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Blowing Smoke
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Review
"The Belltown Messenger", November 2010
"It's one of those books I couldn't put down, blazing through it in a day... Do get Wolraich's book. In addition to making me cry, it also made me laugh."
"Instinct Magazine, "January 2011
"A well researched look at media and politics (and the politics of media) delivered with a Daily Show-esque tone." "Booklist", 12/7/10"Wolraich is keenly analytical and often caustic in this compelling look at the use of persecution to push politics to the extreme."
Product Description
HAS AMERICA LOST ITS MARBLES? * Television sensation Glenn Beck warns of White House plots to institute fascism, communism, and other terrifying isms. * Radio titan Rush Limbaugh charges that a racist Obama regime encourages black schoolchildren to beat up white kids. * Evangelical luminary James Dobson frets that Christians will be arrested for thought crimes and people will be allowed to marry donkeys. * Protesters in knickers and colonial-style hats march on Washington with signs that order Hitler-like caricatures of President Obama to return to Kenya. As madness reigns, pundits, politicians, and cab drivers debate the source of the hysteria. Some blame ignorance; some blame racism; some blame the economy. After poring over mountains of political screeds and heedlessly subjecting himself to countless hours of Fox News, author Michael Wolraich discovered the secret formula that turns ordinary men and women into fire-breathing, smoke-blowing, right wing maniacs. Its persecution politics . . again. In Blowing Smoke, Wolraich documents, dissects, and deconstructs the myths that underlie the rights growing reliance on the politics of persecution, from Joe McCarthy to the Tea Party movement. In the process, he delivers an original and compelling hypothesis with penetrating insight and blistering wit. At turns hilarious, disturbing, and edifying, Blowing Smoke is a must-read account of modern American politics.
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11 reviews
73 of 82 people found the following review helpful
Helped Me Pinpoint What Annoys Me So Much About Talk Radio and Fox News
13 Oct 2010
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I really loved this book. It does a great job of giving you a framework through which to dissect the ridiculous arguments spewed on Fox and talk radio. It actually gets to be somewhat comical listening to conservative pundits once you realize that they use the exact same argument for virtually every issue:
1) Slippery slope. If we allow gay marriage, we'll have to allow human-toad marriage!
2) Conspiracy. George Soros, the ACLU, ACORN, and the "liberal elite" are beyond everything and have a secret plan to take away your rights!
3) Persecution as a mask for intolerance. I'm not homophobic, but if we legalize gay marriage, priests who refuse to marriage same-sex couples will go to jail. I'm standing up for the priests!
4) Zero sum. If we give more healthcare benefits to the poor, it will destroy healthcare for the rich. And its socialism.
It's also amazing to me to see how the same arguments have been used through history, whether its based on interracial marriage, communism, or equal rights. Arguments that we would consider ridiculous today ("I'm not racist. I want segregated schools because its best for both blacks and whites") are the basis for the flawed arguments we hear today.
Of course, tea partiers and hard-line conservatives won't read this book, but that's not the author's point. His point is to help everyday Americans (dare I say, "real Americans") de-construct persecution politics and either combat it or at least not fall under its spell. There's nothing wrong with Republican or conservative values, but there is something wrong with the way pundits are using racism, homophobia, xenophobia, and conspiracy theories to manipulate us for their own gain.
1) Slippery slope. If we allow gay marriage, we'll have to allow human-toad marriage!
2) Conspiracy. George Soros, the ACLU, ACORN, and the "liberal elite" are beyond everything and have a secret plan to take away your rights!
3) Persecution as a mask for intolerance. I'm not homophobic, but if we legalize gay marriage, priests who refuse to marriage same-sex couples will go to jail. I'm standing up for the priests!
4) Zero sum. If we give more healthcare benefits to the poor, it will destroy healthcare for the rich. And its socialism.
It's also amazing to me to see how the same arguments have been used through history, whether its based on interracial marriage, communism, or equal rights. Arguments that we would consider ridiculous today ("I'm not racist. I want segregated schools because its best for both blacks and whites") are the basis for the flawed arguments we hear today.
