The Death of Truth | 
pickI bought this book in like 2019 after reading and being galvanized by the essay Moi and the Rise of Subjectivity. Then I let it linger too long on my shelves and by the time I actually read it (five years later) I was just deflated by it. I don't agree with everything Kakutani says here and I think she allows bad faith usage to undervalue helpful academic schema but it is still interesting.
pickI planned to give up political reads for 6 mos. But after hearing “The Big Lie” a gazillion times, this book started reaching out from my shelf and pulling me towards it. It is small but mighty. Does more to illustrate how we got here than where to go from here. It‘s densely written and packed with history, philosophy, politics, and book suggestions. Definitely worth the effort.
Full review http://www.TheBibliophage.com
#thebibliophage2021
pickA fascinating, well written, and compact review of post modernism and how it created the hell we live in today. As an educator and as a faculty member, I feel this is a must read, it helped me examine how I was taught and how I am feeding into the post truth narrative that is destroying my country and the world. Excellent read, 4/5 stars, every one who wants to change our current cultural and political dynamic should read this.
I saw this article in WaPo today. So I got curious about how many books from their graphic I owned and/or have read. (X means read, O means owned but not read yet.) If you‘re not completely burned out on Trump era nonfiction, the article and graphic offer many suggestions.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/10/01/most-essential-books-trump-era...
Trump often seems like a one-man set of Aesop-like fables with easy to decipher morals like “those who lie down with dogs will get up with fleas” but because he is president of the US, his actions do not simply end in a tag line moral; they ripple outward like a toxic tsunami, creating havoc in the lives of millions.
“Make America Great Again” translates into turning the clock back to the 1950s, before the civil rights movement, before the women‘s movement, before LGBT rights, before Black Lives Matter.
WAY back. Centuries back!
You can sway a thousand men by appealing to their prejudices quicker than you can convince one man by logic. —Robert A. Heinlein
I liken the attacks on science to turning off the headlights. We‘re driving fast and people don‘t want to see what‘s coming up. Scientists—we‘re the headlights. —Mike MacFerrin
We can‘t control whether our public servants lie to us. But we can control whether we hold them accountable for those lies or whether, in either a state of exhaustion or to protect our own political objectives, we look the other way and normalize an indifference to truth.
Went to the #library with the bingo prompts. I also picked out some new titles that looked interesting and some that I felt I needed to revisit before reviewing, like Death of Truth. I feel like at one point the tone and message shift but because I heard the audiobook, it's hard to double check. So I got the physical copy! #nonfiction #tbrpile #history #politics #environment #food #lgbtq #mentalhealth #analysis
#nfnov @Clwojick @rsteve388
These are some of the books I'd like to at least start during the #NFNov event! If I somehow get through these, I'll build another mini #TBR. I'll be going to the #library to pick up a couple of them and maybe other interesting #nonfiction reads. I'm not sure if I'll get to any documentaries. Even on a good day, getting me to watch something outside of anime is rare LOL
@Clwojick @rsteve388
I'm about halfway through this one and while I think it's interesting, there is a major contradiction I'm seeing in the argument. By the looks of it, I might rate this one a 3/5 but let's keep reading! #nfnov #nonfiction
@Clwojick @rsteve388
Only a third through and can tell this is a book that needs to be read multiple times to fully appreciate the absolutely frightening time in which we live. It also cries for discussion; strongly recommend reading with a friend or club.
“In Orwell‘s language of Newspeak in 1984, a word like “blackwhite” has “two mutually contradictory meanings”: “Applied to an opponent, it means the habit of impudently claiming that black is white, in contradiction of the plain facts. Applied to a Party member, it means a #loyal willingness to say that black is white when Party discipline demands this.”
#QuotsyMar19 #31DaysOfNonFiction
pickA great reminder that in order to even have productive debate you must utilize facts.When expertise is painted as suspect, higher education, vilified, a free press called an enemy of the people, you know lies and propaganda rule the day.Kakutani takes examples from Hitler & the excesses of the Soviet propaganda machine to compare with the Trump dysphoria that is a great danger to Democracy.Please do yourself a favor , read this book!
I‘m only 29 pages in and this book is as sharp as a razor! It also referenced an older book that made a huge impression on me years ago,Anti-Intellectualism in American Life by Richard Hofstadter .
pick“Without truth, democracy is hobbled.”
Midterm election night in the USA is a good time to promote this worthwhile #audiobook. I‘ve got Trump fatigue, but it‘s important to remain accurately informed of what‘s going on in a country that shares about 4,000 miles of border with Canada.
Performed by Tavia Gilbert.
A majority of Republicans believe that universities have a negative effect on America.
