Discover Gumption: Relighting The Torch Of Freedom With Americas Gutsiest Troublemakers By Nick Offerman Offered As EPub

there anything Nick Offerman can't do He is suave, sharp witted, intelligent, and can rock a mustache like no one else.
And the man can also write, and write well, I was happy to discover, A great read about those who he believes to be fine, hard working Americans,

I loved the list of those he admires, the well known and not so well known.
Nick gives a quick background on each person and what he feels makes them a hero in his eyes.
I learned something that was good, uplifting and encouraging about every one of the people he wrote about, and wanted to know more, even when their chapters had come to an end.


But a warning to future readers if you are a religious, God fearing Christian, this book is not for you.
Move on. Unless you are willing to hear the opinion of someone who is not, Nick will be sure to makes statements that will get your panties in a twist.


I learned, I laughed, and at the end I wanted to eat a steak and drink whiskey like Nick Offerman, and I think I love him more than I do before.

Vast waste of time, effort, paper, intelligence, . .

Offerman is a onetrickpony, His schtick is saying something with the most words possible, and a preference for antique or polysyllabic choices over simple one or two syllable words.
This technique puffs up simple two paragraph biographic blurbs into four page rambles through a word thicket.


I have no serious objections with any of Offerman's choices of heroes though, and that is what rescues this book from anestar rating.
Any book that ranks Laurie Anderson, Frederick Douglass, Wendell Berry, and Willie Nelson as heroes gets serious props.
Making them boring, however, that removes Offerman from my list of future reads, I listened to this book with Audible, I had some serious issues with this book, especially the further we got into the chapters, My biggest issue was his use of Presentism in regards to historical situations, Also, I had problems with him trying to pass off some of his very biased opinions as coldhard fact.
For this review, I broke it up into The Good for stuff I liked, The Bad for the main issues I had with the book, and The Ugly where I try to point out where he got some things very wrong in his book, or show where he tried to pass off too much of his opinion as fact.


The Good: I enjoyed Nick Offerman reading his own book, He's got a very soothing voice, but it's also nice hearing his own pacing and narrative, I love the fact that he's picking out historical figures that have gumption, Grit like that is definitely lacking in our society nowadays, His proAmerican thoughts I agree with, as well as his focus on hardworking individuals that pull themselves up by their own boot straps.
I also appreciate the vast characteristics that he associates with gumption, So, not just military prowess, honesty, and being a gogetter, but also things like having a thirst for knowledge or knowing when to remain quiet and listen.
One of the most beautifully written chapters is Chapterabout Yoko Ono, Well worth a listen if nothing else, Despite many of the other chapters that got me frustrated, I also agree with many of his social gripes he mentions: lack of hard work in newer generations and wanting to do a job well the softness of modern generations his affinity for handmade items over mass production the problem with many people not staying in the present and enjoying the now the problem with cell phones and the lack of social cues needing to buy Americanmade products the importance of a good education and needing to read the need for toughlove and critiques the problem with many words dealing with women being used as negativeconnotations and how that makes it seem like women are lesser etc.


The Bad: My gripes are with his interpreting things in history.
I'm okay with him telling historical facts, however, the guy is not a historian, So, I don't want you to tell me your interpretation of, oh say, the amendments in the Bill of Rights.
That's the parts where I was getting frustrated, Also, his issue with Presentism, As a true historian, you are not supposed to try to judge the past based on the morals and knowledge of presentday society.
Offerman is very much using Presentism in his book, over and over again, Yes, thank God, as a society we realize today that everyone should be treated equal that slavery is wrong that women deserve equal rights as men that color and gender do not make you better than someone else.
But, this is something that every cultural has to come to realize over time, Like it or not, people are products of their time and must be judged within that paradigm.


Much of the second half of his book becomes very boring, It becomes less about the person's character and gumption that he is supposed to be describing, and more about him gushing over meeting his idols.
For most of those instances, I couldn't care less about how he met these people, Just tell me how they are an amazing American and why they deserve to be on your list, dude.
On top of long, drawnout stories about how he meets these people, he'll random throw in politics and flatout opinion rants that take up another large part of the chapters.
. . again, not telling me how this person is a American with gumption, It was toward the end of the Audible book that I happily discovered the button that allowed me to increase the speed with which Offerman speaks.
A few chapters greatly needed that button,

The Ugly: Here are more issues in the book that are his opinions on topics that really irked me, one way or another.
My biggest issue overall is that he more or less tries to force these opinions down your throat or make you believe that they are fullfact rather than his interpretation.
To be clear, the bolded things are what HIS opinion is in the book, I put in my twocents after that:

