January 3, 2026
Bees, books, and culture wars
How to Win Friends and Influence People: Unrevised Version
Old-school Carnegie goes online and the comments go nuclear
TLDR: An unrevised web edition of Dale Carnegie’s classic is live, and the comments erupted over authenticity vs. “politically correct” edits. One camp demands faithful preservation; the other argues for respectful updates—turning a self-help classic into the latest frontline of the culture debate.
A full web edition of the unrevised “How to Win Friends and Influence People” just dropped, and the comment section is a battlefield. The site says it chose the original text because later edits “forcefully” made the language more gender neutral and “politically correct,” which, to some readers, strips the author’s voice. That lit the fuse. One user threw gasoline with a spicy what-if: should we also roll back Agatha Christie to her original title? Cue gasps, eyerolls, and think pieces in a single thread.
Then came the philosophical flamethrower comparing “woke slop” to “AI slop,” accusing modern edits of manipulating the message instead of sharing a writer’s truth. Some cheered the shot at cultural sanitizing; others argued that updating wording is about respect and accessibility, not censorship. The memes flowed: “Step 1 to win friends: don’t edit my quotes,” and “Don’t kick over the beehive—too late,” nodding to Carnegie’s chapter titles.
Under the popcorn, the core fight is simple: preserve classics exactly as they were, or adapt them for today’s readers? With Carnegie’s charm school landing in 2026, commenters aren’t exactly winning friends—but they are influencing people. The real lesson might be this: the book is old, but the argument is freshly radioactive. Read it here.
Key Points
- •The page hosts a web edition of the unrevised “How to Win Friends and Influence People.”
- •It includes linked front matter: an Introduction by Lowell Thomas and a Preface by Dale Carnegie, each with reading times.
- •Part 1 lists three chapters on fundamental techniques in handling people, with read-time estimates.
- •Part 2 lists six chapters on making people like you and an “In a Nutshell” summary page.
- •Part 3 lists twelve chapters on winning people to your way of thinking with an “In a Nutshell” page; Part 4 is introduced with its first chapter link.