The End Of The World Is Flat

What a hilariously dim review that first one is. Having a tech billionaire character in your book makes you anti-Semitic, regardless of whether or not that character is Jewish?!

He does explain why in the Afterword though

Agree @TirisfalPumpkin - either hasn't read it or has an agenda (surely not? 🙄)

The reviewer hasn't read it.

(spoiler)

The tech billionaire is of Spanish heritage and it's plot relevant.

The chicken and mayo, who knows? I have seen similar as a light hearted way of teasing white people for stereotypically bland/unseasoned white people food.

out of curiosity I just read the few negative reviews-

It's very interesting that this "satire" of gender ideology sounds incredibly anti semetic. A tech billionaire, is it? Yeah, interesting.

I mean really? so a tech billionaire is Jewish? says more about the reviewer than the author. But never turn down a chance to defame the TERFs eh?

and

A struggle to wade through. It is for a very particular audience - those who like unseasoned chicken with a side of mayonnaise.

I'm not even sure what this is meant to mean. Is mayonnaise a bad thing? or chicken?

This sounds good. It will need smarter people than me to explain how gender woo gained any traction at all. I find it hard to believe that anytime anyone said in conversation "you know what, I think a man can become a women just by saying he is" that everyone else said anything other than "you what mate, have gone fucking mental or what?"

My thoughts exactly!

Yes - I've read it.

I thought it was very cleverly done, and also showed how very vulnerable we are to disinformation, even about things that are provably true.

I am tempted to change my MN name to "Rampant Globularist", but I like being a Viper.

That sounds fun! I started on Holly Lawford-Smith's book yesterday and need to finish it today, then the flat earth. Do we have a book discussion group on Mumsnet?

There is a "What we're reading" forum, so we could start a thread on there - or on here. I've read Lawford-Smith's book, Kathleen Stock's book and Helen Joyce's book and enjoyed them all. Simon Edge was the one book that really cheered me up, though, because it so brilliantly highlights the insanity of it all. It confirmed for me that yes, it's not me who's mad, it's them.

I haven't read that book - although it sounds good - thanks!

Just in the background point, I was reading Black and British by David Olusoga and think there are parallels with the 'scientific' racism of the 19th century when a lot of apparently well educated and sensible people were adamant that black people were inferior based on phrenology or similar completely garbage theories but which were used to justify their racism.

I really enjoyed it!

i remember thinking that he didn’t understand the misogyny driving genderism, or at least that his flat Earth allegory wasn’t able to capture that aspect. I don’t know if that’s what previous posters meant about the psychology but I think that’s where the psychological plausibility of it all flat for me.

But then I think a more psychologically honest exploration of the phenomenon would have been a very different and much darker book. Maybe this one is best off being the lighthearted book it is!

I read it recently and some of the spoofed names made me lol in public (Lateefa Lateef!)

can see the point about the psychology of flat-earthism / not being an exact parallel to gender woo but I’m struggling to think of anything better. It was educational re how botting works on Twitter.

+1

It's interesting to note who he dedicated it to, and how the optimistic outcome is s-l-o-w-l-y becoming more plausible.

That sounds fun! I started on Holly Lawford-Smith's book yesterday and need to finish it today, then the flat earth. Do we have a book discussion group on Mumsnet?

Excellent book. Look at the names of some of the flat earthers & see if you can spot parallels.

I just bought it and look forward to reading it tonight.

I’ve ordered a copy. Excited to get it!

I read this when it first came out and really enjoyed it.

although the ending is waaaay too optimistic but we can but live in hope, keep campaigning and keep gardening.

It has made me question who are the puppets and who is behind all this.

The Twitter bits are hilarious! But all too realistic

Great read, highly recommended. Simon Edge is a very astute commentator on Twitter too

Off to download that on to my Kindle. It was published in 2021 so the real life parallel seems crystal clear.

I've just finished the book, so apologies for resurrecting a zombie thread, but I wanted to comment on the point above.

I kind of agree, but in a way its because there isn't really any equivalent to the changes of the last few years.

There are religions of course, some more beneficent than others. But most of us understand that the foundations of religion are faith, and that is something unproveable.

In this case, gender ideology is convincing otherwise sane people to believe something that is actually untrue.

So Edge has had to come up with a parallel - flat earth-ism - that also involves people believing something that isn't true. And of course it feels artificial.

If anything it just confirms that the utterly batshit era we are living through is as unusual as we all think it is.

That's interesting @AnotherLass. Can you elaborate?

I read it, it's thoroughly enjoyable - funny and well crafted. The twitter conversations were the best bit in my opinion.

However I did think that there was a bit of a lack of an understanding of the psychology in there, which was the weak point - he clearly hasn't known many flat earthers (or similar) and clearly finds them totally incomprehensible. He was trying to come up with these cost benefit explanations for people believing mad shit, and it doesn't work like that.