Don't believe it for a second. Demons *are* real. They possess our family, our friends, and our co-workers—causing them to run around in circles, vomiting irrational talking points (and on social media they vomit a lot!).
These demons have many names, but they all serve the same master: Liberalism.
In his latest book “How to be Right—The Art of Being Persuasively Correct”, Greg Gutfeld teaches you the art of effectively exorcising the Demons of Liberalism (and before I get reported to my university for preaching unsafe thoughts, aka #WrongThink, I am merely using “demon” as a metaphor for “an irrational person”—inspired by Chapter 18, “Using Metaphors, Simile and other Crap”).
Believe this, though: it's a great book, and you should buy it because the book shows you how to craft an argument that is both logical AND witty AND compassionate, and thus *more persuasive* than using “logic-only”. And logic-only is the main reason most conservatives fail when arguing with liberals.
They can't hear logic! Remember, they're irrational.
So what's the secret to Greg Gutfeld's arguing technique? I'll give one example, then I'll summarize the rest of the book.
Let's assume you run into a person possessed with The Gun Control Demon. You know this person. It's the one that tweets angrily about the need for “gun control” any time a shooting occurs and gets reported on cable news.
You, being a logical conservative, argue: “It's not guns that kill people, people kill people. We need better screening procedures when people buy guns.” Or you argue: “if you pass laws controlling guns, only the criminals will have guns.”
Here's the thing: You're right. It's a good logical argument. It's just not persuasive.
The problem is you forgot that you're arguing with an irrational liberal. And with liberals logic is optional. “Feelings trump fact,” as Greg Gutfeld is fond of pointing out. So your argument won't work because it won't make them feel differently.
So, what's the solution? What will work? Greg Gutfeld argues that you extend their argument to it's logical conclusion, which will always be something absurd (remember their beliefs are fundamentally irrational), then highlight the absurdity and out compassion them. To quote him directly: “My simple, perhaps sole tactic has always been to extend liberal beliefs to absurd levels. I push the obvious until the argument can only tip in my favor.” (Page 33)
Applying Greg's technique, your real response should have been: “Then YOU'RE misogynist! The criminals will still have guns, and women won't be able to protect themselves because YOU'VE taken their guns away. YOU'VE made it unsafe for women. So, you must want women to die.”
It's brilliant. You've used their own concepts to out compassion them! You've co-opted their grievances (see Chapter 11).
So what's the rest of the book like? It's just like the example I gave. Common liberal talking points, followed by Greg showing how to respond in a way that is logical, is witty, is compassionate, and above all is more persuasive than “logic-only” or the talking points from outraged Fox News conservative pundits (don't get me wrong I love Fox News, btw).
No, it's not perfect, it could have been “tighter”. The material on Red Eye was really good but seemed like humble bragging (although, I now know why Kat Timpf is used as an Ombudsmen on The Greg Gutfeld Show, see Chapter 17). Or his autobiography chapter, which was excellent but somewhat out of place.
Still the book is great. I'm shocked that Greg Gutfeld gave away his secrets, all the way down to the paragraph level (see “hot spots”, Chapter 7). Now, he did hold back how he styles his sentences, which I think is a major secret to his great writing, but the theory and most of the detail is all there.
In summary, if I put on my professor hat, I would grade this book a solid “A for excellent” (yes I know Greg hates professors, but at least we grade fairly!)
I close with one of my favorite truisms from the book: “The world is moving away from fact-based debate and drifting into fact-free rhetoric” (page 1).
If you want to effectively exorcise the fact-free rhetorical demons of liberalism, you *must* buy this book.
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Reviews with images
Gutfeld excels with this one
Greg Gutfeld may just be the smartest, most wittiest personality in media today. Reading, "How To Be Right: The Art of Being Persuasively Correct", is a good buy and well worth your time.
