How To Be Right: The Art of Being Persuasively Correct

Don't believe it for a second. Demons *are* real. They possess our family, our friends, and our co-workers—causing them to run around in circles, vomiting irrational talking points (and on social media they vomit a lot!).These demons have many names, but they all serve the same master: Liberalism.In his latest book “How to be Right—The Art of Being Persuasively Correct”, Greg Gutfeld teaches you the art of effectively exorcising the Demons of Liberalism (and before I get reported to my university for preaching unsafe thoughts, aka #WrongThink, I am merely using “demon” as a metaphor for “an irrational person”—inspired by Chapter 18, “Using Metaphors, Simile and other Crap”).Believe this, though: it's a great book, and you should buy it because the book shows you how to craft an argument that is both logical AND witty AND compassionate, and thus *more persuasive* than using “logic-only”. And logic-only is the main reason most conservatives fail when arguing with liberals.They can't hear logic! Remember, they're irrational.So what's the secret to Greg Gutfeld's arguing technique? I'll give one example, then I'll summarize the rest of the book.Let's assume you run into a person possessed with The Gun Control Demon. You know this person. It's the one that tweets angrily about the need for “gun control” any time a shooting occurs and gets reported on cable news.You, being a logical conservative, argue: “It's not guns that kill people, people kill people. We need better screening procedures when people buy guns.” Or you argue: “if you pass laws controlling guns, only the criminals will have guns.”Here's the thing: You're right. It's a good logical argument. It's just not persuasive.The problem is you forgot that you're arguing with an irrational liberal. And with liberals logic is optional. “Feelings trump fact,” as Greg Gutfeld is fond of pointing out. So your argument won't work because it won't make them feel differently.So, what's the solution? What will work? Greg Gutfeld argues that you extend their argument to it's logical conclusion, which will always be something absurd (remember their beliefs are fundamentally irrational), then highlight the absurdity and out compassion them. To quote him directly: “My simple, perhaps sole tactic has always been to extend liberal beliefs to absurd levels. I push the obvious until the argument can only tip in my favor.” (Page 33)Applying Greg's technique, your real response should have been: “Then YOU'RE misogynist! The criminals will still have guns, and women won't be able to protect themselves because YOU'VE taken their guns away. YOU'VE made it unsafe for women. So, you must want women to die.”It's brilliant. You've used their own concepts to out compassion them! You've co-opted their grievances (see Chapter 11).So what's the rest of the book like? It's just like the example I gave. Common liberal talking points, followed by Greg showing how to respond in a way that is logical, is witty, is compassionate, and above all is more persuasive than “logic-only” or the talking points from outraged Fox News conservative pundits (don't get me wrong I love Fox News, btw).No, it's not perfect, it could have been “tighter”. The material on Red Eye was really good but seemed like humble bragging (although, I now know why Kat Timpf is used as an Ombudsmen on The Greg Gutfeld Show, see Chapter 17). Or his autobiography chapter, which was excellent but somewhat out of place.Still the book is great. I'm shocked that Greg Gutfeld gave away his secrets, all the way down to the paragraph level (see “hot spots”, Chapter 7). Now, he did hold back how he styles his sentences, which I think is a major secret to his great writing, but the theory and most of the detail is all there.In summary, if I put on my professor hat, I would grade this book a solid “A for excellent” (yes I know Greg hates professors, but at least we grade fairly!)I close with one of my favorite truisms from the book: “The world is moving away from fact-based debate and drifting into fact-free rhetoric” (page 1).If you want to effectively exorcise the fact-free rhetorical demons of liberalism, you *must* buy this book.

An excellent book: clever and entertaining. Greg's examination of the modern Right's and Left's respective priorities, tactics, strengths and weaknesses is illuminating and compelling, and his suggestions are witty and ingenious. The book will appeal to a fair-minded reader, for the author's approach, stated eloquently and straightforwardly, is based on common sense rather than naked ideology. But one shouldn't be surprised if a humorless doctrinaire finds Greg's jovial musings provocatively unamusing (alliteration intended). Notably, Greg is much more open-minded and generous to his ideological opponents than those are to him -- if one judges by the several negative reviews found on these pages, whose authors disdain the book on what appears to be purely ideological grounds. The book would've been even better had Greg's editors cared to correct, in more than a few instances, a common (and unfortunate) misplacement of the modifier "only" (which should in most cases immediately precede the word or phrase being modified), as well as an occasional dangling phrase. Five stars nonetheless.

Gutfeld has penned a fun romp in the field of interpersonal communications and good natured debate. I do enjoy his take on the issues of the day and even when wrapped in a garment of humor, which of course is the point of the book to some degree, it is apparent that there is an underlying seriousness.As I read page after page, I felt like he was putting the cookies on the lower shelf, so to speak, for those with whom one might find themselves disagreeing. However, I realize that it is unlikely that those who stand to the left of Gutfeld are going to read his handbook on persuasively dialoguing with others. So the cookies are likely to go untouched.If you are on the right side of the political spectrum the take away from this book is to lighten up. With chapter titles like, "Use Your Mom," "Cross-Dress," and "Find Your Inner Drunk," it is unlikely that you will get through this book without experiencing a good "belly laugh." But don't miss the seriousness that sits just beneath the veneer of humor. Little nuggets such as, "the world is moving away from fact-based debate and drifting into fact-free rhetoric", explains to some degree why the gaps are so significant.A Gutfeld maxim that seems self evident to even the most casual observer is that, "Republicans handle humor the way Democrats handle your money: badly. Let this little book be the first step in your personal development of handling humor well. As for Democrats handling money, well it would take a much different book to address that topic."Read "How to Be Right" and let the good conversations begin. As serious as our problems are as a country, and they are serious, being able to engage in civil conversations may be the first step toward meaningful resolutions. In the end we are better people when we can debate, be respectful and yes even laugh together as we look for answers to the questions that are so perplexing.

You know Gutfeld has been blessed with the ability to express himself on any subject, in a way and with the vocabulary that confounds most, ok some of us. You won’t be disappointed with his wisdom on the right and persuasion. I am almost through it a second time. A worthy book. Buy it!

Happy with purchase 😃

A very common sense book very well written. It describes "everyday life" in a comical and satirical way. This is a light and entertaining read.Well recommended.

Great