Arguing with Idiots: How to Stop Small Minds and Big Government - Glenn Beck

#1 New York Times bestselling author and radio and tv host Glenn Beck's ultimate handbook for tackling and winning lifes most important arguments.FUNNY. FRIGHTENING. TRUE. It happens to all of us: You're minding your own business, when some idiot informs you that guns are evil, the Prius will save the planet, or the rich have to finally start paying their fair share of taxes.Just go away! you think to yourself -- but they only become more obnoxious. Your heart rate quickens. You start to sweat. You can't get away. Your only hope is...this book. Glenn Beck, author of the #1 New York Times bestsellers An Inconvenient Book and Glenn Beck's Common Sense, has stumbled upon the secret formula to winning arguments against people with big mouths but small minds: knowing the facts. And this book is full of them. The next time your Idiot Friends tell you how gun control prevents gun violence, you'll tell them all about England's handgun ban (see page 53). When they tell you that we should copy the UK's health-care system, you'll recount the horrifying facts you read on page 244. And the next time an idiot tells you that vegetable prices will skyrocket without illegal workers, you'll stop saying "no, they won't" and you'll start saying, "actually, eliminating all illegal labor will cause us to spend just $8 a year more on produce." (See page 139.) Idiots can't be identified through voting records, they can be found only by looking for people who hide behind stereotypes, embrace partisanship, and believe that bumper sticker slogans are a substitute for common sense. If you know someone who fits the bill, then Arguing with Idiots will help you silence them once and for all with the ultimate weapon: the truth.

Published: 2009-09-22 (Threshold Editions)

ISBN: 9781416595014

Language:

Format: Hardcover, 336 pages

Goodreads' rating: -

Genres

Nonfiction Politics Humor

Reviews

Lynette rated it

I have to say this was my favorite Glenn Beck book. I am a fan of Glenn Beck and I tend to agree with him politically, so I appreciated his insight and the arguments he makes. He's blunt, which is something I also appreciate. The book is quite funny, for those who can handle Ben Gleck's humor :-)

Ilaire rated it

Because the Obama administration is trying to control your mind with their volunteers. mwuhahaha.

Sherm rated it

Ill avoid beginning this review with a silly pun like the only real idiot is Beck or something like that because he clearly is not an idiot, but I will begin with a joke I heard in one of my Finance classes back in college. The premise of Becks book is how to argue with idiots. His answer to this is -use the facts, here is the problem with that. A man is interviewing some people for a job and asking a basic question, what is 2 + 2 the Statistician interviewing for the job says Well, 2 + 2 could be anywhere from 3.75 to 4.25 with a standard deviation of .25 The financier interviewing for the job says, Well, it depends on inflation, and what you are rounding closest to, but you could round to the nearest 5, so Id say $5.00. The accountant who is interviewing walks in and says, What is 2+2, well, what do you want it to be?My point is that facts, even the most basic, can mean ANYTHING! Its peoples interpretations of said facts that matter. And no one skews the facts better than Glenn Beck. For example, in chapter 2 he rales against Congress women Carolyn McCarthy for not knowing what a barrel shroud on a gun was but fails to mention anywhere in the book that what she really targets is what is called the gun show loophole a gap in the law that allows vendors at gun shows to sell assault weapons and explosives without background checks, and to people on the federal watch list! So currently people who are deemed unsafe to fly on our planes can now walk into a gun show and purchase an assault weapon, thank you Glenn Beck, thank you NRA. Your gun fetishism mystifies me. Another one-sided fact he gives is in Chapter 1 on Capitalism. He ever so loosely gives an explanation of trickle-down economics in a metaphor of snow at the top of a mountain and I think I am supposed to be the poor villager lucky enough to bathe in the fresh water from wealthy, so give all the tax breaks to the rich I think was his point, Im not quite sure? But, no explanation of trickle-up economics. But, thats o.k., I took a year of Econ in college, enough to know that his version of trickle-down is WAY OFF. But aside from the content of Becks book the bigger problem I have with him is his tone. He is hostile, condescending, divisive, and snarky. I enjoy a good conservative commentator as much an the next guy, I like George F Will and several writers for TIME Magazine, but Beck is just way over the line of civility. By the way, Ill probably have to erase this post because I fully expect to get hate responses because of it. He has a cult like following.