Wow!!! This book is a whopper. The talking points fit perfect for the times. I can utilize most all of these rebuttals and information to help me in my local elected official position.
The book is LONG. That would be my only criticism. But, I also enjoyed the history lessons and explanations given. Right-wing talking heads seem to have the corner on many different people all saying the same thing, slightly differently. So, I understand that it was important to provide much much detail. If you are not prepared for that, it is easy to become confused and if that happens they will just talk you in circles.

I appreciate the work that went into writing this encyclopedia of talking points. I will refer to this manual often!

This book was quite insightful to me. I so wish for days of yesteryears in this country. Our politics & political views have put us at odds with each other. We need to find ways to get past these divides. This book helped me understand many of the views from the right. Instead of trying to change the views of our opponents. we need to find ways to meet in the middle. Reading this book can definitely help in that endeavor.

responding to the right is a great introduction to left-wing arguments and counterarguments. it's very succinct, accessible, and factual and i recommend any beginner leftie give it a read.

however, because of its introductory nature, it did over simply some topics that should have been handled with a lot more nuance and it fell into the trap of repeating the same left-wing arguments that conservatives find easy to refute.

additionally, it should be noted that this book falls into the democratic socialism camp in terms of ideology and those left of that, i.e. marxists, might find themselves put off by some of it's vaguely anti-communist rhetoric.

overall, i enjoyed reading responding to the right and would definitely recommend it to other people.

This is a very well written book. My mixed feelings about it are mostly not due to the book itself.

It is validating to have cogent detailed explanations provided to support the opinions I have. However, I don't believe those explanations are going to be of any use in trying to talk to a right wing person. They are NOT actually concise, they run for several pages per issue. They won't see any reason why your statistics are any better than theirs and won't stand still to listen to you tell them why theirs are wrong/misrepresented. They will care nothing for the hundreds of carefully footnoted studies and sources. They will be actively insulted by the idea that we should care how much better the things that bother us here are handled in other countries. In fact, reading the right-wing blowhards whose work is excerpted at the beginning of each chapter is actually depressing - how is it going to be possible to reach the people who really believe these things?

The idea that comes through over and over again and can probably be useful is to just ASK THEM QUESTIONS. Ask them how cherrypicked statistic X means the thing they say it means. Ask them more about the study they are citing. Ask they why they think action Y leads to result Z. Just keep relentlessly asking questions following the logic of their argument. Eventually you will come to the point that they are unable to answer, or else they will break off the conversation and bring you relief. It's surprising how many right-wing talking points, when questioned down to their heart, actually reflect either a very nasty and negative view of people, or else the opposite of the liberty that's touted. But we know that. And honestly I don't think I have the fortitude to actually respond to the right, even with these arguments in hand. As Robinson points out, the best way to change someone's mind is to actually build a personal relationship with them and understand where they are coming from and what their life is like, and trying to argue with someone on social media isn't going to do that. It's going to come down to personal relationships one on one over coffee, where maybe each one of us can reach one.

The book could use one more copyedit before it goes out, as there were some typos and bumpy sentences left in it.

First, I will say that I’m am tired of the extremism of Right or Left in America today. This book creates more bias and separation and is not a light, conversational piece. It reads like a boring college lecture from one person’s perspective with insufficient research.

ARC was provided by St. Martin's Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Expected Pub Date: 14 Feb 2023

Didn’t finish. Was hoping it would be light answers or summaries to issues, but it was very indepth. Good if you like that kind of thing, but I done enjoy it.

I love the idea of this book, but I found it rather boring to sustain.
I think if this was redone in a more fun format, it would be appealing to more Democrats like myself.
I am not suggesting a ‘Dummies On How to Deal With Conservatives’ but at the same time I am.
Change the format to less of a narrative book to more of a fun workbook. It would make this much more fun to read.
Lots of good info here but not an easy read.

This book stinks -- Do not purchase it. The author, Nathan Robinson, is a gasbag who relies almost entirely on his own articles as authority. He is the editor and primary contributor to his far-left magazine, Current Affairs which has only a tiny readership. Given that his bi-monthly radical left journal has less than 7,000 readers Robinson can write almost anything he wants for his "fellow travelers" and get away with it. Sadly, his current book was also written for those 7,000 useful idiots and thus it will not appeal to a wider audience. Perhaps this dreadful book's most glaring error is that it has roughly 450 footnotes and almost all of these cite an article that Robinson had written and published in his magazine. Thus, Responding to the Right is just a rehash of the articles that Robinson has already published. Ergo, this book offers nothing that is new.

2 Stars! DNF. I was looking forward to this because I love to view politics from all sides, as I’m more an independent than democrat or republican and I don’t trust and dislike politicians on all sides equally. This book fell flat though. It read like someone’s notes they plan to add when they write a book. A lot of ramblings that just go on and on and really could/should be cut back or out altogether. I did like all the articles, polls and notes at the end of the book though I do question the evidence of those articles/polls/quotes/etc., because I believe most of the media nowadays is wrong or fake 99.9 percent of the time. I don’t feel like the authors “arguments” actually debunked or changed my mind on any political points I have that align more conservative.
*I received this at no charge & I voluntarily left this review.*

I have so many mixed feelings on this.

To start, it read like a well researched paper rather than a book laying out arguments. I enjoy that style, but it can be limiting as many readers don’t.

At one point, the author says that one argument is so easy to see through that it should just be “laughed at.” That isn’t the kind of response I expected in a book like this, but it is only one of them.

I appreciated how well cited everything was, but it made the delivery fall flat as it became just paragraphs of quotes and previously made arguments. Sometimes they worked, but other parts were tedious.

The long and short is that I wish this was more accessible. It has a clear purpose, but I don’t believe it fits the bill for what it is attempting to achieve as it comes across as purely academic.

I have said it before and I’m going to say it again anytime you start an argument with the with everyone who blank does blah blah blah your argument is flawed. If you say all white people have privilege that’s a flawed argument because not all white people have privilege. Secondly anytime someone saying all lives matter is racist to me that’s delusional thinking. even Barack Obama said saying Black Lives Matter is racist because when you insinuate that one group suffers vulnerability that another one does not you’re wrong. We are more alike than we are different and if people would just stop focusing our differences and come together with the things we have in common ultimately we would make more progress. And as far as cultural appropriation goes Taco Bell and dominoes we’re started by white men and I don’t see Italians in Spanish people trying to shut them down. They say imitation is the biggest form of flatter until when people say that people are culturally appropriating something we would have to go back eons to see what one thing belong to what culture. I mean an African-American owns Burger King I don’t think hamburgers from Africa… I’m just saying this is so stupid and frustrating there’s so many things in this book that I disagreed with and I had a lot of things I did agree with I didn’t like that he said Christians were delusional because again that’s clumping all Christians together and saying all of them are delusional God is love and just for the record they have gay churches or at the very least Christians who are gay because anyone who knows the Bible knows that God loves everyone but I digress I’m getting upset and this is pointless. I wish I would’ve never read this book more than that I wish there was no need for this book. I was given this book by Nat Gally and I am leaving this review voluntarily please forgive any errors as I am blind and I dictate my review but all opinions are definitely my own.