This book is great, and one of the most striking things about it is how little seems to have changed. This book was published in the mid 90s and it's still completely relevant:
Here we have a deceptive state of affairs. What poses as a U.S. commitment to peaceful nonviolent change is really a commitment to the violent defense of an unjust, undemocratic, global capitalism.
The U.S. national security state uses coercion and violence not in support of social reform but against it, all in the name of "stability," "counterterrorism," "democracy,"-and of late and more honestly, "the free market."
When you look at the rationalizations that follow capitalist imperialism today, it's the same shit, but even more entrenched and reactionary. The all-encompassing propaganda has made people collectively forget the history that he's sketched here---that the U.S. and its allies have actively forced a program of anti-communist counter-revolution on the world throughout the entire past hundred years.
Instead of recognizing that program (rational fascism) and the destructive effect it's had on overall human development, a lot of people cling to mystified, obscured, and nationalistic apologia. I feel like this book in particular is good at shaking you out of that stupor helping you to shake off that odious residue.
Yeah, I read the book a few months ago and once I got to the chapter discussing post-socialist states, I had to check when it was written. I grew up in Poland in the 90s and it rang so fucking true, the book might have been written like 5 years ago, rather than 15. Ditto for everything else.
![[Book Club | Part 1 Discussion] Blackshirts and Reds](https://hexbear.net/pictrs/image/0AZOoJgwYG.png){kind=link}
This book is great, and one of the most striking things about it is how little seems to have changed. This book was published in the mid 90s and it's still completely relevant:
When you look at the rationalizations that follow capitalist imperialism today, it's the same shit, but even more entrenched and reactionary. The all-encompassing propaganda has made people collectively forget the history that he's sketched here---that the U.S. and its allies have actively forced a program of anti-communist counter-revolution on the world throughout the entire past hundred years.
Instead of recognizing that program (rational fascism) and the destructive effect it's had on overall human development, a lot of people cling to mystified, obscured, and nationalistic apologia. I feel like this book in particular is good at
shaking you out of that stuporhelping you to shake off that odious residue.Yeah, I read the book a few months ago and once I got to the chapter discussing post-socialist states, I had to check when it was written. I grew up in Poland in the 90s and it rang so fucking true, the book might have been written like 5 years ago, rather than 15. Ditto for everything else.
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Lmao listen to yellow parenti back in the 70s and it's literally applicable to today stil.
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oh it was '86. Close enough lol.
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yeah that's funny and true
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