fleural 's review for:

Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness by Kristen Radtke

0.25

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Very much a liberal “playing the devil’s advocate” book in which narcissistic, predatory men such as Harry Harlow, mass shooters, and johns are humanized more than the people they exploit, harm, or kill, and there is a marked inconsistency in what the author herself even really believes.  There are nods to (primarily bourgeois) “feminism,” betraying the very nature of bourgeois feminism which ultimately capitulates to white supremacist capitalist patriarchy at the end of the day. The author will make references and points re social justice issues, but equating mass shooters with young children trying to survive gang and police violence is not just disingenuous but dangerous. The idea that Harry Harlow was just a depressed, lonely man softens the fact that he groomed his students into marriage, one of which was underage. The author frequently postulates that “consider how close we are to becoming these people, if we just felt more unloved.” Again, a disingenuous and dangerous message. Loneliness is systemic, and designed, genuine responses to loneliness must be collective then and aimed towards co-creating systemic change. Loneliness is not the singular driving force that creates monstrous behavior. This book paints entitled and exploitative people as “just like anyone else” and at best comes from a very naïve, maybe willfully ignorant place. Regardless of why the author thought this was a good approach, the unintended consequence is that this is just more apologetics for specifically dangerous and exploitative men.