Bad Or, the Dumbing of America (1991)

דוגמה קלסית לטיעון מעגלי. זה ספר שהוא ​
באד: יומרני, נפוח, נצלני. רוכב על רעיון אחד ומנפח​ אותו הרבה מעבר למה שיש בו. בכל זאת מצחיק פה ושם.​ ( )

Not as good as Class, but in the same vein. ( )

United States > Social life and customs >/1971-/Popular culture > United States/Other titles: BAD/Dumbing of America

[BAD] is a curmudgeonly look at American culture in the 80s/90s and is intent on demonstrating how monstrously bad much of it is. Although I didn't agree with all of his analyses, many of them were spot on and hilariously written. His main point is that, as a country, we take the art of being bad and raise it to a new level, that of BAD, which combines poor quality with pretense and pomposity. Since the book was written in the early 90s, it's somewhat dated and I recognized a few things that were problems then but aren't now, and a few that had just shifted (like pagers to cell phones). America bashing usually really puts me off a book, since I'm rather fond of my country, so when I started and realized what I had gotten into, I was a bit annoyed. However, through the contempt and mockery comes a faint whiff of fondness that made me feel like the author doesn't so much hate his country as hate that it's not a great as it should be, a sentiment I can agree with. At times I had to roll my eyes, like when French toilets are favorably compared to American ones (sort of), but it wasn't too slavishly pro-Europe/anti-American, esp compared to some modern social writing. All in all, a funny if dated look at our culture. Everyone should be able to find at least a thing or two to identify with and laugh at, I would hope. ( )