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saeede83's review against another edition
2.0
a long rant to complain about hipster elite, Obama, abortion laws, healthcare, etc. The arguments are often unfounded.
kimball_hansen's review against another edition
4.0
4.5 stars. Excellent book and very witty. Reminds me of [b:You Are Not Special and Other Encouragements|18144586|You Are Not Special and Other Encouragements|David McCullough Jr.|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1382354790s/18144586.jpg|25493432]. This was written just for me. My only complaint is that sometimes he'd refer to things that both really were cool and not cool as cool. I wished he had used a different word or clarified each time what really was cool. For the most part in my notes, being cool is not cool. It means you're being an idiot.
The narrator, [a:Steve Kramer|5668765|Steve Kramer|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png], was fun, despite the author not narrating it (not cool, Greg).
Let's get to my random notes that this guy talked about:
The more a group of people try to reveal the more they're trying to fit in. All cool is just a form of conformity. And it is always at the expense of others.
Cool are generally liberal.
Being cool means not caring and not caring means inevitable decline. And cool tells people that it's awesome.
The definition of cool is popularity without achievement. That's why all the young voters voted for Obama. And that's the only reason why he won. Right place at the right time.
Saying 'that's life' is uncool. Stress is now a word used to describe things that was previously known to as life. <<<<< *This* It irritates me the level of anxiety and "stress" that we have in this dang country. Besides the tiny exceptions to the rule, all ya'll are just going through life. Quit trying to be cool and fit in so you can have your stress/anxiety label to get sympathy. And turn off Neflix and limit your social media. There goes your stress/anxiety.
Cool is just a cooler word for liar.
Five factors that give a job prestige:
-Importance of the tasks performed.
-The level of authority the job gives you.
-The know-how required in doing said job.
-The Dignity of the tasks required.
-And the money made from doing the work.
The first sinister strategy of the cool is to denegrate you if you refuse to be cool.
Cool is a evolutionary tool to unzip women's jeans and to further men's genes.
Real coolness is based on the prioritization of caring. The truly cool person reserves effort for those closest to him.
Social consciousness gets in everyone's business while their private lives go to beep. The more people care about something far far away the less they care about their mediate surroundings. Yes, amen to this.
Fame is as close as you get to achieving immortality. Lots of people knowing you is the next best thing as a Deity knowing you.
Heaven can't compete with the immediacy of instantaneous gratification.
Blacks want to be cool because if they're not and they actually try in school and learn then it means they are successful. And successful is often equated by being white and they'd be betraying their race if they went down that route. I bet Ben Carson would agree.
Haha he hates Michael Moore and Matt Damon.
I didn't realize that the Boston bomber was so praised and idealized.
As a stigma is erased it's behavior becomes more prevalent.
That's neat he regrets not having joined the military when he was younger. Me too. And he made fun of the "it gets better campaign." Yeah everyone forgot about that one huh.
When you bring up exceptions as the examples you're on the losing side of the debate.
Yes he's right, it's bigoted to think that people can't handle the truth.
I didn't know Ariel Castro's neighbor also did crazy stuff.
The younger you have beep the sooner you peak in just about everything (not the good kind of peaking either. You grow old too fast.)
The media, Washington, and Academia are all populated by the cool.
The media sees religion as competition to government. Government is media with a military.
He knew Barry bonds in high school?
The narrator, [a:Steve Kramer|5668765|Steve Kramer|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png], was fun, despite the author not narrating it (not cool, Greg).
Let's get to my random notes that this guy talked about:
The more a group of people try to reveal the more they're trying to fit in. All cool is just a form of conformity. And it is always at the expense of others.
Cool are generally liberal.
Being cool means not caring and not caring means inevitable decline. And cool tells people that it's awesome.
The definition of cool is popularity without achievement. That's why all the young voters voted for Obama. And that's the only reason why he won. Right place at the right time.
Saying 'that's life' is uncool. Stress is now a word used to describe things that was previously known to as life. <<<<< *This* It irritates me the level of anxiety and "stress" that we have in this dang country. Besides the tiny exceptions to the rule, all ya'll are just going through life. Quit trying to be cool and fit in so you can have your stress/anxiety label to get sympathy. And turn off Neflix and limit your social media. There goes your stress/anxiety.
Cool is just a cooler word for liar.
Five factors that give a job prestige:
-Importance of the tasks performed.
-The level of authority the job gives you.
-The know-how required in doing said job.
-The Dignity of the tasks required.
-And the money made from doing the work.
The first sinister strategy of the cool is to denegrate you if you refuse to be cool.
Cool is a evolutionary tool to unzip women's jeans and to further men's genes.
Real coolness is based on the prioritization of caring. The truly cool person reserves effort for those closest to him.
Social consciousness gets in everyone's business while their private lives go to beep. The more people care about something far far away the less they care about their mediate surroundings. Yes, amen to this.
Fame is as close as you get to achieving immortality. Lots of people knowing you is the next best thing as a Deity knowing you.
Heaven can't compete with the immediacy of instantaneous gratification.
Blacks want to be cool because if they're not and they actually try in school and learn then it means they are successful. And successful is often equated by being white and they'd be betraying their race if they went down that route. I bet Ben Carson would agree.
Haha he hates Michael Moore and Matt Damon.
I didn't realize that the Boston bomber was so praised and idealized.
As a stigma is erased it's behavior becomes more prevalent.
That's neat he regrets not having joined the military when he was younger. Me too. And he made fun of the "it gets better campaign." Yeah everyone forgot about that one huh.
