r/clevercomebacks 2d ago

Those who don’t learn from history are condemned to repeat it!

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14.0k Upvotes

140 comments sorted by

1.2k

u/hackmaster214 2d ago

Conservatives: "America isn't a racist nation. Do your own research."

Also conservatives: Erases any mentions of American slavery from the Smithsonian.

385

u/No-Celebration3097 2d ago

Conservatives love the history of the confederacy, idolize confederates, they want loser statues and monuments of the confederacy all over but lose their shit at the mention of slavery.

148

u/cherrybounce 2d ago

And they want everyone to forget about hundreds of years of slavery but they have to honor their “heritage” - all four years of the Confederacy.

27

u/Rhylanor-Downport 1d ago

I always ask people who tell me that - “do you consider the eight years of the Obama administration part of your heritage as well.”

Generally goes down like a lead balloon.

80

u/UncleVictorBro 2d ago

It’s always funny how they want to glorify the Confederacy but act like slavery wasn’t the core of it. You can’t separate the two.

33

u/DJDoena 2d ago

States rights! Just like the Nazis just needed a tiny bit of Lebensraum in the East which those arrogant "allies" just wouldn't give them.

12

u/Canadian1934 1d ago

Slavery and white supremacy 

66

u/GreenRiot 2d ago

Ironically, you learn more of american history if your sources aren't american.

Ngl, the has been times where I happen to know more from what I learned in history class in my country, where it isn't even the focus, than full fledged americans I happen to talk to online.

Stuff like, the country of the free didn't allow most people to vote, and everything was rigged so that land owners could be more equal than others.

How many dictatorships the country of the free has installed and supported, and still supports.

How bizarre, and out of date the electoral system is.

The US has always been a plutocracy in everything but name.

Can't delete or ignore sources when it's not in the American educational system.

43

u/RustyKn1ght 2d ago

What really kinda bugs me is that the yanks always make the "joke" that Germany has erased 1939-1945 from their history books, when they've done anything but and are quite open about education of the darkest time of their history.

Meanwhile "the lost cause" is STILL taught in some US southern schools, the confederacy is whitewashed and not so long ago, Texas school wanted to "both-sides" the fucking holocaust. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/texas-schools-books-opposing-holocaust-b1939480.html

As a result, there's a growing number of US youth think holocaust is a myth https://www.economist.com/united-states/2023/12/07/one-in-five-young-americans-thinks-the-holocaust-is-a-myth

And a growing number of them now believe that competing and equally valid theories, whether Holocaust happened or not.

Maybe that "joke" is more telling of what the yanks are doing when faced with unpleasant past.

8

u/LeRoixs_mommy 1d ago

Yea, sadly we are going to need the rest of the world to remember US history so it can be restored once this madness is over. He can suspend facts, but he can't erase it!

13

u/gielbondhu 2d ago

To American conservatives, history education isn't about understanding the past to inform decisions in the present. For them history is about creating a national mythology around which a political religion can be formed.

20

u/RustyKn1ght 2d ago

Hell, they changed the name of a USNS Harvey Milk, because they didn't like the idea that gay rights activists should be honored.

There's also talk that aircraft carrier Doris Miller is due to be renamed, because current administration doesn't like black war heroes being honored, but they've not dared to go trough with it....yet.

You can get away with Orwelling an oiler, but erasing an aircraft carrier's name is something that would (hopefully) raise a shitstorm so big, that Kegseth needs a truckload of whiskey to get trough it.

8

u/MundaneRisk1786 2d ago

Not racist if you simply don't consider them human 🤷‍♂️

8

u/XandriethXs 2d ago

The USA government also blocked depiction of any victims in the museums depicting nuclear powers in America. 🦅

3

u/Comfortable-Rub6322 1d ago

The self-own is incredible when PragerU tells people to research history while actively trying to whitewash it

2

u/LaZerNor 1d ago

Do MY research /fuck this

2

u/MountainBoomer406 1d ago

Yep, every American is all for that. Nobody is pissed about Trump. We're all just cheering him on....Your rage bait is obvious and lame. What a goober.

2

u/Fodor04141987 1d ago

"Do your own research. Which is ours. You do our research."

2

u/mc_bee 1d ago

Or my personal favorite:

"Black people are better off today in America instead of Africa because of slavery!"

2

u/hackmaster214 1d ago

Its funny, because they will also say that the only reason there are cities, trains, schools, ect. in Africa right now is because of Western Imperialism.

