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A review by sil3nos
The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity by Douglas Murray
3.0
This book is controversial and I can see why. Murray holds opinions that would be called outrageous by many.
But I agree with him on some points. The debate around identity politics is way too emotional and full of people throwing words at each other instead of listening to the other position' point. There are many inconsistensies in many claims of intersectionality. People do tend to see the world more cruel than it actually is (this is not that there are no injustices, just that the things we already achieved aren't highlighted enough).
However, this book is far from being the rational, netural perspective on the issue that I would've expected. Murray recounts a lot of examples and singular tweets of extremists saying that "All men are trash" and such idiotic claims. Similarly I could recount tons of racist attacks on people, racists tweets etc. to push an agenda that the world is in fact full of hatred. But that won't bring us further. Just as the intersectionalists that he critiques, Murray doesn't use any studies and when he does, does just accept their result without critically talking about their methods.
He does (to a lesser extent) what he claims his ideological opponents are doing: Gloss over things that support your opinion as instantly correct but condemn every mistake your opposite has made.
But overall if you are really listening to what he is saying and going in without prejudice I don't think that you can honestly call this book problematic. Conservative? Sure, but not problematic.
But I agree with him on some points. The debate around identity politics is way too emotional and full of people throwing words at each other instead of listening to the other position' point. There are many inconsistensies in many claims of intersectionality. People do tend to see the world more cruel than it actually is (this is not that there are no injustices, just that the things we already achieved aren't highlighted enough).
However, this book is far from being the rational, netural perspective on the issue that I would've expected. Murray recounts a lot of examples and singular tweets of extremists saying that "All men are trash" and such idiotic claims. Similarly I could recount tons of racist attacks on people, racists tweets etc. to push an agenda that the world is in fact full of hatred. But that won't bring us further. Just as the intersectionalists that he critiques, Murray doesn't use any studies and when he does, does just accept their result without critically talking about their methods.
He does (to a lesser extent) what he claims his ideological opponents are doing: Gloss over things that support your opinion as instantly correct but condemn every mistake your opposite has made.
But overall if you are really listening to what he is saying and going in without prejudice I don't think that you can honestly call this book problematic. Conservative? Sure, but not problematic.