Chattering Class War: Punching Pundits from Chait to Chapo and Brooks to Breitbart

I finished this book after a couple of hours -- it is a swift and easy read. I was skeptical when I bought this book, as frequently media figures mistake their interpersonal conflicts and dramas as the entirety of national discourse, but that's not what this book is. Every example of a stupid pundits bad argument is simply the case study for larger limitations and hypocrisies in American politics, limitations that frequently end in violence and injustice. It was also amusing and I did laugh. If you're frustrated that every pundit who boosted Iraq is still gainfully employed, I'd recommend this book.

I have been looking forward to this since I read the piece about Jordan Peterson last month. I didn't like the piece about Krugman much, I thought it was petty, but the ones about the anti-feminism of the "dirtbag left" were great and I much appreciated the commentary about Steven Pinker, Jesse Singal and J. D. Vance.

Probably the most entertaining part of Chattering Class War is the early sections, where you can see Noah Berlatsky grow increasingly exasperated with Jonathan Chait over the course of about 6 years. This is not to say that it's not entertaining in general- Berlatsky is if nothing else a thinker and watching him grapple with ill-thought-out punditry is always a joy to read even when you're getting some of the punching by implication. But watching the inadvertent development of a theme from collecting essays written over a period of time is fascinating.

Excellent book! Well written and focused on the top issues in the U.S. today. An excellent learning tool as well..

As someone who thoroughly enjoys reading Noah Berlatsky for his prose and style, even when I disagree ("Your Favorite Superhero Sucks" is a great collection, but I still like my favorite superhero), a collection like this was an immediate preorder for me. And since the market continues to award columns and prestige to people with an aversion to introspection, "Chattering Class War" is a necessary and altogether important entry in the discourse on punditry.Berlatsky takes a number of people to task for their fallacious arguments, from Jesse Singal's weird incoherent defense of Tuvel's transracialism article, or at least the backlash, to Freddie deBoer's strangely antagonistic attack on the idea that there is value in progressive signaling (when there is some evidence that people, in their attempt to be consistent, will take up progressive causes if they vocalize support for them). And that's not even the best stuff (Berlatsky does his best work in addressing the so-called Dirtbag Left)! I highly recommend this collection.

Have you, too, suffered under the crushing weight of some blowhard discrediting Leftists with his very (and very thinkpiece-ey) existence? You cannot unhinge your jaw and swallow their entire Twitter feed whole, purifying the world of its hot takes, but CHANCES ARE Berlatsky dunks on the idiot in question in this excellent book, and you can derive some vicarious satisfaction from that. Pull up a chair, crumple up some shitty Op-Eds and make baskets with 'em in the circular file, and warm the seething black coal you call a heart by reading Chattering Class War until you're delighted enough to forget, for one glorious moment, various emoji and their baleful signifieds.

This was the perfect little book to carry with me on my phone and read a chapter whenever I had 2-3 minutes to spare. It was also a nice historical review of the past decade: the brutality with a calm face representing Obamas drone war, mass shootings, liberals who do nothing but talk, leftists who lack humanity or sufficient solidarity. Trump comes more to the fore over time.You should read this book. If nothing else, the writing is skillful and the content to dollar ratio is excellent.

This cogent fascinating book of essays takes on pundits from all perspectives and gives a new slant to their pontification. Not only that but in places it is downright funny (e.g. in the essay on lobsters and their shoulders...which you might notice they don’t have...and that is the very point!)

Loved it, especially the parts about Chapo Trap House. You put into words why I never really got into them, it was their failure to use feminism as a critical tool, and tedious one note analyses. I hadn't really paid attention to a couple of the pundits mentioned such as Freddie de Boer and Andrew Sullivan, in that I read some of their work, but their names didn't really register with me, so thanks for putting those into perspective too.