Book Review: We Need New Stories - Challenging the Toxic Myths Behind Our Age of Discontent by Nesrine Malik

This is not a ‘resistance’ book. It is not a guide to activism. It is not a reflection on ‘how democracies die’ or how authoritarianism is on the horizon. It is an exploration of how, without questioning the very context in which resistance takes place, it is futile.

This book is more about its subtitle than its title. It doesn't really provide new stories or new ways of thinking about the world - instead, it is probably best thought of as a toolkit for identifying the way right-wing grifters poison any debate. It talks through the distraction techniques of frequency jamming, score-keeping, and half-a-dozen other methods which cannot be unseen once revealed.

Sometimes it is as simple as pointing out the inherent contradictions that theocratic extremists try to push on us.

Scriptures that warn us that men are lustful and not in control of their faculties when it comes to women (necessitating that women must maintain modesty so as to not inflame these feral creatures) are the very same texts we entrust these wild men to curate in their unquestionable wisdom and restraint.

It also shows the importance of calling out people who try to derail arguments.

It is far easier to filibuster on why rape reports are rising, than it is to say, simply, that you do not care about rape. It is dishonest.

One of the bits that I found (belatedly) enlightening is how often society tries to exoticise certain crimes. It allows us to feel superior to "the others" with their barbaric and savage ways while conveniently ignoring how our culture suffers from the same problems.

The murder of women by members of their family in Pakistan or Jordan is easily identified as an honour killing and traced back to deeply ingrained religious, social and cultural norms […] The same line of reasoning is not made when considering the fact that in the US, three women a day are killed by their partners or ex-partners and that half of all homicides in the country are committed by an intimate partner.

Somewhat annoyingly, there's an over-indexation on the US to the detriment of the UK's culture. There's lots of talk about US chatshow hosts who I've never heard of, despite there being plenty of UK reprobates to skewer. I suppose that it is part of the flattening of global culture that extremists can quickly go viral which leads journalists to attach more importance to them than they deserve.

The psychological trauma of Trump and Brexit resonates throughout the book. It is like a psychic shockwave which colours all commentary. How did the pundits get it so wrong?

Part of the problem, so the book identifies, is the utter inability of the media to reflect on its failures.

‘Most of the people in the upper echelons of the American media today are the same people who were there during the Iraq War,’ he said. ‘They have not been punished. And these are the people who are now responsible for framing the dangers of Trumpism.’ If it were a real market, their stalls would have been shut down long ago.

I've always wondered whether anyone has gone back through all the left-wing UK columnists (like Toynbee) to see whether they've ever learned from their mistakes - or even acknowledged what they've gotten wrong?

There are some knockout lines in the book. I think my favourite was:

A lot of economic anxiety seems to take place on public transport.

It is an excellent book to help you draw back the curtain on the fraud that is being perpetrated by the right. But, as with many books, can't provide the answers for how the left can counter-fight. In part, I suspect, because the answer is always going to be either "spend more money" or "hope the proletariat have a spontaneous awakening."

Definitely worth reading - but only if you are prepared to take action afterwards.