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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  • UmbraVivi [he/him, she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
    23·
    1 year ago

    The male ego is annoying yea

    My best friend is moving and she asked me and some others to help. We were 8 people, 4 girls and 4 dudes.

    I myself am a very nerdy guy, I’m not in shape and have pretty skinny arms, and the other 3 guys were all much more pragmatic, I think all 3 work in trades and had more experience with manual labor. Now because I wanted to be a big man and not pussy out, I also helped carry the big furniture down the stairs and, uhh… I overexerted myself and had to leave after about 4 hours.

    The other guys were all really nice and quite considerate, they could tell I was struggling and said “hey man, just say if you need a break, it’s a marathon, not a sprint” etc, but ofc I didn’t want to be the only guy who has to take breaks while carrying the couch down the stairs, especially not in front of the girls. Dumb masculinity shit.

    Anyway, yeah, after I helped carry a big desk I could tell that I had overdone it, my right arm was hurting and I couldn’t imagine myself carrying anything else today. I had to excuse myself and go home. I genuinely think I did what I could, I helped a lot with cleaning and tidying up as well, but I still feel bad that I had to quit early.