‘Keep Americans stupid!: The internet is clowning on MAGAs for wanting to defund NPR
After praising Donald Trump’s plans to defund the Department of Education, MAGA also began pushing to defund National Public Radio (NRP) in their apparent quest to keep America ignorant.
NPR is an American broadcasting organization that was established in the 1970s after President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 to support the educational purposes of radio and television. The organization’s mission is to “create a more informed public” through a variety of programming. However, it has been on Trump’s radar since his first presidency. Angered by the kinds of questions reporters asked him, Trump began vouching for NPR’s defunding and labeling it a liberal propaganda site. Conservative vitriol increased when former editor Uri Berliner penned an article accusing NPR of liberal bias.
It wasn’t long before billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk inserted himself into the feud between conservatives and NPR. One of his first moves as Twitter’s new owner was to designate NPR “state-affiliated media,” which was the same label given to propaganda outlets in Russia and China. Musk later changed its label to “government-funded media.” However, both labels were inaccurate, given that NPR is an independent news organization and only a portion of its funding is federal. The feud led the NPR to leave Twitter for good, but that wasn’t enough for Musk and MAGA.
MAGA calls to defund NPR
Recently, calls to defund NPR began trending on X from MAGA users. The trend started with Musk, who made a post questioning if “tax dollars” should go to an organization that thinks “the truth is a ‘distraction.'” He paired the caption with a clip of NPR CEO Katherine Maher giving a speech in which she argues that “reverence for the truth might have become a bit of a distraction.” Of course, he was taking a 10-second speech clip entirely out of context. Maher was really talking about how there can be different personal truths for each person and that sometimes collaboration and connection are better than fighting to establish one absolute truth. Still, Musk insisted she was saying the truth, in general, is a distraction and quickly raised MAGA hysteria.
In the comments, like clockwork, all the MAGA supporters eagerly agreed with Musk, writing, “NPR needs to be defunded immediately, “Not 1 penny,” and “dropping taxpayer funding from NPR is such an obvious decision.” It doesn’t matter that the vast majority of them probably have no clue what NPR is or that only a portion of its funding is federal. MAGA and Musk simply perceive that it’s not solely touting right-wing propaganda or only reporting on news that fits the conservative agenda, so they want to do away with it.
Fortunately, many internet users called out MAGA on their latest ridiculous plan. Social media users pointed out how MAGA rapidly turned their sights on NPR after first attacking the public education system, books, teachers, and the Department of Education. At this point, it can’t be denied a trend is emerging with conservatives seeking to destroy anything in America meant to inform and educate people. Many also teased MAGA for not knowing how NPR funding works and questioning why they’re bothered by the organization when they likely don’t tune in to its broadcasts anyway. If they don’t want to support it, they can simply continue not watching it. Instead, they want to keep all of America from being informed and educated.
Liberals like to joke that MAGA wants to “keep America stupid,” but the issue isn’t very humorous. Within a day, Trump calls for radically changing the education system, and Musk calls for defunding NPR. A concerning pattern of censorship is arising, with Trump and Musk vying for control of public media and education.
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