Books That Hold and Defend Controversial Opinions

I love a controversial opinion. I love arguing as a principle. There’s just something about getting on people’s nerves that makes me laugh, but not in a mean “I’m making fun of you” kind of laugh but a “This is really great” kind of delight. I know it sounds strange and like I’ll go out of my way to argue with someone, but nothing could be further from the truth really. Unless the topic really interests me I won’t argue, much. Having said that, the main reason why I read non-fiction books and biographies is because I love to learn about various subjects. And I loved to learn about things I a) no nothing about and b) might disagree on. Changing my mind is something that I’ve always struggled with, especially since I’m incredibly stubborn and thick headed, but here are some books that I’ve come across that have either changed my mind about the topic they address, or have left me wondering if maybe my opinion wasn’t hastily made. 

Fossil Future and The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels by Alex Epstein

Two books I have on my to-be-read list but that none the less I know enough about to make a blog post about, Alex Epstein (no relation with Jeffrey) is a moral philosopher and energy expert who has spent the last 15 years of his life researching and making the case for fossil fuels and why the world need them. 

His first book Fossil Future: Why Global Human Flourishing Requires More Oil, Coal and Natural Gas – Not Less he makes the case that despite the negative impacts of fossil fuels on the planet, the benefits outweighs the impact of fossil fuels on nature, especially for the poorest among us, Africa. It’s a interesting read and an opinion one doesn’t hear much in the media. 

His latest book The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels he doesn’t try to convince you that fossil fuels are the future of humanity but presents facts and arguments of why fossil fuels are necessary and why humanity would be doomed without them. He sates, factually so, that fossil fuels are the reason why poverty has decreased dramatically, why the planet is greener and cleaner and why, despite our indiscriminate use, fossil fuels have only contributed to the warming of one degree Celsius to our planet.  He also makes the case for the controversial side effects of fossil fuels and lets you, as the reader make your own mind. Honestly, it’s an unconventional opinion, but one that’s deeply necessary in the public sphere. 

The Great Covid Panic: What Happened, Why and What to Do Next by Paul Frijters, Gigi Foster and Michael Baker  

I’m sure, like me, you’re sick of hearing about Covid, vaccines, busters, lockdowns and all the things that came into reality back in 2020. I’m also sure that like me you want to make sense of what happened in an informed and unbiased way that gives you the full perspective instead of some microscopic view that’s being filtered through political lenses. Then this book if for you: a recount, mostly in America, about what the government, the ruling elites and the medical community decided to promise and under deliver and the consequences that came with that grab of power. It not only explores the policies that came into light because of the pandemic, but also the consequences of the loss of our freedoms and what it means for our future. 

Woke, Inc: Inside Corporate America’s Social Justice Scam by Vivek Ramaswamy 

 Do you often wonder why companies will go out their way to support ideals that go against their vision and mission? Where you as surprised as me when DuckDuckGo announced that they would fire all their white employees? Or when Amazon and Facebook won’t enact their policies when someone stands in one side of the spectrum versus the other side? Or why people are de-platformed from certain websites for something they didn’t do on the platform? Well welcome to Woke Incorporated where companies will go out of their way to aliente half their customers for a little bit of profit, like we saw when Gillette dropped that commercial. This books explains the strategies behind the wokeification of companies, why their sole mission is to increase profits and why the will switch their opinion and agenda on supporting certain movements for the sole reason of profit. 

San Fansicko: Why Progressives Ruin Cities by Michael Shellenberger 

In this book Michael, a long time progressive and San Fraciscan explains the reason why San Francisco will go out of its way to enact policies that seem to, well, ruin the city. Whether it is increasing the budget for clean needles in the city, to prevent more housing and buildings to be constructed, to banning alternative means of transportation and innovation for the sole reason that “big companies shouldn’t profit form the median San Fraciscan”. It’s all bizarre and all true. Sadly, this progressive movement, he argues, is one that is being spread through cities around the country, and whose sole purpose is to mine and extract as much value from the cities as quickly as possible, leaving behind a ruined city. 

The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature by Stephen Pinker 

Stephen Pinker is a Harvard psychology professor who’s written over 6 books, most of them over 900 pages long. In my second favorite book of his (my favorite is Enlightement Now), Pinker makes the case that constant denial of genetics and evolutionary psychology, especially by 20th century French intellectuals has done more harm than good to humanity. In the book he gives the reader not only scientific data to back up his argument, but shows through historic occurrences the nature of humanity and how modern society has evolved for the better from this tendencies. It’s a controversial opinion for the sole reason that it goes against the widely accepted modern idea of “born this way”. But are we?

The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, and Islam by Douglas Murray 

Douglas Murray has been at the forefront of the debate, especially over the pond, about whether white British citizens should feel threatened over the uncontrolled, and often encouraged, immigration from Islam countries. In this book, he explores the idea of what it means to be European, what values Europe has historically has maintained and propagated and whether the identity of Europeans and their values are compatible with the mass immigration of not only a regressive religion such as Islam, but the fact that white Christian Europeans are going to be a minority in their continent by 2050. Before you portray him as a racist, he’s not, I would encourage you to read this book for it makes the case that sometimes countries should protect their identity even at the cost of closing themselves off from the so called “diversity”.

Race and Economics: How Much Can Be Blamed on Discrimination? by Walter E. Williams

And to finally end this post I wanted to leave my favorite book for the end: Walter E. Williams most controversial book about race and the history of economic suppression of black people in America. Why is this book controversial thought? Well as the title portrays, he makes the argument through historical and economic facts that black people in America were as successful as their white counterparts before their eventual freedom in 1865. He makes the case that even though black people were though of as property, some owners raised them to levels of power, some allowed their slaves to have extra income in order to buy their own freedom, and some of those slaves had slaves of their own who put them not only a position of economic power, but political power. Now the premise of the book is the exploration of how much of the black community’s lack of economic power today can be blamed on slavery? Therefore a controversial and often discouraged opinion.

And there you have it, some of my to-be-read, read and favorite books with controversial opinions.