Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries voted on by conservatives

[Q Classic]

I can see the conservative beef with Silent Spring - it did, after all, lead to the banning of DDT, and many people have accused the DDT ban of causing the resurgence of malaria. Similarly, I can see the problem conservatives would have with most of the books listed. It's obviously not meant to be a very objective list of books, folks - the conservative perspective is obvious.

my beef isn't whether it's biased or not--it is--it's more the fact that they used the word "harmful" to describe these books.

they're not dangerous to people, and hell, they're not even dangerous ideas. they just disagree with these putzes is all.

[DerSchwarzfalke]

Here are a couple of tellingly absurd quotes.

From the Kinsey Report 'summary' ...
"The reports were designed to give a scientific gloss to the normalization of promiscuity and deviancy."

Interesting worldview, as if promiscuity and sexual deviance were not as old as recorded history -- and presumably older.

The Feminine Mystique is then derided because its author was a "left-wing journalist" and not a stay at home mother, as if that in any way diminishes her thesis. Upton Sinclair was not a meatpacker; does that diminish The Jungle at all?

And the inclusion of On Liberty as an honorable mention is just too weird for me to handle. Can someone here explain that to me?

[Peter Triggs]

IIRC, J.S. Mill was Baroness Thatcher's favourite political philosopher.

Does that make her a closet pinko?

[Agathon]

It would make me laugh if they had one of Ayn Rand's books on their "good" list, since she stole from Nietzsche.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by DerSchwarzfalke
Here are a couple of tellingly absurd quotes.

From the Kinsey Report 'summary' ...
"The reports were designed to give a scientific gloss to the normalization of promiscuity and deviancy."

Interesting worldview, as if promiscuity and sexual deviance were not as old as recorded history -- and presumably older.

The Feminine Mystique is then derided because its author was a "left-wing journalist" and not a stay at home mother, as if that in any way diminishes her thesis. Upton Sinclair was not a meatpacker; does that diminish The Jungle at all?

And the inclusion of On Liberty as an honorable mention is just too weird for me to handle. Can someone here explain that to me?

[Agathon]

Mill? Darwin? Keynes?

And people get at me when I say conservatives are daft and that this is the reason they don't do well in academia.

I think The Wealth of Nations has had somewhat of a pernicious influence even though its author would not have agreed with many of the things done in its name, but I wouldn't put it on a list of most harmful books.

[Locutus]

Clearly, the most harmful book of the 20th century is Lord of the Rings. That's like over 1,500 pages. Hit someone over the head with that and it hurts like hell! I bet you could kill a man with it

[Kuciwalker]

Mill is an incredibly odd choice.

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by Q Cubed
they're not dangerous to people, and hell, they're not even dangerous ideas. they just disagree with these putzes is all.

Welcome to the land of fanatics, where disagreement with one's position is tantamount to being a communist traitor. See, Ann Coulter isn't quite the anomaly many people think she is...

[The Emperor Fabulous]

She's as horse-faced as we think, though...

[The Emperor Fabulous]

Das Kapital forces the round peg of capitalism into the square hole of Marx’s materialistic theory of history, portraying capitalism as an ugly phase in the development of human society in which capitalists inevitably and amorally exploit labor by paying the cheapest possible wages to earn the greatest possible profits

Wait...they don't?

[Dextrose]

Maybe you should read about Kinsey's work with pedophiles and his "experiments" with children. While you're at it, why don't you read up on why the Indiana University still hasn't released all the files from Kinsey's experiments and then ask why Kinsey's book is on there. The people responding on here that Kinsey was some sort of revolutionary figure that ushered in a new era are either liars, ignorant of Kinsey's experiments, or flat out in denial. It amazes me that to this day with all the data on how Kinsey's experiments were done and who they were conducted on, places like Holywood hail him as this patron saint of the people. Yes, I know, I must be part of the religious right trying to impose my medieval morality on you. Too bad I am an atheist and last I checked morality wasn't created by God or by any number of the false relgions out there. It was created by the human ability to discern right from wrong and contemplate ideas of good and evil. All you moral relativists out there that say Kinsey wasn't evil and that there is no such thing as evil are simply in denial of a human trait that precedes religion itself.

[Kuciwalker]

[Urban Ranger]

[Kuciwalker]