this post was submitted on 11 Mar 2024
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34
What would you recommend as a "social democrats first taste of socialism" book? (hexbear.net)
submitted 10 months ago by TheSunSetsLikeAScar@hexbear.net to c/askchapo@hexbear.net
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A social democrat friend who knows basically nothing about socialism and was a berniecrat is looking for book recommendations, what is a good book to recommend to him?

I sort of dived in the deep end when I first started (perhaps unproductively ) and I they're the type of person who would probably benefit a lot from nice prose and nothing SUPER heavy, but I also know a lot of intro books are full of BS that needs to be deprogrammed later(especially stuff that includes left-anticommunism) so I'm being cautious.

What would you recommend?

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[–] BeamBrain@hexbear.net 32 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Blackshirts And Reds by Parenti is a good one.

[–] TheSunSetsLikeAScar@hexbear.net 9 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

chapter 3 has a fair chunk of anti-communism in it, and while the book is a really good polemic I feel like it isn't a really good FAQ for new socialists

[–] Cummunism@hexbear.net 15 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

I havent read the whole book in a little bit, but im looking at chapter 3 and it's mostly a critique of American "leftists" and them being anti-communist especially when it came to the USSR or Cuba. Chapter 4 talks about some inefficiencies in the USSR but it's far from bashing it. I only skimmed the chapters just now though, so i could have missed something.

[–] davel@hexbear.net 14 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yeah isn’t chapter 3 largely the Left anti-communism: The Unkindest Cut chapter?

[–] Cummunism@hexbear.net 8 points 10 months ago

it is.

[–] TheSunSetsLikeAScar@hexbear.net 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

operating off of memory so I had to skim, here was the first major thing I found

from chapter 3, page 45-46

Those of us who refuse to join the the Soviet Bashing were branded by left-anticommunists as "Soviet Apologists" and "Stalinists," even if we disliked Stalin and his autocratic system of rule and believed there were things seriously wrong with existing Soviet society

[–] SkingradGuard@hexbear.net 10 points 10 months ago

even if we disliked Stalin and his autocratic system of rule and believed there were things seriously wrong with existing Soviet society

Smh Parenti was a lib

[–] Cummunism@hexbear.net 8 points 10 months ago

Against Empire is another good one, succinctly goes over how and why America has fucked over any socialist/communist country.

[–] sharkfucker420@hexbear.net 6 points 10 months ago

This is the book that radicalized me