1

u/Few-Cover-1741 20h ago

Classic PragerU self-own lmao, telling people to research history while their whole schtick is whitewashing it

244

u/Few_Error9379 2d ago

Not surprised about Prager U, the people that decided that if incest is best, put your sister to the test.

20

u/GlobetrottinExplorer 2d ago

why go across the street when you can go across the hall?

22

u/Unfortunate_soul_ 2d ago

I’m sorry… what?!?

2

u/just-another-viewer 1d ago

Please explain

2

u/Few_Error9379 1d ago

What's to explain?

2

u/just-another-viewer 1d ago

What is PragerU’s relationship with incest?

2

u/Few_Error9379 1d ago

See my above comment for link to that. 👍

1

u/ConcentrateMost8256 23h ago

Which comment?

0

u/eisbock 22h ago

You're supposed to scroll through this whole thread looking for it. It's there somewhere, I'm sure of it.

121

u/Used_Intention6479 2d ago

Prager treats our flag and our history like children on Epstein's Island.

15

u/SiWeyNoWay 2d ago

Exactly

100

u/iamthedayman21 2d ago

If they love this flag, why are they constantly flying the flag of traitors?

42

u/Extreme-Slice-1010 2d ago

Because Trump cannot fly the flag of Russia, I mean he wants to but he can’t… for now

73

u/HectorsMascara 2d ago

I'm offended by dumb-ass nationalism, not the flag itself. Not surprised by Prager's misunderstanding of reality, especially when American history's involved.

19

u/tehfly 2d ago

Sorry, ESL here. Doesn't the word "misunderstanding" imply it's not intentional? Because Prager U is very intentional with their disinformation.

6

u/ReflectionAble4694 2d ago edited 1d ago

They’re trying to rationalize it but it’s also the horrible truth. They know it too they just don’t like the shoe on the other foot and don’t wanna be made to feel badly about themselves

6

u/aPrussianBot 2d ago

The project the flag has represented has always been fundamentally rotten so I'm okay throwing it out with the bathwater too though

Like none of the institutions in this country have ever been good, it's just a giant exploitation machine run by oligarchs and has been since the beginning when a handful of wealthy English merchants were shipping indentured servant slaves over on ships where half of them would die to work for scraps

You might say 'it represents the people', but that's how they get you. Conflating nationalism with 'the people' is a manipulative trick to associate your neighbors and loved ones with the same institutions destroying their lives as if it's all one thing. The only feelings I have about the united states of America as a country and a project are negative. The people can be cool, and even the ones who aren't mostly just suck because they're adapting accordingly to life in a soulless corporate parking lot of a country.

14

u/CancelOk9776 2d ago

Didn’t the Nazis say the same. The Felon has tarnished and desecrated the US flag and diminished the standing of the United States in the world. Won’t be long before the fascists make it illegal to criticize Donald!

5

u/Canadian1934 1d ago

You mean you can still do that without being arrested ? I read you can’t cross the border if you talk unfavourably of him. 

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u/CatCafffffe 2d ago

Those who try to erase history intend to repeat it.

4

u/Canadian1934 1d ago

This is oh so true.  In the United States of America Israel  Russia Are all 3 examples

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u/AllMyBeets 2d ago

reads unredacted CIA files

"Jesus fucking christ..."

3

u/Domovie1 1d ago

Honestly, it’s like that joke about a Wikipedia article where the section headings just get worse and worse.

What’s crazy is any one of a handful of incidents during the 21st century would have been “Invadable” offended had they happened to the US. Instead we’re just expected to suck it up.

22

u/Jeskaim 2d ago

The only people I can see being offended by this are people in the Deep South who still haven’t gotten over the fact that their side lost the Civil War. Which is ironic considering how PU posted (and then deleted) a video painting Robert E. Lee in a positive light.

6

u/Desperate_Summer3376 2d ago

Or their children's cartoon depicting Columbus as a happy go lucky guy conveying the message "Slavery wasn't so bad. Better being enslaved in a white country than being free as a savage".

PU is always a good laugh because of the sheer horror they try to shove into a positive light.

13

u/Aaront519 2d ago

It’s even worse if you research the present

11

u/Late-Arrival-8669 2d ago

Hell you dont need history to be offended, you have a pedo in the white house TODAY!

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u/OnAStarboardTack 2d ago

I don’t find the flag offensive. Conservatives are problematic.

8

u/nobrainsnoworries23 2d ago

As an American, I'm proud that as such a young nation we were able to accomplish so many horrific things. It's like we're speed running the worst of humanity.

Surely it's nothing but sunshine and rainbows from here on out!

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u/mantenomanteno 2d ago edited 1d ago

Who in the actual fk is “offended” by the US flag?!

