Customer Reviews

How to Win a Fight with a Conservative

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

A friend gave me this book for Christmas this year because she knew how much I enjoyed ranting about politics. While it is not truly a self-help book, and I doubt anyone will win a fight with a conservative by following its directions, it is an enjoyable little diversion that made me laugh. Daniel Kurtzman is a good satirist and his jabs are hilarious. For instance, he divides the conservative movement into several cleverly named segments:
(1) Rapturfarians--Christian fundamentalists.
(2) Enron-omists--über capitalists.
(3) Big Brethren--militant authoritarians.
(4) Gunfederates--people with confederate flags and gun racks in their pickup trucks.
(5) Spongebob-ophobes--militant anti-gay activists.
(6) Crusadomasochists--imperialistic neoconservatives.
Clever names to be sure, but the descriptions are just as humorous. The rest of the book is just as much fun. I should mention that Daniel Kurtzman is an equal opportunity satirist; he also published in 2007 another guide, "How to Win a Fight with a Liberal," that takes aim at those on the left. It is just as humorous.

I came across this book (and its partner) by accident and bought them as a gift for someone who spends most evenings yelling at Fox News. Since his yelling doesn't seem to make any difference to the TV, I thought maybe if he had some practical advice for handling a political debate things might improve...

These books (Of course I bought both. How can you not?) are so clever and funny that I ended up reading them both myself before turning them over to the gift recipient. They are chock-full of "funny-because-it's-true" moments, great quotes, and my personal favorite, a schedule for a typical day in the life of liberals and conservatives. Hysterical.

Oh yeah, and the gift recipient loved them, too.

I picked up a copy of this book before taking a flight home for Thanksgiving. I come from an ultra-conservative family, and figured I could use a little ammunition just in case things turned ugly at the dinner table, like they usually do. I found some surprisingly useful tips, especially the chapter on how to detect logical fallacies. But most of all, the book made me laugh. My favorite parts were the dueling Liberal and Conservative Manifestos ("Conservatives believe in beautiful Hummers befouling spacious skies, amber waves of abstinent teens, and crowning thy good with estate tax cuts"). I'm planning to give out copies to a few friends whose families are even crazier than mine.

This is a really funny, enjoyable book. It has lots of great quizzes, lists, and do's and don'ts that make it easy to jump into at any point. And I loved all the quotes from Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. Great stuff!

Who doesn't want to learn how to win an argument? This book gives a lighthearted but effective means on how to do so. It helps to identify which method is most productive with particular kinds of conservatives as well as helping you to determine what kind of liberal you are, which can be very helpful when trying to discern how to approach a situation. It's a fun and easy read, but also very effective if you're wanting to score a few points for the Blue Team!

I needed a laugh after spending so much energy feeling either helpless or enraged or both whenever I considered the state of our present administration. Both books are very funny, and I learned a few things, too. I wondered whether I could enjoy the companion book about winning fights with liberals, but I found it felt good to laugh at those guys too. My 10-year-old niece was fascinated by the Conservative Hall of Shame and eager to get the dirt on all the famous people she always heard adults in her life complaining about.

A good laugh is an excellent antidote to these times of strife in this post-9/11 world. I'd rather find a reason to laugh than to feel disgusted and enraged in re the current administration.

The contrasting light and trenchant humor is very effective and readers will undoubtedly come away with some new insights. I loved the categories of conservatives and the Hall of Shame was just too funny! While I readily admit that I am no fan of Bush (called the Commander in Thief by the local democrats, which is one of the gentler sobriquets he has earned), I enjoy good, political humor. In fairness, I enjoyed the book about winning fights with liberals. In short, I like political humor.

This book had a lot of good common sense, some of the things we learned as children like be polite.
There was quite a few laughs, such as "liberal bumper stickers vs conservative bumper stickers" Some of them were real funny.
A few tests such as:
what breed of liberal are you?
How strong is your partisan intensity?
A field guide to conservatives.
Basic Training, Advanced tactics, and Kick a$$ arguments guide.
There is the conservative hall of shame and the how to win friends while antagonizing people. And lastly, when all else fails:27,000 ways to insult conservatives.

All in all a helpful, useful and funny, book.

Daniel Kurtzman is a former Washington correspondent turned satirist, and is now the editor of the political humor website which is part of the New York Times Company's About.com network. His book How to Win a Fight with a Liberal is a "companion" to this one (in fact, they have a substantial amount of text that is the same in both books).

This 2007 book has an overall satirical tone (e.g., with chapter titles such as "How to Win Friends While Antagonizing People"; various multiple-choice tests to determine "What Breed of Liberal Are You?", etc.), but it also contains some rather cogent arguments (particularly in Chapter 7, "Kick-A__ Arguments: A Step-by-Step Guide"); for example, "How about we start focusing on the real enemy that attacked us on 9/11? How about we free our military so we can be prepared to respond to actual threats in the future, like, say, Iran or North Korea, who actually have WMDs?" (Pg. 137)

The book concludes by identifying "Six Unconventional Things You Can Do to Save the World from Liberals" (e.g., "Make Liberal Babies," "Haunt Republicans from the Grave," etc.).

The book will alternately make you laugh, as well as think. (I'd definitely suggest reading it alongside his other book, though.)

Unfortunately in our times, we have reached the end of the age of reason. It has become necessary to go from reasoned argument to threats in order to get Conservatives of any type to see the truth. You need every fact and book ever printed to to convince people. The Bible does not say "Go out there and get yours" Or that the poor are your enemy. It says "Love thy neighbor as thyself" That's for starters. You have to let people know that someone killed JFK, stole the election in Florida and ran the 9-11 operation for the benefit of Oil and military hardware profits. And that the worst of these was the stolen election because it meant that the other events will keep happening. Read this book, shut off your television and think. That's why this book. Thanks.