Kara Headley's Reviews > Thank You for Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About the Art of Persuasion

Dorothy senior girl run! Your husband hates you!

But in all seriousness, this book has one piece of good advice for every four grand standing, annoying anecdotes from the author’s real life where he thinks he’s cooler than he is. Take what I say with whatever grain of salt you want because I stopped reading halfway through (and only got that far because I had to for a class). But what else was I to expect from a book with subtitles in the second chapter that include “how to seduce a cop,” “how to manipulate, a lover,” and “the seduction diet.”

It is important for us to understand rhetoric and arguments, because we need to be able to defend ourselves against bad actors. The problem with this book is the author thinks he’s a good guy, but he’s using rhetoric to manipulate his wife and kids into doing things and brags about it. Why should I want to take his advice? This book reads more like a how-to guide to manipulating the people around you than as practical good advice.

That’s not even to mention the casual sexism and racism sprinkled throughout the book. On page 47 he writes, “Whenever I spot a do-rag or baggy pants on someone over forty, I want to shoot them and put them out of their kids' misery.” Tell me that is not a microaggression against the Black community. In particular, I take worry with the durag comment. To imply that durags or other cultural clothing to Black individuals lacks a sense of decorum as he does in this chapter, is racist.

All in all, skip this book. I got a better education on rhetorical practices from my high school AP language and composition class. And I’m pissed off that I had to spend even six dollars on a used copy of this for class.