Dennis Prager: A Private Conversation Isn’t “an Accurate Indicator” of Character

We know that truth is irrelevant to the Trump administration and the people who continue to support them. We may think we’ve seen all the fact-denying, word-twisting logic they have to offer… but leave it to right-wing commentator Dennis Prager, founder of a fake online “university” that perpetuates conservative mythology, to pop in and say, “Hold my beer.”

Watch this bizarro video in which he claims that what people say or do in private is not at all a reflection of their character. He’s referring to what Donald Trump once said on an Access Hollywood bus about how, since he’s a celebrity, he’s allowed to grab women “by the pussy.”

While some people might say that comment gives us far more insight into who he is than some scripted speech, Prager, as usual, goes in the other direction for all the wrong reasons.

I don’t care what people say privately. Nor should you. That is not an accurate indicator of a person’s character. Is that clear?

Private talk is not an indicator of a person’s character. There is no one — no one alive — who, if everything they said privately had been recorded and then allowed to the world, could not be made to look like a terrible person. That person does not exist.

For racists and sexists and other bigots who are aware that their private thoughts would inspire backlash, it’s precisely those “private” conversations that show us who they are. It’s why the secretly recorded video of Mitt Romney dismissing 47% of the country as freeloaders was so devastating for him in the 2012 elections. It’s why hidden camera footage often goes viral: They give us a glimpse at how people actually think.

If you can’t judge people’s character by how they act in private — away from cameras and the public eye, with no pressure to perform or exhibit a certain persona — then how the hell can you?

Prager wouldn’t know this, but the Bible is also rife with verses about the importance of doing the right thing even when you don’t have to — including prayer.

But Prager’s comments are easy for him to make. He shares all of his ignorant thoughts online. No one’s trying to figure out what he really thinks because there’s no reason to believe there’s any more depth to him. It’s everyone else — the hypocrites who say one thing but do another — that we need to watch out for.