Arguing with Idiots: How to Stop Small Minds and Big Government

Glenn Beck · Kevin Balfe

Sep 2009 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

Glenn Beck, the New York Times bestselling author of The Great Reset, provides the ultimate handbook for tackling and winning life’s most important arguments.

FUNNY. FRIGHTENING. TRUE.

The #1 New York Times bestseller that gives you the right answers when idiots leave you speechless!

It happens to all of us: You’re minding your own business, when some idiot* informs you that guns are evil, the Prius will save the planet, or the rich have to finally start paying their fair share of taxes.

Just go away! you think to yourself—but they only get more obnoxious. Your heart rate quickens. You start to sweat. But never fear, for Glenn Beck has stumbled upon the secret formula to winning arguments against people with big mouths and small minds: knowing the facts.

And this book is full of them.

The next time your Idiot Friends tell you how gun control prevents gun violence, you’ll tell them all about England’s handgun ban (see page 53). When they insist that we should copy the UK’s health-care system, you’ll recount the horrifying facts you read on page 244. And the next time you hear how produce prices will skyrocket without illegal workers, you’ll have the perfect rebuttal (from page 139). Armed with the ultimate weapon—the truth—you can now tolerate (and who knows, maybe even enjoy?) your encounters with idiots everywhere!

*Idiots can’t be identified through voting records; look instead for people who hide behind stereotypes, embrace partisanship, and believe that bumper sticker slogans are a substitute for common sense.

Ratings and reviews

The editing, publishing, illustration and paper quality of the book is very good. At the first time I opened the book, the number of drawings, little side notes, etc… made me think of a children’s book. But after a while you get over this first impression. Regarding its contents, the book goes down south: the text is full of distorted arguments to justify the author’s point of view. Let’s take a couple examples: 1) The author concludes that a certain public transportation alternative is inefficient based on the fact that its cost-per-mile for each passenger is 10 times lower than driving a car. But he fails to point out that this is exactly the reasoning for public transportation. In fact, his distorted argument could easily be used to claim that the NY transportation system (subway and buses) are ineffective and should be shut down. 2) When building “models” or “examples” to “facilitate” the discussion, the author changes the assumptions, what allow him to enforce his own conclusions. For example, he “replaces” the text in the Second Amendment by another “equivalent” sentence (I’ll not tell what this new text is). Then he goes on and on making conclusions based on this new sentence. The author claims that it’s OK because the new text is grammatically equivalent to the original sentence in the Constitution. However he fails to notice that the new text is NOT LOGICALLY equivalent to the original. Any logical conclusion based on the replacement text CANNOT be used for the Second Amendment. There are many instances like this. Read carefully and you’ll find plenty of incorrect and incomplete information across the text. But the worst was to have to read his self reference as a “thinker” at each five pages. Maybe it is true for another book, but not on this one for sure...

This guy sure knows how to twist "facts" for his own agenda. It's also funny how his "fans" don't really know the facts and are brainwashed into believing HIS delusional rants. Just goes to show you how golden age American's got by with NO intelligence what-so-ever. Now that they're so far in the hole, sadly the up-coming Americans with a future have to pay up for the god-fearing greedy old timers moronic decisions. This right-wing ideology isn't the way to go. Glenn is a 5-star idiot.

If this book were really about how to "stop small minds" it would include instructions on how to eradicate idiots like Glenn Beck from the earth. In this case, I feel eugenics would have solved a lot of problems....Of course I recognize the irony of him being dressed like an SS officer on the cover.

About the author

Glenn Beck, the nationally syndicated radio host and founder of TheBlaze television network, has written thirteen #1 bestselling books and is one of the few authors in history to have had #1 national bestsellers in the fiction, nonfiction, self-help, and children’s picture book genres. His recent fiction works include the thrillers Agenda 21, The Overton Window, and its sequel, The Eye of Moloch; his many nonfiction titles include The Great Reset, Conform, Miracles and Massacres, Control, and Being George Washington. For more information about Glenn Beck, his books, and TheBlaze television network, visit GlennBeck.com and TheBlaze.com.