, As mentioned, his interpretation of the Bill of Rights amendments, particularly thend Amendment, That's your interpretation and opinions, dude, It doesn't make it fact, and it doesn't make anyone that believes otherwise an evil or stupid person.
It's a difference of opinion, Plus, if you really want to debate thend Amendment issue like you rant about in the book, then don't focus on long rifles.
Out of the roughly,to,fatalities of gun violence that occur each year, very few come from assault weapons or long rifles at all.
They come from handguns. In, for instance, onlypeople were murdered by long rifles of any kind, Usually, it's aboutof gun deaths that occur from handguns, Also, contrary to popular belief, handguns are used more often in mass shootings than assault weapons, But mass shootings of any kind in the U, S. only accounts forof gun deaths in the past three decades, What it really boils down to is that the majority of the gun violence comes from gangrelated activity, predominately in large cities or counties.
The largest percentage of those killed by gun violence are AfricanAmerican, Sadly, about,to,AfricanAmerican men are killed by guns each year, when onlyof the American population is comprised of AfricanAmerican men.
On top of that, a huge majority of those killed by guns are "blackonblack" homicides, Maybe we need to be focusing less on trying to tear down thend Amendment, and instead focus on pouring more money and effort into support systems and education in AfricanAmerican communities.
It's tragic. Believe me, being in the education system you see just how badly education of all types needs more funding and support.

. Fullout selfhate of white ethnicity throughout the book, Basically to him whites, particularly white men, throughout American and world history are evil "white devils.
" I get that people in American history have not always done what is today considered moral or politically correct, but he really lays it on thick.
. . over and over and over and over I could continue the "overs",
. Reparations to AfricanAmerican decedents of slaves, Briefly mentioned, but it seems as though he's for them, On a sidenote, I would like to state here that the idea of "forty acres and a mule" being given to former slaves did not come from a promise of the U.
S. government. It was something taken from a field order by General William T, Sherman in regards to Charleston, SC, and the mules were to be borrowed from the army not given.
However, the order was overturned in the fall of, Also random, let's look at statistics, In the preCivil War South, onlyof whites had a plantation ofor more slaves like what most people imagine when thinking about slavery and the "Tara" plantation like in Gone With the Wind.
In, twothirds of the whites in the South did not own slaves, Of the other onethird of whites that did own slaves, most owned one to four, Nonetheless, it should go without saying that no matter what the statistics are, it's still deplorable to own another human being.
My point is though, if you're wanting to pay reparations to decedents of slaves, it sounds like you're going to need to only charge those with the ancestors in that/percentile.
Just saying.
. That the "white man" needs to atone for the sins of their ancestors, One of the things that I've always loved about America was that unlike Europe wayback when you didn't have to follow in your family's footsteps and also you weren't punished for the things your parents did.
A long time ago, if your father was a mason, then you would be a mason, If your family were farmers, then you became a farmer, There was no breaking out of the social caste you'd been born into, That was one of the things that we broke away from when our ancestors sailed to the New World.
Also, in the old days, if your father owed a debt or did something wrong, then you as his child could be punished or forced to pay the debt in some way, monetary, labor, or otherwise.
Again, in America that was not the case, thank the Lord, You are your own person and it is not your fault or responsibility to make up for what your father, grandfather, greatgrandfather, etc, did.
Did I murder someone or commit genocide of a native population No, Did I enslave someone No, and neither did my ancestors, fyi I like genealogy, Did I ever prevent the civil rights of others No, Please remember though, Mr. Offerman, that it was not just the "white devils" that owned slaves, even though they were the majority.
NativeAmericans of various tribes owned slaves, as did a small percentage of Free black men almost,Free black men owned about,black slaves.

. The dropping of the atomic bombs were wrong and unnecessary, Don't get me started here, I've written lengthy papers on the subject, I wouldn't wish the atomic bombs on anyone, or any bombs for that matter, The results are horrific and mindboggling, Am I sorry that it happened Yes, But do I think that it was the wrong move tactically at that point in time No.
And for so many reasons, Here's just one Look up "Operation Olympic" which was part of "Operation Downfall," having originally been scheduled for November,, Read the predictions and statistics of the casualty rate for the invasion of the Japanese mainland, casualty rates on all sides: the American soldiers, the Japanese soldiers, and then the Japanese civilians.
That alone should have you secondguessing your belief that it was wrong to drop the atomic bombs.
When you total the estimated fatalities for all sides, it was thought to betomillion dead.
That's just the death predictions, not including the casualties that would have been injured and survived, Compare that to the,combined deaths from both the atomic bombs, There's no comparison. Again, that is just ONE reason that it was tactically correct to drop the atomic bombs,
. Tom Laughlin. So, out of all of the gutsiest Americans, Laughlin Really It seems that Offerman puts him in this book based on his acting portrayal of "Billy Jack" in the movies.
Not really based on Laughlin himself, The first onethird is about the Billy Jack movies, Then another third of the chapter is about a screening of the film and Laughlin's funeral, All, not dealing with why Laughlin is worthy of this title, It doesn't help that the whole chapter began by Offerman stating that he was introduced to the Billy Jack movies by a weird/crazy friend of his in the past that had a wad of crusty yeast dough that he made guests finger, know as "Grandma's 'Gina.
" Only the last seven minutes really talks about the accomplishments of Laughlin himself and not as Billy Jack, but even then it was mostly about Laughlin's children.
Nothing I heard in that whole chapter made me feel like Laughlin belongs on a list of amazing Americans such as Theodore Roosevelt or Ben Franklin.
It especially seemed like a wasted chapter considering in the previous chapter on Eleanor Roosevelt he said that he hated that he didn't have enough space in his book to include so many amazing women.
Well, here was your chance to include at least one more in this chapter instead of Laughlin.
All of the women you listed are greatly more deserving to have a chapter written on them than this guy who acted like a tough guy in a movie.

