Don't Burn This Book: Thinking for Yourself in an Age of Unreason

by Dave Rubin

The Progressive Woke Machine--from outrage mobs and online censorship to activists masquerading as journalists--is waging war against the last free thinkers in the world. This book is both an explanation of the current political upheaval and your guide to surviving it.

America, and the West in general, is in the midst of an identity crisis that's headed towards an outright revolution. The progressive left, once the advocates of free expression and individual autonomy, now undermine these values at every turn. This uncomfortable truth has turned moderates and true liberals into the politically homeless class.

In response, Dave Rubin launched his political talk show The Rubin Report in 2015 as a laboratory for anyone trying to make sense of our shifting political landscape. He discusses the most controversial issues of the day with people he both agrees and disagrees with, including those who have been dismissed, deplatformed, and even despised before they've had a chance to speak for themselves. Based on his own story as well as his experiences from the front lines of the free speech wars, this book will inspire you to make up your own mind about what you believe on any issue, and show you how to:

* Check your facts, not your privilege: No matter your gender, economic class, or level of education, you're still allowed to have opinions (for now!). Rubin separates facts from feelings, dispelling today's most pervasive myths, like the wage gap, gun violence, racism, affirmative action, climate change, hate crimes, and more.
* Learn to stand your ground A difference of opinion should not be a deal-breaker for any relationship, professional or personal. Sadly, these days, it often is. Rubin will show you that losing a few friends is a small price to pay for standing up for what you believe in--and why choosing an authentic path is ultimately worth it.
* Defend liberalism while you still can: Time is running out to defend individual rights, limited government, and free expression. Rubin provides a roadmap for true classically liberal principles regardless of your party affiliation, and shows you why freedom is impossible without them.

Don't Burn This Book empowers you with time-tested and common-sense principles that can turn the tide against authoritarians on both sides in this increasingly polarized world. This book is a rallying cry for anyone who wants to live freely, which is quickly becoming the most radical belief you could have.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Biography, Philosophy, Self Help, Psychology

240 pages, Hardcover

First published April 28, 2020

About the author

Dave has played with Son Seals, David "Honeyboy" Edwards, Steady Rollin’ Bob Margolin, Billy Boy Arnold, Johnny Copeland, Chuck Berry, members of James Brown’s JBs, The Drifters, The Marvelettes, The Coasters, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, The Campbell Brothers and many others. In addition, he has performed on the Blues Alley TV show in Philadelphia and New York Now in Manhattan and has made commercials for Mountain Dew and the Oreck company.
Dave has been an author for the Hal Leonard Corporation for over 30 years with over 150 books to his credit. Included are 11 titles in his ongoing Inside the Blues series to go along with numerous Signature Licks, Guitar School, and others such as book/CD collaborations with Honeyboy Edwards, Son Seals, Cornell Dupree, Jerry Jemmott, Steady Rollin’ Bob Margolin, Smokin' Joe Kubek, Duke Robillard, boogie woogie pianist Arthur Migliazza and The Black Crowes guitar tech Doug Redler. He was the musical director and bassist for the Cherry Lane-Johnny Winter DVD, the musical director for the Star Licks DVD series Legends of the Blues, as well as being featured in the 12-Bar Blues accompanying video for his book nominated for a Paul Revere Award in 1999. He is a featured teacher on the Hal Leonard Guitar Instructor site.
As a journalist, he has written for Guitar Player, Guitar World, Guitar School, Guitar One, Guitar Edge, Living Blues, Guitar Shop and Blues Access magazines. Currently he writes the column “Nuggets” for the online Guitar Tricks Insider. He was the recipient of the 2005 Keeping the Blues Alive Award in Journalism from the Blues Foundation in Memphis, Tennessee.

Reviews

[Thomas J · Rating 1 out of 5]

My favorite part was when he claims Hitler was a leftist because he liked art and was a vegetarian. Some very high level ideas there.

[Aleksandar Ivanov · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lot of hysterical people in here giving 1-star reviews to a book for entirely ideological and dogmatically-driven reasons.

I am not surprised, just pointing it out.

P.S. if anyone's still wondering about Dave, I would like you to know that - David Joshua Rubin, a GAY JEW is not a "far-right", sexist, homophobic, transphobic, racist Nazi White Supremacists.

P.p.S. The only way Dave is right, is as in correct/accurate/precise.

[Liam Semple · Rating 1 out of 5]

I noticed the Goodreads review section is full of one-star reviews from people who haven’t actually read Don’t Burn This Book, so let me confirm that I did download the audiobook and I did listen to it from start to finish. This meant I missed the myriad typos and misspellings others have cited, freeing me to focus my attention on Dave’s high-level ideas. Having done so, I can confirm that the widely-floating phrase, ‘indistinguishable from parody’ is an accurate description of what an embarrassing disaster this is. Dave’s extremely well-funded ideas are not the transgressive thoughts of a free-thinking skeptic, and they especially aren’t worth burning. I do not recommend Don’t Burn This Book to Dave’s fans, haters, or skeptics, for reasons I will explore in detail below.

The reason I wouldn’t even recommend this to Dave’s fans is that this book will not help you fight off liberal and leftist arguments, because none of the arguments go deeper than the absolute surface-level logic needed to justify conservative intuitions. The purpose of his book is to coddle you, to convince you that your intuitions (including the bigoted ones) are just as valid as someone else’s informed opinion. This leads Dave to some uncomfortable and cringe-worthy positions (e.g. when he defends Ben Shapiro’s right to think Dave’s love for his husband is disgusting and a sin), and to sloppy arguments that do nothing to engage with what liberals and leftists actually think. (He’s agglomerated these very different political traditions into one superorganism he calls “the left.”)

