#prager u

Even the people they like are dehumanized.

Like, even aside from living people like Trump and Musk, historical figures who are almost completely uncontroversial are watered down into what they did.

Yes, I consider this a problem in academia in general, but especially in things like Pragur U and Joe Rogan, if they mention anything about these people’s personalities, it’s a quick, usually negative statement. For example ‘Isaac Newton was a major a-hole,’ in Joe Rogan. In those Prager U kids things, the historical figures only talk about what they did that we remember. No one mentions Isaac Newton’s mental illness or Shakespeare’s kids, it’s just their work.

Contrast that with a show like Xavier Riddle and The Secret Museum, (one of my favorite kids shows.) Yes, the people they visit talk about their work, but they’re also given space to show off their humanity. They play, talk about things they find interesting beyond their work, and we see their home and family members.

This is also a thing in art analyzations. Ben Shapiro only talks about Stephen and Jack in Master and Commander as far as they fill the story’s most basic message, and actually gets the characterizations in that film wrong a few times (such as victim blaming Hollum.) Prager U’s Divine Comedy video is only about the circles of hell, and one of the comments on that video asks why they didn’t talk more about characterizations.