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mishima_md's review against another edition
5.0
I went to read this book without reading the hit pieces but having listened to the author himself. His flamboyant and overly-narcissistic writing style is humorous and engaging and it is clear that he is poking fun at himself as much as he does at the others, I do like the fact that he stresses the importance of free speech and critical thinking and how those things are lost in the world where outrage and virtue signalling are the two key components of public success. From a left-leaning liberal standpoint I enjoyed this book way more than any overly-serious feminist manifestos that have been published. I think such people should be able to speak and, unfortunately for my far-left friends, they do it way more entertainingly than those who have a moral stick up their arse.
jackphoenix's review against another edition
1.0
Riddled with the same predictable hypocrisies, suspect anecdotes, cherry-picked information, and "I am rubber, you are glue" arguments that pervade politics these days, Yiannopoulous's book proves he is something far worse than dangerous; he's boring.
jackflagg's review against another edition
1.0
A long and boring exercise in narcissism and cheap writing. Like a 4chan post reviewed by a copywriter. "The lefties hate me because I'm so great and I speak my mind". "I speak in CAPS because it's my right and the lefties hate it." "I call myself a faggot because it bothers lefties!!!" BORING!
You're not cool and rebellious, you're just a guy with a hundred-dollar haircut and a big mouth. People don't like you because, deliberately or not, you misrepresent basic things like how society and law function and because you just hate things and, ultimately, promote pedophilia. Calling pedophilia by another name doesn't make it better, it's just cheap propaganda. (Pedophilia was just the last straw and what made him a pariah in the media, he's been saying other hateful things before those statements).
Loud and hateful idiots are a dime a dozen. You know what's truly rebellious? Having empathy, thinking critically and independently and doing productive things that better society. There's none of that here.
What Milo doesn't understand is that free speech only means the government can't punish you for what you say, that doesn't mean you must be provided a platform for spewing bullshit or that people have to listen.
It looks like the far-right hasn't changed much in a century - nice clothes, good haircut, lots of euphemisms to hide their hateful messages... but the same rotten, destructive core. Kindly fuck off please.
Even if I could I wouldn't give this book zero stars, only because through its existence, it shows that free speech is not a thing of the past. But otherwise it's full of nonsensical hate, narcissism and edgy "trolling". Waste of time, skip it and read some Solzhenitsyn, Orwell or Hitchens instead.
You're not cool and rebellious, you're just a guy with a hundred-dollar haircut and a big mouth. People don't like you because, deliberately or not, you misrepresent basic things like how society and law function and because you just hate things and, ultimately, promote pedophilia. Calling pedophilia by another name doesn't make it better, it's just cheap propaganda. (Pedophilia was just the last straw and what made him a pariah in the media, he's been saying other hateful things before those statements).
Loud and hateful idiots are a dime a dozen. You know what's truly rebellious? Having empathy, thinking critically and independently and doing productive things that better society. There's none of that here.
What Milo doesn't understand is that free speech only means the government can't punish you for what you say, that doesn't mean you must be provided a platform for spewing bullshit or that people have to listen.
It looks like the far-right hasn't changed much in a century - nice clothes, good haircut, lots of euphemisms to hide their hateful messages... but the same rotten, destructive core. Kindly fuck off please.
Even if I could I wouldn't give this book zero stars, only because through its existence, it shows that free speech is not a thing of the past. But otherwise it's full of nonsensical hate, narcissism and edgy "trolling". Waste of time, skip it and read some Solzhenitsyn, Orwell or Hitchens instead.
stuedb's review against another edition
4.0
A very thought provoking book, MILO delivers with a sassy elegance and humour. Presenting a conservative argument against todays left wing world.
noonanjohnc's review against another edition
1.0
What utter garbage. Black lives matter is a hate group. Abortion is evil. Feminism is bad. Free speech is the best unless you’re being mean about conservatives. It’s all so predictably boring.
karthikm_86's review against another edition
4.0
"To defeat the Death Eaters, you need to know the Dark Arts."
“Should sins of history be borne by the present?”
Reading this book was essential for me, in the sense that I was unable to understand the attraction behind Trump nor the reasoning of his supporters.
Using deft penmanship, Milo hands the Dark Arts gold medal to the leftists, instead of usual suspects like conservatives, republicans, gay-bashers, Islamophobes, and quickly concludes that leftists are themselves to blame for their current predicament. And make no mistake about it, liberal, leftist ideologues are under direct attacks more than ever today. But who is to be blamed/praised for the current situation?
This book vehemently strives to establish one theory - the Left got complacent after 8 years of a unprecedented scholarly yet cool black presidency, and that is when things took a drastic downturn. College societies started to ban even the little deviations from student groups which would have been celebrated by the Beat generation. And more and more, feminists strove to drive out all males from all spheres, often on perceived slights (US colleges rape scandal, Gamergate).
Suppression of facts, be it under Hitler-ites or Jew-ite mediapersons, is suffocating and moreover, hinders in development of a mature control system. And I too felt that going by Yuval's theory of data-ism, the world where this kidn of hindrance occurs eventually gives way to one where the flow is less hindered - irrespective of a conservative or a leftist or a trumpist's bent.