For all his talk of “facts,” Dave didn’t bother to do any research for his book. His arguments are littered with inaccuracies, contradictions, and surface-level thinking. For example, here are the two most egregious arguments from his book:

Guns

In his section on guns, the second most slap-dash in the whole book (I’ll address the number one next), Dave is correct exactly one time: gun violence cannot be solved exclusively by laws, though he doesn’t even try to argue why we shouldn’t introduce more laws. He assumes that because prohibition won’t work, we shouldn’t bother trying. (He doesn’t extend this logic to drugs, by the way, arguing elsewhere that heroin and crack are too dangerous to be legal.) Overall, Dave acknowledges that it should be difficult to get ahold of guns, but believes our gun control is sufficient. He accuses progressives of chasing “utopia” with their gun policies, which makes me wonder if he knows that other countries exist, and that a lot of them have lower gun violence rates than the United States.

His one invocation of facts™ is also fraudulent. He uses the tired, right-wing cliché of Chicago, which has strict gun control policies and yet a high rate of gun violence. He points to this correlation and says, “See? Doesn’t work!” without bothering to investigate why that might be. A reasonable person will note that Chicago is invoked by right-wingers because it’s a major city (and thus full of liberals and gun control) surrounded by areas with lax gun laws, making it easy to bring guns in.

In an even slimier move, Dave, like every conservative, mis-cites (i.e. lies about) this statistic: he says that only 11% of firearms used in crimes are obtained from gun retailers. He probably got this number from “Source and Use of Firearms Involved in Crimes: Survey of Prison Inmates, 2016,” a study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics. If he had any integrity, (or read the source, himself) he would have explained that, while ~90% of gun crimes are committed by people who didn’t acquire the guns legally, only 43% of those guns were bought directly off the black market; >25% of them can be traced back to legal purchases from American gun shops before trading hands. It took me two minutes to find this source, by the way. Dave Rubin spent years in politics, writing a book about politics, and still doesn’t know how to read a chart or cite more than one example to establish a trend.

Dave also brings up the idea that people will use their guns to rise up against a tyrannical government, not citing any examples after the 1770s. Pre-holocaust Germany? Didn’t happen. Jim Crow American south? Didn’t happen. The recent historical record indicates that conservative gun owning majorities won’t rise up if they themselves aren’t threatened by their tyrannical government, and more often will side with the tyrannical government against minorities they’re afraid of. (I wonder if it crossed his mind to use the Cuban Revolution as an example.)

Trans Rights

Nowhere in the book is Dave’s cowering fear of reasoned debate more apparent than in his section on trans rights. He opens this part by (without irony) comparing gender dysphoria to him wanting to be a transformer when he was a child, which off the bat lets us know that he doesn’t care about this issue or understand the difference.

He goes on to disingenuously frame the issue of puberty blockers as allowing children to decide if they want transition by preventing their puberty, ignoring that 1) puberty blockers delay puberty with no permanent changes to the body, they don’t just cancel it, 2) puberty blockers are prescribed by doctors, they’re not just over-the-counter medications that progressive parents give their kids on a whim, and 3) Dave thinks doctors somehow don’t know that most children outgrow their gender dysphoria, and he doesn’t understand the idea that if we can potentially prevent suffering or suicide down the line by delaying puberty for two years, that might be worth the risk.

Let’s be clear: Dave is framing the argument as him versus hysterical activist parents and naive children who can’t think for themselves, but he’s actually arguing that he knows better than the majority of clinical psychologists and medical professionals. He’s hoping you haven’t looked into these issues yourself so that he can misrepresent them and make you outraged or afraid.

He goes on to take a stand against governments jailing citizens for just using incorrect pronouns, something no government in the entire world has proposed or will propose. The distinction between forbidding intentional misgendering in the workplace and jailing anyone who uses ‘just a word’ is too high-level an idea.

A Short-List of Other Things Dave is Wrong About

My point here is not that I disagree with Dave, it’s that Dave doesn’t know why he believes what he does. He spent years writing this book and can’t write a single chapter without totally bungling his own thoughts. I don’t have the mental bandwidth to take down everything wrong here, so below are some hand-picked egregious takes:

- Dave, like a lot of right-wingers, thinks that identity politics (grand political narratives about class, race, and gender) is a form of postmodernism (the rejection of grand political narratives). Additionally, Dave wants us to stop “hating western values,” by embracing things like identity politics, postmodernism, and socialism. You’ll recall that these are all western values, created and carried on by western European and American thinkers.
- He argues the free market has done more for income redistribution than “the left” ever has. However, the period of lowest inequality in most capitalist countries was during the so-called ‘golden age of capitalism,’ in which Keynesian social democracy was the norm from the end of World War II until the free market reforms of the 80s, when inequality exploded everywhere they took hold. This upward explosion in inequality was also observed in former communist countries that underwent ‘Big Bang’ capitalist reforms. The opposite (i.e. a huge reduction in income and wealth inequality) occurred during socialist revolutions in Russia, Cuba, and Grenada, to name a few.
- Dave thinks socialist countries are ones in which governments ration everything. No, Dave doesn’t know what market socialism or libertarian socialism are. Why would he? That would require him to consider fringe ideas outside his comfort zone.
- Dave reports that more than half of hate crimes in America one year were intimidation, not assault. From this he extrapolates that these intimidations should not be considered serious or even be considered crimes because they are “just words.”
- I thought he wouldn’t do it, but he did—Dave invokes MLK to say that he’d be disappointed with how it’s now fashionable to discriminate based on skin color. MLK was a democratic socialist who railed against people like Dave in his Letter from Birmingham Jail. MLK was not against all discrimination, he was against discrimination that reduces the equity between races.
- Dave pushes climate denial in the sheep’s clothing of ‘climate skepticism.’ He says we shouldn’t be concerned about the United Nations Climate Panel’s assessment that irreversible damage will be done by 2030 unless we take dramatic action. Among his arguments are that environmentalists must be exaggerating since the polar bear population has increased.
- Dave’s argument that America cannot be an imperialist country is that we were founded in an act of revolt against an imperialist empire. This might be the worst argument in the entire book, if it weren’t for this:
- Dave believes the Nazis were socialist because they had Socialist in their party’s name, and calls socialism a “founding principle of the Nazi movement.” Never mind that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea isn’t democratic, or that one of the Nazi party’s primary goals was to crush communism, or that fascism is a right-wing ideology and everyone with one or more wrinkles on their brain knows this. There’s also the now-viral moment where Dave says Hitler was a leftist because he loved art and was vegetarian.

