Wolfe's views and choice of subject material, such as mocking left-wing intellectuals in "Radical Chic", glorifying astronauts in "The Right Stuff" and critiquing Noam Chomsky in "The Kingdom of Speech" sometimes resulted in his being labeled conservative. Due to his depiction of the Black Panther Party in "Radical Chic", a member of the party called him a racist. Wolfe rejected such labels. In a 2004 interview in "The Guardian", he said that his "idol" in writing about society and culture is Émile Zola. Wolfe described him as "a man of the left"; one who "went out, and found a lot of ambitious, drunk, slothful and mean people out there. Zola simply could not—and was not interested in—telling a lie."