The Joy of Hate: How to Triumph over Whiners in the Age of Phony Outrage Paperback – January 7, 2014

I know Gutfeld from TV (as the sometimes clever, always sardonic, smartass host from The Five), but I never thought his book would be so entertaining. Sure, he often includes gratuitous and marginally tasteless (sometimes hilarious) asides, but his main points are delightfully to the point and right on target. The main premise being that modern tolerance (in theory and practice) has become a force of evil (actually a phony, intolerant masquerade).According to Gutfeld we need to think more, feel less, and be willing to call a spade a spade (or have modern times become so narrow minded that we can't use that hundred year old gardening tool metaphor for common sense?). It may be simplistic, yet it's also elegantly simple that Gutfeld thinks the liberal's rejection of conservative values is mostly a rebellion against Daddy, and that the Left's hypocritical and privileged position in culture/media is just an extension of high school where the cool kids (lefties) always pick on the uncool ones (righties), and get away with it...... In the end what he really shows is what real tolerance might look (think, and yes, even feel) like, and despite his schtick you can tell thats what he really wants.I found his writing style relaxed and intelligent (they call that combination "witty" right?), light and quick to read, but without being too breezy. As a result I loved it, and couldn't put the book down, and although it may really be only a 4 star book in the larger scheme of things, as it's not really revolutionary or profound, it is fun to read and full of true stuff just simply needing to be said right now.For a taste, here is some of his discussion of the 2012 contraceptive coverage fallout from the Obamacare law;"Forget that health care should really only pertain to serious stuff. This sad and stupid debate should be pretty simple: it's between those who embrace the entitlement culture and those who cherish individual responsibility. In my opinion, Fluke is a moral and intellectual lightweight. For anyone to demand free stuff simply to support a lifestyle, and claim it a health issue, should make every sensible human being sick to their stomach. She is an emblem of a crumbling country, a strident entitleist (another word I coined; every time you use it, I get a royalty) who demands you tolerate her needs - while of course she ignores yours. We are now a nation of nags, each one crying out for something they feel is deserved rather than earned....[And then after the brouhaha with Rush's comments about Sandra Fluke...]"And so what could have been a frank discussion about government overreach and entitlement shifted into a "war on women." If you deny a birth control pill to anyone, period, you are waging war on the fairer sex. Ironically, the "I am woman, hear me roar" crowd became the "I am needy, give me more" bunch - the damsels in distress who in 2012, cannot find a way to pay for cheap pills. I mean aren't women independent enough not to need Daddy to take care of them?"And by Daddy, I mean President Obama who actually called Fluke to offer his support. Yep, forget those protesters dying in Syria or the explosive number of homicides in Chicago. The person who needed his help most was a thirty-year-old woman whose mission is to get free stuff everyone can afford..." (pgs. 29-30)And here's another, (in discussing the verbal assault on Sarah Palin by Mike Tyson on ESPN);"Modern tolerance dictates that a liberal - even one that was convicted of rape like Tyson - gets away with this muck because his target is so reviled for being who she is. And who is she? Just a conservative chick who dared to challenge their anointed flag-bearer, Barack Obama." (pg. 39)You get the picture, and you'll either love it or hate it. Or maybe you can agree with his ideas but be turned off by his style (mildly hip, glib, crass, sarcastic), if so, I'd suggest looking elsewhere (Judge Napolitano's  The Freedom Answer Book: How the Government Is Taking Away Your Constitutional Freedoms  for instance). If you hate this conservative stuff in principle I'd suggest passing on this book altogether (and also a very similar one by Jonah Goldberg  The Tyranny of Cliches: How Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas  which I'd also recommend to the "love it" type readers).For those who would hate this just because its too conservative, I don't know, maybe just stick to reading the appropriately named Huffington Post. But come to think of it, what are you doing reading this review anyway?

I often start reading books that focus on the way the Left has taken over America's intellectual universe, substituting emotion for reason and intellectual bullying for genuine political discourse. Sadly, with many of these books, I stop reading about halfway through. It's not that the books are badly written or that I disagree with the premise. The problem is that I end up so depressed that, despite applauding the author's data and insights, I just can't make myself pick the book up again.There are a few exceptions, of course: Jonah Goldberg and Ann Coulter spring to mind. In addition to being informed and insightful, their books are also quite amusing. Even if I don't agree with all of their conclusions or if I find their facts and conclusions depressing, I'm still laughing as I face ugly truths about the bankruptcy the Left has visited upon America's marketplace of ideas. With the publication of The Joy of Hate, I can add a new author to the list of those whose books I read right to the end, even though a part of me is practically weeping about the vast and angry intellectual wasteland he describes.Gutfeld's target is the Left's habit of using the cloak of "tolerance" to justify turning manufactured outrage on anything that is inconsistent with Leftist norms. In other words, as used by the Left, tolerance is a euphemism for grossly hypocritical. A good example is Gutfeld's chapter on the American military, in which he analyzes the professional Left's (i.e., the media's and Hollywood's) outrage with a video purporting to show Marines urinating on a corpse.Gutfeld acknowledges this conduct is not a nice thing to do. Reasonable people of good will might think that a good military kills its enemy, but it needn't sink to vulgarity after having done so. The Left could therefore have a point, except that, as Gutfeld points out "But you won't find that sensible understanding from the left. Which I'd accept -- if they were consistent about all types of atrocity. Here's where the tolerant left falls apart once again. You never see them express outrage when our enemies behead, mutilate, or hang our soldiers. You never hear them express outrage over what these beasts do to women, gays, and whomever else they consider worthless, according to their caveman mentality."In the same way, in his chapter on "Unreal Estate," Gutfeld takes sharp, effective jabs at the way the Left uses faux tolerance to create an intellectual environment in which banks were afraid to say that giving loans to people who cannot afford them was an economic disaster waiting to happen.For those of us who are political junkies, there are no new facts in The Joy of Hate. What makes the book interesting, is the way Gutfeld follows the common thread binding such disparate characters and entities as Sandra Fluke, ESPN, Bill Maher, Robert Redford, and Janeane Garofalo, among others -- all of them, under the guise of a vast tolerance, use nuclear-powered outrage to quash any views or beliefs that don't fit within their anti-American, anti-capitalist, victim-centric world view.Much of what Gutfeld does is to validate your and my common sense. No, we're not crazy if we think corporations are useful enterprises for getting things done on a larger scale than individuals on their own could accomplish. Likewise, we're not delusional if we think it's appropriate for banks to make decisions based upon business considerations and we believe that deadbeats with expensive Womyn's Studies or Puppetry degrees should be censured, more than pitied. Put another way, Gutfeld is the antidote to cognitive dissonance.Importantly, because it preserves him from being charged with hypocrisy, Gutfeld also isn't afraid to turn his fire on conservatives. We conservatives don't help this overheated atmosphere by being "outraged" at things that are stupid or merely offensive. We need to save the outrage for outrageous things -- and use logic and intelligent sneering for the other stuff.If you like facts, humor, and tight analysis, you'll enjoy The Joy of Hate: How to Triumph over Whiners in the Age of Phony Outrage -- and you'll like it from beginning to end.

This book is great for non snowflake readers . It details how the snowflake left use hysterical outrage to justify and validate their positions and existence .It is a fun and informative read .

A satirical take on political correctness and all that entails.Well written and sometimes laugh-out loud funny. Definitely a thought provoking book.

Funny and sharp man.As ever libertarians / individualistic people see things as they truly are and don't fall for bullc**p.

okay, funny here and there

Very amusing.