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bookshika's review
4.0
Listened to this audiobook out of pure curiosity (had a flick through of the book at the airport). I don't really have many opinions on Piers Morgan, I can't say I know enough about him to do so. He does make very fair points and I admire that he's not afraid to call people out, no matter how close he is to them.
I don't think he understands that he has the privilege to be so vocal about quite controversial opinions, which have cost him jobs as he is probably financially quite well off and doesn't 'need' those jobs in ways in which other people do (to literally pay for the roof over their head). He is clearly a very loyal and determined person, but come on, seriously? they're just vegan sausage rolls? (Kim there's people that are dying)
I don't think he understands that he has the privilege to be so vocal about quite controversial opinions, which have cost him jobs as he is probably financially quite well off and doesn't 'need' those jobs in ways in which other people do (to literally pay for the roof over their head). He is clearly a very loyal and determined person, but come on, seriously? they're just vegan sausage rolls? (Kim there's people that are dying)
nayt001's review
4.0
Great book, well writen. I didnt know what to expect really with this book. It gave a great understanding to what free speech is and why it's important. It also have lots of quotes and experiences the author has had where his free speech has been questioned, and why this was wrong. These being the lighter funnier side to the book. Lots of return to the COVID story which runs though the book, importantly, questioning governments and people of power. However, if you're sick to the back teeth of hearing about covid, pandemic, government guidelines then I would maybe revisit this book at a later date.
Overall really enjoyed the book, great insight and straight talk. Much of what I would expect of Morgan.
Overall really enjoyed the book, great insight and straight talk. Much of what I would expect of Morgan.
abitallovertheplace's review
I’m not going to rate this because my ratings are all over the place for this book based on all the different opinions that he has so to save myself stress I’m not rating the book.
I liked the structure of this book and it was almost like relieving the first seven months of 2020 and all the drama that came with it. Piers has very strong opinions but seeing him freely talk - especially about his personal life and struggles - was really interesting. Even if I don’t always agree, it’s ingesting to see passionate opinions.
Some may hate him, some may love him but I think that he’s brave with what he believes and sometimes you need that voice of a differing opinion to keep our society changing and involving to be better.
I liked the structure of this book and it was almost like relieving the first seven months of 2020 and all the drama that came with it. Piers has very strong opinions but seeing him freely talk - especially about his personal life and struggles - was really interesting. Even if I don’t always agree, it’s ingesting to see passionate opinions.
Some may hate him, some may love him but I think that he’s brave with what he believes and sometimes you need that voice of a differing opinion to keep our society changing and involving to be better.
rachalbert's review
4.0
Bizarre. Piers really wrote a book complaining about virtue signalling and then spent 300+ pages essentially virtue signalling
connoras's review
3.0
Well, this was surprisingly good. Not the most well written - Piers has a love for adjectives and adverbs that would make Strunk and White weep - but the content is interesting and emotive, and, in today's world of cancellation and censorship, the message is absolutely necessary.
I used to hate Piers Morgan with a passion... I was, I now realise, "woke". I've spent the last 2 years educating myself, confronting my own deeply held beliefs (some more shallow than I care to admit), and listening to arguments from the whole of the political spectrum instead of just the left. I used to hate Piers Morgan because *occasionally* I'd hear he said something that conflicted with something I believed. I didn't listen to his argument, or even consider listening to him; instead, I labelled him a bigot and shut him out. How childish.
My recent re-education could not avoid the so-called "culture war", and the identity politics that fuels it. I very quickly realised the woke mob is crazy. The problem is definitely not all liberals, but the far-left radical "liberals", who embrace Marxist ideas without the faintest notion of what they actually mean, the consequences and costs of such ideologies, or the fascist tendencies that come part and parcel.
I would never have read this book if I hadn't seen so many YouTube clips of Piers on GMB arguing with left-wing crazies... and winning (winning, at least, to rational ears; to the woke he is simply too privileged / straight / cis / white / male to understand that they are "right"). Piers isn't always right, and he'll be the first to admit it; he's as fallible as the next man. But he is brave enough to say what the silent majority wish they could say. If someone is talking bullshit he'll call them out on it, whether it's Benjamin Butterworth (an obnoxious little twerp) talking nonsense about the million and one gender identities that are supposedly valid "because compassion" (oh, the irony), or Matt Hancock's outright lies about the incompetent handling of the Covid pandemic by the UK govt. The way he argues is often abrasive and redolent of bullying, and he admits this is sometimes the case, but when you're often arguing against people with entrenched, harmful ideas, often disingenuous, who refuse to see reason or be challenged and hurl accusations of bigotry for daring to have an opinion that differs with theirs, one can understand why things get heated.
Anyway, this book is about two things really: woke bullshit, and coronavirus. Piers hoped that with the world facing a global pandemic, people would learn to be kinder and more compassionate and dispense with the vicious intolerance of woke culture; sadly it has exacerbated beyond recognition - and that's with the book ending before the second half of 2020!
Apparently it's acceptable now to say that "white = evil"; how people do not see this for what it is - RACISM - is beyond me; and for people fighting for racial equality to resort to racism is hypocritical, unproductive, and simply not justifiable. Yes, I accept that I am privileged (though I use that word grudgingly now) as a straight white male, but no, I do not accept that I am inherently evil, responsible for the sins of European colonisers, and must renounce my whiteness and strive to be "less white" - f*ck off. If we were all to be held accountable for the slaving of our ancestors, not one person alive would be left without a bill.
