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 1 year 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 1 year ago (3 children)

Blackshirts And Reds by Parenti is a good one.

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

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

[–] TheSunSetsLikeAScar@hexbear.net 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year 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 1 year 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 1 year 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 1 year ago

This is the book that radicalized me