Dave Rubin Wrote a Book That No One Could Possibly Like

Just to reiterate the point I’m supporting here: Don’t Burn This Book is shallow, poorly argued, and poorly researched. This book does not help right-wingers debate left-wingers and will not convince left-wingers to switch sides since he doesn’t engage with any of their actual objections to his regurgitated talking points. This means that Dave Rubin has effectively written a book that is completely useless to everyone.

But whether you’re left or right, maybe you’re curious what such a person is like in his private life. The book opens with Dave talking about coming out in the early 2000s. I find coming-out stories inherently interesting, probably because I’ve never had to, myself, but there’s almost no real reflection from Dave—he’s actually using his coming out as gay to draw a parallel to coming out as conservative.

There’s also a later section in which he recounts developing stress-induced alopecia because of the vitriol he received online, and feeling depressed almost to the point of quitting The Rubin Report. Of course, he then uses this actually interesting personal struggle to encourage resilience from his fans when faced with leftist arguments. Don’t worry, Dave seems to say, just stick to your feelings and you’ll get through it. What a waste. He didn’t even use the experience as a way to talk about the difficulties of being an online political figure—a missed opportunity.

In the last major section, Dave explains his relationship to his mentor, Jordan Peterson. This is the least ridiculous chapter (apart from the giant chasm separating what Dave says from what he does); he basically likes that Jordan tends to live according to his 12 Rules For Life, which is fair enough. If you’re interested in what Dave has to say here, you should probably just check out that book instead. While bloated and full of dubious politics (lots of trojan-horsing religious and conservative ideology), it at least had a clear target audience and some positive value hidden within.

Dave Rubin’s Fear of Debate

Dave Rubin lives in his own world, where “the left” are all hysterical people with no grasp of history or economics getting triggered when you hit them with facts, but also have infiltrated the media and academia. He is clearly hoping you don’t notice that his book is a vast echo chamber and conservative safe space, because this fact runs completely counter to everything he claims to stand for.

In one hilarious moment, he invites readers who disagree with him to contact him and to “start a conversation with someone of a different ideological background.” Dave considers himself a free speech absolutist (despite opposing the NFL protests), who believes George Orwell would be “spinning in his grave” if he could see today’s “socialists” shutting down speakers at college campuses. Dave, of course, omits that Orwell was a socialist, and also does not explain why conservatives and alt-righters are so highly represented on The Rubin Report.

If Dave was truly interested in ideas and debate from “someone of a different ideological background,” then why has he continually ignored or declined requests from prominent online left-wingers Sam Seder, David Pakman, Natalie Wynn, Nathan J. Robinson, Ana Kasparian, and Kyle Kulinski to appear on his show? Is it because he knows he has no ideas of his own and would be inconsolably dumpstered? Most of those people aren't even socialists!

Dave has so far called critical reviews of Don’t Burn This Book the work of trolls. He pre-emptively spends a lot of time in the book predicting that it will trigger the imaginary social justice advocates who live in his head. This must explain the scathing reviews he’s received from such communist troll publications as Business Insider and Spectator USA.

Conclusion

Don’t Burn This Book is not worth reading. It is too shallow to benefit anyone. The book is blandly written and full of poor content. Its ideas and organization make for a repetitive experience. I don’t recommend reading it for comedy, because it is exhausting and boring (despite not being very long) with only sparse moments of laugh-out-loud unintentional comedy. (The book as a whole is quite humorless, even though Dave used to be a comedian.)

In the end, you may be wondering why I read this and put so much effort into dumpstering Dave Rubin, a man who has been continually dumpstered into oblivion so much so that his own subreddit is now dedicated to making fun of him. I originally got this audiobook because I thought it would be funny to hear Dave lay out why he’s a total buffoon, while dropping hilarious unintentional memes such as an excerpt from the introduction in which he asks the reader to "walk into a bar" and "get absolutely wasted on facts." But as I listened to him read, I was reminded that Dave made a lucrative career out of selling his show and soul to the right-wing. This book reminded me that millions of Americans still believe the things he does, and seek out his program to be comforted in knowing they don’t have to admit they might be wrong.

Writing this review became a cathartic expression of my annoyance, but I will never read another book like this. I hope that Dave continues to get dumpstered by his critics. I hope that one day he’ll grow a spine, at least enough to cut himself off from his homophobic friends using him for exposure.

[C.S. Cooper · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can assure you, the negative reviews this book is receiving are completely and utterly undeserved.

In the early chapters, Dave Rubin delineates a story of his coming-out as a gay man in a way that is actually quite hilarious. I realise that for him it was a difficult time, but he cracks jokes about the whole thing. This is good because it smacks of a man who has dealt with his pain and moved forward, which is precisely the theme of the entire book. And he somehow manages to do it while inserting random blowjob euphemisms into every chapter! Did Joss Whedon ghost write this? I laughed my ass off while reading it.

The assertions he makes about various topics from the wage gap and racism are all backed up with a bibliography. Having said that, the PhD in me has to fault him for not putting numbered citations next to each point. But the citations and the information is there. The reader can find out for themselves whether he's right or wrong. And I don't think for one second the negative reviewers here or amazon have done a thing in that respect.

I guess the only negative thing I'd say is that it feels like its written for people who are already on the in. That is to say, if you've already witnessed the flagrant media bias of modern day, then you'll receive the book better. The further down the rabbit hole, the more the book will resonate with you. And that'll make it harder to digest for the people who *should* be reading it. People I know, who really need the message at the moment.

