Free Republic

Some think tank or polling organization should ask 1,000 Americans: What is the best thing most Americans can do to make the country better? Presumably, those most influenced by their schooling and by the media would answer something along the lines of: "fight racism" or "work to reduce inequality." Whatever the specific answer, most young people -- and those older who lean left -- would most likely respond by citing some form of activism. Since the early 1960s and '70s, a moral life has been defined as engaging in activism. One improves America -- indeed, one becomes a good person...

Just as physicists look for equations to explain the natural world, I have always thought it useful to look for equations to explain human nature. For example, in my book on happiness, I offer this equation: U = I - R. Unhappiness = Image - Reality. The difference between the images we have for our life and the reality of our life is one way of measuring how much unhappiness we experience. Here, I offer another theorem, this time to help explain leftism. A + S = B = L Affluence + Secularism = Boredom = Leftism The search for...

When I see people walking outside, often alone with no one anywhere near them, wearing a mask, my primary reactions are disappointment and sadness. I am disappointed because I expected better from my fellow Americans. I never thought most Americans would be governed by irrational fears and unquestioning obedience to authority. I have come to realize that I had a somewhat romanticized view of my countrymen. Had you told me a year ago that nearly every American in nearly every metropolitan area would cover their faces for over a year because one man, one political party and the media told...

Dennis invites you into his home as he conducts a virtual Passover Seder (recorded April 2020). Watch and learn as Dennis explains the meaning of the rituals, but if you want to participate along with Dennis, you’ll need the standard Passover accoutrements (one per person in your household): 1) Matzo 2) Salt water 3) Parsley 4) A hard-boiled egg 5) Horseradish 6) Charoset — a mix of nuts, raisins, and honey 7) Haggadah

Ten years ago, I wrote a column reflecting on my reactions to visiting Vietnam. Given the lack of revulsion to, and even flirtation with, communism (or its more mildly named version, socialism) among many young Americans, it is worth revisiting. It was difficult to control my emotions -- specifically, my anger -- during my visit to Vietnam. The more I came to admire the Vietnamese people -- their intelligence, love of life, dignity and hard work -- the more rage I felt toward the communists who brought them (and, of course, us Americans) so much suffering in the second half...

On the heels of the breach of the U.S. Capitol, Big Tech companies have swiftly censored the President, the emerging social media platform Parler was effectively shut down, and there are growing calls for no-fly lists. Does the assault on the Capitol warrant such a response? “We’re living in a gigantic lie that is reminiscent of the Reichstag fire,” argues talk show host Dennis Prager, founder of Prager University. This is American Thought Leaders, and I’m Jan Jekielek.

As my listeners and readers can hopefully attest, I have been on a lifelong quest to understand human nature and human behavior. I am sad to report that I have learned more in the last few years, particularly in 2020, than in any equivalent period of time. One of the biggest revelations concerns a question that has always plagued me: How does one explain the “good German,” the term used to describe the average, presumably decent German, who did nothing to hurt Jews but also did nothing to help them and did nothing to undermine the Nazi regime? The same...

Are wind, solar, and batteries the magical solutions to all our energy needs? Or do they come with too high a price? Mark Mills, Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, analyzes the true cost — both economic and environmental — of so-called green energy.

I’m addressing the general topic of censorship, specifically YouTube censorship. I’ve done a couple of tests today and it did not turn out as expected. Prager says many of his videos are not shown on YouTube. But I checked two that he said were not available, and they are available. Gateway Pundit says that the opening statement of Trump’s lawyer, Jesse Binnall, before the US Senate has been removed by YouTube. However I can find it on YouTube. Maybe conservatives have been too quick to criticize before getting the facts. Maybe YouTube is suddenly cleaning up it’s act because we...

Regarding race and much else, America's students are not taught history. In fact, they are not taught; they are indoctrinated. With anti-Americanism. The purpose of all teaching about race in American schools is to engender contempt for America. They are, therefore, "taught" the lies of The New York Times' "1619 Project" -- that the United States was founded to preserve and protect slavery -- and of such works as Robin DiAngelo's "White Fragility." So, then, what should American schools teach about race? They should, of course, teach students about slavery and racism. But, if truth and moral clarity are to...