And let’s face it, I don't recall any probing, scathing reviews of Obama's presidency. He was elected to make a change and we kept fawning over the man and his statuesque First Lady, not the president at whom the buck stops. Blame it on the republican congress or the white evangelical majority which preferred the status quo, Obama always said he personally wanted to achieve much much more than what he did. But his erudite aura ended up as the main attraction for his followers, including me.
I do whole-'heatedly' agree that Trump trolled his way to the White House. However, his message carries the heat signature of his core constituency (ever increasing everyday) and is more often than not dead-accurate. Thirty years of leftist culture has resulted in positive reception of anti-establishment hysteria. But on a personal note, all signs till now prove that others run the Trump brain trust, not Trump. And there are no signs he can deal with a crisis in a detached, logical manner.
It is the over-educated but overly-underwhelmed media which constantly fail to adapt to his tactics. The real fun, however, lies when the media people wake up and actively discourse to find a way to de-mystify Donald Trump.
All the above 'good' points were derived from Milo's book.
Coming back to the book, unless you have been living under a rock, Milo's arguments seem bleak in a majority of the places. Yes - free speech can include calling out Leslie Jones as a black dude, denouncing BLM, rabid feminists, Media Matters but provocation without purpose serves only that - no purpose. In other words, we are talking about anarchy where-in we swing verbal clubs at each other, to see who can withstand the most beating. And then crown him/her as the king of the wastelands.
Side-note: to take credit for one's own good looks is akin to boasting about a lottery win, no personal achievement whatsoever.
To read this book is a sound move, and will also let you know how much grossness you can handle, before snapping it shut.
“Should sins of history be borne by the present?”
Reading this book was essential for me, in the sense that I was unable to understand the attraction behind Trump nor the reasoning of his supporters.
Using deft penmanship, Milo hands the Dark Arts gold medal to the leftists, instead of usual suspects like conservatives, republicans, gay-bashers, Islamophobes, and quickly concludes that leftists are themselves to blame for their current predicament. And make no mistake about it, liberal, leftist ideologues are under direct attacks more than ever today. But who is to be blamed/praised for the current situation?
This book vehemently strives to establish one theory - the Left got complacent after 8 years of a unprecedented scholarly yet cool black presidency, and that is when things took a drastic downturn. College societies started to ban even the little deviations from student groups which would have been celebrated by the Beat generation. And more and more, feminists strove to drive out all males from all spheres, often on perceived slights (US colleges rape scandal, Gamergate).
Suppression of facts, be it under Hitler-ites or Jew-ite mediapersons, is suffocating and moreover, hinders in development of a mature control system. And I too felt that going by Yuval's theory of data-ism, the world where this kidn of hindrance occurs eventually gives way to one where the flow is less hindered - irrespective of a conservative or a leftist or a trumpist's bent.
And let’s face it, I don't recall any probing, scathing reviews of Obama's presidency. He was elected to make a change and we kept fawning over the man and his statuesque First Lady, not the president at whom the buck stops. Blame it on the republican congress or the white evangelical majority which preferred the status quo, Obama always said he personally wanted to achieve much much more than what he did. But his erudite aura ended up as the main attraction for his followers, including me.
I do whole-'heatedly' agree that Trump trolled his way to the White House. However, his message carries the heat signature of his core constituency (ever increasing everyday) and is more often than not dead-accurate. Thirty years of leftist culture has resulted in positive reception of anti-establishment hysteria. But on a personal note, all signs till now prove that others run the Trump brain trust, not Trump. And there are no signs he can deal with a crisis in a detached, logical manner.
It is the over-educated but overly-underwhelmed media which constantly fail to adapt to his tactics. The real fun, however, lies when the media people wake up and actively discourse to find a way to de-mystify Donald Trump.
All the above 'good' points were derived from Milo's book.
Coming back to the book, unless you have been living under a rock, Milo's arguments seem bleak in a majority of the places. Yes - free speech can include calling out Leslie Jones as a black dude, denouncing BLM, rabid feminists, Media Matters but provocation without purpose serves only that - no purpose. In other words, we are talking about anarchy where-in we swing verbal clubs at each other, to see who can withstand the most beating. And then crown him/her as the king of the wastelands.
Side-note: to take credit for one's own good looks is akin to boasting about a lottery win, no personal achievement whatsoever.
To read this book is a sound move, and will also let you know how much grossness you can handle, before snapping it shut.
mistylloyd's review against another edition
1.0
No.
Just... no.
When I picked this book up, I knew I would not agree with it. That was why I decided to actually read it. But I feel like this dude is the walking personification of Pick Me Twitter. You do not deserve a cookie because you learned how to be edgy.
I spent far too many years in a closet hating myself, I refuse to devote more of my time to reading material from those who have left the closet but still obviously hate themselves and those like them.
Just... no.
When I picked this book up, I knew I would not agree with it. That was why I decided to actually read it. But I feel like this dude is the walking personification of Pick Me Twitter. You do not deserve a cookie because you learned how to be edgy.
I spent far too many years in a closet hating myself, I refuse to devote more of my time to reading material from those who have left the closet but still obviously hate themselves and those like them.
suvata's review
4.0
I can't say that I totally agree with everything Milo says but I can say that most of this book was spot-on. So glad it finally got published!
jayceebond's review against another edition
It was better than I thought it was going to be