That's not to say the book isn't good. Despite my comments, I've given it five stars, because Rubin is trying to keep everybody optimistic about the future, while railing against those who want to make everyone pessimistic.

How can that possibly be a bad thing?

[Morten Eide · Rating 1 out of 5]

I want it to be satire but sadly it’s not, even though it reads like it. From making the completely debunked claim that Hitler was a left-wing socialist to complaining about the tiny (albeit very vocal) minority of the American left as if they actually exist in any meaningful numbers outside of Twitter, this book borders on radicalizing propaganda.

In a nutshell, it’s the victim complex in book form. Written by a grifter who made a complete political 180 after getting his show funded by the Koch brothers.

It’s a hilarious read if you have any grasp at all about what’s going on in the world today, but it has the potential to radicalize young impressionable minds.

[James Tullos · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't read this, but Dave keeps telling his followers to flood the airwaves with positive reviews so I feel obligated to counteract that.

Belated edit: Dave is a dumbass and whining under this review will not change that.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s funny to read the negative reviews of this book. It reminds me of the reviews for Triggered by Don Jr. Just a bunch of “woke” social justice warriors so blinded by their “cause” which is really just a regurgitation of the disgusting political narrative of the crazy left wing mainstream media and not an original thought of their own. Which just proves they haven’t even read this book because the entire point of this book is to encourage a person to be their own thinker. To embrace your OWN ideals and figure out for YOURSELF what you stand for by learning FACTS to get you to that point.

I’m about as conservative as a person can get so there are a few of the opinions Dave has that I don’t whole heartedly agree with and even according to him that is okay. As a reasonable person, I think it’s kind of interesting to read about how other people think and how their views are shaped which not only helps you shape your own, but gives you an alternate opinion as well. It’s call being an adult and becoming an educated person. You are a moron if you think everyone has to believe everything you do down to a tee.

Anyway, this book is well written, well thought out, follows a very interesting and engaging format and will help you understand the view of classical liberalism by pointing out the ridiculousness of the far left agenda and it bully tactics. Well worth the read, so don’t fool yourself and think the people who left a negative review actually READ this book. They didn’t, I guarantee and they are all part of the outrage mob that needs to just shut the eff up.

[Cameron Rogers · Rating 1 out of 5]

The guy manages to cram every single right-wing culture warrior trope into ~250 pages (Hitler was actually left-wing because he was a vegetarian, the left hates free speech etc...). At least similar hucksters, like Dinesh D'Souza, pick one topic and explore that for 250 pages. None of Rubin's points are fleshed out and they read like a laundry list of whiny grievances.

[Anwesh Satpathy · Rating 1 out of 5]

The thing about this book is that it ends as abruptly as it starts. I rarely give debut books one star because I understand the hard work that goes into writing a book, even a bad book. Well, everybody's pretty bad when they start, right? Yeah. But we are talking about an established talk show host here. Rubin's writing is irritating, immature and annoying, to say the least. Here's the thing:- I am not a conservative but I have read plenty of conservatives, including Peterson and Ben Shapiro. Though Shapiro's arguments are extremely bad and ill informed, his writing is often bearable(not his fiction tho). Same goes for Ann Coulter. None of these are as articulate as William F. Buckley Jr. and Thomas Sowell but at least they are making an argument. Their books has a structure. Rubin's book, OTOH, is all over the place. I didn't realize I was reading the last chapter until I actually finished it. And saw that the next page was "Acknowledgement". Rubin comes off as extremely insecure and unfunny in this book. He would toss out a random joke in the middle of nowhere and it'd make me roll my eyes like "WHAATTTT?" For instance, one of the section is titled "Embrace Parenthood" and it starts with this: -
*No I'm not talking about the Steve Martin Movie from 1989, Parenthood*
This felt totally out of place and it isn't the only place where Rubin does that.

There's a part on having a good fashion sense(dress better). Rubin pats himself on the back for having the perfect book cover. No, seriously. Here's what he says:-

"Should the match on the cover of this book be lit or should it not? Should the font be bolder or thinner...Just take a quick look at the cover of this book and you'll see what I'm talking about"
He then apologizes to the graphic designer at Penguin for sending 400 emails for demanding changes. "we really nailed it tho" He says. Uggh. I felt so embarrassed reading this twaddle.

He just tosses around arguments like they're self evident, claiming for instance, that religious stories are essential for human progress without ever tackling the argument from the opposition. And of course, Bible deserves the special mention. These are the antidote to the storm that's coming. And this is why Peterson's Biblical lecs have been watched a million times. Well, so has vids of Dawkins and Harris.

The point is that Rubin makes absolutely no attempt to seriously defend his views. He makes no coherent arguments. For instance, he casually mentions how Brigitte Gabriel gets hate from progressives who call her white supremacist and the splc, which labels her as a "hate group leader". Note that there's no citation for this whatsoever. And no arguments against it. We're just supposed to believe that she's being maliciously slandered. So, I went to the SPLC website. And found out that Gabriel claims Muslims cannot be loyal citizens of the US. Her organizations "March against Sharia" has attracted the support of actual Neo Nazis. SPLC has a long article on why ACT is designated as a hate group. Rubin, of course, is too lazy to read and argue against it.

