Even though I retweet political
posts on a regular basis, I don’t want to turn my reviews into a forum for my political
ideas. I will say that they don’t have a lot of mainstream acceptance and when
it comes to a lot of the social issues brought about nowadays in film and
literature, my opinion is in the VAST minority, with most of the books I come
across I am in ideological opposition to (even though I enjoy them). And part
of this growth away from certain schools of thoughts can be attributed to those
like Lauren Southern, who I describe as a libertarian Ann Coulter, although she
is a lot more palatable. In this, her first book, Barbarians, I agree and disagree
with some of her points. I agree with her thoughts on the threat of Islam and
the true nature of SJWs but find her themes of nationalism near the end and a
brief discussion on the death penalty near the beginning a bit to extreme for
me. But I don’t want to bore you with too many details about my political leanings
(you can just see what I retweet and agree or disagree), this blog is more
about the quality of a book and for its brief length, where it feels a bit more
like a pamphlet or a taste of something bigger (hopefully) or worse, a dry academic
paper, it presents its ideas in an entertaining way with lots of footnotes to
readings, articles and some YouTube clips (some of which I have read and
liked). Her few personal anecdotes, one about her time in college and one from
a video I have watched quite a few times that clearly and accurately prove both
points she’s making about how the left has become illiberal. As hard as it is, I
try my best to not mix art and politics (even though I am working on a short
story that does just that), so I won’t be doing many reviews such as these (I’ll
make an exception for Milo’s book), but if you want to read opposing viewpoints,
and I hope you do, this short book by an interesting and elegant voice is a
great place to start.
Rating: 4/5
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