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Morning After the Revolution: Dispatches from the Wrong Side of History
From former New York Times reporter Nellie Bowles, a look at how some of the most educated people in America lost their minds—and how she almost did, too.
As a Hillary voter, a New York Times reporter, and frequent attendee at her local gay bars, Nellie Bowles fit right in with her San Francisco neighbors and friends—until she started questioning whether the progressive movement she knew and loved was actually helping people. When her colleagues suggested that asking such questions meant she was “on the wrong side of history,” Bowles did what any reporter worth her salt would do: she started investigating for herself. The answers she found were stranger—and funnier—than she expected.
In Morning After the Revolution, Bowles gives readers a front-row seat to the absurd drama of a political movement gone mad. With irreverent accounts of attending a multiday course on “The Toxic Trends of Whiteness,” following the social justice activists who run “Abolitionist Entertainment LLC,” and trying to please the New York Times’s “disinformation czar,” she deftly exposes the more comic excesses of a movement that went from a sideshow to the very center of American life.
Deliciously funny and painfully insightful, Morning After the Revolution is a moment of collective psychosis preserved in amber. This is an unmissable debut by one of America’s sharpest journalists.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published May 14, 2024
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June 26, 2024
An amusing autopsy. The corpse is still fetching, still an inspiration to many, despite the rot that started internally and that now corrupts most of the body, a sickness that led to its recent death. But is it truly dead? The pathologist, Nellie Bowles, is not quite sure. Not long ago, she was a devoted follower of this corpse, during her time at the New York Times. I read her wry, deadpan pieces back then, and enjoyed them thoroughly; I was a like-minded fellow traveler as well, the corpse an inspiring friend. As a queer POC who works at a social services nonprofit, I was put forward as one of the leaders of my workplace's little reckoning. "Little" but it still had its victims, regardless of their race, politics, orientation. Such movements always take the heads of their own. As a progressive lesbian journalist, Bowles was also a part of this movement. Until she became too curious about certain topics, until she fell in love with a contrarian. And then, rather suddenly, that corpse and its followers rejected her; she became exiled but also self-exiling. A happy expat in a new place, with new friends now.
The clinical report that she produced doesn't condescend to its subjects, it doesn't mock them; it eschews spikiness and hot takes; there are no cheap shots. She doesn't forget: she was once one of them. Her scathing wit is reined in; instead we have both coolly composed distance and and an understanding that the corpse and its legions held their beliefs in genuine good faith. There is a surprising amount of empathy here, no matter how toxic the behavior. The result is that I smiled at times, shook my head or rolled my eyes at other times, but never felt as if Bowles were settling scores or viewing her subjects with derision. The book portrays a range of bizarre and infuriating situations, but the tone remains dryly ironic, never sneering.
And so the reader visits Seattle's brief autonomous zone, Portland's masked antifa, Black Lives Matter and Abolish the Police, progressive speaking order, the entirely insipid yet incredibly influential Tema Okun and Robin Diangelo, homelessness in Los Angeles and drug addiction in San Francisco, trans rights activists and gender ideologues, and of course the bloodsport known as canceling. Nearly all of these visits are even-tempered ones, despite the embarrassing, complacent ignorance on display. Naivete can be charming; good intentions don't deserve mockery. This corpse meant well, at least at the start. Only when it comes to women's rights and to raising children does Bowles show anger and righteousness: she is an old school feminist and she is a mother, after all. Beyond those topics, she is content to deliver her appraisal of the past few years' various sociopolitical movements in a style that is detached but not dismissive. This pathology report is suitable for publishing in a glossy weekend magazine: I-was-there reporting that is also a droll lifestyle feature. A sardonic long-form article about important topics, that somehow keeps things light. One has to have a sense of humor, even during an autopsy.
The clinical report that she produced doesn't condescend to its subjects, it doesn't mock them; it eschews spikiness and hot takes; there are no cheap shots. She doesn't forget: she was once one of them. Her scathing wit is reined in; instead we have both coolly composed distance and and an understanding that the corpse and its legions held their beliefs in genuine good faith. There is a surprising amount of empathy here, no matter how toxic the behavior. The result is that I smiled at times, shook my head or rolled my eyes at other times, but never felt as if Bowles were settling scores or viewing her subjects with derision. The book portrays a range of bizarre and infuriating situations, but the tone remains dryly ironic, never sneering.
And so the reader visits Seattle's brief autonomous zone, Portland's masked antifa, Black Lives Matter and Abolish the Police, progressive speaking order, the entirely insipid yet incredibly influential Tema Okun and Robin Diangelo, homelessness in Los Angeles and drug addiction in San Francisco, trans rights activists and gender ideologues, and of course the bloodsport known as canceling. Nearly all of these visits are even-tempered ones, despite the embarrassing, complacent ignorance on display. Naivete can be charming; good intentions don't deserve mockery. This corpse meant well, at least at the start. Only when it comes to women's rights and to raising children does Bowles show anger and righteousness: she is an old school feminist and she is a mother, after all. Beyond those topics, she is content to deliver her appraisal of the past few years' various sociopolitical movements in a style that is detached but not dismissive. This pathology report is suitable for publishing in a glossy weekend magazine: I-was-there reporting that is also a droll lifestyle feature. A sardonic long-form article about important topics, that somehow keeps things light. One has to have a sense of humor, even during an autopsy.
May 31, 2024
Sometimes, a good idea can go too far. Good intentions can, sometimes, lead to unintended negative consequences.
Case in point: Wokeism.