Rubin assumes that the reader agrees with his statement on how the left's hell bent on destroying western civilization. He casually mentions how dangerous postmodernism is without ever explaining what exactly it is and what its thinkers say(thats coz Rubin, much like Peterson, hasn't read a single postmodernist). This book simply proved that Dave Rubin is dumb, unfunny and extremely confused. Lastly, its a book largely talking about first world problems. Rubin compares being a closeted conservative with being gay. Seriously? How stupid do you have to be to claim that? It was never illegal to be a conservative. It was illegal for gay people to be married tho. People are not ashamed of watching Fox News, you duncehead. Look at its ratings! Oh, this reminds me of his discussion on fake news. Its striking that he mentions how leftist channels spread fake news but refuses to touch on the fake news propaganda of Fox. Yes, leftists do spread fake news. But so does Fox news. Its a problem that news corporations in general have. Not a problem confined to leftists. If he had the patience to read "Manufacturing Consent"(Chomsky), he'd understand why. There is no nuance in any of his arguments. In fact, there are no arguments. Only statements.
How self obsessed does one have to be claim that this book is worth burning? No, Dave. No one's gonna burn your book, no matter how hard you try. Your book is just not worth it. Its not as revolutionary as you claim it to be. Its a badly written book preaching to the already converted. Oh boy, did I miss stuffs? Yes! I missed mentioning how he claims Hitler was a leftist coz Nazism is actually National socialism. Well, here's a fact check for you Dave. There's a difference between communism, socialism and Social democrats. Had to mention it first coz you keep conflating the terms, claiming that social democrats like Bernie are communists(*Rolls eyes*). And it was the Social Democratic Party of Germany which voted against Hitler. The conservative parties? They voted for him to become the dictator. Here's what the head of Social Democrats Otto Wels said then:-

*It this historic hour, we German Social Democrats pledge ourselves to the principles of humanity and justice, of freedom and socialism. No Enabling Act can give you the power to destroy ideas which are eternal and indestructible ... You can take our lives and our freedom, but you cannot take our honour. We are defenseless but not honourless.*

Surprised? All the left leaning socialists of Nazi party were killed in the Night of the Long Knives.Hitler's public speeches were ambiguous. However, his actions were mostly to preserve capitalists and nationalist. Just because the name has "Socialist" in it doesnt mean it is actually socialist. North Korea calls itself democratic too, dont forget. Read about Fuhrerprinzip.

Dave is also sad that Candace's comments were taken out of context. Then goes on to say that a Nazi wouldnt have dinner with a gay like him. Well, Dave, did u even listen to the comments? Even if you did, you wouldnt get it coz you're historically illiterate. Here are the comments:-

*Globalism is what I don't want, so when you think about whenever we say nationalism, the first thing people think about, at least in America, is Hitler. He was a national socialist. But if Hitler just wanted to make Germany great and have things run well, okay, fine. The problem is that he wanted, he had dreams outside of Germany. He wanted to globalize. He wanted everybody to be German, everybody to be speaking German. Everybody to look a different way. To me, that's not nationalism. In thinking about how we could go bad down the line, I don't really have an issue with nationalism. I really don't. I think that it's okay.*

that isn't the problem with Hitler. The problem with Hitler is that he was a racist not a globalist. He created laws which discriminated based on race. He murdered his opposition and attempted to eliminated an entire race. He killed millions of people, Candace. Millions of people. And you have no problem with that? Well, you probably forgot it.

Well, here, I'll stop coz its getting exhausting.

[Brett · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’m starting with 1 star. If he has 100 high level ideas I’ll bump him up to 2. I’m thinking this is a very important book so if it’s burned I’ll give him 1 more.

[Jonathan Leack · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book advocates for critical thought at a time when groupthink has become the status quo. There's a lot to like about this book, particularly the perspective of Dave Rubin who demonstrates a growing diversity of thought and background in a segment of society where many try to argue there is none. Most importantly, this is a book that discusses a rise in totalitarianism in America that has gone unchecked by mainstream media. The masses are waking up, and this book is one shining example of a bright future where ideas are celebrated.

[Mike (the Paladin) · Rating 5 out of 5]

My dad was a "southern democrat" (thank you Alabama [the singing group rather than the state here]). He could probably have been called a "Yellow Dog Democrat" (look it up if you never heard of it, it'll be good for you. As my teachers used to say if you look it up you'll remember it. And I didn't have the internet). The point in my mentioning my dad is that he would no more recognize today's "democrats" as Democrats than the other animals could tell the pigs apart from the humans by the end of the book (read Animal Farm).

The writer of this book is in much the same boat. He was a Democrat however he was finally forced to look at reality, smell the coffee and whatever other cliché you care to use and admit that he could no longer agree with what that party has become.

I (and many others) have been pointing out for years that we have "lost" the word liberal. Today's political left uses the word liberal as self identification while being as far from liberal as it's possible to be!

Liberal: adjective
1. willing to respect or accept behavior or opinions different from one's own; open to new ideas.

2.relating to or denoting a political and social philosophy that promotes individual rights, civil liberties, democracy, and free enterprise.

Think about.

Oh, and read the book...while thinking, really try to think.

[Perry · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you've been out of the loop with regards to the culture war, honestly this is a pretty good place to start. All your favorites are here, from IDW all-stars like Sam Harris and Jordan Peterson to lesser-known peddlers of discontent like James Damore and the Covington Catholic school boys. Each character, story, and idea receives a perfunctory analysis, decorated with a few platitudes (the left has are the real racists; facts don't care about your feelings; the woke mob is coming for anyone who disagrees with their orthodoxy) and sent on its way. Despite the last chapter consisting of a reminder to the reader to stay away from the fire and brimstone of eternal social media outrage and performative politics, most of this book reads like a series of tweets and hot takes. I was able to skim through the book in maybe a couple of hours. Some weighty topics, like climate change and the unique privileges and problems faced by Asian-Americans today, receive barely a page as Dave rushes to get the book over with and cash out.

In "Don't Burn This Book", Dave Rubin barely has any time to focus on any of the topics that constitute the classical liberal canon. He begins with a few words about the persecution he faces as a free-thinking firebrand (who quotes throughout the book mostly from guests on his show 'The Rubin Report', who in turn often misquote or manipulate statistics). He describes the struggle to find himself, first as a gay man, then as a merchant of grievance, and finally as a born-again adherent of a vaguely sketched semi-traditionalist religious doctrine and soon-to-be father. The journey seems to cause Rubin physical pain, as he describes his hair falling out due to the stress of political backlash for his swerve to the right. But he never doubts his path -- after all, he is firmly committed against doing the bare minimum research to push back on any of his (often conservative) guests' claims, and is therefore forced to accept some truly odious views no matter the evidence against it.

