Genuinely one of the greats. Sad he couldn’t have retired into a socialist world. Sadder he didn’t live to see us free.
Yellow Parenti is still as relevant as when he delivered it 40 years ago.
He lived to the point where hundreds of thousands of people in the most deeply propagandized country in the world are organized enough to go on strike together stand against domestic repression unseen since at least the Nixon era, if not earlier. He made it long enough for people even here to develop class solidarity en masse, organized largely by socialist organizations with plenty of members radicalized by his works. Call me overly bloomerist if you want, but I think he left a legacy he could be proud of
I needed that bloomerist of a comment to cheer me up a bit. Thank you
Thanks for the optimism
I listened to Yellow Parenti, then as many of his talks as I could on the Parenti archive. Then read Black Shirts and Reds. He really was my pipeline to becoming a Marxist.
Still gets me as angry as it did the first time I saw it. It’s a good kind of anger though, the kind that reminds you to keep pushing
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
in the afterlife, there are no technical issues with the audio or video equipment.
rest in peace Michael Parenti, you will be missed but your contributions continue to enlighten people every day
In life, he was surrounded by a yellow haze. In death, he is surrounded by a golden shroud.
In the afterlife, the yellow value is not limited to 255
Whenever I have audio issues from now on, I will be glad knowing Michael Parenti is haunting / watching over me
sure but now he has to deal with biblically accurate a/v nerds
michael and michael can comment on ww3 together like statler and waldorf
I don’t think it can be understated how important this dude has been to the western left.
The tens of thousands of marxists he created will now have to work twice as hard collectively just to be as powerful as he was all by himself. He’s earned his rest.
He really has been a lifeline for post-collapse communists in the english speaking world.
He legit kept the torch burning at the lowest point of the Western left.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7OXhF6zG8o&list=PL0-IkmzWbjoak57jcXDh1rY4n7Ic-EVsE
xRest in peace.
Link to Blackshirts and Reds audiobook by Parenti: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7OXhF6zG8o&list=PL0-IkmzWbjoak57jcXDh1rY4n7Ic-EVsE
Saving for later
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Damn. Glad he lived a nice long life, rest in peace
During the cold war, the anticommunist ideological framework could transform any data about existing communist societies into hostile evidence. If the Soviets refused to negotiate a point, they were intransigent and belligerent; if they appeared willing to make concessions, this was but a skillful ploy to put us off our guard. By opposing arms limitations, they would have demonstrated their aggressive intent; but when in fact they supported most armament treaties, it was because they were mendacious and manipulative. If the churches in the USSR were empty, this demonstrated that religion was suppressed; but if the churches were full, this meant the people were rejecting the regime’s atheistic ideology. If the workers went on strike (as happened on infrequent occasions), this was evidence of their alienation from the collectivist system; if they didn’t go on strike, this was because they were intimidated and lacked freedom. A scarcity of consumer goods demonstrated the failure of the economic system; an improvement in consumer supplies meant only that the leaders were attempting to placate a restive population and so maintain a firmer hold over them.
If communists in the United States played an important role struggling for the rights of workers, the poor, African-Americans, women, and others, this was only their guileful way of gathering support among disfranchised groups and gaining power for themselves. How one gained power by fighting for the rights of powerless groups was never explained. What we are dealing with is a nonfalsifiable orthodoxy, so assiduously marketed by the ruling interests that it affected people across the entire political spectrum.
-Michael Parenti
Rest in power. He was a brilliant writer.
Rest in peace, comrade. You were vital in my growth into a Marxist, and it cannot be overstated how many people you’ve made into communists. May we carry on your legacy!
“Yellow Parenti” Speech and Blackshirts and Reds | Audiobook
this one hurtsSucks to hear but you can’t complain about 92, and his dementia was quite bad too so I’m sure it was his time.
Meanwhile Chomsky lives on. Pedo blood magyk.
Adrenochrome goes hard
For all the kind words in this thread, I think there’s one quality of his that is quite underappreciated.
His charisma. Go back and watch his old lectures, he is such a calm and cool speaker - who could get fired up or shoot a biting comment from the hip whenever it was needed.
Just completely in his element in public speaking - if it weren’t such a waste of time to become a politician (in his own words), he could have certainly gone far. I would’ve loved to have seen him go up against some of the public figures around today - though I’m sure in years preceding his old age he was probably already blacklisted from most media outlets.
One of the best to do ever do it.
I’m glad he got to live a nice long life, I hope he rests easy now
“Now he is in what he used to refer to as ‘the great lecture hall in the sky,’” his son, Christian, reflected
Yellow_parenti1986.avi
Rest in power
