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submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

Michael Parenti, born on this day in 1933, is a Marxist American political scientist and cultural critic. He has taught at American and international universities and has been a guest lecturer before campus and community audiences.

Michael Parenti was raised by an Italian-American working-class family in the East Harlem neighborhood of New York City. After graduating from high school, Parenti worked for several years. Upon returning to school, he received a BA from the City College of New York, an MA from Brown University and a PhD in political science from Yale University.

For many years Parenti taught political and social science at various institutions of higher learning. Eventually he devoted himself full-time to writing, public speaking, and political activism. He is the author of 20 books and over 300 articles.

Parenti's writings cover a wide range of subjects: U.S. politics, culture, ideology, political economy, imperialism, fascism, communism, democratic socialism, free-market orthodoxies, conservative judicial activism, religion, ancient history, modern history, historiography, repression in academia, news and entertainment media, technology, environmentalism, sexism, racism, Venezuela, the wars in Iraq and Yugoslavia, ethnicity, and his own early life.

His book Democracy for the Few, now in its ninth edition, is a critical analysis of U.S. society, economy, and political institutions and a college-level political science textbook published by Wadsworth Publishing. His book Blackshirts and Reds defended the Soviet Union and socialist states of the 20th century from criticism, arguing that they were morally superior compared to capitalist states, that the problems of the Soviet Union were caused by the Russian Civil War and capitalist interference, and that "Left anti-Communist" and "pure socialist" critics have failed to offer any alternatives to the Soviet Union's "siege socialism"

In 1974, Parenti ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in Vermont as the candidate of the democratic socialist Liberty Union Party; he came in third place, with 7.1% of the vote. Parenti was once a friend of Bernie Sanders, but he later split with Sanders over Sanders's support for the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.

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[-] [email protected] 15 points 2 years ago

the very word "Rittenhouse" has caused my fedposting levels in my blood to raise several times over instantly

[-] [email protected] 15 points 2 years ago

Libs are now threatening to murder me because I made fun of their favorite corpse, Dianne Feinstein lmao

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[-] [email protected] 15 points 2 years ago

ergot "poisoning", as if everyone microdosing daily on the annual grain harvest was somehow bad

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[-] [email protected] 15 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Big red flag for someone's political opinions is if they're significantly concerned about

CW mention of SVpedophiles.
99% of the time they're going to be a qanon believer or another deluded ideology. It's satanic panic shit.

[-] [email protected] 14 points 2 years ago

seeds up, plants down. may el nino shine upon us

[-] [email protected] 14 points 2 years ago
[-] [email protected] 14 points 2 years ago

well, it was a long hard day at work today but i managed to generate plenty of value! i sure do hope somebody doesn't take most of it

[-] [email protected] 11 points 2 years ago

that's right!!! abolish taxes!!!

[-] [email protected] 14 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Sat round a meal table today and had some 20-something lad scoff in my face at the notion of being against UK farmers because their money is "generational" which means they worked for it. They completely did not understand the concept that inheritance is not "working for it" and that only the first 1 or 2 generations actually did any work, after that it was all employees.

It quickly devolved afterwards into "Yeah but they take on all the risk when they start a business" and I tuned the fuck out of the rest of the meal. Shit food, shit company. Here's some good ai art for the thread though.

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[-] [email protected] 14 points 2 years ago
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[-] [email protected] 13 points 2 years ago

Go to /r/presidents for incurable psychic damage

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[-] [email protected] 13 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

i'm really enjoying Moonstone Island
kinda like stardew valley with monster taming and deck building elements
it's also very cute and everyone is queer

[-] [email protected] 11 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Rowan is my favourite

look how cute they are

Cleo is a close second

she is also very cute

tbh the entire cast induces bi panic lmao

[-] [email protected] 13 points 2 years ago

I bought the parenti book about ancient Rome, so the Rome nerd and marxism nerd cancel each other out

[-] [email protected] 13 points 2 years ago

Captchas must be stopped. Just got one asking me to pick which pictures show "entertainment venues" and it's just the same fuzzy buildings in each image

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[-] [email protected] 13 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)
[-] [email protected] 12 points 2 years ago

farquaad-point libertarian

Also special shout-out to the OP saying “everyone is so tribal these days”

Tribalism towards good things and tribalism towards bad things are exactly the same!

[-] [email protected] 12 points 2 years ago

Fucking brilliant. YouTube is recommending me a quickly growing “anti-sjw” YouTube channel

The more things change the more things stay the same. This shit will continue to thrive as long as the patriarchy continues

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[-] [email protected] 12 points 2 years ago

Only Parenti I've read so far is Blackshirts and Reds. I really liked how insightful yet concise it was. Been wanting to do a deep dive on the rest of his stuff - I wonder what academics from AES countries think of him?

[-] [email protected] 12 points 2 years ago
[-] [email protected] 12 points 2 years ago

kitty-cri-screm i'm out of unjust depths and i have to wait for more chapters of good transgender lesbian communist scifi kitty-cri-screm

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[-] [email protected] 12 points 2 years ago

lmao so a stopgap funding measure passed the house to keep the government running until mid November but libs are seething and demanding that biden veto it because it doesn't include funding for ukraine. Critical support to the slobber ukraine caucus in their struggle to make sure that I get paid to do absolutely nothing for as long as possible

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[-] [email protected] 11 points 2 years ago

We should divide timezones using horizontal instead of vertical lines for a bit. Sure it seems stupid but let's try it out and see how it feels.

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[-] [email protected] 11 points 2 years ago

All of a sudden, tiktok is recommending me lots of autism and ADHD content. I'm really not sure what to make of this.

[-] [email protected] 11 points 2 years ago

no work on monday and tuesday lets-fucking-go

[-] [email protected] 11 points 2 years ago

fuck it

im enforcing a peace and love forever vibe on this shit of an earth

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[-] [email protected] 11 points 2 years ago

Quit pocket watching is so funny to use in this context.

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this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2023
104 points (100.0% liked)

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