I visited the commie bookstore in town today and I picked up a copy of Manufacturing Consent because it seemed appropriate for the current times. I also got a copy of Motorcycle Diaries.
On the way home I also passed a Falun Gong stand. They were doing some dance.
What are you reading?
Just now getting to Blackshirts and Reds, got to Chapter 6 today. His criticisms of the Soviet Union are making me believe that China and Deng Xiaoping were correct, so perhaps I need to read some Deng next, lol.
It’s a good book. His examples of this ga that went wrong have been really helpful in conversations for me.
Yes actually, it’s a sobering reminder that communism isn’t a utopia, and that there’s a lot more to people’s needs after the basics have been covered.
I do think he might have been a little too harsh on Stalin though, the man tried to quit four times (and they wouldn’t let him! some dictator lol) and was at the head of a socialist state that was constantly under siege from capitalist and reactionary forces in and out. Mistakes were made but that’s just cause nothing is perfect, if the USSR really had a major flaw it was that it was unable to understand the needs of the people and learn from their mistakes.
That’s funny… in both the book and at the end of “Friendly Feudalism”, his essay on Tibet, Parenti bashed China for being a hair too capitalist-roaded for his liking.
“the east is still red” by carlos martinez
Slowly going through das kapital with the theory reading group
Marx for Cats by Leigh Claire La Berge
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Really really liking the world building of the opening chapters. I’m thoroughly enjoying it!
The autobiography of Malcolm X is so damn good. I read it a few years ago, and re-read it when they released the audiobook with Lawrence Fishburne as narrator.
