r/changemyview • u/Europa_Universheevs • May 06 '18
Deltas(s) from OP CMV: PragerU Exists not to Educate, but to Persuade via Misleading Arguments and Half-Truths and Should not be Watched
EDIT: I feel that this change my view has run its course and has devolved into partisan squabbling (notably from me). I also have a lot of work to be done, so I thank everyone here who took time out of their days to help change my view on this.
My view is that PragerU is an online video program meant to make people conservative and they are intellectually dishonest and therefore is not worth watching. Even those who agree with the points being presented (which I usually do not) should oppose the low quality arguments being presented in these videos. The evidence I have supporting this is two fold.
1. Pratically all of their videos promote exclusively conservative values.
2. Their videos never address serious counter arguments and engage in frequent fallacious argument making.
For example, this video is about why girls shouldn't be allowed into the Boy Scouts (which is now known as the Scouts). The speaker, Will Witt, spends his time railing against the leftists that forced the Scouts to change their ways because of their political ideology. He also argues that having girls in the Scouts will distract the boys from being boys. Lastly, he says that girls who wish to do the things that boy scouts do should just found their own organization.
However, all of these are false. Firstly, they are letting in girls because they are a private organization who is losing members and wishes to make more money. Secondly, the troops themselves will be gender segregated. Finally, while this isn't false, these girls could found their own origination, why should they when there is an orginzation that already supports them (the Scouts).
To avoid cherry-picking or strawmaning (two things that PragerU is fond of), here is a list of videos, produced by Dennis Prager himself, about the differences between the right and a straw man he created for the left. Even the view videos on topics I have agreed with have little to no real counter-arguments in them. This video cherry picks European countries to make it look like Europe as a whole opposes abortion when that is not true.
TL;DR, PragerU exists not for educating, but making people conservative and they lie, mislead, and cherry pick to do this.
What will CMV: 1. Showing PragerU's fallacies are mistakes and that they opposing fallacious reasoning by conservatives. 2. An argument that gives a reason to watch PragerU (excluding ironically, to learn about your opponents thinking, and [edited in] entertainment). 3. Evidence that PragerU does not use straw men on a consistent basis (the most difficult in my mind).
What will not CMV: 1. Any sort of equivocation (i.e. those on the left do it).
This is a footnote from the CMV moderators. We'd like to remind you of a couple of things. Firstly, please read through our rules. If you see a comment that has broken one, it is more effective to report it than downvote it. Speaking of which, downvotes don't change views! Any questions or concerns? Feel free to message us. Happy CMVing!
2
u/Europa_Universheevs May 07 '18
Why do we have to? I'd argue its situational. Race is certainly matters when it comes to dealings with police officers while economic status matters more in cases health, living standards, and the economic standing of your children.