FUNNY.
FRIGHTENING.
TRUE.
It happens to all of us: You're minding your own business, when some idiot informs you that guns are evil, the Prius will save the planet, or the rich have to finally start paying their fair share of taxes.
Just go away! you think to yourself -- but they only become more obnoxious. Your heart rate quickens. You start to sweat. You can't get away. Your only hope is...
...this book.
Glenn Beck, author of the #1 New York Times bestsellers An Inconvenient Book and Glenn Beck's Common Sense, has stumbled upon the secret formula to winning arguments against people with big mouths but small minds: knowing the facts.
And this book is full of them.
The next time your Idiot Friends tell you how gun control prevents gun violence, you'll tell them all about England's handgun ban (see page 53). When they tell you that we should copy the UK's health-care system, you'll recount the horrifying facts you read on page 244. And the next time an idiot tells you that vegetable prices will skyrocket without illegal workers, you'll stop saying "no, they won't" and you'll start saying, "actually, eliminating all illegal labor will cause us to spend just $8 a year more on produce." (See page 139.)
Idiots can't be identified through voting records, they can be found only by looking for people who hide behind stereotypes, embrace partisanship, and believe that bumper sticker slogans are a substitute for common sense. If you know someone who fits the bill, then Arguing with Idiots will help you silence them once and for all with the ultimate weapon: the truth.
Annotation:
The popular conservative pundit Glenn Beck is especially exercised when he hears liberals spout what he sees as easy (read "lazy'), small-minded bromides--wide generalizations delivered from on high which seem to stop debate. Since argument and debate are Beck's stock in trade, he provides in-depth responses to bumper-sticker slogans about gun control, the Constitution or the death (failure, end) of capitalism. Beck has done some research, and he provides plenty of historical matter along with his signature gift of gab. Beck backs up his research with pages and pages of sources, and the book is profusely illustrated. Glenn Beck may be a far cry from Bill Buckley-in more ways than one--but here he seems to want to be the torch bearer for American conservatism.
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