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Canceling Comedians While the World Burns: A Critique Of The Contemporary Left Kindle Edition

by Ben Burgis (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 130 ratings
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'Ben Burgis has written a clarifying, humorous and sharp as hell wake up call for the left, and political culture at large. Read this book...'Michael Brooks, host of The Michael Brooks Show

Between the decline of the labor movement, the aftershocks of the falls of so-called "actually existing socialism," and the long exile of even social democrats from the levers of real power, we have gotten far too used to thinking of leftism as a performative exercise in expressing our political commitments rather than a serious effort to achieve left-wing goals in the real world. Cancelling Comedians While the World Burns calls for a smarter, funnier, more strategic left.

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  1. Print length
    136 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Zero Books
  5. Publication date
    April 30, 2021
  6. File size
    508 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
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From the Publisher

Critique, critique of the left, leftists, leftism, comedians, stand up comedy, satirical comedians
Critique, critique of the left, leftists, leftism, comedians, stand up comedy, satirical comedians
Critique, critique of the left, leftists, leftism, comedians, stand up comedy, satirical comedians
Critique, critique of the left, leftists, leftism, comedians, stand up comedy, satirical comedians
Critique, critique of the left, leftists, leftism, comedians, stand up comedy, satirical comedians

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ben Burgis is philosophy instructor at Georgia State University Perimeter College, a columnist for Jacobin Magazine and Arc Digital Media, and the co-host of the Dead Pundits Society. He also does a regular segment on The Michael Brooks Show called "the Debunk." He lives in Norcross, Georgia.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08XFC6TWM
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Zero Books (April 30, 2021)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 30, 2021
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 508 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 136 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1789045479
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 130 ratings

About the author

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Ben Burgis

Ben Burgis

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Ben Burgis is a philosophy instructor, a columnist for Jacobin Magazine and the host of the Give Them An Argument podcast and YouTube show.

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
130 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Kristallo
5.0 out of 5 stars How does the left win?
Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2021
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Cancelling Comedians While the World Burns provides a very timely, incisive and delicate critique of leftist culture from the perspective of a leftist. Criticizing one's own team is a challenging task but Burgis pulls it off in a way that is intelligent and even therapeutic. Any leftist who sincerely cares about growing the left and building the movement to a position of power has surely felt some frustration at our fellow leftists whose priorities are often not oriented towards growing the movement. For example, Burgis rightly takes issue with leftists who idealize the USSR. Even though there are more pressing issues in the world doesn't mean we shouldn't criticize our own side. In fact, it's very necessary that we do so. At the end of the day, the important question is how to win, and unless we have the confidence to believe that we can win, we will succumb to our most anti-social tendencies that turn onlookers away. We have a world to win, and if we don't, the world will burn. Burgis's intervention makes sure we don't lose sight of what's at stake.
13 people found this helpful
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Virgil H. Huston Jr.
5.0 out of 5 stars Important Book To Help the Real Left Stop Destroying Itself
Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2022
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This is a good book that I wish was longer. All woke liberals or progressives need to read and heed it. Cancel culture and the embrace of censorship literally chase people away from the progressive left in droves. As a socialist, I simply cannot involve myself with people who engage in these completely self-defeating behaviors and find it disturbing such behaviors are even part of anything associated with the left.
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Christopher G. Rose
5.0 out of 5 stars A left I Recognize
Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2021
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I lost interest in the left when it got taken over by nasty nags that are worse than the average capitalist. Ben Burgis gives me hope that there is a real populist left seeking economic freedom for everyone, that it isnt all about dominating people with increasingly obnoxious and detailed demands. He manages to identify most of the centrist concerns about the new left and disarms them with positive practical avenues for making a better economic system that isn't perpetually dominated by a crony capitalist elite nor by incessant virtue signaling.
6 people found this helpful
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Undec
3.0 out of 5 stars Mmm...
Reviewed in the United States on April 23, 2022
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I must say I was so eager to read the book and I really wanted to find it great, but... it wasn't. At least not for me. The subtitle reads "A Critique Of The Contemporary Left", but it's that weird type of critique that actually praise the object of the critique.
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Louis Katz
5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn’t put it down
Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2021
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Finished the kindle version in under a day. Great read and learned a lot. It’s nice to hear a leftist/socialist perspective on strategy for attaining our goals.