Being “woke” used to be, in my opinion, a good thing. It still can be, if it’s referring to its original intent and meaning, which is simply a consciousness of social injustices such as racism, sexism, homo- and transphobia. It has come to encompass an awareness of a whole range of other “-isms” today.
Unfortunately, wokeism has been usurped by some people who simply wield it as a weapon of mass distraction. They use it as a way to feel morally superior and to justify actions motivated mostly by emotional reasoning, not logical reasoning. Anymore, being “woke” isn’t just being outraged, it’s a competition with other woke people that one is way more outraged.
Nellie Bowles, a “woke” journalist formerly with The New York Times, in her book “Morning After the Revolution”, began to notice that the honeymoon was over with wokeism when she started to piss other woke people off by simply asking questions. Not the “wrong” or “inappropriate” questions. Any questions.
When she began to question why Patrice Khan-Cullors, the co-founder of the Black Lives Matter organization, had just bought a $1.4 million mansion—-her fourth house—-and with what money, she was accused of being racist.
When she began to ask how and why suburban white housewives were inherently racist simply because they were white, she was accused of being a white supremacist.
When she began to question whether parents should be allowing their children to have gender reassignment surgeries at age three, she was accused of being transphobic.
When she began to ask involuntary celibates (incels) why they thought that women didn’t find them attractive, she was accused of being sexist. Against men.
While the book is occasionally humorous—it’s almost impossible to not laugh at the absurdity of some of the ridiculously “woke” people she encounters—-it is mostly just sad and disturbing.
Sad that those of us who do strive to be anti-racist and LGBTQ+ allies and fight for social justice issues are often lumped together with these people by conservatives who view everyone with progressive views as nut jobs.
Disturbing that these Uber-woke people honestly can’t see that their attempts at helping people that they supposedly care so much about are, in the end, actually hurting them.
Case in point: Wokeism.
Being “woke” used to be, in my opinion, a good thing. It still can be, if it’s referring to its original intent and meaning, which is simply a consciousness of social injustices such as racism, sexism, homo- and transphobia. It has come to encompass an awareness of a whole range of other “-isms” today.
Unfortunately, wokeism has been usurped by some people who simply wield it as a weapon of mass distraction. They use it as a way to feel morally superior and to justify actions motivated mostly by emotional reasoning, not logical reasoning. Anymore, being “woke” isn’t just being outraged, it’s a competition with other woke people that one is way more outraged.
Nellie Bowles, a “woke” journalist formerly with The New York Times, in her book “Morning After the Revolution”, began to notice that the honeymoon was over with wokeism when she started to piss other woke people off by simply asking questions. Not the “wrong” or “inappropriate” questions. Any questions.
When she began to question why Patrice Khan-Cullors, the co-founder of the Black Lives Matter organization, had just bought a $1.4 million mansion—-her fourth house—-and with what money, she was accused of being racist.
When she began to ask how and why suburban white housewives were inherently racist simply because they were white, she was accused of being a white supremacist.
When she began to question whether parents should be allowing their children to have gender reassignment surgeries at age three, she was accused of being transphobic.
When she began to ask involuntary celibates (incels) why they thought that women didn’t find them attractive, she was accused of being sexist. Against men.
While the book is occasionally humorous—it’s almost impossible to not laugh at the absurdity of some of the ridiculously “woke” people she encounters—-it is mostly just sad and disturbing.
Sad that those of us who do strive to be anti-racist and LGBTQ+ allies and fight for social justice issues are often lumped together with these people by conservatives who view everyone with progressive views as nut jobs.
Disturbing that these Uber-woke people honestly can’t see that their attempts at helping people that they supposedly care so much about are, in the end, actually hurting them.
May 17, 2024
I appreciate this book as the culmination of so much journalistic documentation on how society lost its collective mind. From pre-pandemic years to the now infamous summer of 2020, which we all want to forget, but we shouldn’t. The book is a broad and comprehensive list of the many “causes” that began to grind on my liberal mentality over a decade ago (I am a good decade older, so these things dawned on me a little earlier). It is such a validation to understand that I wasn’t a bad liberal, but that the new doctrines that dominated and have come to overtake the movement are indeed one absurdity after another. Love the book. Love TGIF on the Free Press (I look forward to its witty and hilarious news outlook every week). Love Nellie and her wife, who I follow and sponsor since day one. Real journalists still exist, apparently. Congrats on your first book 👍🏼
June 7, 2024
Given how amazing TGIF is with the Free Press every week, um yeah this is gonna be a 5 star read.
—
Update! I can confirm this was a 5 star read.
I love Nellie’s work because of how she brings humor into everyday issues and how witty she is to describe the current political climate. This book really highlighted some crazy stuff that happened in the last few years, whether you want to remember it or not.
2020-2021 were fever dreams full of uncertainty, isolation, and stress. I felt like there was so much going on to the point of being incredibly overwhelmed when trying to consume any political media - why am I hearing such differing reports? What was going on? Well it turns out Nellie was there on the ground through so much of it and she’s here to tell us. I truly appreciate this book for Nellie’s reporting while weaving in the humor and room to ask questions and critically think through how we think about social politics in particular.
Overall really enjoyed this, though I was stressed to be thrust back in the mindset of 2020, but I look forward to continuing to see the work Nellie pursues.
—
Update! I can confirm this was a 5 star read.
I love Nellie’s work because of how she brings humor into everyday issues and how witty she is to describe the current political climate. This book really highlighted some crazy stuff that happened in the last few years, whether you want to remember it or not.
