Comradeship // Freechat

very slowly reading Losurdo's "Stalin"

Damn bro.. So many ppl are reading several books at once apparently. I don't think my brain could manage so much information at once honestly o.O

I'm reading "Blackshirts and Reds" by Parenti. Am on page 119 rn, and I gotta say I still enjoy Parenti's simpler style of writing as opposed to Marx'. Also I was surprised how Parenti went into detail abt czechoslovakia even. Specifically abt Vaclav Havél's privatization campaign. Never thought he'd go that direction. I feel like I learned a LOT through this book and I'll keep recommending it to everyone who hasn't read it. I think anyone can profit from reading this.

After I'm done with this book, I thought I might pick up Mao's "On Practice"? I read "Dialectical and Historical Materialism" by Stalin and "How to be a Good Communist" by Liu Shaoqi, so I hope that book might additionally help me understand philosophy more.

Parenti gang, just picked up The Assassination of Julius Caesar

"The East is Still Red"

Fraud, famine and fascism by douglas tottle.

Its about the myth of the ukrainian genocide, im halfway throu but so far it tells the story of how the narrative was pushed by nazi germany and picked up by pro fascism american media magnate Hearst, whom also had Mussolini on his payroll lol.

Currently reading Inventing Reality: The Politics of News Media by Parenti :). A great book, but also somewhat depressing. Even though it's quite old, it definitely still holds up. It kind of seems like nothing has changed.

Just started The Three-Body Problem, only read the first 2 chapters but I'm liking it already. I don't really know anything about the Cultural Revolution to be able to form an opinion on whether the author's depiction is plausible or not, so I'll just believe him for now. It's nice reading communist fiction for a change.

I’m currently only reading Things Fall Apart and Half-Earth Socialism. TFA is pretty good so far. I’m reading it for school. It’s about a pre-colonial African society, but later on in the book I think they get colonized. HES is so good and I’ll never stop plugging it or the game https://half.earth. If enough people read the book I think it could be really important. It debunks mainstream views of how to solve the climate crisis and argues that it can only be solved through a holistic political and social movement with the backing of science. It describes how planning is necessary and gives some history of socialist economic planning. It argues on behalf of Utopianism by showing how scientific socialism with a clear view of the future can forge a better path toward reconciliation with the earth. I’ve learned a lot so far, and it keeps making connections between ideas and thinkers I already knew a tiny bit about.

Cool! I love thinking about non human life. They're essentially aliens to me. I've tried to overcome some fear of bugs being on me so I can hold them. Also saw my first owl (that wasn't a brief glimpse at night flying) last week...I forgot their heads can turn 180° 😅

I'm reading "Laurus", a translation of a book by Eugene Vodolazkin. 14th century Russian medieval peasant boy becomes a holy fool on a pilgrimage for God in the midst of plague. I haven't read many books in my adult life but as far as I know, it's my favorite (second read).

Currently reading Open Veins of Latin America. I knew of the exploitation the colonizers and imperialists did but reading the stats and stories of the earlier periods just makes my jaw drop. I also wasn't aware in the 1800s after Paraguay kicked out the Spanish, they were the only nation in the continent that wasn't controlled by foreign capital and were pretty self sufficient. Obviously that wasn't acceptable to the imperialists so the British helped fund Brazil and Argentina to start a war with Paraguay. Paraguay lost and have been under the boot of imperialists since then.

Half-way through edible and medicinal plants. Lots of toxic plants in Canada. If you see a plant with white flowers growing in a dome over the stem, it’s one of five types that’ll either give you diarrhoea or outright kill you.

Spruce tree sap is also an antibiotic, in case you need to disinfect a wound.

If you see a bush with thorns, growing thorny bulbs, you can eat it as long as you strip the thorns off first.

Also listening to “propaganda” by Edward Bernays. It’s one of the most “mask off” things I’ve read.

That sounds really interesting!

