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How to Be Right

...in a world gone wrong

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How to Be Right

By: James O'Brien
Narrated by: James O'Brien
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Random House presents the audiobook edition of How to Be Right, written and read by James O'Brien.

Forget agreeing to disagree – it’s time to learn How To Be Right.

Every day, James O’Brien listens to people blaming benefits scroungers, the EU, Muslims, feminists and immigrants. But what makes James’s daily LBC show such essential listening – and has made James a standout social media star – is the careful way he punctures their assumptions and dismantles their arguments live on air, every single morning.

In How To Be Right, James provides a hilarious and invigorating guide to talking to people with faulty opinions. With chapters on every lightning-rod issue, James shows how people have been fooled into thinking the way they do, and in each case outlines the key questions to ask to reveal fallacies, inconsistencies and double standards.

If you ever get cornered by ardent Brexiteers, Daily Mail disciples or little England patriots, this book is your conversation survival guide.

‘I have had a ringside seat as a significant swathe of the British population was persuaded that their failures were the fault of foreigners, that unisex lavatories threatened their peace of mind and that ‘all Muslims’ must somehow apologise for terror attacks by extremists. I have tried to dissuade them and sometimes succeeded.... The challenge is to distinguish sharply between the people who told lies and the people whose only offence was to believe them.’ (James O’Brien)

©2018 James O'Brien (P)2018 Penguin Audio
Politics & Government Thought-Provoking Middle East
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Critic reviews

"O’Brien is an exceptional broadcaster with a peerless ability to calmly point out the absurdity of certain viewpoints, a quality which similarly runs through this book ... provides a much-needed examination of the blustering rhetoric of politicians and media pundits, and brings a sliver of comfort to readers that they are not alone in their despair." (The Guardian)

"Almost indecently enjoyable." (Robert Webb)

"I know few broadcasters as consistently, forensically, brilliant as James O’ Brien. Here, he shows us -- with empathy, edge and exquisite comedy -- how it happens." (Emily Maitlis)

All stars
Most relevant
Made me realise that democracy without education is never going to work.
The future belongs to hate preachers. James is not one of them. He is just exposing some victims of hate propaganda to whom the future looks brown.

The second most important book I read this year

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Captivating from start to finish. I learned a great deal and intend to approach things differently from now on.

Makes so much sence

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overall a good read/listen. I'm a big fan of JOB on LBC and have been a long time listener. However I was expecting more depth and analysis, maybe more facts and stats (maybe a bit how Owen Jones presents his books). If felt a little bit like a collection of his LBC 'best of' calls formulated into a book. Entertaining for sure, and excellent insights from James as usual. Also he reads it very well.

A good experience, but...

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I don’t listen to radio phone-ins. Most hosts seem to be out to shock and/or promote populist prejudices. However, though I will continue to avoid that programme format, this account of the author’s examination of the influence of MSM and social media in spreading misconceptions and downright lies for their own unsavoury ends is revealing.
He divides the chapters by theme, exploring attitudes to the current popular scapegoats and the terrifying phenomenon that is Trump. (And of course, Brexit, and the logically inexplicable majority of English (not Scots or N Irish) voters who thought it a good idea.) Politics and ethics as slogan! Just why anyone would phone in to reveal their unexamined prejudices in public is a mystery to me. You’d have thought anyone wanting to make a point would have done some research , checked facts, presented solid evidence for their opinions, before lifting the phone - it ain’t necessarily so.

Phone-in radio for those who avoid it: not always idiotic

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if you like o'Brien then you will like this simple

read good, as youd expect. an just like an episode of his radio show really.

if you like o'Brien then you will like this simple

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