2020-2021 were fever dreams full of uncertainty, isolation, and stress. I felt like there was so much going on to the point of being incredibly overwhelmed when trying to consume any political media - why am I hearing such differing reports? What was going on? Well it turns out Nellie was there on the ground through so much of it and she’s here to tell us. I truly appreciate this book for Nellie’s reporting while weaving in the humor and room to ask questions and critically think through how we think about social politics in particular.
Overall really enjoyed this, though I was stressed to be thrust back in the mindset of 2020, but I look forward to continuing to see the work Nellie pursues.
May 17, 2024
I admit a major reason I wanted to read this book was because it seemed to be making so many people at legacy media outlets so very upset, and their reviews smacked deeply of jealousy: Nellie Bowles is co-founder of the Free Press, an ex-New York Times reporter who fell out of favor at that institution, and married to Bari Weiss, so she’s easy for that set to ridicule. But Bowles’ ventures wouldn’t be taking off so intensely if they weren’t meeting a need in the American media landscape. There is a large cohort of readers, myself included, who will always vote Democrat and describe ourselves as socially liberal, but who are profoundly disappointed in the illiberal turn the Progressive movement has taken in recent years. This books speaks largely to fellow travelers, confirming our opinions, and I can see how it falls a bit short in being not a deeply-researched and cited work of investigative journalism but rather a collection of vignettes. The book suffers somewhat from shallow analysis, never really digging deep enough into exactly what went wrong, how, and why.
The important thing, and I think the niche this book fills, is that it’s not a conservative indicating that maybe something has gone wrong here when, say, white kids who want to defund the police shout down the black relatives of gun murder victims on the streets of Oakland and call it social justice, or that maybe doctors should be cautious when it comes to medical interventions for minors with gender dysphoria. Those critiques have been dominated by conservative voices when they are generally mainstream opinions. Bowles is the voice for a type of liberal who doesn’t want to lose the very real gains made in recent decades, someone who doesn’t want backlash to lead to a loss of hard-fought advancements. Someone from within the center-left has to say it, so that these critiques don’t become the sole property of people who really don’t have the advancement of racial or sexual minorities as their priority. She’s careful not to turn her subjects into caricatures to be mocked by the Right - I see deep sympathy for many of them here, the recognition that activist hearts were largely in the right place, even as deep desires to eliminate racism somehow turned into grifts to have white women pay thousands of dollars to people who want to tell them how terrible they are, even as the leader of a homeless encampment became recognized as a rich kid driving his BMW home every night, even as teenagers were killed and small businesses destroyed in Antifa’s Seattle utopia. Having once been the one doing the cancelling, Bowles has insight into how these movements started with high ideals but degenerated so terribly. In the end, she strikes a hopeful note rather than one of condemnation, and I applaud her for that.
It’s not a bad book, but it’s not not going to teach you anything you don’t know if you’ve been generally paying attention since 2020, and I think it’s suffering a bit from overhype. Perhaps it’s just too soon, and ten years from now, wherever we are, we’ll be able to look back on it as an interesting time capsule.
The important thing, and I think the niche this book fills, is that it’s not a conservative indicating that maybe something has gone wrong here when, say, white kids who want to defund the police shout down the black relatives of gun murder victims on the streets of Oakland and call it social justice, or that maybe doctors should be cautious when it comes to medical interventions for minors with gender dysphoria. Those critiques have been dominated by conservative voices when they are generally mainstream opinions. Bowles is the voice for a type of liberal who doesn’t want to lose the very real gains made in recent decades, someone who doesn’t want backlash to lead to a loss of hard-fought advancements. Someone from within the center-left has to say it, so that these critiques don’t become the sole property of people who really don’t have the advancement of racial or sexual minorities as their priority. She’s careful not to turn her subjects into caricatures to be mocked by the Right - I see deep sympathy for many of them here, the recognition that activist hearts were largely in the right place, even as deep desires to eliminate racism somehow turned into grifts to have white women pay thousands of dollars to people who want to tell them how terrible they are, even as the leader of a homeless encampment became recognized as a rich kid driving his BMW home every night, even as teenagers were killed and small businesses destroyed in Antifa’s Seattle utopia. Having once been the one doing the cancelling, Bowles has insight into how these movements started with high ideals but degenerated so terribly. In the end, she strikes a hopeful note rather than one of condemnation, and I applaud her for that.
It’s not a bad book, but it’s not not going to teach you anything you don’t know if you’ve been generally paying attention since 2020, and I think it’s suffering a bit from overhype. Perhaps it’s just too soon, and ten years from now, wherever we are, we’ll be able to look back on it as an interesting time capsule.
May 17, 2024
Underwhelming and undercooked, this sardonic scamper through the follies of Wokeism seems rehashed and recycled. Save your money. I should have.
May 18, 2024
I couldn’t stop listening to it. As someone without a political home, I recognized so many aspects in this book and so many of the experiences. I’ve spent time in politically charged areas and have left them after it became an all or nothing, either with us or against us mindset. I appreciate nuance and I am able to love people with whom I politically disagree. I highly recommend that you listen to this take especially if you think you won’t agree. Maybe don’t burn it all to the ground? There’s probably something important in the dissent.
May 15, 2024
Devoured this book. Incredible.
June 24, 2024
DNF’d 60% through. I really wanted to like this book, based on the premise, and I did “enjoy” reading it and found it entertaining the same way people enjoy greasy French Fries or British royal family drama.
