The Wilks Brothers

[Guest]

I assume most people have heard of the Koch brothers and their role in providing dark money to fund economic neoconservative objectives in US politics. Or billionaires on the liberal side such as George Soros and Tom Steyer who are open and active financial backers of liberal causes.

But I was unaware of the Wilks brothers until very recently, who are oil billionaires that are quietly moving significant amounts of money in support of social conservative platforms and social engineering projects. For example, they are the primary financial backers of Dennis Prager and PragerU, who the board will recognize as being a source of low-information propaganda aimed at countering the effects of an actual education through advertisement-length videos on topics such as climate change opposition, why men are such great contributors to women's liberation, why racial bias isn't a problem with policing in America but rather disproportionate criminal activity on the part of minorities is, etc., etc., etc.

Googling their names returns hits on a variety of reports on their activities. This article is an example:
http://prospect.org/article/meet-billio ... ious-right

Lane is a Christian-nation extremist who believes the Bible should be a primary textbook in America’s public schools, and that any politician who disagrees should be voted out. Lane’s events are usually closed to the media, but he has given special access to the Christian Broadcasting Network’s sympathetic David Brody. Brody’s coverage of the Iowa event included short video clips of comments by brothers Farris and Dan Wilks, who were identified only as members of Lane’s Pastors and Pews group.

One of those goals may be David Lane’s insistence that politicians make the Bible a primary textbook in public schools.

CBN’s Brody reported: “The Wilks brothers worry that America’s declining morals will especially hurt the younger generation, so they’re using the riches that the Lord has blessed them with to back specific goals.” One of those goals may be David Lane’s insistence that politicians make the Bible a primary textbook in public schools.

Here’s Dan Wilks speaking to Brody: “I just think we have to make people aware, you know, and bring the Bible back into the school, and start teaching our kids at a younger age, and, uh, you know, and focus on the younger generation.” And here’s Farris: “They’re being taught the other ideas, the gay agenda, every day out in the world so we have to stand up and explain to them that that’s not real, that’s not proper, it’s not right.”

That was the first time we had heard of the billionaire Wilks brothers, who have become generous donors to right-wing politicians and Republican Party committees. While both Farris and Dan have given to conservative groups and candidates, it is older brother Farris whose foundation has become a source of massive donations to Religious Right groups and to the Koch brothers’ political network. Farris also funds a network of “pregnancy centers” that refuse, on principle, to talk to single women about contraception. (Married women need to check with their husband and pastor.)

Like David Barton, Farris thinks conservative economics are grounded in the Bible. Like Mitt Romney, he says people shouldn’t vote for politicians who promise “free this, free that.” Like any number of Religious Right leaders, he saw Barack Obama’s re-election as a harbinger of the End Times and he believes God will punish America for embracing homosexuality. Unlike all of them, he’s on the list of the world’s richest people.

[_honorentheos]

To continue, here is another article more specifically about PragerU that talks about the brother's role in being a primary funder and their aims:
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jo ... university

While I'm sure almost everyone on this board is familiar with PragerU, it's worth being reminded that the site has a very specific aim and one that speaks to a core number of Americans, Trump supporters or not with an almost silent emphasis on the not. And for those who aren't Trump supporters, probably because of religion, it can't be denied he is still admired to some degree for his ability to enrage liberals which is much closer to their hearts than any actual point of political or ideological conservatism.

While it is not an accredited institution of higher learning, Prager University is most definitely an education. Scrolling through its 300-odd videos yields a survey of almost every divisive national issue in the United States today: racism, sexism, income inequality, gun ownership, Islam, immigration, Israel, police brutality, and, of course, speech on college campuses.

Many of the people presenting these topics are establishment, PBS NewsHour–conservative types like Stephens, Charles Krauthammer, and Steve Forbes. But more importantly, PragerU’s faculty includes an all-star lineup of internet and media personalities who have made their bones in the Trump era antagonizing the campus left: Ben Shapiro, Jordan Peterson, James Damore, Steven Crowder, Dinesh D’Souza, Christina Sommers, Adam Carolla, Charlie Kirk, and many more. They are, according to PragerU’s founder and namesake, the conservative talk radio host Dennis Prager, “the best thinkers presenting their best ideas.” Their goal: to “undo [the] damage” inflicted by an education system that teaches US students that their country is “a land of inequality and racism” and a place of which to be “ashamed.”

It's a marketing campaign meant to capture the minds and hearts of those who harbor fear of a future that is more inclusive, democratic, and above all else openly secular rather than paying homage to even the vaguest concepts of deity. Odds are, if you think America is forgetting God to it's detriment, you will find PragerU appealing. So, of course, the details of what they then also package up and teach in terms of social and political propaganda become all the more palatable and you find your views aligning more and more on other issues because this is your tribe defending that which is most sacred.

So it's no wonder that a couple of billionaire brothers who share this belief American needs more God would be the major backers of PragerU.

Much of Prager’s early funding came from the fracking billionaire Wilks brothers, early Ted Cruz donors who sat out of the 2016 general election. In addition to running their own church, the Assembly of Yahweh — where one of the brothers is a pastor who preaches that the Bible is historically and scientifically accurate — the Wilks brothers own the conservative website the Daily Wire and are reported to be considering a bid for Glenn Beck’s the Blaze. Two members of the Wilks family sit on the PragerU board.

The site started slowly, as a handful of videos released at random intervals. But the funding model allowed Prager and Estrin to build out a library and grow gradually without pressure from investors or shareholders. In April 2011, they hired Marissa Streit, an Israeli-American former Jewish day school principal, to run the organization.