One of the things I found hardest about abandoning my liberalism is years of being told that Socialism and Communism wasn't really a viable alternative because USSR bad. Honestly, I didn't even know what the words meant. I wasn't a liberal, but that's as left as my brain would allow. Reading Blackshirts and Reds by Parenti{ARR!} helped me a lot with that. But the real kicker was reading Vincent Bevin's The Jakarta Method{ARR!} and learning that every time I read the words anti-communist in history class, they were talking all along about Nazis or the local equivalent. And when they were talking about communist revolutions, it was just workers (often Indigenous peoples) just trying to not be treated like slaves.
At some point check out Parenti's Inventing Reality{ARR!} and the intro to Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent{ARR!} to really understand just how badly we are all drowning in propaganda, they go well as a followup to Dark Money because Dark Money documents the insane propaganda network by the Koch Brothers and once you understand how pervasive it is and realize that it barely scratches the surface you'll truly appreciate the scale of what it is we need to tackle as leftists.
Give me a few minutes and I'll edit in some links.
...that's a pretty big conclusion to jump to. We're all born into this world without choice, on a page of the history book without selecting the number, into conditions we have no control over. Nobody deserves that, but it's how it is. It could be different, if we made it different together. Why waste your spite on someone who may have 'deserved' it, when you can put that fire to work against those we know do?
I also just recently read The Conquest of Bread aka the Bread Book by Kropotkin{ARR!} and while dated (19th century ancom theory) it was still really good and relevant. I definitely recommend it simply for the passion he has for wanting to free the world from the slavery of capitalism.
@TheBeerNerd I've read some of the recommendations that @JoeByeThen gives, and he's right in reccommending them. Blackshirts and reds, The Jakarta Method, Howard Zinn's A People's History of the US and Manufactoring consent are all excellent books.
I just want to add that I highly recommend to watch the film The Act of Killing after you've read The Jakarta Method.
Yeah, I need to read the rest of his work, but Listen, Liberal was really an eye opener into just how much the Democratic Party is controlled opposition whether they mean to be or not. It's like baby's first "Liberalism enables Fascism".
One of the things I found hardest about abandoning my liberalism is years of being told that Socialism and Communism wasn't really a viable alternative because USSR bad. Honestly, I didn't even know what the words meant. I wasn't a liberal, but that's as left as my brain would allow. Reading Blackshirts and Reds by Parenti {ARR!} helped me a lot with that. But the real kicker was reading Vincent Bevin's The Jakarta Method {ARR!} and learning that every time I read the words anti-communist in history class, they were talking all along about Nazis or the local equivalent. And when they were talking about communist revolutions, it was just workers (often Indigenous peoples) just trying to not be treated like slaves.
The United States of America is a fucking lie, our history a myth that we get pounded into our brains from cradle to grave. It was created by slavers for slavers and every progressive step forward was gained with sweat and lots of blood; Every step backwards is a step towards slavery. Full stop. To learn about that, I very much recommend reading Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States {ARR!}, James Loewen's Lies My Teacher Told Me {ARR!}, and Gerald Horne's The Counter-Revolution of 1776 {ARR!}.
For understanding the current path of US politics and how we got here, I would recommend reading Thomas Frank's Listen, Liberal: Or Whatever Happened to the Party of the People {ARR!} for a background of the democratic party. For understanding how the GOP has taken such a powerful hold of US politics I would recommend Dark Money by Jane Mayer {ARR!}. And for the more history on neoliberalism and the US's future, check out Democracy in Chains by Nancy MacLean {ARR!}.
At some point check out Parenti's Inventing Reality {ARR!} and the intro to Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent {ARR!} to really understand just how badly we are all drowning in propaganda, they go well as a followup to Dark Money because Dark Money documents the insane propaganda network by the Koch Brothers and once you understand how pervasive it is and realize that it barely scratches the surface you'll truly appreciate the scale of what it is we need to tackle as leftists.
Give me a few minutes and I'll edit in some links.
edit: links added.
Now consider that something like 95% of the West is anticommunist :this-is-fine:
statistically, it's okay to laugh when you hear about people dying on the news, 95% chance they deserved it.
...that's a pretty big conclusion to jump to. We're all born into this world without choice, on a page of the history book without selecting the number, into conditions we have no control over. Nobody deserves that, but it's how it is. It could be different, if we made it different together. Why waste your spite on someone who may have 'deserved' it, when you can put that fire to work against those we know do?
I was being sarcastic.
I also just recently read The Conquest of Bread aka the Bread Book by Kropotkin {ARR!} and while dated (19th century ancom theory) it was still really good and relevant. I definitely recommend it simply for the passion he has for wanting to free the world from the slavery of capitalism.
Gotta hand it to anarchists, “read the bread book” is a pretty catchy meme and I’m sure it’s helped radicalize some libs.
Lol, took long enough but it finally got to me. :kropotkin-shining:
His Letter to the Young is short and probably one of the most convincing emotional appeals to Socialism ever made.
Added it to my list, thank you!
did autocorrect do something here because I'm having trouble parsing
fixed it thanks. my phone sucks, but I was on a roll.
deleted by creator
@TheBeerNerd I've read some of the recommendations that @JoeByeThen gives, and he's right in reccommending them. Blackshirts and reds, The Jakarta Method, Howard Zinn's A People's History of the US and Manufactoring consent are all excellent books.
I just want to add that I highly recommend to watch the film The Act of Killing after you've read The Jakarta Method.
It's on my ToWatch list!👍 Also, The Look of Silence
Waiting for the right headspace to watch them. Reading is one thing, seeing people's emotions as they work through this stuff is another.
deleted by creator
Yeah, I need to read the rest of his work, but Listen, Liberal was really an eye opener into just how much the Democratic Party is controlled opposition whether they mean to be or not. It's like baby's first "Liberalism enables Fascism".
I will always recommend Thomas Frank because his entire project is addressing the failures of post-New Deal Libralism and the evils of anti-populism.
deleted by creator