To save the world, Joel Stein has written a call to arms for the elite. Not actual arms, since the elite don’t think people should have those, but metaphorical arms, which are the type of arms that will be useless against the populists’ arms, which are real arms. Which is why he is not standing up to the populists in person but in print, where none of them will know about it. In Defense Of Elitism is a rant against the deification of “the gut” over expertise. Stein spends five days in Roberts County, Texas, the county with the highest percentage of Trump voters. He talks to the Dilbert creator and Trump supporter Scott Adams, as well as Never Trumpers including Bill Kristol. He infiltrates secret elitist societies by cleverly accepting their invitations. He talks to worried tech billionaire Reid Hoffman and comforts doctors frustrated by patients who argue with their diagnoses based on skimming one WebMD article. He spends a day with L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti, seeing what would happen if Stein, a totally untrained, unknowledgeable outsider, ran the city. And he does it all while using really big words with unsurpassed pulchritude.
Nonfiction
In Defense of Elitism: Why I’m Better Than You and You are Better Than Someone Who Didn’t Buy This Book
- From the Publisher
September 1, 2019
Discussion Questions
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