Arguing for a Better World

Can you be racist to a white person?

Does cancel culture exist?

Is it ever okay to laugh at jokes that rely on racist, sexist or homophobic stereotypes?

Is it sexist to say 'men are trash'?

These questions tap into some of today's most divisive issues, and finding an answer can often lead to confusion and resentment.

Political and generational divides often dictate how questions such as these are answered, and when asked most people give automatic answers that roughly align with the broader position they believe is right - though many flounder when asked to detail their reasoning. This creates cultural and political tribes, makes people nervous about engaging at all, or leads to the issues to be trivialised or attributed to the excessive sensitivity of 'snowflakes' to 'identity politics'.

You Can't Say Anything Anymore cuts right to the heart of these tensions, with the aim of demonstrating the importance of rigorous definitions and distinctions, revealing the arguments that break the stalemates, and equipping readers with the tools to identify and defend their positions. Drawing on Shahvisi's work as a philosopher, and using live controversies, well-known case studies, and personal anecdotes, this book reveals and analyses the power relations that shape our social world, and offers powerful ways to challenge them.

Often entertaining and funny; always concise, exacting, logical, readable, authoritative and un-put-downable. An everyday manual on how oppression came about, how it works, why it persists, and how to defeat it -- Danny Dorling, author of Injustice: Why Social Inequality Still Persists and A Better Politics
We live in an age of information overload, and unfortunately, 'information' is often misinformation. We often don't know how to think about social problems, let alone what to think. Arianne Shahvisi's book cuts through the noise with an eminently sensible discussion of key contemporary 'culture war' issues. It shows us how philosophy, far from being irrelevant, is essential for navigating today's world of client journalism-manufactured, social media-manipulated outrage. It also provides much-needed reassurance that in the struggle to create a better world, being able to 'show our workings' is much more important than always being right -- ALISON PHIPPS, author of Me, Not You: The Trouble with Mainstream Feminism
This brilliant and very enjoyable book brings cooling clarity and patient empathy to the noise and heat of today's so-called 'Culture Wars'. This is insightful explication at its best, essential reading for anyone engaged with many of today's most pressing public arguments -- Priyamvada Gopal, Author of INSURGENT EMPIRE
Gives progressives everything they need to defend their views in an increasingly polarized public sphere . . . Arguing for a Better World belongs on nightstands and in book clubs everywhere -- Carol Hay, author of Think Like a Feminist: The Philosophy Behind the Revolution
Allows us to not only interrogate our own views, but to persuade others using reason and optimism. A must read -- Aaron Bastani, author of Fully Automated Luxury Communism: A Manifesto
Shahvisi is a bold and necessary new literary voice whose work has the power to transform our world for the better -- Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, author The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred
Refreshing . . . Arguing for a Better World challenges us to go beyond popular or popularising opinions and instead to learn to argue and defend well-reasoned positions Sunday Business Post

Arianne Shahvisi is a Kurdish-British writer and academic. She teaches philosophy at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School and has written essays for the London Review of Books, the Guardian, the Independent, and the Economist.

Can you be racist to a white person? Does cancel culture exist? Is it ever okay to laugh at jokes that rely on racist, sexist or homophobic stereotypes? Is it sexist to say 'men are trash'? These questions tap into some of today's most divisive issues, and finding an answer can often lead to confusion and resentment.Political and generational divides often dictate how questions such as these are answered, and when asked most people give automatic answers that roughly align with the broader position they believe is right - though many flounder when asked to detail their reasoning. This creates cultural and political tribes, makes people nervous about engaging at all, or leads to the issues to be trivialised or attributed to the excessive sensitivity of 'snowflakes' to 'identity politics'. You Can't Say Anything Anymore cuts right to the heart of these tensions, with the aim of demonstrating the importance of rigorous definitions and distinctions, revealing the arguments that break the stalemates, and equipping readers with the tools to identify and defend their positions. Drawing on Shahvisi's work as a philosopher, and using live controversies, well-known case studies, and personal anecdotes, this book reveals and analyses the power relations that shape our social world, and offers powerful ways to challenge them.

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