It feels useless to point out the sloppy argumentation here, because even Rubin doesn't seem too committed to any of it. For example, he cites the Fryer study that says that black people are 23% less likely to be shot by police than white men -- missing, of course, the fact that this a statement about people who are stopped by police in the first place, of whom the vast majority are black depending on where you are in America. That Fryer himself has pointed this out on numerous occasions will not slow down a man who is already strongly under the influence of the red pill. At another point in the book, Rubin laments that the top 1% pay 90% of tax revenue (which is clearly unfair!), without mentioning that, if his preferred 18% flat tax rate were instituted (and modified to include both income and assets), the wealthy would probably still pay a disproportionate amount of taxes solely due to the fact that they possess a disproportionate amount of wealth (about 70%). Elsewhere, it is claimed that the major threat to polar bears is hunters, not dehabitation due to climate change -- which, of course, is more of an indictment of poaching and hunting practices than it is proof against the dangers of warming in the Arctic (which is definitely occurring -- an incontrovertible fact that does not appear in Rubin's one page treatment of climate change).

Overall, "Don't Burn this Book" is a lazy attempt to make a few bucks off of a brand. The identity Rubin and his IDW colleagues sell and profit from is that of someone who believes themselves to be truly an individual apart from society -- but, to paraphrase a common saying, all these people are different in precisely the same way. This makes the book predictable, but in a way, kind of fun. It's an easy read that hastily builds up an incoherent worldview, but with a tone of such affability that the informed reader cannot help but smile at the audacity with which Dave Rubin plays the game. I have often been unsure whether Rubin really believes everything he's saying; now I think that he does, and he could not have ever turned out otherwise.

The last two chapters veer from politics to a sort of casual self-help. I actually pretty much enjoyed these bits, as it fills out the picture sketched out by the previous chapters, the portrait of the type of ordinary guy who, if he were born two decades later, could easily have ended up as a big fan of the Rubin Report. Dave is not an architect; he is a follower. And of his entire intellectual scene, I think that makes him the most likable -- only Dave could write these last two chapters in which he encourages his audience to chill out, take it easy, and stop thinking so hard.

Don't burn this book indeed, but yeah, you probably shouldn't buy it either.

[Jim Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Consider just this one paragraph taken from this book:

“…losing a debate isn’t a sign of stupidity or weakness, but a sign of growth if you’re willing to embrace it with humility.”

It was when I read that one sentence I realized that this book was indeed very special, at least to me .It is a book that as you read it, you find yourself putting the book down, taking a sip of your coffee, sitting back in your chair and not just think about what you have read, you truly think about what you have just read. Most books you just read, a sentence, a paragraph or a page, one at a time. This book I found impossible to do that with because it did make me want to think not only about what Rubin had written but more importantly how I felt about what he had written and I began to question my own beliefs about a lot of very topical subjects

Look at the sub-title of the book, “Thinking For Yourself In An Age of Unreason.” In my opinion Rubin has created a book that accomplishes that, it makes you think, maybe for the first time regarding some very important subjects.

As background, Rubin points out that he was born Jewish in a stable family life in the New York City area. Went to college and grew up like so many people from that part of the country having strong left, Liberal beliefs. Rubin also describes how he is gay and married. He draws a picture of someone people on the political right would describe as being Liberal thinking. But his beliefs have significantly changed in a relatively short-period of time. He explains how the change took place in this book and why the changes occurred. He talks about such subjects as abortion, minimum wage, racism, language, sexism, transgenderism, education, free speech, gun control, etc.

The value of this book can be summarized in the last two paragraphs of Chapter 9:

“You’ve never had such incredible power and reach. We have no idea how that awesome power has changed the world already and will continue to do so. So how are you going to use that power? What do you want to put out into the universe?”

“Begin your adventure now and you will be amazed at how you can change your world.”

Who should read this book? Since it would benefit everyone, everyone should read it but especially those who still believe in a perceived honesty of the news media.
Would I read it again? Probably not, the lessons of the book were well learned.
Would I give it as a gift? ABSOUTELY!

[Dominic Ambrozini · Rating 4 out of 5]

You will read reviews on this book saying it's good or bad, sadly most are written from a political standpoint. This book isn't based on a political spectrum.
What skews many people's review is Dave used to be an extreme liberal, still is a traditional liberal but he mentions how the democrat party is no longer progressive. He gives a funny and thought provoking view on it.
I'm a democrat. I was recommended this book by a friend, read it and loved it. I'm still a democrat but would've enjoyed it even if I wasn't. It isn't what this book is about, it's about free speech, about personal freedoms and it's written in a witty and funny way. I highly recommend this book to everyone.

[Christian Orton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Part memoir, part self-help, part political commentary, this book is one that should be passed around to help others understand on a broad, light scale what is going on right now in the world.

Don't let the 1-star reviews scare you off. They exist to actually prove Dave's point that we have become tribalistic again, seeking only to defend our political groups and causes rather than actually listening to (and God forbid learning FROM) others around us who don't always share the same views as we do. No doubt just from putting up a five star review I'm expecting a lot of attacks and mocking behavior in comments, again proving Dave's point. Even if those comments don't occur, the expectation of such behavior says how judgmental, and unwilling to grow, we've become as a culture.

Put simply, Dave's attempt with this book is to reach those independent thinkers who recognize the problems that progressivism, cable news, and the abdication of standards in journalism today has caused. And he's asking us to get over the fear of being honest and being yourself and commit to speaking your mind so that we are all better off.

It's even crazy that I feel the need to put a political disclaimer in a review, but just to give my review some context, I was a progressive for a couple of decades, before moving to my political homelessness perhaps best described as a belief that societies work best when the average maturity of the individual is high. Where humility and honesty trump the faux certainty and close-mindedness embraced by progressives and the far right. Yeah, that's a broad stance, but that's the point. Every necessary issue gets put through that filter and I get to weigh facts and evidence and decide without bias or without having to defend my tribe. It also means I reserve the right to become more sensible on a subject.

