Sunday, July 4, 2021

The Antifa: Stories From Inside the Black Bloc

 58084549

The Antifa is a self-professed nonfiction investigative report on "The Antifa" by Jack Posobiec. Released 1st June 2021 by Calamo Press, it's 300 pages and is available in softcover and ebook formats.  It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately; it makes finding phrases or passages so much easier when reading.

I try to hold myself to some personal standards in reading and evaluating every book I review. I try my very best to give an unbiased and objective review whatever my personal feelings are on the subject matter. This applies especially to non-fiction selections. That being said, this book, and this author, challenged my attempts to remain objective. 

This is a comprehensive, 300 page screed on what's wrong with America (mostly minorities and people who "hate America") and what to do about it (mostly "fight back" against everyone who doesn't think, talk, and more importantly *look* like he does. It reads like an alt-right angry white guy manifesto on why and how to take back "his" America which has *never* existed in any form, but most resembles the 1950s suburban overwhelmingly caucasian segregated south of post WW2 USA. 

There is no unbiased retelling of independently verifiable factual events anywhere in this book. The writing and recounting of actual events shades quite unapologetically into fiction. There are no references or verifiable sources. There is not a shred of journalistic integrity. 

The author spends quite a lot of content naming and shaming venues and individuals for canceling their events due to concerns for public safety and bandies "cancel culture" often. Unironically, he brags about his #DumpStarWars campaign in the same paragraph he's decrying being accurately quoted by the media and simultaneously recounts banning mainstream journalists from the "Deploriball" celebration of Trump's election and inauguration reporting calling it "tough love" and claiming their journalistic standards are not up to snuff. 

As a last aside, the book would benefit from professional proofreading and editing. I normally don't refer to editing and mistakes in eARCs but this is a final release copy. 

One star. This book will probably appeal to Fox News viewers. For readers looking for unbiased factual reporting with verifiable sources, this book lacks fundamental journalistic standards. I think this is the first one star review I've ever given. 

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

No comments:

Post a Comment