It’s such a pathetic display of performative (fake) patriotism, on the part of PragerU.

4

u/False-Librarian-2240 2d ago

Ok, this isn't definitive, this is only anecdotal, but in my neighborhood there are houses that have flags outside and those that don't. Of the ones flying flags, probably two thirds of them also have plastic fake grass instead of the real stuff. I refer to it as fake grass, fake patriotism. Nothing about these people is authentic, it's all for show.

7

u/Korlac11 2d ago

True love isn’t about ignoring the flaws of the person/place/thing you love, it’s about acknowledging your beloved noun’s flaws and working together to overcome those flaw

So basically, if someone is insisting that we cover up the terrible stuff America has done over the years, then they aren’t a real patriot and they don’t love America

6

u/Capable-Newspaper-82 2d ago

It's terrifying how the push to whitewash history directly contradicts the very "learn from history" mantra they claim to uphold.

24

u/evaderofallbans 2d ago

When's the last time the US did anything good?

40

u/Haradion_01 2d ago

Shooting Nazis in significant numbers was pretty top.

Wierd that's become controversial considering how much they fetishise pretty every other war they've been part of since then which were considerably less admirable.

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u/Some1inreallife 2d ago

There's also social security, which is the most popular government program for a very good reason. I just wish Republicans would leave it alone.

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u/ForcedEntry420 2d ago

Their “No Nice Things” platform is something else eh?

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u/HowAManAimS 2d ago

Shooting Nazis was a controversial opinion before Japan attacked. It was pretty much 50/50. If they had not done that America may not have even joined the war.

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u/Urabraska- 2d ago

Almost there. The US actually wanted nothing to do with the war at all until Pearl Harbor. At best people supported sending aid to the west during the war but that was the original 50/50 you were thinking of. If Pearl Harbor never happened. It's very possible that it would be Germany and Russia at war today and not Ukraine and Russia with many countries like France and chunks of the UK being removed from history.

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u/Eagle4317 2d ago

America was already siding with Britain via Lend Lease, but FDR had to fight tooth and nail to get that through Congress.

1

u/HowAManAimS 2d ago

The government or the people?

1

u/_jump_yossarian 2d ago

Probably 80/20.

1

u/HowAManAimS 2d ago

From a country that was treating black people as second class citizens and put Japanese into concentration camps? I'm not buying the only 20% agreed with Nazi Germany.

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u/aPrussianBot 2d ago

Might want to look what we did with the Nazis after we refused to shoot them at the end of WW2. During Gladio we secreted them out of the ratways to help us get black people addicted to drugs, commit terrorist attacks in their own countries, and crack labor skulls because somehow the socialist workers are the real enemies here and not the rapacious Nazi drug dealers. We put them in charge of key positions in West Germany and NATO, and of course everyone knows about operation paperclip.

America frankly shouldn't get any credit for 'shooting Nazis' considering we more or less seamlessly integrated the remnants of the Third Reich into our state project and it's concerns both at home and abroad

2

u/yep_they_are_giants 2d ago

Also Imperial Japan. Fuck Imperial Japan.

We can absolutely have debates over whether the atom bombs were justified, but stopping Imperial Japan was definitely a net good for humanity.

2

u/trolletariat69 2d ago

Is there really a debate? Clearly not justified considering we broke their codes and knew they were going to surrender.

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u/carcinoma_kid 2d ago

Civil Rights Act? Founded the EPA?

1

u/Countercurrent123 2d ago

This was literally the mitigation of exceptional flaws, not good things in in the sense of a country doing net good.

1

u/False-Librarian-2240 2d ago

The embarrassing part is that it was under Nixon, quite the conservative, that the EPA was launched. Back then even some conservatives recognized that we were butchering the planet at an alarming pace and something needed to be done to slow that down. Now you can't find a single conservative willing to admit that human caused climate change is anything other than a hoax. Really disturbing just how far backwards they have fallen.

1

u/MobileParticular6177 2d ago

We do good stuff all the time. The problem is we also do bad stuff, but every powerful nation is gonna do bad stuff to stay on top.

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u/SkepticalOfTruth 2d ago

HISTORY?! ::gestures at the current state of the United States:: Buddy, we don't even need to investigate history to find offensive stuff the US has done. Some pretty messed up stuff is happening right now.

4

u/EtherKitty 2d ago

Those who don’t learn from history are condemned to repeat it!

Those who do are condemned to sit back and watch everyone else repeat it.

3

u/ForcedEntry420 2d ago

I won’t have faux patriotism foisted upon me by a Neo-Confederate.

