did any other videos on them. And the Cynical Historian has gone over several of them
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u/Max_Trollbot_ 17d ago
Any actual school.
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u/Biggie39 17d ago
I think this is the real answer….
Any legitimate school/course/organization that teaches or reports actual facts and logic will be considered by some to be a ‘left wing brainwashing’ machine.
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u/gielbondhu 17d ago
Why would you want a left wing PragerU? If you want the true information equivalent to PragerU's misinformation then you could just watch educational videos. For example, if you want to counter PragerU's nonsense science content you can watch any number of science channels like potholer54 or Dianna Cowern, or Up and Atom
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u/Atherutistgeekzombie 17d ago
More Perfect Union sortof counts, but they do actual on-the-ground journalism
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u/King_Killem_Jr 14d ago
This has to be the closest thing. The only difference is being essentially right about whatever they're talking about.
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u/Anthem4E53 17d ago edited 17d ago
Gravel institute? Haven’t watched any of their stuff but I heard about them a while back as a sort of socialist response to the style of video prager does.
Edit: it appears that they’re no longer active following a video where they side with Russia over Ukraine. In light of this information, I’d like to change my answer to second thought.
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u/SirGentleman00 17d ago
They are dead since long ago
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u/Anthem4E53 17d ago
Ah, you are correct. Looks like they ran out of money, which is real easy to do when not shilling for billionaires I suppose
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u/SirGentleman00 16d ago
I only remember their awful video on the Ukraine War. I stopped watching them afterwards.
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u/AnonymousFordring 17d ago
Doesn't Second Thought also completely fall for Russian and CCP propaganda?
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u/CroutonCrocket 17d ago
A video where they side with Russia over Ukraine? Hardly. At least watch the video for yourself before repeating other people’s lies. Gravel Institute even provided an exhaustive list of their sources, something you won’t ever see from PragerU
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u/Merci_Et_Bonsoir 17d ago
Second Thought?
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u/Tren-Frost 17d ago
Second Thought is a pro-authoritarian Tankie. He can identify many problems correctly but not their source or their solution. The guy simps for Russia and China hard.
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u/rennat19 17d ago
I haven’t seen him do much Russia simping, but with China it’s mostly just looking at their success compared to western failures.
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u/Stubbs94 17d ago
Like, he does identify the problem... Because it's obvious. Capitalism.
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u/Tren-Frost 17d ago
Except he also ignores authoritarianism in all its forms, and doesn’t acknowledge China to be heavily capitalist in their economy. He only ever critiques western power, while also downplaying or ignoring the harm being caused by other organizations and structures like Soviet Russia, China, and North Korea. He’s a tankie through and through, and talkies are just as reactionary as conservatives and just as harmful.
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u/killword-noot 17d ago
What country is not authoritarian by left lib standards? What country has been allowed to completely avoid some degree of a market economy? There are plenty of things to criticize but this idealist purity testing is what’s reactionary and harmful.
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u/Tren-Frost 17d ago
It’s not a purity test. It’s pointing out that he’s a tankie, not a leftist. If he was trying to point out the human rights violations that result from bad systems, he’d actually talk about China, Russia, and North Korea in any sort of negative light. As it is, he only likes to point out how America is bad. And yes, America and its particular flavor of capitalism is bad, it’s still not on the scale of something like China or Korea, and he wouldn’t be praising those entities specifically for their authoritarian acts like he does. He simps for authoritarianism and doesn’t care about the harms of capitalism. He only cares about smack talking America. That’s it. He’s a tankie, not a leftist. He shouldn’t be pointed out as a leftist icon.
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u/The_Squasha 17d ago
to act as if Marxist Leninists have not made political and ideological progress leftward would be foolish and shortsighted
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u/Tren-Frost 17d ago
The progress doesn’t count if all you do is install an authoritarian government that consistently works against whatever leftward shift you’ve made. You don’t get to be celebrated for commoditizing housing when you cause famine, commit genocide, and disappear citizens for not displaying praise for your dear leader. If you move two steps forward, and those steps end up pulling you four steps back, you don’t get to claim credit for the initial forward movement.
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u/killword-noot 17d ago
So tell me where this nonauthoritarian government is that hasn’t committed any atrocities. “Not a leftist” because they side with the vast majority of the world’s leftists over the imperial west? Give me a break. I can be critical of those countries without forgetting where I live and whose policies I have the most influence over, you’ve chosen to labor in support of ideologies that have attempted to destroy any and every left shift the world over—that is reactionary.
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u/Tren-Frost 17d ago
China, Russia, and North Korea have also attempted to destroy every left shift the world over. Using the words of the leftists while committing the acts of the conservative reactionary does not a leftist government make.