Anyway, buy the book. You won't agree with everything, I know I didn't. But the genuineness of Dave's desire to actually see society progress again (as opposed to the regression progressivism has brought) is palpable and infectious. It's a book ripe to be read in a community like a book club and one to prompt fun decisions.

And hopefully Chapter 9 will give you enough intrigue to check out Jordan Peterson's works as well, which has transformed so many lives (unless you're one of those people who really believe the lies thrown out by progressive media in order to attempt to discredit his influence in the most juvenile way possible; seriously read "12 Rules", it's a GameChanger).

Like I said, this is not a heavy or comprehensive work designed to win every argument. It's a simple work (and there's a necessity for those!) that is meant as encouragement for you to be yourself and seek truth. It's a push, not the answer. The answer is in the journey to finding out who you are, which cannot happen if you're afraid to speak your mind. Get after it!

[Brian Story · Rating 1 out of 5]

Propaganda, pure and simple. Don’t burn the book, but it will turn your brain to mush.

[Hunter · Rating 1 out of 5]

No mention of Sam Seder. Sad!

[Bob Jack · Rating 1 out of 5]

The dial of ideas has certainly turned to the hot position.

One star.

[Oli Kiddle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Having read the hyperbolic blurb, one would think that the book would present genuine tools for critical thinking. In reality, however, the book is little more than a pamphlet of bog-standard platitudes, dripping with an odd sense of deluded grandeur and bitterness. Rubin himself states at the beginning that ‘you don't need me to go for 250 pages about how the left has completely lost his mind….You already know this'. At this point you know the book will be a 'reassuring' read for some as Jordan Peterson calls it on the front cover.

One is reminded of fictional chat show host Alan Partridge and his characteristic lack of self-awareness and incompetence. In fact, Rubin uses a modified Partridge ‘denial/The Nile’ joke in the book, one of many excruciating moments reminiscent of his terrible dalliance with standup comedy.

The book is written in a smug, folksy tone that is common for right leaning books and online videos. Filled with the same lack of insight that has made him a target for ridicule online, Rubin skips through a series of topics, applying puddle-deep levels of analysis and reeling off one platitude after another. ‘I believe the classically liberal approach to abortion comes down to if and when one personally decides it’s OK to have an abortion’, ‘Democrats aren’t necessarily “good” and Republicans aren’t inherently “bad’, ‘When it comes to foreign policy, we need a strong military. Period.’ This kind of freethinking is the new counterculture, exclaims Rubin.

The irony of lambasting identity politics and cancel culture will not be lost on people that have followed his career: Rubin is prone to cancelling chats at short notice when finding out the guest or journalist has offered honest criticism and Rubin refuses to debate leftists after being badly exposed on the Joe Rogan Experience. His ‘stand-up’ comedy dealt in identity politics almost exclusively.

No one will burn this book- it’s not controversial or well written enough to be subversive or a target. It is not even factually correct (Ukraine is not part of NATO, Dave). The fact this book was published at all is a testament to the fact we live in an age of unreason.

[James Walsh · Rating 1 out of 5]

The dial of ideas is quickly being turned to the hot position

[Pepega · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just one of the awesome quotes from this book: "This aside, much of our foreign military intervention has been good - just look at Korea, Vietnam, and both World Wars, where our contribution secured much-needed freedoms."

WE LOST THE VIETNAM WAR DAVE GOD THIS IS EMBARRASSING

[Jonathan Bascom · Rating 1 out of 5]

Full of the most high-level, iDeAs the Koch brothers could buy! The author converted to feudal corporate “libertarianism” for money; imagine the losers who do it for free.
I’m sure people who are already Rubin fans will love it, since they can’t get through Atlas Shrugged without their brains going into recovery mode. 250 pages of talk about iDeAs, only there are no actual ideas. There’s a reason all these grifters only ever debate nervous college kids..

[Marco Lizarraga · Rating 1 out of 5]

Please, I beg of you, if you want to think freely or you consider yourself to be apolitical, this book is not for you. You want to seriously learn more about politics and be more of a "free thinker"? I suggest going to Khan Academy and taking their courses in economics and finance. They have a section under their MCAT course, with things on behavior, sociology, culture, and inequality. In their partner courses, they have a great mini-course on philosophy as well. A little bit of course work (basically just videos and you can do the questions if you want) every day, will you give an ESSENTIAL foundation for critical thinking and analyzing politics. For a broad, general overview of any subject, I suggest Wikipedia. I know what you're going to say, but for most things, Wikipedia can provide a great unbiased overview, laying out the basics on almost any subject or event, with sources for further reading linked at the bottom. Read articles in places like Bloomberg and the Associated Press for (about as unbiased as you can get) reporting of current events. For good political op-eds, check your Wall Street Journals's, New York Times's, etc. Always go to the source if any of these outlets report on reports, and type in the name of the report to see if it's taken similarly across other outlets or if there are any critiques of the interpretations or the methodology. If a study is behind a paywall, copy the link, and paste it into the search bar on Sci-Hub. If you don't know a word, look it up. Be willing to do a bit of reading and once you start developing positions and arguments, make sure to challenge yourself by searching up opposition arguments, or, just play devil's advocate in a pretend convo with yourself. Do all these things often and consistently enough, and you'll start to not only become more fact-based and hold more and more sound arguments, but it'll change the way you critically think about everything. THIS is how you truly think freely. ;)

HOWEVER, if you want to be indoctrinated into a way of viewing the world that will make it so you DON'T think freely about almost anything important, but rather, view everything from a conspiracy theory/victim mentality, then read this book. Cover to cover, every page, soak it all in. Studies have shown, that after controlling for various factors, such as prior intelligence, age, gender, race, emotional state, amount of sleep received the night prior, etc. your IQ will actually drop to around ROOM temperature after just TEN minutes of reading this pathetic attempt at a manifesto by Rave Dubin. If you jerk off to five minute Prager Poo videos, "Ben Shapiro DESTROYS..."clips, twenty-minute Steven Clowner videos screeching about trans people being mentally ill, and believe the authoritarian, virtue signaling, beta males and blue-haired feminists are taking over western civilization, then this book will serve as a FANTASTIC cum rag after you finishing jerking to all of that. A moron like you will love it.

