"Ten Most Harmful Books" (wingnut site's list)

[asthmaticeog]

http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=7591

Interestingly, Darwin only gets honorable mentions, but Auguste Comte makes it into the show. :shrug:

[Maat]

1. I saw that.

Look at how they discredit Betty Friedan and 'The Feminie Mystique;' they start saying she was a Maxist (whatever!).


I think I'll make sure I've read all of them. Jerks! As if READING hurts people! I guess the Rethugs must believe that - they don't read very much, do they?

[MissMillie]

3. that's the same mental note I made

Friedan... a communist because she wanted something else in her life besides a family? Why is it not communistic (is that a word?) when men have a life outside the home?

[sui generis]

8. but that's the very definition of fundi neoconservatism

the idea that ideas themselves are dangerous and must be stamped out.

[Maat]

35. Well, that's the thing.

If I take a look at a particular country's government, I'm concerned about how much representation the common folk have. I'm not worried about the label of the day.

I do NOT like totalitarian regimes, of any variety. You can call them 'fascist' or you can call them 'communist.'

But I will read about 'communism' (an economic idea) any time I'd like.

And the Rethuglicans can' t automatically get me to experience fear just when it is mentioned.

What should be changed is ANY totalitarian regime - whether we mean China (communism) or Saudi Arabia (that has a royal family).

They must not like people exploring the differences between these concepts in any depth (that's probably a 'duh' comment - but I just had to say it. And it is what I throw back in my Fundie Bushbot acquaintances' faces.

[hyphenate]

38. Or the Bush version

of a Fascist regime. I guess we could technically consider the current leadership of the USA as a Fascist Theocracy, though.

[chickenscratching]

2. seriously

'silent spring' is a damaging book?

oh, nice! Introduction to Psychoanalysis w/Freud made honorable mention!! :rofl:

so basically all fear is attributed to political figures/feminists/activists/and evolution?


do you listen to bill hicks at all, asthmaticeog?

[asthmaticeog]

7. Hicks? Hells yeah!

I've got all the albums and vids, plus a friend of mine has a four hour videotape compilation of unreleased cable concerts, public access TV appearances(!) and other sundry Hicks arcana. I don't think anyone today approcahes his brilliance and fearlessness except maybe (MAYBE) David Cross.

[chickenscratching]

9. oh right on!

fuck, now I don't remember why I brought him up in the first place...:shrug:

i agree with ya on david cross. was it hicks or cross that did the "I don't know......Faggot" line?

[asthmaticeog]

12. That was Cross.

[wtmusic]

4. Honorable Mention -- "The Population Bomb"

I'd hate to think we can't keep popping out babies. Let's just pretend we can, 'kay?

It's obvious that the reviewer never even read the books listed. Mein Kampf is a boring, poorly written piece of crap. Oh yeah--it's written by Hitler, so it must be dangerous.

Also interesting that two books by Marx make the list...apparently if they think they're dangerous, Marx must have a point.

[Nevernose]

19. Thesis -- Antithesis -- Synthesis

Original for its time, it's pretty much a standrad way of looking at history these days. It seems so much like common sense that it's easy to forget that no one had ever really approached history in these terms before.

[swag]

5. Hilarious. He knows how to pick 'em.

Glad to see both Beyond Good and Evil and Beyond Freedom and Dignity on the same shitlist.

[GirlinContempt]

40. Oh LORD

these people are on the CRACK

"He could not have predicted 21st Century America: a free, affluent society based on capitalism and representative government that people the world over envy and seek to emulate."

Stalinist Marxist is a contradiction.

"The Nazis loved Nietzsche."

[tsakshaug]

6. Review of Das Kapital

has this line
......portraying capitalism as an ugly phase in the development of human society in which capitalists inevitably and amorally exploit labor by paying the cheapest possible wages to earn the greatest possible profits.

outsourcing anyone?

[Orangepeel]

10. the idea that people would decide to have a contest

to find "the most harmful books." Flabergasting!

[terrya]

11. The KINSEY REPORT??!!!???

For someone to think of that important book (books, actually) as "harmful" is sad beyond imagining.

[Zuni]

23. or Keynes

most important book on economic theory since "The Wealth of Nations"

[Nevernose]

13. John Dewey helped nurture "The Clinton Generation"

No, jackasses, that was Republicans who fucked up all of Dewey's advances in the 50s and 60s. Those semi-legendary "good ol' days" of education that conservatives are so fond of? Brought to you by none other than John Dewey.

