Melodramatic outrage is the right-wing's stock in trade, but conservative radio host Dennis Prager has taken it to a whole new level with a rant unhinged even for Dennis Prager.
This time, it's words of encouragement directed at children that has the right-wing zealot up in arms.
In a recent episode of his radio program The Dennis Prager Show, Prager went on a bizarre diatribe decrying a sign he saw hanging in an elementary school in a New York Times report which read, "The world is better because you are in it."
What could possibly be the problem with such a sign?
It's best to let him tell you in his own words in the video below.
About the sign and its message, Prager ranted:
"What a stupid message. Plus, it's not true."
"What has any fifth grader done to have made the world better because he or she is in it?"
"Boy, again, as I've pointed out, it's the opposite of how many of us were raised."
Prager did not elaborate on "how many of us were raised," but one presumes he's longing for the halcyon days when children were beaten with paddles at school or something.
Given how obsessed Republicans and conservatives are with banning abortion to protect precious children, you'd think Prager would love a poster telling kids they're valued at the most basic level. But as usual with conservatives, Prager seems not to care about children once they're actually born.
Instead, he feels the poster's message is indicative of the ways liberals are destroying America by telling kids they're special instead of calling America special. Or something.
He ranted:
"This country's a different country. It's becoming like other countries."
"The left doesn't believe America is special, that American values are special or exceptional, whichever term you like..."
"...What is special is... They're special, because they were raised by parents and schools that told them how special they are."
Prager missed his pro-life training about suicide and self-harm apparently.
Otherwise he'd be very familiar with the phrase that is often used as part of suicide/self-harm awareness and prevention efforts.
This kind of rhetoric, absurd as it is, is right in character for Prager—who once mocked Anne Frank for being too optimistic and whose infamous PragerU YouTube channel had several videos banned by the platform for their extremist views.
Prager U is lauded by the far-right as one of the largest recruiting tools for the right-wing extremism among young people.
On Twitter, Prager's rant about the idea children are special generated no shortage of eyerolls.
Prager is infamous for his far-right, fascist takes on everything from LGBTQ+ rights to American history and his interviews with alt-right figures like Steve Bannon and Sebastian Gorka.
And like most conservative social media figures, he's also infamous for telling bold-faced lies, like that Republican President Donald Trump never called neo-Nazi protestors at the 2017 Charlottesville "Unite the Right" riot "very fine people."
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