[Tim Moran · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book had some fantastic ideas and was presented in an entertaining manner. Ignore all the 1 star reviews... clearly bombing the ratings on purpose due to political reasons.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Part biography, part blueprint for a future that's firmly rooted in the individual rather than the collective, this book details the current madness of the Left and, more important, give you the intellectual tools to figure out who you really are - and with whom you will ally - in these crazy, confusing times. It's a road map back to sane, balanced thinking that's liberal in the historical sense, regardless of your political persuasion." -- on page 7

It can be a political minefield when posting a review on a divisive book such as this, and I'm also not looking forward to getting 'trolled' or lit up by some verbal flamethrower via comments. Although I was mostly unfamiliar with author Rubin beforehand, I liked the straightforward and easygoing style of his Don't Burn This Book (also, quite the attention-getting title), a quick and lively 200-page read on American political differences / talking points during the 21st century. Published four years ago, it still seems as relevant as ever with the U.S. currently heading into the presidential election season.

[Jesus Sa. · Rating 1 out of 5]

The writing style is horrible with very simplistic sentences and words of a middle-school student. The book has no analysis or storytelling. It conveys NOTHING! The author repeats all his boring talking points: points he repeats every week on his show. The book is so bad, you would think there was no ghostwriter, but given the level of laziness we always see in Dave, I still think there was a ghostwriter, but of course, Dave was unable to detect the obvious bad job by his ghostwriter. Don't forget Dave's husband has been researching and writing all the materials for the show for years, and Dave is just a front guy.

Before going to book, let's see who the author is: on his show, Dave Rubin first claimed that he's a liberal and wants to clean his side, all the while attacking liberals and giving a platform to alt-right figures. Then, he claimed he's a libertarian and wants no government. Yet, he supports all the GOP views. No wonder! He is funded by the right-wing hedge funds (e.g. Koch brothers). He is an Atheist, but recently he claims he's no longer an Atheist: things he does for money and followers!

What's wrong with the book? To say the least:
- Dave claims "the left defended" the Charlie hebdo attackers?? But forgot to give an example.
- Dave describes how "leaving the left" caused him to lose the hair on his private part!
- Child-level jingoism: he says something along the line that America is the greatest country in the world, and if you don't think so, you're triggered and look at all the other dictators...

[Mark Koschwitz · Rating 1 out of 5]

Save your money. Follow his Twitter and watch his interviews if you like his point of view. What's in this book is no deeper than a tweet and he's apparently a much better interviewer than writer.

[WillemC · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this ironically (free epub online) so I knew what to expect, but still, one of the most stupid books I've ever read. And it's also quite boring, but fortunately it's a quick read. Here are some philosophical highlights, courtesy of Dave "IDEAZZZZ" Rubin:

- He praises Orwell in a book that pushes a "socialism/leftism is bad and stupid and racist and authoritarian" narrative.
- He doesn't understand the difference between sex and gender or how puberty blockers work.
- He mentions philosophers that he probably didn't read (Locke, Mill, ...), doesn't quote them.
- He accuses "the Left" of having a superficial "conservative = bad, progressive = good" worldview, while his book does almost exactly the same thing.
- Taxes = the government stealing from you.
- Compares the Christian baker who refused to bake a cake for a gay wedding to a black church refusing to hos a white supremacist event...
- Only mentions CNN, NBC, Buzzfeed, Vox, ... when talking about fake news. Why not Fox News? Is it because Dave is a frequent contributor on Fox?
- He claims "the Left" is for open borders, while ignoring the fact that Bernie Sanders for example was against.
- He doesn't understand that patriarchy is bad for men too. His message: Feminism is useless because men's suicide rates are higher, etc...
- If you want to criticise a country you live in, you should either keep your mouth shut or move. Then he criticises countries you could move to: Norway, Switzerland are too expensive to live in for Americans, forgets that wages are also higher there.
- "Sweden is Europe's rape capital because refugees": Dave didn't do research: Sweden has a very broad legal definition of rape => Sweden has always been the "rape capital". It all depends on how you legally define "rape".
- Strawmanning: left-wing politics = North-Korea and fetishising abortion.
- Sentences that start with: "Sensible people know that X is true..." and "We are constantly told that ..." without any arguments whatsoever.
- The US is the best country on earth because of the First Ammendment: ignores that US doesn't feature in the top 20 in the 2020 World Press Freedom Index. Rubin also ignores that Trump created anti-BDS laws...
- He doesn't understand that the party platforms in the US switched: so we get the old "Democrats were pro-slavery and started the KKK" talking point again...
- Compares people suffering from gender dysphoria with a child wanting to be a robot.
- He doesn't understand what postmodern means.
- He says a 15$ minimum wage is stupid but doesn't explain why, then he says taxes should be 18% and the government should be reduced by 33%, without explaining how or why.
- He says socialists like Bernie who are anti-war will eventually bring about war, without explaining why or how.
- White people in the US are the real victims of racism.
- He hates identity politics but tells his readers that he is a gay Jew, so therefore it's impossible for them to be Nazis.
- The old "The Nazis were socialists" bullshit: "Hitler was an art-loving vegetarian" = socialist
- The huge growth of the earth's population = proof that famine is not that much of a problem anymore.
- Jay-Z and Oprah are rich so America doesn't suffer from racism anymore.

And I could go on and on and on ... "Don't Burn This Book" is a collection of mostly unsubstantiated or previously debunked claims.

[Yimin Huang · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very important and relevant book for people to read today.