. Christian Bashing. Throughout the book, he's been bashing the Christian religion, How is it that it's okay to see that other religions have their extremists and shouldn't be judged on those few, yet Christianity can't have that same idea afforded to it Also, the last time I checked, Christians and Republicans weren't throwing gay people off of high buildings simply because of their sexual orientation, like Islam extremists have in recent years.
Goes against some of what he was talking about in chapter, Really, when it boils down to it, chapteris less about Democrat Barney Frank, and more about Offerman's views on sexual orientation, Christian bashing and preaching what Christianity should be about, and hating on anyone Conservative.
Just tell me about Frank's life, achievements, and policies that he's put into place, please, Stop preaching to me. I want to hear about the man's life and gumption, not your twocents that takes up aboutof theminutes of chapter.
In so many of the chapters, he uses a very basic, stereotypical view of Christianity and religion.
It also focuses on only the negatives and evils that have been committed in the name of God, and not all the good that has been done in his name.
Why do some crazy crackpots and hypocrites get to be representative of Christians in your book
.
Comedy News Shows. So it's okay to be mean as long as they are comedians and doing so on a comedic forum like the Jon Stewart Daily Show Because it is supposed to be a comedy show, it's okay to say things that are extremely offensive, causing a bigger gap between red and blue Heaven help us, it was found thatof US adults get the majority of their news from social media sources.
Worst of all depending on what study you were looking at, an average oftooftoyear olds are getting their news from comedy news sources like Colbert Report, Daily Show, and SNL.
If you have THAT big of a group solely getting their news from these COMEDY sources, then maybe it's even worse that those socalled comedians are being so dividing.
You want to talk about brainwashing That is brainwashing, What's really terrible about Offerman's spewing is he pretends to be bipartisan in all of this, He pretends to be a moderate that is attacking both conservative and liberal sides, but which side is he really, truly criticizing when it boils down to it The conservative side.
If you're going to do it, at least be honest about it without pretending to be a moderate.

. Slander in Political Campaigning, He insinuated that slander in political campaigning in modern times comes from thes when Newt Gingrich was running for president.
Really Because from what I have learned over the years, slander has been a part of American campaigning since the first campaigns after George Washington.
In fact, Washington himself warned in his Farewell Address against political parties because of its polarizing powers.
In any case, it is widely believed that theelection was the dirtiest in presidential political campaigning.
That was against Adams and Jackson, You're talking about one side saying the other was a "pigfer" and the other side stating that his wife was an adulterer and bigamist having married Jackson before she divorced her first husband.
That became such an issue, that it is thought to have greatly attributed to Jackson's wife's death.

. Political Campaign Money. I agree, it's disgusting how much money is spent on political campaigns, But, if you're going to mention the Koch Brothers as being evil and conniving, then please mention George Soros too.

. The US was the "biggest assholes" on the playground in WWII for dropping the atomic bombs, and the only reason that other nations didn't do anything to retaliate was because they didn't want to be "assholes" and drop a bomb too.
For the true reason for the dropping of the atomic bombs, please see my answer to.
As far as the reason other countries didn't retaliate against us after the dropping of the atomic bombs was not because they didn't want to be "assholes.
" First of all, we were not the only ones trying to create an atomic weapon, We just figured it out first, The reason we had to try to figure it out first was because the Nazis were trying to figure it out too.
You know dang

well that they would have used it against the US, Heck, Einstein urged FDR to start the Manhattan Project because he knew the importance of it, and that Germany would bomb whoever they wanted if that technology got into their hands first.
Secondly, no one else had atomic weapons at the time, so they couldn't drop bombs on us.
It had nothing to do with a moral high ground on the other nations' part at all.
Also, thirdly, his statement makes no sense because just about everyone after that tried to figure out how to make atomic weapons.
Hence the Cold War with the USSR, That whole rant of his about WWII and being like a playground, yada, yada, was ridiculous and infuriating.
To even try to simplify the whole monumental situation that is WWII in such a petty way is insulting.

. Honestly, the last three or four chapters, I just gave up on pointing out what was wrong about some of his very opinionated rants.
There's about three other things I could have mentioned, but at this point, I don't care, I'm just glad for the dang book to be over so that he can't browbeat me with his bias.


Chapters:
. George Washington
. Ben Franklin
. James Madison
. Frederick Douglass
. Theodore Roosevelt
. Frederick Law Olmsted
. Eleanor Roosevelt
. Tom Laughlin
. Wendell Berry
. Barney Frank
. Yoko Ono
. Michael Pollan
. Thomas Lie Nielsen
. Nat Benjamin
. George Nakashima
. Carol Burnett
. Jeff Tweedy
. George Saunders
. Laurie Anderson
. Willy Nelson
. Conan O'Brien.