Burgis makes a much more sophisticated argument than simply “FREE SPEECH.”
24 people found this helpful
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Christian J. Lillis
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book
Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2021
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Burgis makes a clear and incisive case that the left needs to outgrow the pathologies that have arisen from our powerlessness. If we don’t, we will never attain power.
7 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
2.0 out of 5 stars Ben Burgis shares too many of the left's unsubstantiated beliefs to make a good critique of it
Reviewed in the United States on May 18, 2021
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I was going to criticise the author for over-using the term 'toxic' (eg. about Tucker Carlson), which seemed to me to be falling into the censorious attitudes and jargon which he criticises in the left, but then I came across the phrase 'the rather odious right-wing hack Bari Weiss'.

His critique of Antifa is an example of 'praising with faint damnation'. He accepts their description of their opponents as 'fascist' (some he generously describes as 'fascist-like'), while explaining how their tactics are ineffective. In fact, Antifa is far more dangerous than the Proud Boys.

He says the police are 'racist', without providing any evidence.

In short, he'll fail to convince the rest of the left of his concern about 'cancel culture', because he shares most of its views.
32 people found this helpful
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Adam Berkowicz
5.0 out of 5 stars Burgis rocks
Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2021
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Love him and this book. The left needs to be smarter about its priorities. Another world is possible, if we can claim it.
4 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars The left needs to stop making the left look ridiculous
Reviewed in Canada on July 14, 2021
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Pretty short book, reads like a academic paper, but the author is an academic after all. The premise is an important message: the left needs to stop self-sabotaging themselves by giving the right an endless stream of material to roll their eyes at. They need to focus on what's really important - the advancement of democratic socialism for the betterment of all. When people on the fence, or even people on the left, see internet pile-ons because someone used the word, "guys," that turns them off. Drives them away. Makes them apathetic, or might even drive them towards the right. I hope more critiques of the contemporary left like this keep getting written, but more importantly, I hope that books like these are being read by their intended audience.
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Stephen Boyd Merriman
5.0 out of 5 stars A timely and important book.
Reviewed in Spain on July 10, 2021
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Fascinating insights into the Culture Wars as fought in the internecine conflict on the left.
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Darragh Byrne
5.0 out of 5 stars Great map for future of the left!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 9, 2021
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This excellent book is a great roadmap for strategic future for the left escaping from “Vampire Castle” of offline wokeism and online hacktivism. I particularly like his analysis of all the different type of leftists that are destructive to progressive movements from tankies to neo-anarchists. Having lost two of the great thinkers on the left Mark Fisher and Michael Brooks recently with this book Ben Burgis is helping to continue their vital work of being “cruel to systems but kind to people” as Brooks once stated was true project of Marxism.
One person found this helpful
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Colin
5.0 out of 5 stars Quick, insightful and hopeful!
Reviewed in Canada on August 23, 2022
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Understanding the present to clarify strategies moving forward
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Matt Alford
3.0 out of 5 stars Nice idea; an important voice; a threadbare book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 12, 2021
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I am giving this 3 stars but in some aspects it's a bit of a stinker.
The main problem is that it's only 100 pages long - and only the first 18 pages are actually about comedians.
To be fair, that first chapter is really good - really getting into the guts of what comedy is for and how it differs from activism. And the rest of the book seems to be worth reading, even if that, too, is not really anything to do with the world burning. But £10 is a bit steep.
I get the impression someone came up with a cracking title and then the publisher asked for the book to be delivered in double quick time.
I've not quite finished it, so may amend the review if anything leaps out.
6 people found this helpful
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