During an interview on Fox News, pharmaceutical heir Annabella Rockwell claimed she fell victim to "wokeism" while in college and her mother hired a "cult deprogrammer" to bring her back into the Republican fold.
Rockwell—who works for nonprofit advocacy group PragerU, which creates videos promoting a conservative viewpoint on various political, economic and sociological topics—told Fox News personality Tucker Carlson college left her "sad" and "anxious" until her mother stepped in.
Rockwell then proceeded to stump for her employer, saying she was able to unlearn "wokeism" with the help of PragerU, which she said she discovered one day on her social media feed.
You can hear what Rockwell said in the video below.
\u201cthis woman learned about the patriarchy in college so her mom hired a cult deprogrammer to make her a republican again\u201d— matt (@matt) 1669754737
Rockwell said:
"As time went on and I studied history, I became completely brainwashed into believing that I was depressed by our toxic, patriarchal society and I left school. I was sad, anxious, intellectually starving, and by 2015, when I graduated, I completely estranged myself from my family."
After Carlson claimed "the real cost" of a college education is it teaches students not to "love their parents anymore," Rockwell explained how she got "better."
"So in this panic of me not communicating with my mother, she consulted a cult specialist. This person gave her devastating statistics that most people don't make it out but [there was] a glimmer of hope that it tends to be young women who do."
"So she spoke to him and he made it very clear to her: 'Do not affirm your daughter's newfound identity. You know her best. She is your child. Don't affirm her.'"
"So she was taught how to communicate with me. Now, to actually be deprogrammed, I had to humble myself."
"[I did] A couple of things. I reconnected with my family. I moved home. I asked for forgiveness. I admitted I was wrong."
"Secondly, I made a lifestyle change. I stopped drinking. I started to believe in God again."
"And lastly, I had to unlearn my four years of wokeism by watching five-minute PragerU videos online for free."
Carlson laughed in response, adding college is "a cult" aiming to "separate you from the people who love you most."
He went on to praise Rockwell's mother for "deprogramming" her and commended Rockwell herself for "speaking out."
The interview felt more like an advertisement for PragerU, which was founded by right-wing radio host Dennis Prager, who made headlines over the summer for publishing an op-ed in which he accused women of "hurting the country" with their "emotions."
Many criticized Rockwell.
\u201cThis is just promoting conversion therapy but for kids that went to college and escaped their conservative parents. Yikes.\u201d— Leighton Bright (@Leighton Bright) 1669830127
\u201cCollege graduate moves in with parents and forgets everything she learned because learning the truth made her sad\u201d— Ben Ziliak (@Ben Ziliak) 1669826938
\u201c\u201cdon\u2019t affirm your child. u know her best. she is ur child\u201d is the part that gets under my skin. so much of conservative evangelical upbringing is about teaching u not to trust urself. to let other ppl tell u who u are. and then to claim that freeing urself from that is a cult???\u201d— jon \ud83e\udea9\u2728\ud83c\udff4 (@jon \ud83e\udea9\u2728\ud83c\udff4) 1669773927
\u201cHow do you go to Mount Holyoke and then complain that you had to learn about feminism?! Like, did you pay attention on the campus tour?!\u201d— Asheesh Siddique (@Asheesh Siddique) 1669776413
\u201cI love how they\u2019re very obviously actively trying to dumb down future generations. \u201cDon\u2019t send your kids to college because it\u2019ll make your kids not love you anymore and they\u2019ll join a cult!!\u201d Like grandpa I think you forgot to take your medicine today\u201d— Sav (@Sav) 1669817254
\u201c\u201cI\u2019m no longer in a cult bc they tied me down and made me watch PragerU clips 5 minutes at a time.\u201d\n\nYeah, definitely not in a cult.\u201d— FightThe.GOP \ud83d\udc99\ud83c\udf0a\ud83d\uddfd (@FightThe.GOP \ud83d\udc99\ud83c\udf0a\ud83d\uddfd) 1669789858
\u201cOMG, I learned about history at university and now I hate my parents. HELP.\u201d— Shalailah Medhora (@Shalailah Medhora) 1669792283
\u201cThese people are on a whole other level of lunacy it\u2019s actually unbelievable how sick in the head they all are.\u201d— emma \ud83e\udea9 (@emma \ud83e\udea9) 1669813669
\u201cAs opposed to just letting her live her life like a normal college graduate and discover that overly reductive paradigms are flawed reflections of reality.\u201d— CavsKermit (@CavsKermit) 1669821973
Rockwell first spoke about her experience extricating herself from "wokeism" in a recent interview with the Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid New York Post.
Rockwell, a graduate of Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, said she had been "brainwashed" by the school into believing she is a victim of patriarchal oppression and said until she took classes at the school, she had never actually experienced sexism.
Her mother, Melinda Rockwell, told the Post she hired a $300 a day deprogrammer after becoming so frustrated with her daughter she "smashed a vase through a window at her home in Florida and into drywall another time."
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