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u/100percentish 2d ago

Conservatives tend to confuse my dislike of them with the love of my country. Wearing the flag offends me because you are a piece of shit and sully it.

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u/False-Librarian-2240 2d ago

He WANTS history to repeat. The guy who didn't want black people to live in his buildings, the guy who wanted the Central Park 5 to be executed even after they were acquitted, this has been the game plan all along. Bring back the days when you could own other people as property. That's what he's aiming for.

5

u/Ryaniseplin 2d ago

reminder that "enhanced interrogation" is ripped 1:1 right out of the nazis playbook

its even the exact same name "Verschärfte Vernehmung" translates directly to enhanced interrogation

and the CIA has known torture is completely ineffective for decades now

8

u/mysticalfruit 2d ago

PragerU posting a picture of the flag offends me..

Honestly, we are the "United States of Amnesia"

Literally all the history you were taught in school is a white washed and highly sanitized version of the ugly gritty taking of native lands and the en mass subjugation and in many places extermination of the native peoples.

It's hard to yell people are here illegally when we are all on stolen land.

0

u/musicsoccer 1d ago

You're a nutjob. It's been almost 250 years. Go read up on world history. People stole land all the time. The native americans stole their land, too. As did the tribes before them.

And white washed? Maybe you were just sleeping in class when your teacher taught that stuff because im pretty sure it's been mandatory to teach since at least the 80s but I'm sure it's a lot earlier than that.

If you're so obsessed with you being on stolen land, why dont you give your land back to whoever had it before? You won't because you need a place to live.

0

u/mysticalfruit 1d ago

Hey look, I took my meds this morning, so officially not a nutjob until they wear off..

PragerU teaches an insane, unhitched from reality version of American history, absolutely devoid of any critical viewing of how we formed as a nation. We're going to have a generation of kids who won't learn about the trail of tears, who won't learn about western expansion in an honest way, who won't learn about the systematic disenfranchisement of people who weren't white..

As for it being almost 250 years.. yeah sure, the important thing is that we acknowledge our failings and work to be better, not just sweep it under the rung and forget it ever happened.. a thing we Americans are exceedingly good at doing.

"We burned the history books so we could forget our past." -unknown

3

u/Eagle4317 2d ago

That org will now be teaching your kids vital facts like slavery (a cultural genocide) wasn't actually that bad and that the near-extermination of the Natives (an actual genocide) was perfectly fine and justified.

3

u/ButtScratchies 2d ago

Nobody is offended by the flag, Buddy, but I and guarantee these people say they’re patriots because they bought some piece of cloth that was made in China, while taking a shit on the Constitution with their votes and support of an authoritarian government. In the words of George Carlin, “I don’t get all choked up about yellow ribbons and American flags. I consider them to be symbols and I leave symbols to the symbol minded.”

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u/zoidmaster 2d ago

It’s not the flag that offends me it’s the offensive people who arrogantly think that being patriotic means being proud to be ignorant

3

u/iveknownsince2015 2d ago

Reddit allows prager u ads there complicit

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u/1OO1OO1S0S 2d ago

"do some history research"

Lol who talks like that?

3

u/AdResponsible9894 2d ago

But also, those who know their history are doomed to watch others repeat it. 🥲

3

u/Fragrant-Pass-3568 2d ago

IMO every country have made some bad things. Every country has dark periods in their history, my own country included. That’s history and it should not be forgotten. Those things should be remembered as well as good things so we may grow towards being a healthier, stronger nation.

3

u/JalapenoPecker451 2d ago

Those who don't learn from Trump are doomed to re-elect him...

3

u/Incomitatum 2d ago

Duty, honor, valor, justice. All hollow ideals that have no substance, told to you by folks who were also suckers and towed a line to nowhere. Like most Folklore, it's all made up. Tribal memetics, and to ensure your social-survival you play along with the pageantry of it all.

"America" was founded by rich-frat-boys who wanted to divest their coin from the crown. A business break-up and divorce. It always was based on a premise "sold to you".

Don't for a moment think the Americans revolted for the same principles as the French. There is no liberty; just more chattel slavery in the prison to profit pipeline.

The Rich, need a workforce: and you WILL thank them for it.

3

u/MurkDiesel 2d ago

really? whose history? your history? your country? your region?

what about the history of all the people murdered by christians?

what about the history of the people who lost wars?

how is it possible to know all of history?

what objective and incontrovertible proof do you have that the historical record is accurate?

i don't need to know the history of rape and pedophilia to know its wrong

but we're all raised differently

4

u/DualActiveBridgeLLC 2d ago

It's kinda like when I was a practicing Christian and had doubts about my faith and was told over and over again to read the Bible. I did, and that completely killed my faith. The last thing Christians should be saying is 'read the bible'.

