Readers beware: sunscreen may need to be applied before reading the scorching, scathing “Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free” by Charles P. Pierce. The heat will especially burn conservative readers, but even slightly moderate liberals might find their cheeks reddening as well.

“Idiot America,” released June 2, is undeniably angry in tone, and Pierce clearly doesn’t mind if he offends anyone. (He will.)

This attitude can sometimes come off as hilarious — which is intended — but it can also seem exaggerated.

Through several individual topics that are broken up into separate chapters, Pierce relentlessly drives home his point: America has become a nation that doesn’t ridicule the ridiculous. Pierce writes that the country has been allowed to drift on autopilot, letting government, politics, science, pop culture and the media get out of control.

Pierce has narrowed down the problem of Idiot America into what he calls the three great premises: any theory is valid if it sells, anything said loudly enough can be accepted as true and fact is created when enough people believe something.

He applies these premises to several major topics, including the media-saturated case of Terri Schiavo, the opening of the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Ky., which featured models of dinosaurs with saddles, the war in Iraq, global warming and intelligent design.

So far, so good, right?

Well, maybe not completely. While Pierce does a well-crafted job of being persuasive in applying his premises to specific topics, he can also get a little extreme, which reads like bias.

For example, the problems that Pierce addresses are nearly all related to Republicans. It wouldn’t be hard to believe that this book was once titled “Idiot Conservatives,” but changed at the last minute before printing.

However, the fact that this bias exists probably wouldn’t upset Pierce in the slightest. In “Idiot America,” Pierce argues that the “gut” has taken over intelligent debate. The gut is the pure emotional drive of the nation that insists there are two sides to everything — even fact.

This rhetoric is especially powerful in the chapter on global warming, which Pierce says should not even be a debate. So if Pierce gets blasted for being biased, he will probably argue that the gut has taken over.

But there’s another problem, too. Idiot America is supposedly a war on expertise because in a world where everyone is an expert, no one is. Okay, right.

But Pierce seems to contradict his own creed. Who says that he is an expert on these many varied subjects? Sure, he’s a well-renowned journalist, but Pierce also goes out of his way in “Idiot America” to discuss the ignorance of some journalists (especially in conservative talk radio, big surprise). So because of Pierce’s very own idea, readers may question his level of expertise. But perhaps Pierce would have wanted it that way.

Overall, “Idiot America” is definitely entertaining and engaging, although at times overbearing. It is worth reading because it will almost certainly challenge a reader’s opinion, if not all of them, and that in itself may be a cure for Idiot America.

-Megan Morgan is a professional writing senior.