I expected a nuanced take from a liberal on liberal issues, and it was promising at the beginning with the thesis that perhaps progressive causes believe too much in people’s inner goodness. I thought this book would be a clearheaded and critical - yet also compassionate, curious, a sincere attempt to find solutions. But this potential quickly disappeared as the book launched into an unrelenting series of anecdotes, as (un)nuanced and numerous as a Tumblr-critical subreddit when describing instances of the hysterical and pseudo intellectual things progressive hippies spout. For instance, wtf is Bimbo feminism? I recently spent 5 years on a liberal college campus and never heard of anything remotely resembling it - which should tell you this book is a certain level of sensationalized. I will say, as a plus, that the author’s points of contention are less about the causes themselves and more about priorities and methods - a very different angle to critique than actual Fox News. Yet at the end of the day I still felt exasperated, cynical, and like I had hardly learned anything new.
I expected a nuanced take from a liberal on liberal issues, and it was promising at the beginning with the thesis that perhaps progressive causes believe too much in people’s inner goodness. I thought this book would be a clearheaded and critical - yet also compassionate, curious, a sincere attempt to find solutions. But this potential quickly disappeared as the book launched into an unrelenting series of anecdotes, as (un)nuanced and numerous as a Tumblr-critical subreddit when describing instances of the hysterical and pseudo intellectual things progressive hippies spout. For instance, wtf is Bimbo feminism? I recently spent 5 years on a liberal college campus and never heard of anything remotely resembling it - which should tell you this book is a certain level of sensationalized. I will say, as a plus, that the author’s points of contention are less about the causes themselves and more about priorities and methods - a very different angle to critique than actual Fox News. Yet at the end of the day I still felt exasperated, cynical, and like I had hardly learned anything new.
May 17, 2024
I listened to this on audible, read by the author, and thoroughly enjoyed it. While I am an admitted devotee of Nellie Bowles' TGIF column in The Free Press, that's not why I enjoyed her book, though the voice and humor she exhibits in both are definitely draws for me. Strangely, I savored reliving the excesses of the pandemic period beginning in 2020 and the political climate that arose and continues in one way or another today. I took heart from Nellie's awakening from her deep immersion in the increasingly illiberal far left as the overreaches of the movement became clear to her as I had my own awakening during the period. However, it's not as heavy as that sounds. She writes with engaging style and humor that makes this book a joy to read/listen to.
June 12, 2024
For my money, Nellie Bowles's 2024 book Morning After the Revolution is the definitive book about the excesses of the progressive left in the period between the 2016 election of Donald Trump and our current moment, in which the pendulum seems to be swinging again towards a more rational and less histrionic kind of discourse, the Israel/Palestine conflict notwithstanding. Like Bowles, I am a political liberal and someone who tends to vote Democrat, but, also like Bowles, I've looked on in bemusement at how crazy the far left has been over the last decade on matters of race, gender, the rule of law, etc. Unlike Bowles, I lived outside of the country through much of the insanity while she was smack in the middle of it working as a reporter for The New York Times. To Bowles's credit, Morning After the Revolution is much less polemical than you might expect, which is what makes it better than the lot of "heterodox" political books that have come out over the past three or four years. Bowles isn't judging progressive politics from the outside. When she writes about gleeful mobs of leftwing journalists engaging in cancel culture on Twitter or downplaying the burning of cities and small businesses in the wake of BLM protests, she does so in first person plural, acknowledging how she herself was once part of this movement.
The book consists of revamped versions of prior pieces Bowles wrote for The New York Times, The Atlantic, and other publications, many of which she was warned not to cover for fear of making the political left look bad. She spends time among armed warlords in the Capital Hill Autonomous Zone in Seattle, in antiracist struggle sessions that feel a lot like self-help cults, among the crime and drug-addicted homeless on the streets of San Francisco, at extremely volatile trans rights protests outside gyms, and amid the bubble of elite coastal leftwing journalism. If there's one downside, it's that the book was finished before the most unhinged moments in the current Israel/Hamas university protests. Bowles is an engaging writer, funny but also emotionally authentic. I like her TGIF weekly newsletter in The Free Press, a publication she founded with her wife, Bari Weiss, and I thoroughly enjoyed her book, which provides the smartest and least ideological insider look at the last decade of progressive politics I've seen. Easily a contender for best nonfiction of 2024.
The book consists of revamped versions of prior pieces Bowles wrote for The New York Times, The Atlantic, and other publications, many of which she was warned not to cover for fear of making the political left look bad. She spends time among armed warlords in the Capital Hill Autonomous Zone in Seattle, in antiracist struggle sessions that feel a lot like self-help cults, among the crime and drug-addicted homeless on the streets of San Francisco, at extremely volatile trans rights protests outside gyms, and amid the bubble of elite coastal leftwing journalism. If there's one downside, it's that the book was finished before the most unhinged moments in the current Israel/Hamas university protests. Bowles is an engaging writer, funny but also emotionally authentic. I like her TGIF weekly newsletter in The Free Press, a publication she founded with her wife, Bari Weiss, and I thoroughly enjoyed her book, which provides the smartest and least ideological insider look at the last decade of progressive politics I've seen. Easily a contender for best nonfiction of 2024.
May 30, 2024
Nellie Bowles, wife of the notorious Bari Weiss, has attempted a gonzo tour of social justice activism circa The Great Awokening. This book is undoubtedly a child of New Journalism fathered by Tom Wolfe and mothered by Joan Didion. Despite the parentage of her work, Bowles is not a comparable stylist. Nonetheless, she is often clever and wry. She's also unyieldingly honest (or at least plays so) about her own complicity in the madness she satirizes. Her voice also exudes an equanimity that is uncommon in writing about such controversial and sensitive subjects.