All of my life, I have said that the left’s moral compass is broken. And all of my life, I was wrong. Why I was wrong explains both the left and the moral crisis we are in better than almost any other explanation. I was wrong because in order to have a broken moral compass, you need to have a moral compass to begin with. But the left doesn’t have one. This is not meant as an attack. It is a description of reality. The left regularly acknowledges that it doesn’t think in terms of good and evil. Most of...

Four months ago, I wrote a column titled "The Worldwide Lockdown May Be the Greatest Mistake in History." I explained that "'mistake' and 'evil' are not synonyms. The lockdown is a mistake; the Holocaust, slavery, communism, fascism, etc., were evils. Massive mistakes are made by arrogant fools; massive evils are committed by evil people." Regarding the economic catastrophe in America and around the world -- especially among the world's poor who are dependent upon America and other first-world countries for their income through exports and tourism -- I wrote, "It is panic and hysteria, not the coronavirus, that created this...

What are the two most hated countries in the world? America and Israel. Who hates both America and Israel? The left (and Islamists). And why is that? Why does the left (not liberals, the left hate America and Israel? In "Why the Jews; The Reason for Antisemitism," a book I co-authored with Rabbi Joseph Telushkin in 1983 (the latest edition was published in 2016), we compared hatred of America with hatred of Jews. This is what we wrote. It precisely explains what is happening in America today. "Perhaps the best way to understand the admiration and resentment elicited by the...

In a harrowing article for PJ Media, Dennis Prager argues that the COVID-19 global lockdown is “possibly, the worst mistake the world has ever made,” leading to a mortality rate eclipsing anything the virus could have delivered. Widespread famine in Third World Countries and extreme poverty across the globe are now imminent, “all because of the lockdowns, not the virus.” A study released on May 4 by the nonprofit research institute Just Facts confirms Prager’s argument, concluding that “the total loss of life from all societal responses to this disease is likely to be more than 90 times greater than...

The idea that the worldwide lockdown of virtually every country other than Sweden may have been an enormous mistake strikes many -- including world leaders; most scientists, especially health officials, doctors and epidemiologists; those who work in major news media; opinion writers in those media; and the hundreds of millions, if not billions, of people who put their faith in these people -- as so preposterous as to be immoral. Timothy Egan of The New York Times described Republicans who wish to enable their states to open up as "the party of death." That's the way it is today on...

All my life, I have dismissed paranoids on the right ("America is headed to communism") and the left ("It can happen here" -- referring to fascism). It's not that I've ever believed liberty was guaranteed. Being familiar with history and a pessimist regarding the human condition, I never believed that. But the ease with which police state tactics have been employed and the equal ease with which most Americans have accepted them have been breathtaking. People will argue that a temporary police state has been justified because of the allegedly unique threat to life posed by the new coronavirus. I...

According to The New York Times coronavirus report, as of Sunday, April 19, 2:48 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, there were 35,676 COVID-19 deaths in the United States. Of those deaths, 18,690 were in the New York metropolitan area. (The New York metropolitan area is generally regarded as consisting of the five boroughs of New York City, the five New York State counties surrounding New York City -- Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland and Orange -- and the populous parts of New Jersey and Connecticut.) That means that more than half (52%) of all deaths in America have occurred in the New...

Dennis Interviews a Doctor that has treated over 1,000 Covid-19 Patients With Hydroxychloroquine with Zinc. He tells Dennis about his remarkably positive experience with a drug that offers a possible cure. CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO/AUDIO

Samantha Bee got her start on the Jon Stewart show. She is a worthy heir, for she’s mastered his techniques of pretending that snarky, fact-free comments about conservatives constitute news or astute political analysis. On Wednesday, Bee spent almost seven minutes hurling insults at Dennis Prager, at Prager U, and at the people who have appeared in Prager U videos. It’s clear that the people behind the show are panicking about how effectively the Prager U videos counter the leftist narrative that’s mainlined into the American brain through academia, “news,” and entertainment media. In fact, progressives are right to panic....

If you want to understand a human being or the human condition, what is the single most important question you should ask? Most religious people would probably ask, "Do you believe in God?" The most important question most secular people, especially progressives, could imagine asking is probably a policy question. Today it would be "Do you support Donald Trump?" Otherwise it might be "Do you support abortion rights?" or "Do you support gay marriage?" As important as all of these questions are, in attempting to understand human beings, especially large groups of human beings -- i.e., their society -- the...