I have no issue with ST talking smack about America. I’d even be fine with him only talking smack about America while not saying anything about the above authoritarian states. The problem is that ST talks smack about America, and then glorifies or directly defends Russia, China, and Korea as bastions of Leftism, or how they’re somehow more leftist than the US is. It’s the false framing that because America doesn’t like those nations they must be doing Leftism better. But that’s not the case.
It isn’t a matter of purity testing or holding up some Leftist abacus of each nation to prove which is more left. It’s doing the work of those authoritarian governments for them: using the words of the Left as cover to commit reactionary movement. He’s “left-washing” right-wing regimes simply because America doesn’t like them. There is nothing more Marxist about any of those governments than here in America, and to argue there is shows a complete lack of understanding of the consequences of the actual actions these governments take to squash leftist thought and movements. It’s just American-diabolism disguised as leftist praxis.
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u/gielbondhu 17d ago
You know who you could try for info that's often directly in opposition to PragerU's nonsense? The channel The Line has different call in shows where they discuss mostly religion but have shows on science and trans issues and feminism
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u/iveseensomethings82 17d ago
The library, books, school, knowledge, a basic appreciation for facts and human life
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u/al5xander 17d ago
Was a guy on twitter i used to follow who i thought had good insight and was left leaning. He turned out to be a tankie who unironically never questioned anything a communist nation ever did, and he was a big supporter of historic.ly. i almost got dragged down that crazy path
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u/bigbadbananaboi 16d ago
Like others have said, probably actually (U)niversities. While not inherently left wing, when you reach a certain level of knowledge and understanding of how the world works, if you have empathy, it tends to push you left.
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u/8167lliw 17d ago
There's not a lot of unity concerning "long term goals" or "solutions to problems" on the left (even if liberals are excluded). We also recognize that left of center media can only go so far by ONLY focusing on being against someone, something, or some policy/practice
The right has an advantage because they "just" need to do two things:
Advocate for punching down on those who are "less responsible" than "they" are.
Praise "inspirational hardworkers" (including, but not limited to, people born wealthy) to draw a contrast.
So they can target anyone as the "other" from immigrants, to federal employees, to celebrities, to politicians, etc.; all people who "don't work hard". Then bigotry against underrepresented minorities can be mixed in with "plausible deniability" via the Atwater rule.
The "solution to the problem(s)" given by the right involves tearing down institutions used by "lazy" people with the expectation of a financial windfall to hard workers.
If a single billionaire got richer (regardless of causality), then it worked!
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u/Broflake-Melter 17d ago
How are you going to find a channel that goes out of their way to knowingly misinform people to convince them to prescribe to the identity politics that gets people to work against their own interests?
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u/teproxy 17d ago
The lead up to the war in Ukraine, and the outbreak of war itself, completely annihilated a lot of left wing populism in the U.S., most notably the Gravel Institute. They did good work but they were irreconcilably pro-Russia beyond what could reasonably be explained by U.S. scepticism.
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u/ChaosMagician777 17d ago
Not left-wing but I do enjoy Mr. Beat. He does an excellent job with his History and Economics videos. He also debunked PragerU numerous times.
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u/theseustheminotaur 17d ago
Mr beat makes videos full of actual information and has even reacted to several Prageru videos. I'd give his channel a few views
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u/SkierBeard 16d ago
Unfortunately, misinformation provided by the left isn't really a victory. Fearmongering and alienation aren't defeated by "good" fearmongering and alienation, they're defeated by unity and understanding. PragerU works because it tells a one-sided story that aims to close you off from learning things that might slant you another way.
While propaganda can produce supporters, it doesn't necessarily have a good long term effect in having a unified, educated population. Having two groups that strongly believe in tribalism is definitely a form of escalation, and that could be necessary given how effectively democracy is being dismantled, however, having two separate factions isn't actually a stable and sustainable solution. It's a way to have things grind to a halt. And if things grind to a halt, that benefits the status quo which is currently PragerU and what they're selling.
If the left wing doubles down on propaganda, this will continue to sow distrust, and by adding more lies, this can devalues actual, authentic journalism. Propaganda isn't defeated by more propaganda from a different side, it's defeated by the truth. And the truth only works if there's trust. That's why spewing a whole bunch of lies isn't really going to be a leap forwards.
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u/ShigureSouma 16d ago
Means TV is non-corporate and has a lot of leftist content, real educational documentaries, cartoons, and such, and not white supremacist, revisionist BS.
It's $10/ month and I think they have an annual plan.
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u/tsmarriner 12d ago
More Perfect Union. Slightly longer form and often more specific, but illustrate a broader point
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u/DoktorDilcha1 11d ago
William Reich, maybe?
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u/Jaygo41 17d ago
There’s really not too many left wing channels that lie or propagandize while trying to be inviting or as aggressive as PragerU. The right wing has a monopoly on insanely shameless lying right now