Morning After the Revolution is a certainly fun and engaging read, but it is not a rollicking fun read. I was eager for something perhaps edgier. Plus, if you are someone tuned into "new media," then Bowles' experiences reporting on autonomous zones and antifa, anti-racist and self-loathing Karens, good progressive groupthink, and the TERF wars will not feel particularly fresh. It will mostly resurface the low-grade nausea one felt originally observing these things that settles into an empty pit of disbelief that such absurdness ever became socially tolerable. Bowles should have perhaps been significantly more biting with her satire. Instead, she reaches for impact via understatement and deadpan deliveries. This is also effective but is unlikely to reach the very literal minded people who need the message.
It is unfortunate that our media diets are already so crowded with takes and anti-takes on these sorts of topics. When a considered broadside like this is launched it fails to land with requisite impact. I wish this one could land like "Radical Chic" or "The Women's Movement" though neither of those famous pieces never tamed the lunacy amok either. Maybe we will look back to this book in the same way, but I would not bet on it. Nonetheless, I encourage people to read, especially if their media diets are primarily comprised of legacy or prestige outlets.
Morning After the Revolution is a certainly fun and engaging read, but it is not a rollicking fun read. I was eager for something perhaps edgier. Plus, if you are someone tuned into "new media," then Bowles' experiences reporting on autonomous zones and antifa, anti-racist and self-loathing Karens, good progressive groupthink, and the TERF wars will not feel particularly fresh. It will mostly resurface the low-grade nausea one felt originally observing these things that settles into an empty pit of disbelief that such absurdness ever became socially tolerable. Bowles should have perhaps been significantly more biting with her satire. Instead, she reaches for impact via understatement and deadpan deliveries. This is also effective but is unlikely to reach the very literal minded people who need the message.
It is unfortunate that our media diets are already so crowded with takes and anti-takes on these sorts of topics. When a considered broadside like this is launched it fails to land with requisite impact. I wish this one could land like "Radical Chic" or "The Women's Movement" though neither of those famous pieces never tamed the lunacy amok either. Maybe we will look back to this book in the same way, but I would not bet on it. Nonetheless, I encourage people to read, especially if their media diets are primarily comprised of legacy or prestige outlets.
May 17, 2024
Excellent. Couldn't put it down, but be warned, the cognitive dissonance will induce vertigo. Very recommended.
May 21, 2024
Nellie Bowles is someone who I might not have a lot in common - she is after all a progressive (at least at one point) and an adoring supporter of Hillary Clinton. The book details her meander through the strange world of the WOKE. What she does in this short book is expose all the hypocrisy of movements like BLM and Gender Transition and a host of other progressive causes. She skewers the presumptions of these movements as no conservative could.
Her descriptions of the failures of the progressive sanctuary of San Francisco, where her family has lived for many years, is concise but devastating.
I read her TGIF on Substack every Friday the first thing I get up. She is funny and irreverent and that quality comes through in this book. But as I read this book she is someone who I would like to meet. I suspect we might disagree about a lot of issues but I believe she is genuinely committed to figuring out how to make her world and ours better. From that perspective I have a lot in common. I think you would enjoy and be challenged by this book. It is a small gem but a gem nonetheless.
Her descriptions of the failures of the progressive sanctuary of San Francisco, where her family has lived for many years, is concise but devastating.
I read her TGIF on Substack every Friday the first thing I get up. She is funny and irreverent and that quality comes through in this book. But as I read this book she is someone who I would like to meet. I suspect we might disagree about a lot of issues but I believe she is genuinely committed to figuring out how to make her world and ours better. From that perspective I have a lot in common. I think you would enjoy and be challenged by this book. It is a small gem but a gem nonetheless.
July 7, 2024
Fascinating and hilarious. Retrospective analyses of the early Covid years (2020-2021ish) showcase the (heightened) ridiculous nature of human behavior. I, too, fell into the pits of many of the online narratives at that time (hence why I removed myself from all social media but Goodreads).
June 9, 2024
I blew through this book. It’s a bit of a tour of unhinged politics of the years post-Covid. Very entertaining read about someone who navigated the most radically liberal spaces and cities. I moved from Ieft to the center in the past 4 years, and no longer consider myself progressive ( nor conservative for that matter), and this book reminded me that many people don’t want the radical and divisive politics of the left or the right. Culture wars are exhausting and I’m glad this book made me laugh about it. Let’s get back to being friends, drinking beers and sharing space with people who you disagree with. More civility, more laughing! Cheers, Nellie!
May 21, 2024
I found this book an interesting read. Basically, in my understanding, the author has come to the conclusion that the new, progressive movement has become unhinged, and strayed so far from the classic Liberalist ideals that she can no longer support it, or stomach being a part/supporter of it.
I think very similarly as I feel about the Republican/"Conservative" movement, which in my eyes has moved beyond the core principles of what I used to believe to support a similar "religion" of total belief in wacky concepts and cancelation.
I do somewhat enjoy the Author's realization when she expresses that her conservative family members don't allow or play by the rules of cancelation. "To be canceled and to participate in the cancelation, someone has to care very deeply and need the love of that group or need the jobs that group provides. And my family members didn't." I think that is a great lesson...both about family, and realizing that if you have strong convictions and feelings about something, and the group you are with belittles or attacks those feelings without trying to engage you, then maybe their cancelation is superfluous, and you should move on.
So a suggested read on where the new progressive "Left" has left the ideals of the original movement, and how it is probably hurting the ideals of classical liberalism.
I think very similarly as I feel about the Republican/"Conservative" movement, which in my eyes has moved beyond the core principles of what I used to believe to support a similar "religion" of total belief in wacky concepts and cancelation.
