Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

A former talking head speaks out on the good old days and the bad new ones. What ails the republic? A cowardly Congress? A rubber-stamping Supreme Court? Inflation? No. What ails the republic, by O’Reilly’s account, is tattoos. Well, tattoos and a whole bunch of other newfangled things. But yes, tattoos: “A neck tattoo is not going to stimulate higher wages unless you are motivated to work in a strip club,” he observes. He later adds, “Showing up for a job interview looking like a Hells Angel is not going to advance your cause in most places. Americans need to think about self-respect.” Millions in America sport tattoos these days, but, no matter—he’s got other complaints to lodge. For one, he writes, “if you smoke cigarettes in this country, you negatively stand out.…But inhale pot and somehow you’re cool.” He may not have gotten the memo about widespread legalization, but he takes a minute to blame that slide into cultural depravity on Snoop Dogg and Willie Nelson. George Soros and Joe Biden want to trash the country. On Soros, he writes, “the guy despises traditional America and wants to destroy it.” Nancy Pelosi, he says, is “fanatically left-wing.” Zohran Mamdani is a “Communist,” and, on top of that, young people aren’t interested in hard work. Artificial intelligence is bad, Intelligent Design good. There’s more: “In the age of ‘woke,’ if you mock someone, especially a minority person, you will be accused of dastardly behavior.” Black communities are troubled because they don’t have dads, and “‘hip-hop’ culture is toxic.” And so forth. A man who misses the 1950s shakes his fist at the uncomprehending sky. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.