Dirty Truths: Reflections on Politics, Media, Ideology, Conspiracy, Ethnic Life and Class Power

by Michael Parenti

This eye-opening and entertaining collection of essays investigates media and culture, conspiracy and state power, ideology and political consciousness. Parenti ranges over such crucial issues as free speech, the rise of neofascism, the relationship between wealth and poverty, the “terrorism” hype, the continuing mystifications about the Kennedy assassination, and the deceptions and injustices of U.S. corporate global domination. Moving from the political to the personal, Parenti shows the links between seemingly disparate social and political forces. Dirty Truths also contains three poems and moving accounts of his own ethnic family life and the political intolerance he encountered in academia. This book is a rich buffet, an enlightening and provocative feast for the mind and heart. Author of Against Empire, Democracy for the Few, Land of Political Mythology in America, and many other books, Michael Parenti is one of the country's most astute and engaging political analysts. He has taught at a number of universities and now lives in Berkeley, California.

Genres: Politics, History, Nonfiction, Theory, Essays

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Michael John Parenti, Ph.D. (Yale University) is an American political scientist, academic historian and cultural critic who writes on scholarly and popular subjects. He has taught at universities as well as run for political office. Parenti is well known for his Marxist writings and lectures. He is a notable intellectual of the American Left and he is most known for his criticism of capitalism and American foreign policy.

Reviews

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading Parenti is like pouring Everclear into a festering wound. God bless this man, may he live one hundred more years, may his books re-print forever.

[Public Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh wow! I just looked back in my Goodreads and this is the 13th book I've read by Michael Parenti. Lucky 13! I think that may qualify me as a bonafide superfan. I truly love reading this man's work and hold him even closer to my heart than Noam Chomsky.

This volume does not disappoint. Parenti has all of the meritocratic credentials, but he is a working man's polemicist. As a superfan, I have heard several of these chapters in spoken form before reading them here. It is fun and entertaining to dig up Parenti's old talks online and would heartily recommend his JFK speeches if you want a taste of what is inside this book. His speeches on his childhood and conversion to radical activism are also excellent and out there on the internet.

It takes a very brave academic to challenge the mainstream consensus on the Kennedy assassination. Parenti is fearless in advocating the importance of that subject and challenging his peers, like Chomsky, to take this subject matter seriously. I admire his guts. And I especially admire his intellect and his grasp of some very daunting material.

Reading Michael Parenti is always edifying, clarifying, and inspiring to me. Please read this book and check out his other books and speeches. He is truly special.

[Foppe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent anthology

[Pfairbanks · Rating 5 out of 5]

A nice compilation of essays on various topics. As always, Parenti doesn't disappoint.

[Adam Schendel · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The concentration camp was never the normal condition for the average gentile German. Unless one was Jewish, or poor and unemployed, or actively leftist or otherwise openly anti-Nazi, Germany from 1933 until well into the war was not a nightmarish place. All the "good Germans" had to do was obey the law, pay their taxes, give their sons to the army, avoid any sign of political heterodoxy, and look the other way when unions were busted and troublesome people disappeared.

Since many "middle Americans" already obey the law, pay their taxes, give their sons to the army, are themselves distrustful of political heterodoxy, and applaud when unions are broken and troublesome people are disposed of, they probably could live without too much personal torment in a fascist state - some of them certainly seem eager to do so. Orwell's imaginings to the contrary, what is so terrifying about fascism is its "normality," its compatibility with the collective sentiments of substantial numbers of "normal" persons - though probably never a majority in any society.

We might do well to stop thinking of fascism as being a simple either-or condition. The political system of any one country encompasses a variety of uneven and seemingly incongruous institutional practices. To insist that fascism does not obtain until every abomination of the Nazi state is replicated and every vestige of constitutional government is obliterated is to overlook, at our peril, the disturbingly antidemocratic authoritarian manifestations inherent in many states that call themselves democratic."

-Michael Parenti, "Fascism in a Pinstriped Suit," Dirty Truths, 1996

[Roberto Yoed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ninth book I've read from Parenti.

As usual, another great synthesis of his previous works with some extra reflections. The new, and much appreciated, data are the statistics he adds about crime rate, prisons, famine, jobless people, poverty, malnutrition, etc.

Also, his updated analysis about the fascists states is pretty good.

Another great addition is the study of the Boris Yeltsin coup d'état and how he constructed capitalism in the ashes of a great socialist country. Without a doubt, one of the most pathetic treasons that have occurred in History.

But by far the best, and emotional side of the whole work, are his biographical annotations about the repression he suffered in many instutions as a teacher (something I can confirm that also happens here in Mexico, and I'm pretty sure all around the world) and his recount of working with his father in the bread industry (and how tragically his old one ended up working as a Taxi Driver in New York because of the big enterprises taking the monopoly of bread production).

Being completely honest, 'Against Empire' is an overall better project (critically and literally speaking), but the last chapters about his father really remind me of the situation I'm living right now with my old man.

As Parenti, in my wildest dreams I also crave for a socialist reality so my old man has a decent retirement. I don't wish for anything more.

What a personal and intimate masterpiece.

[Tom Schulte · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was hoping for some incisive analysis, though-provoking Marxist framing if only to challenge my thinking, but the first half of so of the book sounded like a bunch of America-stinks grousing. I liked most the third chapter on conspiracies. Only JFK and Walter Reuther were covered, but I appreciated both. JFK, supporting the idea of a conspiracy assassination, was viewed from left and right including a consideration of Executive Order 11110. For the unionist pioneer, his communistic origins and inclinations were explored along with the apparent sloppy investigation of a tampered with altimeter that left to his demise.

I also like the brief autobiography, especially relating how their Old World Italian bread business produced a handmade product that developed in the open air a thin crust keeping the inside moist. Running up against capitalism (competition with Wonder Bread) and mandated public health measures (plastic bags ruined the loaves' texture) was the death of the artisanal business.

[Aiden · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m disappointed to give this a poor rating but Dirty Truths was weighed down by 2/5 sections being particularly slow. I love Parenti and his writing, I love the insight he’s given me, I love his books. I’m going to order another batch of them, i’ve finished the 4 I have now. This book opened my eyes on new people and experiences that i’ve never heard of or thought of and I appreciate it. Worth borrowing from a friend or library but I wouldnt recommend this be your first of his books

[Mitch · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favorite things about Parenti is his palpable rage, the way you can hear everything he writes in his own voice.

And the way he manages to use the phrase "dirty truth" in almost every essay is both cheesy and incredibly charming.

[headless_roland · Rating 2 out of 5]

Parenti is wonderful but not sure this one offers too much I've not read from him elsewhere.

[sologdin · Rating 2 out of 5]

collection of unrelated essays. opening piece on the 'hidden holocaust' in the US is a decent snapshot of the time in which it was written. later essays in the collection regarding leftwing conspiracy-phobia are kinda annoying. conspiracist doctrine is something that I normally associate with the rightwing (& Hofstadter's paranoid style). we don't need individualistic explanations of events to get at their root causes; author here wishes to defend JFK conspiracism. well argued, but not sure it's worth the effort.

[Guido Colacci · Rating 5 out of 5]

AMAZING BOOK!