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  • Depends What You Mean by Extremist

  • Going Rogue with Australian Deplorables
  • By: John Safran
  • Narrated by: John Safran
  • Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (577 ratings)

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Depends What You Mean by Extremist

By: John Safran
Narrated by: John Safran
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Publisher's Summary

No one turns up where they're not wanted quite like John Safran. In this hilarious and disorienting adventure, he gets among our diverse community of white nationalists, ISIS supporters, anarchists and more, digging away at the contradictions that many would prefer be left unexamined.

Who is this black puppet master among the white nationalists? And this Muslim fundamentalist who geeks out on Monty Python? Is there a secret radicalisation network operating in John’s own Jewish suburb? And ultimately - is hanging with all these radicals washing off on John himself?

Populated by an extraordinary cast of 'ordinary' Australians, Depends What You Mean by Extremist is a startling, confronting portrait of contemporary Australia. We all think we know what's going on in our own country, but this larger-than-life, timely and alarmingly insightful true story will make you think again.... Drinking shots with nationalists and gobbling falafel with radicals, John Safran was there the year the extreme became the mainstream.

©2017 John Safran (P)2017 Audible, Ltd

What listeners say about Depends What You Mean by Extremist

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  • Ben
  • 17-07-2017

That wiley jew! As predicted, worth a listen.

A brilliant balance of satire and inside interviews. John takes a closer look at key members on both sides of the anti-immigration conversation. In typical Safran style, he magnificently highlights how strange and silly it is to hold black and white opinions on such a complex topic. He weasels himself into the underbelly of both the left and right camps and exposes the underlying agendas that are being pushed and all their hypocrisies. Great read!!!

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7 people found this helpful

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Great stuff

This is just what we needed - someone to show us the human (and sometimes all-too-human) side of the racial and religious tensions in our country. Well done, John! (Father Dave)

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Safran's unique voice tackles radicals

Due to the charged subject matter, this may be a difficult listen for many people, and there is probably something in here to challenge almost everyone, including me. Safran breaks some of the seemingly inviolable rules we have for talking about racism, particularly post-Charlottesville: "there are good people on both sides?" Well, Safran does talk to some sympathetic, misguided characters who found themselves on the side of nationalists and islamophobes. He also talks to a lot of really vile, hate-filled people, but with a surprising lack of the sort of moralising to the audience one might expect. It's as though Safran gets that his audience already knows that racism and ISIS are bad, and feels that he can skip stating the obvious.
What he focuses on instead are the often surprising, criss-crossing faultlines in the culture wars over race, religion, and identity, which are easily glossed over in our search for simple narratives. The radical left's antisemitism problem is something that particularly irks Safran; he shows repeated contempt for their tendency to dismiss antisemitic attacks committed by Muslims as "non-structural violence."
His observations about the homophobia that persists in many otherwise-left-leaning non-white immigrant communities has proved prescient: in the national marriage equality survey, Chris Bowen's immigrant-packed, safe Labor seat was one of the few electorates to vote no.
Lest anyone think that Safran gives Israel a free pass, there are also vignettes with an IDF-loving, Trump-supporting gym owner, and at several other points Safran turns his probing gaze inward, not sparing himself from the scrutiny he applies to others.
The book at times feels like a loose collection of anecdotes, rather than points in service of an overarching argument, and that's because it *is* a loose collection of anecdotes. But Safran does seem to have a point, that point being that there is hypocrisy on both the far right and the far left, and that the conflicts that we think are so simple actually have so many facets, factions, and axes, and the motives of the principal players are not always stated upfront. As Safran might put it, it's not just the Jews that are wily.

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4 people found this helpful

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Excellent!

A fascinating dive into Australia's extreme ish political movements and the interesting characters involved.

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Nasally voices are my thing

I enjoy just about everything John does. This is no exception. Great book! A must listen.

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Safran at his best

This might be the funniest book ever written about Australian race relations and religious extremists of every sort. Previous fans of Sunday Night Safran on the radio will be thrilled to have hour upon hour of John's inimitable narration making the book even funnier. As well as being highly engaging, it's intelligent and investigates divisive movements and individuals that many other writers would shy away from.

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3 people found this helpful

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loved it

i felt this worked really well as an audio book. It was cool to hear John Safran narrating the book.

really interesting insights into all sides of the "extreme".

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3 people found this helpful

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Brilliant and hilarious

Eye-opening, regardless of personal politics. A must-listen for all Aussies. I can't wait to seek out more Safran!

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3 people found this helpful

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Awesome Listen

Realy enjoyed listening to John read his book.
His unique way of dealing with potentionaly volatile subjects is very entertaining. Nice work John.

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Unique! highly recommend reading this

John Safran first hand insights with its wit will pull the wool off your eyes.

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.