Of course, tea partiers and hard-line conservatives won't read this book, but that's not the author's point. His point is to help everyday Americans (dare I say, "real Americans") de-construct persecution politics and either combat it or at least not fall under its spell. There's nothing wrong with Republican or conservative values, but there is something wrong with the way pundits are using racism, homophobia, xenophobia, and conspiracy theories to manipulate us for their own gain.
30 of 36 people found the following review helpful
Where the Meaning of "Take Back Our Country" Becomes Clear
10 Nov 2010
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
In my years of reading political non-fiction, not once have I stayed up all night furiously reading to see how the book ends. Blowing Smoke by Michael Wolraich is now the exception, and it was well worth the dead car battery that was a next day product of sleepless brain fog. Starting with Christmas parties and ending with Tea parties, with much of recent U.S. culture war politics in between, Wolraich extensively documents the phenomenal successes brought about by the conservatives' mastery of "persecution politics".
The three part formula of slippery slope, secret plot and persecution is just the beginning of what turns out to be a political strategy of zero-sum "us" versus "them". The rhetoric's aim is to "convince millions of white, heterosexual, Christian, conservative gun-owners (the majority) that an evil conspiracy of liberal elites, black radicals, illegal immigrants, gay fascists and other disturbing bad guys (minorities) are taking away their rights, their guns, their health care, their freedom, their traditions, their children, and their favorite television programs" (p.x). As he says, "...conservative persecution politics requires a distorted sense of perspective that minimizes discrimination against minorities and magnifies any imposition on the majority, so that the two seem more or less equivalent" (pp.98-99). Where Wolraich really shines is in his well-researched and documented evidence of how the right wing does it and why it works for them. His recommendations in the end are a big surprise at first, and don't include liberals either moving toward the center or toward the fringes. In fact, liberals don't have to move much at all in the end. Ultimately, his favored solution is just about the only one that makes any sense, eye opening though it is.
Along the way, Wolraich seldom misses an opportunity to sprinkle the hilarious editorial comment to entertain us while on the "paranoid safari". But he never loses sight of his mission, and the book is tightly packed without wasting a word or any of your time. It's all in the nuances and the nuances are important.
If you are still wondering, and most of us have been since the election, what exactly do the tea partiers mean when they say they want to "take back" their country and why do so many otherwise probably sane people say it, look no further. Just read Blowing Smoke, preferably on a weekend.
The three part formula of slippery slope, secret plot and persecution is just the beginning of what turns out to be a political strategy of zero-sum "us" versus "them". The rhetoric's aim is to "convince millions of white, heterosexual, Christian, conservative gun-owners (the majority) that an evil conspiracy of liberal elites, black radicals, illegal immigrants, gay fascists and other disturbing bad guys (minorities) are taking away their rights, their guns, their health care, their freedom, their traditions, their children, and their favorite television programs" (p.x). As he says, "...conservative persecution politics requires a distorted sense of perspective that minimizes discrimination against minorities and magnifies any imposition on the majority, so that the two seem more or less equivalent" (pp.98-99). Where Wolraich really shines is in his well-researched and documented evidence of how the right wing does it and why it works for them. His recommendations in the end are a big surprise at first, and don't include liberals either moving toward the center or toward the fringes. In fact, liberals don't have to move much at all in the end. Ultimately, his favored solution is just about the only one that makes any sense, eye opening though it is.
Along the way, Wolraich seldom misses an opportunity to sprinkle the hilarious editorial comment to entertain us while on the "paranoid safari". But he never loses sight of his mission, and the book is tightly packed without wasting a word or any of your time. It's all in the nuances and the nuances are important.
If you are still wondering, and most of us have been since the election, what exactly do the tea partiers mean when they say they want to "take back" their country and why do so many otherwise probably sane people say it, look no further. Just read Blowing Smoke, preferably on a weekend.
28 of 34 people found the following review helpful
A Must-Read for Any Progressive
23 Oct 2010
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Wolriach presents a well-researched, plainly stated case why Americans should be worried about the the so-called grass roots Tea Party, Fox News, and conservative talk radio. There's so much opinion out there on the TV and blogs, it's sometimes hard to separate truth from fiction. This book cuts through the fog of BS that is crowdiing out rational discourse. Where other people have opinions, this book is based on a deep examination of the historical roots of today's right wing backlash.
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