I do somewhat enjoy the Author's realization when she expresses that her conservative family members don't allow or play by the rules of cancelation. "To be canceled and to participate in the cancelation, someone has to care very deeply and need the love of that group or need the jobs that group provides. And my family members didn't." I think that is a great lesson...both about family, and realizing that if you have strong convictions and feelings about something, and the group you are with belittles or attacks those feelings without trying to engage you, then maybe their cancelation is superfluous, and you should move on.
So a suggested read on where the new progressive "Left" has left the ideals of the original movement, and how it is probably hurting the ideals of classical liberalism.
June 25, 2024
So I’ve been trying to do this thing where I read books by people I disagree with. Yeah, revolutionary concept.
This book caught my attention because it’s supposed to be a moderate critique of progressivism. I also hoped it would give me some clarity, make me look at the current chaotic state of things through a new lens. But at the end I was more confused than ever.
This book is at it’s best when it’s talking about actual corruption and how the movement often neglects the people it is supposed to fight for or gets hijacked by opportunists. But then it goes on to cover gender and sexuality and that section is just a mess. It’s very clearly misrepresentation and cherry picking, with some really bad implications.
Overall it ended up quite shallow, more like I was reading journal entries rather than investigative journalism.
This book caught my attention because it’s supposed to be a moderate critique of progressivism. I also hoped it would give me some clarity, make me look at the current chaotic state of things through a new lens. But at the end I was more confused than ever.
This book is at it’s best when it’s talking about actual corruption and how the movement often neglects the people it is supposed to fight for or gets hijacked by opportunists. But then it goes on to cover gender and sexuality and that section is just a mess. It’s very clearly misrepresentation and cherry picking, with some really bad implications.
Overall it ended up quite shallow, more like I was reading journal entries rather than investigative journalism.
May 18, 2024
Captures the regressive social movements of the early 2020s
A very good first person account from a reporter at the New York Times capturing the oppressive and ultimately fascistic leftist progressive movement and cancel culture of the early 2020s. Non-believers were excommunicated.
A very good first person account from a reporter at the New York Times capturing the oppressive and ultimately fascistic leftist progressive movement and cancel culture of the early 2020s. Non-believers were excommunicated.
June 10, 2024
I knew I wanted to read this as soon as I finished listening to Bari Weiss (she’s a favorite follow for me) interview her wife, Nellie Bowles, about writing this book, and her former job as a New York Times journalist. I was intrigued how Nellie “fell from grace” for what seemed to be asking questions and noticing cracks, and of course falling in love with the wrong person.
This book just shows me once again that humans are messy and love to create cult-like groups. At least that was the vibe I got reading about the different trainings and seminars, where you’re told how to think and identify, and certain words are banned, and you’re cast as an outsider, or even worse, enemy, for not falling exactly in step.
I like that Nellie didn’t hold back from sharing her personal experiences that weren’t always flattering. I liked that she gave credit where it was due (there are a lot of good intentions from many of the people in the book), and that she didn’t go on the attack, but it was clear when she disagreed with a stance or action.
I have talks with my teenagers all the time about how to avoid radicalization because we see it again and again and again. How do we create a better, fairer future without going well beyond the mark and causing harm in the end? Is it possible? Right now our conversations revolve around taking in ideas and other perspectives. Being open to opposing views, veering away from “being right “ while the other person is not only wrong, but the worst, scummiest, most hateful, stupid person for having the [wrong] opinion they do. I think Nellie does an excellent job showcasing why this important in her in depth reporting of the wild times that made up the early 2020s (it was a little tough to go back to that time!).
This book just shows me once again that humans are messy and love to create cult-like groups. At least that was the vibe I got reading about the different trainings and seminars, where you’re told how to think and identify, and certain words are banned, and you’re cast as an outsider, or even worse, enemy, for not falling exactly in step.
I like that Nellie didn’t hold back from sharing her personal experiences that weren’t always flattering. I liked that she gave credit where it was due (there are a lot of good intentions from many of the people in the book), and that she didn’t go on the attack, but it was clear when she disagreed with a stance or action.
I have talks with my teenagers all the time about how to avoid radicalization because we see it again and again and again. How do we create a better, fairer future without going well beyond the mark and causing harm in the end? Is it possible? Right now our conversations revolve around taking in ideas and other perspectives. Being open to opposing views, veering away from “being right “ while the other person is not only wrong, but the worst, scummiest, most hateful, stupid person for having the [wrong] opinion they do. I think Nellie does an excellent job showcasing why this important in her in depth reporting of the wild times that made up the early 2020s (it was a little tough to go back to that time!).
June 6, 2024
3.9 stars
I feel like listening this as an audiobook was not the right move because of how many extracts there were. I could never be completely sure whether it was the author's own words or the words of a newspaper clipping.
There were so many times that I would listen to the rhetoric of these groups and be reminded of a cult. Bowles' humor was a way to make light of an increasingly politicized world. Some of her anecdotes were just insane and I actually had to double check that yes indeed this is a Thing that actually happened on planet Earth.
I feel like listening this as an audiobook was not the right move because of how many extracts there were. I could never be completely sure whether it was the author's own words or the words of a newspaper clipping.
There were so many times that I would listen to the rhetoric of these groups and be reminded of a cult. Bowles' humor was a way to make light of an increasingly politicized world. Some of her anecdotes were just insane and I actually had to double check that yes indeed this is a Thing that actually happened on planet Earth.
June 7, 2024
I have long enjoyed Nellie Bowles' weekly column on Substack entitled TGIF. She skewers both political parties and turns a humorous eye on all the nutty things that happen each week. David Mamet is her resident cartoonist and the whole enterprise is ironical and often laugh out loud funny. Because of my familiarity with her "take," I figured her book would be more of the same.
