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iwasjusttwittering t1_jdc5yn3 wrote

I read mostly non-fiction, and I don't really read for "fun" (though it may get bonus points) but out of interest. My rating scale is a range from "incoherent garbage or actively harmful to society" to "sound seminal work, you should know about this".

Even when I read fiction, I apply similar criteria to an extent. For instance when I read Laurent Binet's Civilizations, I enjoyed about 3/4 of the story and I'd give it 4/5 rating, if it weren't for the alternative history based off fundamentally flawed premises; thus, it ends up 3/5 and I explain the problem with its pop "big history" framing and how the world building leaves out for example crucial trade relations with the other part of the world.

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pensieve64 OP t1_jdc7k5d wrote

I’m curious; how many actively harmful to society books have you read?

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iwasjusttwittering t1_jdc8zyq wrote

Quite a few.

As I was finishing high school, I was gifted a book by a prominent politician in my country that promoted climate-change denial. I actually believed it for a while.

However, as I got out of that, my late stepfather went down an esoteric and far-right rabbit hole. I looked into what he read to be able to critically engage with him. There was fake-historian punditry, edgy eugenics, Russian mysticism and for example trash fantasy that has a cult around it (a bit like scientology).

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