Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Dumbocracy: Adventures with the Loony Left, the Rabid Right, and Other American Idiots
    Unavailable
    Dumbocracy: Adventures with the Loony Left, the Rabid Right, and Other American Idiots
    Unavailable
    Dumbocracy: Adventures with the Loony Left, the Rabid Right, and Other American Idiots
    Ebook302 pages5 hours

    Dumbocracy: Adventures with the Loony Left, the Rabid Right, and Other American Idiots

    By Marty Beckerman

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    In every election year, we hear much about the all-powerful “bases” of each major party. Who are these activists? What drives them? And why are they all equally dangerous to our lives, liberties, and pursuits of happiness? In Dumbocracy, journalist Marty Beckerman spends four years with foot soldiers of the Left and Right—pro-choice and anti-choice, pro-gay rights and anti-gay rights, pro-war and anti-war—and delivers a searing, hilarious indictment of the True Believer mentality.

    Whether it’s banning free speech to protect people’s feelings or banning adult entertainment to enforce morality, extremists have no use for our civil liberties. The ends justify the means for each side—such as brainwashing children and criminalizing dissent—because culture warriors have no other reason for living than victory. However, Beckerman is unafraid to expose their tactics—and their never-ending hypocrisies—with comical, over-the-top glee worthy of South Park or The Daily Show.

    No extremist will escape unscathed, but moderate readers of all stripes will fall in love with Beckerman’s iconoclasm. In the tradition of P.J. O’Rourke’s Parliament of Whores and Michael Moore’s Stupid White Men, Beckerman’s grand political satire will have readers laughing on the floor and ripping the hair from their scalps.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRed Wheel Weiser
    Release dateSep 1, 2008
    ISBN9781934708194
    Unavailable
    Dumbocracy: Adventures with the Loony Left, the Rabid Right, and Other American Idiots
    Author

    Marty Beckerman

    Marty Beckerman is a journalist, humorist, and author.

    Read more from Marty Beckerman

    Related to Dumbocracy

    Related ebooks

    Political Ideologies For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Alyssa Milano's #SexStrike Won't Work, But We Need To Talk About Abortion

      May 15, 2019

      Alyssa Milano's new call for a "sex strike" to protest anti-abortion laws may not have nearly as much success as her early push for the #MeToo movement did. But, I must admit, she has my attention. Fired up by Georgia's new "fetal heartbeat" law, whi

      3 min read

    • Article

      Commentary: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: How To Sustain Momentum For The Anti-racism Movement

      Jul 10, 2020

      "I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear." My old UCLA coach, John Wooden, used to quote that Walt Whitman poem often, and I've been hearing its echoes on the streets lately. The people out protesting systemic racism and vowing change are "s

      5 min read

    • Article

      Cal Thomas: Mississippi yearning

      May 20, 2021

      The Supreme Court this fall will hear a case from Mississippi that bans most abortions after 15 weeks, except in cases of rape where the crime has been reported to police, or the life of the mother is in danger. Lower courts have rejected the law as

      2 min read

    • Article

      They Really Did It

      Jun 24, 2022

      They Really Did It
      3 min read

    • Article

      We Have Problems, Yes, But Let's Put Things In Perspective

      Aug 9, 2019

      I don't think I'm going too far out on a limb when I say that a lot of people are losing perspective. I won't be too specific, because if you're on one ideological team, you probably think I'm referring to the other team. One common practice to avoid

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Right Is Coming For Birth Control, Too

      Jun 14, 2019

      Surfing conservative websites, it didn't take long to find this nugget of backward thinking, courtesy of American Thinker: "The sexual revolution that was kick-started by the advent of birth control in the early 1960s has done irreparable damage to W

      3 min read

    • Article

      Is Pornography Immoral?

      Jan 19, 2024

      Is Pornography Immoral?
      5 min read

    • Article

      Can You Have Women’s Rights Without Abortion Rights?