There is humor in it, but really what it boils down to is an indictment of wokeism in all its extreme manifestations. She tackles , if memory serves, five different venues where wokeism now rules. This is a well researched book and makes you think.
By the way, I listened to this on Audible and enjoyed Nellie's narrating her own work.
There is humor in it, but really what it boils down to is an indictment of wokeism in all its extreme manifestations. She tackles , if memory serves, five different venues where wokeism now rules. This is a well researched book and makes you think.
By the way, I listened to this on Audible and enjoyed Nellie's narrating her own work.
July 10, 2024
Dare I say one of the most important books of the year. Read in particular for the empathy. Prepared to be surprised.
June 15, 2024
An absolute must read for just about anyone. Specially, as we go through this election year. Let it serve as a gentle reminder that we should prioritize what we know about ourselves and the individuals we love before we let movements, “experts”, and the masses tell us how we should feel and what we should think.
This book is a collection of amazing reporting on how critical thinking was pushed out (or dare I say cancelled?) of American lives post-2020
This book is a collection of amazing reporting on how critical thinking was pushed out (or dare I say cancelled?) of American lives post-2020
May 31, 2024
THis is an interesting read where a former hard left liberal member of the press at the New York Times slowly comes to the realization that many of the things she believes are lies as she watches the consequences of policies she favors destroy the lives and communities they're meant to enlighten. As a conservative it's a little frustrating as the right and the Republican Party remain villains throughout despite predicting these outcomes as a matter of first principles rather than only realizing this after witnessing the destruction they wreaked. I will say the writing is lively and the book is interesting and while I started reading the chapter on the re-education of white women prepared to be angry on their behalf, instead I was simply astounded by how ludicrous it all was and found myself laughing out loud rather than getting angry and I was grateful for that. If you're on the left and have some questions about what you're required to believe without question, this is a good book for you. If you're on the right, you'll already know everything in the book and will have since before the period in question began and it will be amusing and frustrating to read someone not follow the breadcrumbs all the way to your side.
May 30, 2024
For a subject matter that's been so thoroughly picked over (far-left social just politics in general, and the 2020 "racial reckoning" in particular), Bowles adds something fresh here. "Morning After the Revolution" is personal, it's on the ground, and it's seriously funny. The freshness definitely begins to wear off as the book goes on, but Bowles wisely keeps the overall length in check to mitigate it. As with almost all culture war writing, this will convince no one — it's simply catnip for erstwhile progressives who weren't down with the whole cultural revolution thing. 4/5
May 30, 2024
A Conservative Met A Moderate Liberal and Loved It
I hadn't heard of Nellie Bowles until her recent appearance on Bill Maher's Real Time show. It's not surprising I wasn't aware of Nellie, a former writer at the New York Times, because I don't generally read the Times, or any other leftist driven publications. But listening to her speak on Real Time caught my interest so I decided to purchase her book. And I'm glad I did. Like Mr. Maher, Nellie is a liberal who doesn't buy all of the far left "woke" ideology that is driving today's Democratic party. She believes the so called progressives have gone too far in many respects, and are largely responsible, along with those on the radical far right, for shifting America away from what it used to be. Like me, she's had enough, and desires a return to a life where people can be decent, compassionate, and caring without having to choose sides politically. A time when common sense was plentiful, and used wisely, and law and order meant there are consequences to ones actions.
She and I would probably never completely agree about many political or societal issues. But I believe we could find much common ground simply by speaking sensibly, and actively listening to each other with open minds. We might even become friends working together to close the division between the extreme far right and left factions of our respective political parties. It's not likely she and I will ever have an opportunity to have those conversations. But her book has opened my eyes, giving me lots to think about. I'd encourage everyone reading my little commentary to read it too.
I hadn't heard of Nellie Bowles until her recent appearance on Bill Maher's Real Time show. It's not surprising I wasn't aware of Nellie, a former writer at the New York Times, because I don't generally read the Times, or any other leftist driven publications. But listening to her speak on Real Time caught my interest so I decided to purchase her book. And I'm glad I did. Like Mr. Maher, Nellie is a liberal who doesn't buy all of the far left "woke" ideology that is driving today's Democratic party. She believes the so called progressives have gone too far in many respects, and are largely responsible, along with those on the radical far right, for shifting America away from what it used to be. Like me, she's had enough, and desires a return to a life where people can be decent, compassionate, and caring without having to choose sides politically. A time when common sense was plentiful, and used wisely, and law and order meant there are consequences to ones actions.
She and I would probably never completely agree about many political or societal issues. But I believe we could find much common ground simply by speaking sensibly, and actively listening to each other with open minds. We might even become friends working together to close the division between the extreme far right and left factions of our respective political parties. It's not likely she and I will ever have an opportunity to have those conversations. But her book has opened my eyes, giving me lots to think about. I'd encourage everyone reading my little commentary to read it too.
May 26, 2024
The most important book for liberals to read this year. I also fully expect to be cancelled for reading this.
June 18, 2024
When you cherry-pick the worst to counter a movement that pretends the worst doesn't exist, you get this book.
And then there is the hypothesis that instead of the pendulum swinging back (she does mention the New Right but not so much the clear revival of the moderates...though how big it is or will allow to be is anyone's guess), the author posits that The (progressive) Revolution has successfully taken over the mainstream, the institutions etc. Fait Accompli. As if history ever ends.
Anyway, the actual meat of the book is good, if a bit too snarky for my taste. Again, the most absurd is cherry-picked and presented in all its gory ridiculous glory. There couldn't have possibly been any positives to this movement at all.