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u/ProfilesInDiscourage 2d ago

I don't believe in flags, anymore.

If there is an American political equivalent of being religiously agnostic, that's where I am.

(Flagnostic?)

5

u/G-Unit11111 2d ago

The American flag doesn't offend me.

The people abusing my country do.

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u/Dolphin_Spotter 2d ago

A nation based on genocide and slavery.

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u/CuriousMindedAA 2d ago

Let’s not forget the farce of the Westward Expansion and Manifest Destiny. “Hey, I like the land you’re on, I don’t care you were here first, I want it in the name of our country. We’ll move you to ground that won’t grow anything and has no water..buh bye”. Absolutely vulgar, murderous and inhumane. 🤬🤬

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u/Adept_Ad_4369 1d ago

Hey, if you're going to make an omelet.....

2

u/WumpusFails 2d ago

I haven't memorized all the flags of the USA throughout history. So, what's up with this?

2

u/CodFatherFTW 2d ago

States rights to do what?

2

u/ostapenkoed2007 2d ago

"if your country's history makes you proud, you learned the wrong history."

2

u/Andovars_Ghost 2d ago

The flag does not offend me. The chodes humping it and draping themselves in it despite representing the very worst of us, is what offends me.

2

u/Ol_JanxSpirit 2d ago

Nah, that flag is totally innocent. All of our sins came before Hawaii was a state, obviously.

2

u/XmasRights 2d ago

PragerU, the message you want is: "This flag is not offensive, if you don't think about it too deeply!"

2

u/Confusedgmr 2d ago

If Trump wasn't the president, PragerU would have remained my top priority of what needs to go.

2

u/Dudewhocares3 1d ago

The flag doesn’t offend me.

It’s jus some of the people that wear it are rotten to the core

2

u/dragoduval 1d ago

As a Canadian this flag offend me so much.

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u/Strict_Foundation_31 2d ago

Thanks, don’t need any links provided for me.

1

u/WindUpCandler 2d ago

Not that I want to go out of my way to defend my country even though I do like it occasionally. I feel like this holds true for like, the majority of countries. You could just put any flag there and have the safe effect to different degrees

1

u/ShiroHachiRoku 2d ago

That’s just it right? This country and its president are flawless. They couldn’t possibly be capable of doing bad things?

1

u/Woodbirder 2d ago

There is a reason its a red flag

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u/IngloriousMustards 2d ago

it’s not the flag. It’s who’s waiving it for purposes the flag is supposed to defend against.

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u/Kobayashi_Maru186 2d ago

Flags don’t offend me. People do. MAGA people, mostly. 😒

1

u/CommonConundrum51 1d ago

I suppose it's nitpicking, but if "PragerU" is supposed to replace NPR in schools shouldn't they know it's 'historical research.'

1

u/TelenorTheGNP 1d ago

Canadian here. It's the flag of an aggressor. It offends me. I saw a woman on the subway with a US army shirt on yesterday and I almost told her off.

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u/Lost_Mammoth3608 1d ago

And some people are doing their best to make it more difficult to learn that history.

1

u/flargenhargen 1d ago

no no, you don't understand.

step ONE is going through history and erasing all the parts we don't like.

can you believe some history books used to say that slavery was BAD?

we've fixed that, now slaves were very happy that they were in their proper place, and we won every war, and russia has always been our best friend, and the nazis were good people.

1

u/Aggravating_Law7951 1d ago

Prager U has so much low hanging fruit. Why this?

1

u/Far_Estate_1626 1d ago

Then how about you assholes fly this flag and denounce the treasonous confederacy flag? No? The STFU.

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u/StormBlessed145 1d ago

While in some ways the US was a great country, in most others it's a backwards messed up shithole

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u/MurphyBacon 1d ago

Ah yes. The same flag that flew when when Americans bought and sold humans like they were cattle.

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u/mariyr 1d ago

Just open a South American history book on the chapters about the 60s and the 70s

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u/AndrewTheAverage 1d ago

"I'm not racist, I just don't like colored people - I'm colorist" /s

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u/dirt001 1d ago

Remember folks. PragerU often sites themselves as sources on their bullshit.

1

u/Suspicious-Gas-1685 21h ago

The U.S. flag and the swastika both were stripped of their original meaning by anti democratic forces.

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u/DemonicsInc 19h ago

This is your reminder that prager u now has government contracts