A review by elvedon_waves
Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism by Michael Parenti

3.0

A little cursory in its explanation of Marxism near the end of the book. Where it really shines is the detailed descriptions of how the US has had their hand in fascism and Nazism since before they fully tried to conquer the world. Then after that all the retconning to to instill anti-Soviet and anti-communist ideologies even to a leftist population. Essentially the start of the Red Scare. I really enjoyed the chapters discussing the harsh life in post-Communist countries like Poland, Bulgaria and Russia due to the opening of private industries and the free market. There’s plenty of people who bemoan how their parents or grandparents had to live in hell due to communism without considering how their country got to that place. More often than not, it’s due to private corporations enacting extremely exploitative practices and rolling back any social safety nets that the Communist state have them. I’d love to read a more thorough book about that.

Never too dogmatic in its thinking but Parenti tends to overgeneralize points where more care could have been put in, it felt like for the sake of a shorter page count he mushes a lot of ideas together. Still it’s a good introductory text to dismantling a lot of chud talking points and anti-Communist propaganda.