I'm listening to:

• Wretched of the Earth - I've read about half of it in the past, but I'd like to finish it.

• At the Earth's Core - Edgar Rice Burroughs - neat ideas unfortunately locked in the authors views on race and humanity.

And reading:

• Desert Solitaire - Edward Abbey - I like the ecology bits, but he's somewhat reactionary and unfocused. Pretty writing, though.

I just finished Nagieb Mahfouz's Cairo trilogy, which was awesome. I'm now reading Histoire du phénomène Stalien by Ellenstein, while also reading a book on therapeutic relations. I also have Malcolm X's biography laying around for after.

Next major novel is wither 2666 by Bolaño, Der Zauberberg by Thomas Mann or something by Ngugi wa thiongo.

How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States by Daniel Immerwahr. It's a breakdown of the imperialistic history of the US that, as a student in the States, you never really heard a lot about. It covers the displacement of the Native Americans, guano islands, the colonization of Puerto Rico and the Philippines, post-WWII military bases, the English language, and stop signs.

Getting back into Homer’s Odyssey. I read a kid’s version in 4th grade and didn’t realize how much I missed out on. Ancient Greek Mythology and Literature was a lot more sexual than I thought and the exposition makes a lot more sense when characters explain stuff pages at a time instead of just in small paragraphs. Spectacular work of art, can’t recommend it enough. Other than that, on my break at work I read through Mao’s Little Red Book 📕.

Too many things at once! Right now:

• The Hundred Years' War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi
• Slavery and Social Death by Orlando Patterson
• Valences of the Dialectic by Fredric Jameson
• Settlers by J. Sakai
• The Invention of the White Race by Theodore W. Allen
• Light in Gaza edited by Jehad Abusalim, Jennifer Bing, and Mike Merryman-Lotze (free at the publisher's website, linked)

Plus a couple works of fiction, one sort of autobiographical piece, and some computer programming textbooks.

I finished The Origin of Family, Private Property and the State last week and then decided to finish this chunk of my deep dive in theory with Critique of the Gotha Programme.

My next big focus is gonna be in anarchist theory so I picked 2 small pieces to read through to get a basic understanding: An Anarchist Programmer by Errico Malatesta and Are You An Anarchist by David Graeber.

Before I actually jump in to that I wanna get a few more chapters knocked out of Inventing Reality and Killing Hope though. I'm having a hard time deciding on Conquest of Bread or Anarchy Works for my next book though.

Caliban and the witch, Silvia federici.

Traces the transition from feudalism to capitalism in Europe thru the lens of the witch hunts .

I just started reading Stasi State or Socialist Paradise?: The German Democratic Republic and What Became of It, by Bruni de la Motte and John Green. It's a great analysis of the DDR.

Furthermore I'm reading Killing hope by William Blum. A great book about Amerikan interventions/coups.

And ofcourse the Communist Manifesto (again).

After those I want to read An Economic History of the USSR 1917-1991 and Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next).

"Freedom is a Constant Struggle" by Angela Y. Davis

I recently finished "Five Nights at Freddy's: The Silver Eyes"

Reading the bible still, 1/3 through.

Thanks to the latest Macro N Cheese podcast episode, I’ve ordered a copy of Carlos García Hernández’s Fiat Socialism: Achieving the Goals of Socialism through Modern Monetary Theory. It seems to be hard to find physical copies of it in the US right now (perhaps because it’s new), so I have to wait two weeks for it to arrive from Australia. Amazon & Kobo have ebook versions.

Edit: I suspect what I may eventually come to find that this is essentially what socialism with Chinese characteristics is, but first I’ll need to learn more about what actually goes on in China.

Heretics of Dune

I was trying to read Anti-oedipus by Deleuze& Guattari, but now I'm actually reading their "what is philosophy" since I was pretty fucking lost. Maybe not lost, but not exactly prepared for the density.

just finished naked lunch. I absorbed maybe about 35% of it.