As I wrote in my review of Yasha Mounk's The Identity Trap: "Reading this book I have been wondering though, would we see so much change in diversity of US public life in the past decade had it not been for identity synthesis? This is something the author doesn't approach at all. Has this ideology had any positive effect on society at all? Or is everything that's seemingly good about it actually still a result of the preceding liberal order?"
Bowles doesn't really engage with this either. She, a queer woman, rode that Revolution train as far as her brain could possibly let her (same here), and I guess Bari's charms ended up being a good accelerant, but enough was enough, and now the way of life is...well, aren't progressives so deliciously, destructively, hilarious?
Not being American, and seeing the rise of the far right in the most recent European elections, I'm not sure if I should be relieved my country didn't experience this particular Revolution quite so intensely, only the echoes of it, (we are largely a white country, also former Eastern Bloc, there's only so far you can go), or if I should be worried that we're only gonna get the far-right backlash end of the shit stick. Cause it's a-coming.
(Aside from the racism and xenophobia of it all, see online magazine Queer Majority pieces on how the American/"Western" queer/trans drama is at this point harming the progress of LGBTQ rights in countries where it's not quite as advanced.)
One thing I sure am quite happy about after reading this book: the fact that I don't live in San Francisco or LA. Thank fuck for that for sure.
(The book is a 3.5 at least, but the rating here is high, so I rounded down.)
And then there is the hypothesis that instead of the pendulum swinging back (she does mention the New Right but not so much the clear revival of the moderates...though how big it is or will allow to be is anyone's guess), the author posits that The (progressive) Revolution has successfully taken over the mainstream, the institutions etc. Fait Accompli. As if history ever ends.
Anyway, the actual meat of the book is good, if a bit too snarky for my taste. Again, the most absurd is cherry-picked and presented in all its gory ridiculous glory. There couldn't have possibly been any positives to this movement at all.
As I wrote in my review of Yasha Mounk's The Identity Trap: "Reading this book I have been wondering though, would we see so much change in diversity of US public life in the past decade had it not been for identity synthesis? This is something the author doesn't approach at all. Has this ideology had any positive effect on society at all? Or is everything that's seemingly good about it actually still a result of the preceding liberal order?"
Bowles doesn't really engage with this either. She, a queer woman, rode that Revolution train as far as her brain could possibly let her (same here), and I guess Bari's charms ended up being a good accelerant, but enough was enough, and now the way of life is...well, aren't progressives so deliciously, destructively, hilarious?
Not being American, and seeing the rise of the far right in the most recent European elections, I'm not sure if I should be relieved my country didn't experience this particular Revolution quite so intensely, only the echoes of it, (we are largely a white country, also former Eastern Bloc, there's only so far you can go), or if I should be worried that we're only gonna get the far-right backlash end of the shit stick. Cause it's a-coming.
(Aside from the racism and xenophobia of it all, see online magazine Queer Majority pieces on how the American/"Western" queer/trans drama is at this point harming the progress of LGBTQ rights in countries where it's not quite as advanced.)
One thing I sure am quite happy about after reading this book: the fact that I don't live in San Francisco or LA. Thank fuck for that for sure.
(The book is a 3.5 at least, but the rating here is high, so I rounded down.)
June 30, 2024
This book reminded me of a few books that I wasn't able to get through, such as those by Michael Shellenberger and Douglas Murray. It performs a post-mortem on the 2020-2022 excesses of the liberals, but unlike, say, Shellenberger's "San Fransicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities," it's more human, it tries to understand what people were doing, it's empathetic rather than focusing on statistics and one-sided hypocrisies.
It probably helps that the author was a progressive who cancelled a fellow writer over, what she realizes now, was b.s. She sees herself in the people creating police-free autonomous zones and the trans activists so sure they're on the right side of history.
The book is filled with interesting and brave on-the-ground reporting as the author talks to folks doing activism as well as those hurt by the activism, such as the Hispanic families in Los Angeles whose neighborhood became too dangerous for their children to be outside after wealthy do-gooders helped set up and sustain an enormous homeless encampment.
For me, the book's lasting value will be in making sure that the liberal excesses are not memory-holed as having never happened.
Excerpt: Brandeis University put out a new list of verboten words: trigger warning is now banned as violent language. So is picnic. University of Washington added a few more verboten phrases: brown bag lunch, grandfathered in, and blind spot. Stanford University admins made an even longer one, adding basket case. I toured a house, and the real estate agent apologized for accidentally using the term master bedroom. Don’t even think about using the word woman: Johns Hopkins University released a new language guide that defines a lesbian as “a non-man attracted to non-men.” (Yep, that’s me.)
It probably helps that the author was a progressive who cancelled a fellow writer over, what she realizes now, was b.s. She sees herself in the people creating police-free autonomous zones and the trans activists so sure they're on the right side of history.
The book is filled with interesting and brave on-the-ground reporting as the author talks to folks doing activism as well as those hurt by the activism, such as the Hispanic families in Los Angeles whose neighborhood became too dangerous for their children to be outside after wealthy do-gooders helped set up and sustain an enormous homeless encampment.
For me, the book's lasting value will be in making sure that the liberal excesses are not memory-holed as having never happened.
Excerpt: Brandeis University put out a new list of verboten words: trigger warning is now banned as violent language. So is picnic. University of Washington added a few more verboten phrases: brown bag lunch, grandfathered in, and blind spot. Stanford University admins made an even longer one, adding basket case. I toured a house, and the real estate agent apologized for accidentally using the term master bedroom. Don’t even think about using the word woman: Johns Hopkins University released a new language guide that defines a lesbian as “a non-man attracted to non-men.” (Yep, that’s me.)
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