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jaxkab 's review for:
What's Our Problem?: A Self-Help Book for Societies
by Tim Urban
informative
fast-paced
If this book ended after the first third, I would've given it 4 or 5 stars. Starts off with the breakdown of why partisanship persists in society, discussing concepts like political polarization and layered thinking. His early critique of both the far sides of the political spectrum felt balanced.. until the book takes a steep, 550+ page nose-dive.
Instead of maintaining the "high-rung thinking" he preaches, Urban recycles bad-faith podcast talking points about the "idea supremacy" enforced by "wokeism" — primarily focusing on DEI initiatives at universities and the tired, infamous "cancel culture". He treats conservative extremism as a historical footnote while obsessively (500+ pages) scrutinizing progressive movements, cherry-picking ragebait examples. He goes as far to suggest the MeToo movement as a social media witch-hunt, offering no nuance or empathy for the people harmed by the views/behaviors in question.
It's deeply ironic that Urban opens with the importance of open-minded discourse yet spends most of the book devolving into intellectual inconsistency and shallow outrage-nonsense. He critiques others heavily for low-rung, tribal thinking despite indulging in exactly that.
Had such a promising start; social justice movements are not above criticism but this was clearly out-of-touch, biased and failed to live up to its own message.
Instead of maintaining the "high-rung thinking" he preaches, Urban recycles bad-faith podcast talking points about the "idea supremacy" enforced by "wokeism" — primarily focusing on DEI initiatives at universities and the tired, infamous "cancel culture". He treats conservative extremism as a historical footnote while obsessively (500+ pages) scrutinizing progressive movements, cherry-picking ragebait examples. He goes as far to suggest the MeToo movement as a social media witch-hunt, offering no nuance or empathy for the people harmed by the views/behaviors in question.
It's deeply ironic that Urban opens with the importance of open-minded discourse yet spends most of the book devolving into intellectual inconsistency and shallow outrage-nonsense. He critiques others heavily for low-rung, tribal thinking despite indulging in exactly that.
Had such a promising start; social justice movements are not above criticism but this was clearly out-of-touch, biased and failed to live up to its own message.