In Defense of Elitism: Why I'm Better Than You and You Are Better Than Someone Who Didn't Buy This Book

In Defense of Elitism: Why I'm Better Than You and You Are Better Than Someone Who Didn't Buy This Book

by Joel Stein
In Defense of Elitism: Why I'm Better Than You and You Are Better Than Someone Who Didn't Buy This Book

In Defense of Elitism: Why I'm Better Than You and You Are Better Than Someone Who Didn't Buy This Book

by Joel Stein

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Overview

Experience a "brilliant exploration" (Walter Isaacson) of America's political culture war and a hilarious call to arms for the elite, with three chapters on foibles of the pandemic era.

"I can think of no one more suited to defend elitism than Stein, a funny man with hands as delicate as a baby full of soft-boiled eggs." —Jimmy Kimmel, host of Jimmy Kimmel Live!

The night Donald Trump won the presidency, our author Joel Stein, Thurber Prize finalist and former staff writer for Time Magazine, instantly knew why. The main reason wasn't economic anxiety or racism. It was that he was anti-elitist. Hillary Clinton represented Wall Street, academics, policy papers, Davos, international treaties and the people who think they're better than you. People like Joel Stein. Trump represented something far more appealing, which was beating up people like Joel Stein.

In a full-throated defense of academia, the mainstream press, medium-rare steak, and civility, Joel Stein fights against populism. He fears a new tribal elite is coming to replace him, one that will fend off expertise of all kinds and send the country hurtling backward to a time of wars, economic stagnation and the well-done steaks doused with ketchup that Trump eats.

To find out how this shift happened and what can be done, Stein spends a week in Roberts County, Texas, which had the highest percentage of Trump voters in the country. He goes to the home of Trump-loving Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams; meets people who create fake news; and finds the new elitist organizations merging both right and left to fight the populists. All the while using the biggest words he knows.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781455591459
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Publication date: 04/13/2021
Pages: 400
Sales rank: 523,770
Product dimensions: 5.30(w) x 8.00(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

About The Author
Joel Stein grew up in Edison, N.J., and went to Stanford. From 1997-2017 he was a staff writer for Time magazine, writing a regular humor column and more than a dozen cover stories; he was also the back page columnist for Entertainment Weekly and the opinion section of The Los Angeles Times. He has contributed to Bloomberg Businessweek, GQ, Esquire, the New Yorker, Food & Wine, Travel + Leisure,The New York Times Book Review,Elle, andMen's Health.

Stein was a Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton and has appeared as a talking head on television shows such as Real Time with Bill Maher, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and VH1's I Love The '80s. He's interviewed celebrities for HBO, Cinemax, and Comedy Central. In addition to writing on staff for two television shows, he created an animated show for VH1 (Hey Joel) and wrote six network pilots. His 2012 book, Man Made: A Stupid Quest For Masculinity, was a bestseller, and Fox hired him to adapt it as a film script. He's currently writing for the upcoming show American Princess produced by Jenji Kohan — best known as the creator of Showtime comedy-drama series Weeds and Netflix series Orange is the New Black.

Table of Contents

Introduction xv

Part I The Populists 1

In which our author bravely takes on 600 of the enemy with nothing besides his wits, which is particularly impressive since they all have guns.

Chapter 1 Flippin' Whippy 3

Chapter 2 Baptist Row 14

Chapter 3 Underthinking 34

Chapter 4 I Was Sent Here by God 49

Chapter 5 The Table of Knowledge 55

Chapter 6 Canadian Key Parties 70

Chapter 7 An Unclean Spirit 83

Chapter 8 The 33 Party 95

Part II The Elites 103

In which our author gets invited to a secret society that controls the world and his wife finds it boring.

Chapter 9 Resistance Dinner Parties 105

Chapter 10 The Loop 113

Chapter 11 Puppet Pig 132

Part III The Populist Elites 145

In which our author debates a famous cartoonist, dances with Tucker Carlson, and offends anyone who has ever owned a boat.

Chapter 12 Dilbert 147

Chapter 13 Care Actors 165

Chapter 14 A Meme Guy 176

Chapter 15 Littering on the Death Star 185

Chapter 16 Son of Fidel Castro 199

Chapter 17 The Boat Elite 204

Chapter 18 Tucker 216

Part IV The Elite Populists 241

In which our author recruits a person society has afforded no opportunities into the elite, partially by buying him a burrito. Okay, mostly the burrito.

Chapter 19 The Time Travel Mart 243

Part V Saving the Elite 257

In which our author creates a new, unbeatable party out of the elite left and elite right to save society, and spends far too much time coming up with a catchy slogan for it.

Chapter 20 The Meeting of the Concerned 259

Chapter 21 I Said, "Good Day, Sir!" 276

Chapter 22 The Love Dare 285

Epilogue - Needing the Elite 301

Chapter 23 Toilet Paper and Haircuts 303

Chapter 24 Drive-in Church 325

Chapter 25 Adult Rumors 344

Acknowledgments 373

In which our author acknowledges that, as with all acknowledgments, there is no reason to read this one unless you believe you might he acknowledged.

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