Most of these woke fools live in progressive, liberal, tolerant societies where discrimination is illegal. They don't know how lucky they are. There are many countries where slavery is ongoing, racism is genuinely systemic, being gay or trans is punishable by death, and being female gives you less rights than livestock. Oh, and shouting and screaming how oppressed you are is likely to see you disappeared overnight to a forced labour camp or a hole in the ground. The West isn't perfect, but it is (in my opinion) the best we've got right now.
And so ends my barely-review, mostly-rant of Wake Up. Read it: you might learn something.
EDIT: P.S. I absolutely have the right to say this because FREE SPEECH IS AWESOME :)
I used to hate Piers Morgan with a passion... I was, I now realise, "woke". I've spent the last 2 years educating myself, confronting my own deeply held beliefs (some more shallow than I care to admit), and listening to arguments from the whole of the political spectrum instead of just the left. I used to hate Piers Morgan because *occasionally* I'd hear he said something that conflicted with something I believed. I didn't listen to his argument, or even consider listening to him; instead, I labelled him a bigot and shut him out. How childish.
My recent re-education could not avoid the so-called "culture war", and the identity politics that fuels it. I very quickly realised the woke mob is crazy. The problem is definitely not all liberals, but the far-left radical "liberals", who embrace Marxist ideas without the faintest notion of what they actually mean, the consequences and costs of such ideologies, or the fascist tendencies that come part and parcel.
I would never have read this book if I hadn't seen so many YouTube clips of Piers on GMB arguing with left-wing crazies... and winning (winning, at least, to rational ears; to the woke he is simply too privileged / straight / cis / white / male to understand that they are "right"). Piers isn't always right, and he'll be the first to admit it; he's as fallible as the next man. But he is brave enough to say what the silent majority wish they could say. If someone is talking bullshit he'll call them out on it, whether it's Benjamin Butterworth (an obnoxious little twerp) talking nonsense about the million and one gender identities that are supposedly valid "because compassion" (oh, the irony), or Matt Hancock's outright lies about the incompetent handling of the Covid pandemic by the UK govt. The way he argues is often abrasive and redolent of bullying, and he admits this is sometimes the case, but when you're often arguing against people with entrenched, harmful ideas, often disingenuous, who refuse to see reason or be challenged and hurl accusations of bigotry for daring to have an opinion that differs with theirs, one can understand why things get heated.
Anyway, this book is about two things really: woke bullshit, and coronavirus. Piers hoped that with the world facing a global pandemic, people would learn to be kinder and more compassionate and dispense with the vicious intolerance of woke culture; sadly it has exacerbated beyond recognition - and that's with the book ending before the second half of 2020!
Apparently it's acceptable now to say that "white = evil"; how people do not see this for what it is - RACISM - is beyond me; and for people fighting for racial equality to resort to racism is hypocritical, unproductive, and simply not justifiable. Yes, I accept that I am privileged (though I use that word grudgingly now) as a straight white male, but no, I do not accept that I am inherently evil, responsible for the sins of European colonisers, and must renounce my whiteness and strive to be "less white" - f*ck off. If we were all to be held accountable for the slaving of our ancestors, not one person alive would be left without a bill.
Most of these woke fools live in progressive, liberal, tolerant societies where discrimination is illegal. They don't know how lucky they are. There are many countries where slavery is ongoing, racism is genuinely systemic, being gay or trans is punishable by death, and being female gives you less rights than livestock. Oh, and shouting and screaming how oppressed you are is likely to see you disappeared overnight to a forced labour camp or a hole in the ground. The West isn't perfect, but it is (in my opinion) the best we've got right now.
And so ends my barely-review, mostly-rant of Wake Up. Read it: you might learn something.
EDIT: P.S. I absolutely have the right to say this because FREE SPEECH IS AWESOME :)
booksnink's review against another edition
4.0
So a lot of people don’t like this sometimes over opinionated man but I have to say this book was somewhat of a great experience.
This is done in like a diary entry format and it covers the initial Covid break out, Donald Trump, the infamous Markle herself (no I am not a fan, purely and simply as she has turned Harry in to a miserable sod since she has come on to the scene. It has nothing to do with colour as my own child is darker in skin tone than she is and I am far from racist. I don’t like her levels of disrespect for our Royal family including the Queen) Any way enough of that and back to the book).
I thought it was an insightful read that was absolutely hilarious in parts and yet heart breaking in others. At the end if the day Piers Morgan is a human being like any one else but christ has he had to suffer at times due to things he says.
He openly admits at times he has overstepped lines and taken things further as he is so passionate about particular topics. I don’t read half as much non fiction as I should but I do highly recommend this book and think it would wake a lot of people up if they read it.
Hats of to you Piers you did a great job with this
This is done in like a diary entry format and it covers the initial Covid break out, Donald Trump, the infamous Markle herself (no I am not a fan, purely and simply as she has turned Harry in to a miserable sod since she has come on to the scene. It has nothing to do with colour as my own child is darker in skin tone than she is and I am far from racist. I don’t like her levels of disrespect for our Royal family including the Queen) Any way enough of that and back to the book).
I thought it was an insightful read that was absolutely hilarious in parts and yet heart breaking in others. At the end if the day Piers Morgan is a human being like any one else but christ has he had to suffer at times due to things he says.
He openly admits at times he has overstepped lines and taken things further as he is so passionate about particular topics. I don’t read half as much non fiction as I should but I do highly recommend this book and think it would wake a lot of people up if they read it.
Hats of to you Piers you did a great job with this