The journalist Anne Applebaum identified an entire group of neo-Bolsheviks—including Trump, Nigel Farage in Britain, Marine Le Pen in France, Jarosław Kaczyński in Poland, and the Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán—who, like Lenin and Trotsky, started out on the political fringes and rode a wave of populism to prominent positions.
A London Fog, a slice of toast, and a new book! Can‘t ask for a better way to spend a drizzly Saturday afternoon. Photo courtesy of my five-year-old, hence the patronizing smile.
so-soSome of her conclusions seemed slightly specious to me (I think Jacques Derrida, for one, would take umbrage with being indirectly blamed for the Trump administration), but I definitely think this is worth reading. One of the most salient points is where Kakutani draws attention to how Trump&Co strategically deploy a constant onslaught of misinformation in order to overwhelm and exhaust their opposition. It's a good reminder to stay engaged, 👇
pickAn excellent book I cannot stop thinking about. Kakutani's explanation of postmodernism and application to current events, and description of its movement from the left to the right, is just fascinating (and terrifying). At times, the book reads like the polemics it derides, which is interesting as well.
pickFormer New York Times book critic Kakutani tackles the era of Trump and the confounding lack of truth in anything he or mass or social media seems to be saying in a well-researched, well-written essay. She references many works of literature (most obviously 1984) to establish how Trump is a symptom of a larger cultural myopia and the repercussions of postmodern thinking, but the book offers little in the way of solutions.
pickThis is timely and well written and a pick but I need to be honest. This is so depressing and has left the only thing cheering me up being a video of a Nazi being shouted at by his dad whilst YouTubing live “not in my room!” Whilst knowing what‘s happening and analysing is important, I need right now to know how we effectively fight it?! This won‘t be read by someone who needs it, how do we interact from a common basis?
pickSo well written!
All very good questions... #CurrentlyReading
Such a sweet colour for this very well-researched and important new book! And it matches my morning coffee so I‘m blissful 😊
pickI promised myself I wouldn‘t read anything about Trump until it was all over and far in the past, but this. This was so good and so worth it and so infuriating. So, so smart and scary and informative and frustrating.
pickstarted + finished this one today (audio is just under 4 hours). its a great read for the trump era but also for thinking about truth & information more broadly. overall I really enjoyed it & would definitely recommend ⭐⭐⭐⭐
pickAs I sit in a mediation(the#lawyersoflitsy know how dull this can be for long stretches) I finished this book of essays on the post-truth world. Kakutani makes a cogent case for the Trump post truth tactics flowing as an outgrowth of deconstruction- phrases like “many sides” and “multiple ways of knowing” as the formative basis for denial of a “truth” in favor of “perception is reality”. Hitler, Stalin, Lenin and Putin are all there. Read it.4⭐️
pickI found this book strangely comforting. It lays out context/ perspective on our current cultural moment, pulling together a broad/deep range of references from history, literature, journalism, & the writings of US gvt luminaries including former presidents. Kakutani is an intellect to be reckoned with & a writer whose perspective I'm grateful to have in the Disinformation Age.
This is a quick read bc the last 40% of the book is citations.
She doesn‘t mince words or theories in this book. 📖👍
I‘m supposed to be emptying out bookshelves because we‘re remodeling a bit. And yet, somehow, these two jumped into my shopping cart on Prime Day. Don‘t they look nice in the empty (😥) shelves?
#remodelshremodel #iregretnothing #thereareotherbookshelvesforthese
pickFirst book of #24in48 finished!
Kakutani does not hold back. I don't know how I feel about what seems to be an indictment of postmodernism (I was taught as a student of history to Question Everything and that there is no such thing Truth) but I can see where she draws the connection between postmodernism and the rise of alternative facts. A very fascinating read.
@24in48 #24in48readathon
Not my favorite first line of all time, but a good one nonetheless! #24in48 #hour6challenge #openinglines @24in48
Good morning! I went to sleep as soon as I got home from work so that I could be awake at the very start of #24in48...except that didn't work. But I'm here now at almost 4am! I'm going to try to start with The Death of Truth, but if it's too dry for this time of day I'll switch to Death by Dumpling.
@24in48
pickAhhhhh it‘s sooooo good! It‘s short, too. Couldn‘t put this book down. Kakutani‘s writing is shrewd, smart, and a little scary. The book is very up to date. We need to pledge ourselves to truth and civility. “A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or perhaps both.” - James Madison 🗽 #readit
Michiko Kakutani‘s book came out this past Tuesday, and to celebrate she share with us the Best Books she‘s Ever Reviewed! 🔸 @strandbookstore/michiko-kakutani-best-books-ive-ever-reviewed-ee54d7fa2b82" rel="nofollow" target="_top">https://medium.com/@strandbookstore/michiko-kakutani-best-books-ive-ever-reviewe...
I was first on the library hold list - so ready for this one! OK Michiko, explain it to me PLEASE😱
