The now defunct blog, In Mala Fide, (archive here) was a cornerstone of the manosphere and the linkage I received from Ferdinand was instrumental in building my blog’s reader base. While I didn’t always agree with Ferd, his posts always got you thinking and I enjoyed them thoroughly for the last few months of his blog.

So, when I heard that Ferd was releasing a book of his best posts, I immediately went to Amazon and purchased it. Three Years of Hate arrived a few days ago (Amazon.com takes forever to be delivered to Canada and .ca didn’t have it) and I read through it within 3 days.

The book is essentially one man’s cynical raging against the world. If you’ve read In Mala Fide, you obviously know the style. Ferd writes cogent essays that seethe with a cold, burning hate.  You can feel his animus, directed at everything and anything, as you read. This is nihilism distilled to it’s essence and applied to a random smattering of topics. If you are looking for positivity, look elsewhere. If you are looking to see a number society’s untouchable shibboleths virulently attacked, then you are in the right place.

His writing style is somewhat more in the style of academic/intellectual literature than most blogs in the manosphere, as can be expected from a literary major, but never veers into the realm of intellectual masturbation or unnecessary verbosity or complexity for their own sake. It also does not forsake the use of low humour or foul language. The humour section (particularly the aforementioned article on radio PSA’s) had me laughing to myself.

Ferd covers a wide variety of topics, from radio PSA’s to solipsism to America’s ‘War on the Catholic Church’, all divided into four major sections of the book: Sexuality, What’s Wrong with the World, the Tao of Ferd, and Humour. Sexuality is self-explanatory and includes an expanded version of the manosphere classic “The Eternal Solipsism of the Female Mind”. What is Wrong with the World is primarily socio-political essays. The Tao of Ferd is a random mishmash of articles that seem to be grouped together because they didn’t really fit elsewhere; it includes a few book reviews, some literary analysis (more enjoyable than it sounds), and other miscellania. Humour is self-explanatory and is most definitely humourous.

I only read IMF for the last few months of its existence, so I can’t say much about the essay selection chosen for the book and if any important ones were missing. The essays in the book were all excellent. Each one was well-written and thought-provoking (although, Ferd did criticize the use of thought-provoking in book reviews, so…). Because of this diversity of views, if you know a disenfranchised young man or someone new to the alt-right, this book could be nice intro, as long as they aren’t too easily offended.

Overall, the book is amazing. There are only two reasons I could see not to get it.

1) If you’re really cheap, you could all the essays on the archive free either now or some point in the future (I haven’t checked if they’re all available yet), but you should buy the book anyway to support those who do good work.

2) The book is offensive. If you are easily offended by, well, anything, this is not the book for you. As a random example, one of the essays is titled, The Necessity of Domestic Violence

Recommendation:

Read this book. It is thoroughly entertaining, and will give you a lot to think on. The only reasons not to buy it are if you are going to read the archives instead because you’re cheap (don’t you have a measly $5 to support the guy who wrote In Mala Fide for 3 years) or easily offended. And if you’re easily offended, buy the book anyway, it will be good for you to experience more beyond your narrow experience. It might get you thinking and questioning the socially-created assumptions you hold.