This is a delightfully detailed takedown of the first five chapters of Goodwin's apparently AI-sourced book.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/2035669425567744140.html
Ha. Though The Critic is more sympathetic to Goodwin's POV, it absolutely savages the book in pretty much all other aspects, not least as he does a rubbish job of arguing his POV.
https://thecritic.co.uk/suicide-of-an-authors-credibility/
“Slop” is an overused term but it feels painfully appropriate for a book that is spoon fed to its audience. Goodwin, who had a long academic career before becoming a successful commentator, is not a man who lacks intelligence. But he writes as if he thinks his
audience lacks it. “I did not write this book for the ruling class,” writes Goodwin, “I wrote it for the forgotten majority.” Alas, he seems to think that the average member of the “forgotten majority” has the reading level of a dimwitted 12-year-old. As well as being stylistically simple, the book is full of annoying paternal asides. “In the pages ahead I shall walk you through what is happening to the country …” “In the next chapter we will begin our journey …” Thank you, Mr Goodwin. Can we stop for ice cream?
The book is terribly derivative, with a title that reflects Pat Buchanan’s
Suicide of a Superpower and a subtitle — “Immigration, Islam, Identity” — that all but repeats that of Douglas Murray’s
The Strange Death of Europe — “Immigration, Identity, Islam”. It is written in the humourless and colourless rhetorical style of AI. I’m not saying it
was AI-generated. (Indeed, a brief assessment using AI checkers suggests that it was not.) I’m just saying that it might as well have been.