Wingnuts: A Field Guide to Everyday Extremism in America

by David Michael Slater

Do NOT read this book if you want your passionate convictions admired or your enemy’s stupidity mocked. Do NOT read this book if you have emotionally charged reactions to hot-button topics like trigger warnings, cancel culture, patriotism, fake news, internet thought police, and gun control.

But if you ARE ready to think rationally and calmly about the opinions you hold as well as those held by your antagonists, it’s time to read Wingnuts.

Pithy, humorous, and chock-full of shockingly commonsense wisdom, David Michael Slater strikes blow after devastating blow against the unreasonable thinking that now dominates our most critical political & cultural conversations.

Conservatives and liberals, righties and lefties, Democrats and Republicans, all come in for an equal-opportunity flogging in this book on political freedom. In it, Slater identifies forty vitally important social ideas and compellingly articulates how and why they’ve been hijacked by three types of extremists.

If his clarion call for a return to compromise in “the radical center” inspires enough people, it might just save democracy itself.

136 pages, Paperback

Published May 4, 2021

About the author

David Michael Slater is an acclaimed author of over 40 books of fiction and nonfiction for children, teens, and adults.

Reviews

[Linda Levy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wingnuts is a witty, thought-provoking look at some of the hot topics currently dividing logical and not-so-logical thinkers - kind of a "Social Issues For Dummies". The chapters are short (usually 2-3 pages), each following the Good Idea/Extreme Idea/Wingnut Enabler format. At just 112 pages, Wingnuts can easily be read in one sitting. I preferred to savor it, reading and digesting just a few chapters at each sitting. While I would have preferred to identify only with the 'Good Idea' sections, I had to admit that the chapter on Triggers was eye-opening for me - and led me to initiate a long-overdue conversation with someone with extreme ideas on the subject whom I had been enabling. Some other highlights for me included the short quotes at the beginning of each chapter; the crucial yet often misunderstood distinction between equality and equity; and the overall feeling of being in a favorite Sociology 101 class.

It's likely that this book will cause you too to think about some of your beliefs around current social issues in a new light, and question your ideas in a way you haven't before. Either way, the end result of reading Wingnuts is a win-win: if your beliefs don't always align with each chapter's 'Good Ideas', you'll have gained some valuable insight; if it turns out that you aren't at all 'wingnutty', you'll have been both validated and entertained by Slater's relevant and often irreverent observations.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved Wingnuts for making me agree with a strong fervour to some points and disagree with equal enthusiasm to others. I can't say it enough....everyone needs to read this book as a mirror to all our ideas. All the points explained by author David Michael Slater made me acknowledge that so many good ideas are taken too far. This conundrum, created by Slater with both humour and straight-talking, feels like he has sat down to many a family dinners listening to the arguments between parents and kids or brothers and sisters or sat in the local cafe listening to the locals or in the a dark booth in the neighbourhood bar. People from both the left and the right need to read this book to help reach the middle ground and move forward. I laughed, cringed, nodded in agreement , and shook my head in astonishment. Read this book and use it to take a look at how you are becoming extreme without realising it.

I received an advanced copy for an honest review.

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wingnuts is a reasonable, clear-headed look at how polarized we've become around generally good ideas and how we can avoid letting the wingnuts take over the conversation, even in our own minds. Some topics I had to admit I leaned towards wingnuttery myself and found the book helped me let my reason prevail. Slater's sense of humor helped cushion the blow to my pride when confronted with ideas I had that were a bit nonsensical.

Reading Wingnuts is like opening the windows on a nice spring day and letting in the fresh air, then seeing how much dust there is to clean away! It's book is a good dust-buster! Everyone should read this book to gain awareness of the wingnut ideas that divide us and the broad core of common sense that unites us.

[Lorrena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Common sense is not very common

Some viewpoints seem reasonable until you follow the implications to their logical conclusions. As we see society becoming increasingly politically polarized, it seems wise to take a closer look at the polar extremes. It's always been amazing how people can process the same information and draw such radically different conclusions. Maybe both conclusions are wrong?

Wingnuts plays fair on a level arena of ideas. You will most definitely not see anything like this in the media or your favorite confirmation bias website. The most worthwhile read on all the hotbutton issues everyone is so worked up about. Both sides of the aisle would benefit immensely!