When you bring up exceptions as the examples you're on the losing side of the debate.
Yes he's right, it's bigoted to think that people can't handle the truth.
I didn't know Ariel Castro's neighbor also did crazy stuff.
The younger you have beep the sooner you peak in just about everything (not the good kind of peaking either. You grow old too fast.)
The media, Washington, and Academia are all populated by the cool.
The media sees religion as competition to government. Government is media with a military.
He knew Barry bonds in high school?
maxwelldemay's review
1.0
1 / 4 : If interested, read
[Fox News guy sprinkles in opinions on the Culture War]
Not smart, not funny, and not particularly original. Reads like the author sat down, did a three minute rant about whatever was on his mind that day, and publishing gave it the greenlight.
Really hung up on that Tsarnaev Rolling Stone cover, if you want an idea of this book's relevance.
[Fox News guy sprinkles in opinions on the Culture War]
Not smart, not funny, and not particularly original. Reads like the author sat down, did a three minute rant about whatever was on his mind that day, and publishing gave it the greenlight.
Really hung up on that Tsarnaev Rolling Stone cover, if you want an idea of this book's relevance.
slferg's review
5.0
Loooooved this book. Gutfeld express so well things that I have thought but have not been able to say so well. He does have a way with words. He looks hard a the weak criteria for cool and the scorn and abuse heaped on those who don't follow the crowd blindly. I have wondered for the last several years why celebrities, movie stars, etc. are supposed to have some secret knowledge about the truth of things. They have studied acting and can present things plausibly - that's part of the act - but they don't necessarily know any more about things than I do. I read a lot and try to keep informed (although I do have a weakness for quick-read mysteries and sci-fi/fantasy). These same celebrities that preach to us that we need to give up guns are the ones walking around with the expensive bodyguards who are carrying guns.....Does that make sense? They keep they're protection, but we give up ours....
There's a lot more in here that I find fascinating. The tyranny of the weak, who just try to outshout you so your voice can't be heard, reasonable or not.
There's a lot more in here that I find fascinating. The tyranny of the weak, who just try to outshout you so your voice can't be heard, reasonable or not.
renatasnacks's review
1.0
http://www.frowl.org/worstbestsellers/episode-18-not-cool/
it's too late for me, I've already been fatally infected with coolness. save... yourself...
it's too late for me, I've already been fatally infected with coolness. save... yourself...
brettt's review
4.0
Over the course of a six-book career, magazine writer and sometime comedian Greg Gutfeld has taken on more and more of a role as a social commentator. Self-identified as a libertarian, he hosts the late-night satire program Red Eye and is on the afternoon news roundtable discussion show The Five, both on Fox News.
Not Cool is probably Gutfeld's most "serious" book yet, in that he offers a proposal and develops an argument for it over the course of the whole thing. Since he's a humorist, it's not actually all that serious in tone, and he makes his argument with a healthy dose of jokes, satire and mockery.
That argument is that the quality known in modern culture as "cool" is really a way of turning core values on their heads -- to say that good things are bad and bad things are good. When pop culture defines something or someone as "cool," it arbitrarily assigns them worth that they probably don't deserve. It's hard to notice the number of magazine covers, websites and silly programs that have at least one Kardashian in them and disagree with this thesis. Popular musicians, actors and athletes who leave behind a kite's tail of child-supported offspring are often excused because they're cool, Gutfeld notes, but a dad who sticks out a dull job and a mortgage to help raise his children isn't. Comedian Chris Rock makes a similar observation when he says one of the biggest jobs a father has is keeping his daughter off the stripper pole.
On the one hand, Gutfeld's argument is low-hanging fruit for people who think seriously about things. "Cool" as a concept too often substitutes image and affect for examination and discernment. And Gutfeld is still waaaaay to ready to dump in one of his semi-subliminal punchline derailleurs when he should try to limit them and grow the laughs from the absurdity of his subject. But he's still right, and the only real problem is that many of the people who ought to read and consider what he's talking about likely won't. Because he's a middle-aged white guy, and as your present author can attest, it's harder to get less cool than that.
Original available here.
Not Cool is probably Gutfeld's most "serious" book yet, in that he offers a proposal and develops an argument for it over the course of the whole thing. Since he's a humorist, it's not actually all that serious in tone, and he makes his argument with a healthy dose of jokes, satire and mockery.
That argument is that the quality known in modern culture as "cool" is really a way of turning core values on their heads -- to say that good things are bad and bad things are good. When pop culture defines something or someone as "cool," it arbitrarily assigns them worth that they probably don't deserve. It's hard to notice the number of magazine covers, websites and silly programs that have at least one Kardashian in them and disagree with this thesis. Popular musicians, actors and athletes who leave behind a kite's tail of child-supported offspring are often excused because they're cool, Gutfeld notes, but a dad who sticks out a dull job and a mortgage to help raise his children isn't. Comedian Chris Rock makes a similar observation when he says one of the biggest jobs a father has is keeping his daughter off the stripper pole.
On the one hand, Gutfeld's argument is low-hanging fruit for people who think seriously about things. "Cool" as a concept too often substitutes image and affect for examination and discernment. And Gutfeld is still waaaaay to ready to dump in one of his semi-subliminal punchline derailleurs when he should try to limit them and grow the laughs from the absurdity of his subject. But he's still right, and the only real problem is that many of the people who ought to read and consider what he's talking about likely won't. Because he's a middle-aged white guy, and as your present author can attest, it's harder to get less cool than that.
Original available here.
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