      Mar 7, 2022

      Damaris Abarca is a Chilean chess master who has been honing her strategy with knights and bishops since she was a child. She has won four national championships since 2010, emerging as one of the top players in Latin America. Today, the 30-something

      12 min read

    • Article

      Cal Thomas: Connecting The Dots

      Dec 2, 2021

      The Supreme Court on Wednesday heard oral arguments for and against a Mississippi law that would ban abortions after 15 weeks. The arguments — pro and con — are familiar, but there is a greater argument to be made for upholding the law and, should a

      2 min read

    • Article

      Conscience Unclear

      Jul 3, 2022

      Conscience Unclear
      4 min read

    • Article

      Progressives Need More Than A Majority

      Oct 10, 2018

      Here's what gets me about progressives. They never seem to realize that they are the majority. Yet on issue after issue, the polling consistently shows that they are. Abortion? Sixty-four percent of Americans support Roe v. Wade. Guns? Sixty-seven pe

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Disunited States

      May 13, 2022

      The Disunited States
      5 min read

    • Article

      This AMERICAN LIFE

      Jul 13, 2022

      This AMERICAN LIFE
      8 min read

    • Article

      This AMERICAN LIFE

      Jul 13, 2022

      This AMERICAN LIFE
      8 min read

    Reviews for Dumbocracy

    4/5

    2 ratings2 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      The author spent four years visiting with political extremists on both sides of the spectrum. These are people who believe in nothing less than total victory for their side. Most Americans are moderates on the issues, but, for instance, pro-life and anti-war activists still see things as very black and white.Beckerman discovered a lot of interesting things in his travels. Betty Friedan, founder of the National Organization for Women, compared American housewives to "the millions who walked to their own death in the concentration camps." Those on the Right blame homosexuality for the destruction of American society, but just over half of Americans think of homosexuality as an acceptable life-style. Texas A&M University requires that all faculty members "celebrate and promote" homosexuality."It would be a much better country if women did not vote. That is simply a fact."--Ann Coulter. The American Institute for Philanthropy has ranked MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) as one of the most corrupt and least effective charities in the country. In 2006, the California Supreme Court allowed authorities to break into citizens’ homes anytime--without a warrant--to check their blood alcohol levels. A legislator in Missouri compared biology teachers to terrorists, for teaching evolution. Environmental activists have demanded control over citizens’ home thermostats, threatened to spy on those who do not recycle and suggested that governments should intelligently reduce human populations to one-sixth their present number.In 2006, the Bush Administration joined with Iran to ban a gay-rights group from addressing the United Nations. In 2004, Canada officially banned criticism of homosexuality, which is now punishable by up to five years in prison. Also in 2006, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that forcing drug suspects to consume laxatives, in order to find drugs in their digestive tracts, is not an "unreasonable search." In the 1990’s, a Republican member of Congress proposed mandating the death penalty for all drug dealers. When his son was convicted of growing thirty marijuana plants, he received community service, not a lethal injection. Neither side has a monopoly on hatred of free speech.This is the sort of book that will be thrown across the room by True Believers on both sides (sometimes those are the best kind of books). For everyone else, it is an excellent, and eye opening, look at the state of politics in America. It is very much worth reading.
    • 4/5
      For those of you who are tired of the endless empty campaign promises, finger-pointing, and soapbox platforms, author Marty Beckerman has provided some much-needed comic relief in the form of Dumbocracy: Adventures with the Loony Left, the Rabid Right, and Other American Idiots.It has ever been my contention that if we picked ten random Republicans and ten random Democrats off the street and locked them in a room together, we'd find that we meet in the middle more often than not. The problem is - and has always been - that the important issues are not decided by the "average" American. Rather, it is people with extreme, inflexible platforms who do their best to polarize the American public and make compromise impossible.In a quest to understand the fundamentalists at both sides of the political spectrum (you know, the ones who make compromise impossible), Beckerman spent four years in their world, interviewing, attending thier funcions and rallies, and just in general taking one for the team and saving the rest of us from their extremist vitriol. Covering incendiary topics such as abortion, women's rights, freedom of speech, and international relations (amongst many others), Beckerman pokes fun at the ridiculous lunatics who shape our laws and policy, making for many laugh-out-loud moments.As the title of the book implies, Beckerman goes after the left and right ends of the political spectrum with equal zeal. But underneath the sarcasm and humor this book brimming with good research. And it has to be, because you wouldn't believe the idiocy of our leaders without documentation to back it up. With biting wit and commentary Beckerman reveals the root of voter apathy: what sane person even wants to wade through the lunacy surrounding politics?A word of warning: Dumbocracy is not for the prudish. Like most of us, the subject of politics brings forth language that would make a sailor blush (with apologies to any sailors out there) and this author is no exception. Crossing the line into unnecessary crudeness in places, you might want to skip this if you have delicate sensibilities. Don't say I didn't warn you. But you will laugh till your sides hurt, so don't say I didn't warn you about that, either.