How come conservatives revile science so much?

[asthmaticeog]

18. And, um, BUSH* IS IN THE SAME GENERATION AS CLINTON!

Why does their unebbing disingenuousnes not make their fucking heads implode?

[philosophie_en_rose]

21. No amount of education could help Bush.

Don't blame Dewey! :P

[sinkingfeeling]

14. Well, well, they actually came up with 15 scholars as judges? I

thought that all those university and college professors were liberals! Liked number 10 - "General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money" by John Keynes. The brief description says, "The book is a recipe for ever-expanding government. When the business cycle threatens a contraction of industry, and thus of jobs, he argued, the government should run up deficits, borrowing and spending money to spur economic activity." If it's so dangerous, why is Bush implementing that theory?

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

24. Well....

One of their scholars is Phyllis Schlafly, who is dumber than a sack of doorknobs. After that you have a smattering of hacks from conservative institutes. There are only eight "scholars" on the panel -- being those who actually work at a university. And even some of those are academic powerhouses like Elizabethtown College and Randolph-Macon (who?).

Just as with the performing arts -- conservative performers tend to run the gamut from Debby Boone to Ted Nugent -- conservative intellectuals tend to be a C-List collection of tired ideologues who are just thrilled to see their names in print.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

15. On Liberty

Do fundies have their sense of irony removed at some point?

[dbonds]

16. Guess I'll have to add some of those to my reading list.

Only because they say its bad, it must be good.

[liberal N proud]

17. And the books they do recommend:

At least they are trying to sell them.
Perfect Soldiers
Shake Down
The Eighties (Reagan love)
The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy
Liberalism is a Mental Disorder.

http://www.hebookservice.com/

[philosophie_en_rose]

20. Democracy and Education? On Liberty?

What idiots! Especially since John Stuart Mill's work influenced the Declaration of Independence.

[Zuni]

25. John Stuart Mill

was around in the mid 1800s----he was a Utilitarian philosopher, look him up. I had to read his philosophy for college.

[Zuni]

22. what kind of wingnut fucker would put Keynes on a list

of most dangerous books....the guy was brilliant. :grr:

He had an influence on modern government policy but not as a fringe writer like Hitler or Mao, whose ideas really did end up killing millions....

[jswordy]

26. Yikes. Where's the BIBLE? Millions have been killed cuz of it...

...as well as its use as a rationale to enslave, impoverish and disenfranchise millions more. Over a couple thousand years now, too.

I'd put it #1, myself.

[asthmaticeog]

27. The list is 19th & 20th centuries only. Notice no Koran?

:eyes:

[jswordy]

29. LOL...yeah, I reckon their "education" only goes so far!

None of the Classics!

:rofl:

Thanks for pointing that out!

[GOPBasher]

28. I'd like to see a real list sometime.. as judged by normal professors. n/t

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

39. Could not be done, because normal professors

know that NO book is dangerous... only the actions of the readers are.

[MountainLaurel]

30. Bouncing around the librarian listservs right now

Everyone is searching through their catalogs to find out how many of these are in their collections, to see where they rank on the evil-meter.

But on the bright side, at least Harry Potter isn't on this one. I could see it now: "Harry Potter, the book that introduced millions of good Christian children to witchcraft, disrespect for authority, and quidditch."

[jonnyblitz]

31. on Honorable mention list: Darwin "Origin of Species"

surprise.

[kick-ass-bob]

32. KEYNES??????

:wtf: kind of list is this?

That doesn't even make sense in their minds...

:shrug:

[wallwriter]

33. Hitler, Keynes, Friedan

It all makes sense to me.

[hoffmanmotors]

34. That’s hilarious

I guess they mean harmful to their cozy little notion of the world.

[GirlinContempt]

36. Ok... The Manifesto

Vs. Mein Kamph, and it gets the NUMBER ONE?

:crazy:

[hyphenate]

37. I can not fucking believe

that The Feminine Mystique is #7 (or 6) on that list. These guys are really quite sick.

[sasquatch]

41. I like where they try to blame the national debt on FDR

HEY ASSHOLES!! IT WAS YOUR BELOVED SAINT REAGAN WHO RAN UP THOSE DEBTS IN THE 1980'S, NOT FDR!!