Ask Lemmy

A People's History of the United States blew my mind wide open in high school.

1984

Animal Farm

The Jungle

Slaughterhouse Five

Brave New World

A Farewell to Arms

Blood Meridian

Guns, Germs, and Steel

To Kill A Mockingbird

Bullshit Jobs

Purely Functional Data Structures by Chris Okasaki. It took the blinders off and I became a convert to functional programming.

I mean 1984 did a pretty good job radicalizing me against fascism. I consider it radicalization because turns out America really likes fascism so I guess I'm in the minority.

Just reading about history has done that to me. I don't really read fiction, but I read a ton of history, usually about one book per month or so. But seeing how the human history is just basically despair and misery, makes you a bit annoyed that we still haven't gotten any better.

The Grapes of Wrath

No Logo by Naomi Klein.

Unfortunately, it made me really against sweatshops and child labour. But most people want to hate stuff that come with very marginal costs, rether than things that force you to rethink how you live.

"I hate structural racism!"
"Like our clothes?"
"No, no...."

The Bible

none. its honestly the right wing that is radicalizing me. I was a (ironically) and extreme agnostic. It was things like qanon which made me have to come to terms with the fact that humans will just believe and follow bullshit. Not just that but tea party and now maga. Its like an effing religion. Heck the 911 memorial stuff is kinda pissing me off because it lead to the patriot act and loss of rights and privacy. Every flag waver and republican at this point that opens their mouth is radicalizing me.

Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent by Eduardo Galeano

Didn't really radicalise me but it's interesting that people had those ideas a long time ago too.

"The right to be lazy" (translation by me so it's worth what it's worth)

Why are we calling being an empathetic individual and being against fascism "being radicalised"?

The Dispossessed

Unironically "Industrial Society and Its Future" by Ted Kaczynski.

I don't agree with it at all. I think disabled people are people too, radical stance I know. But some points, especially about modern left and new technology becoming mandatory are well argued and true.

I always thought he was just a random looney and he's definitely not. I think the book didn't radicalize me but showed me what I believed to be true (that the guy was just a looney or evil) was wrong.

I don't believe that the rise of technofascism can be stopped by hiding in the woods tho and I don't think rejecting all tech will make everyone's mental health immediately better, he does not at all take things like community and purpose into account.

Reform or revolution -Rosa Luxembourg (Not a book per se but worth the read)

Black shirts and reds -Micheal Parenti

The conquest of bread -Peter Kropotkin

Mutual aid -Peter Kropotkin

The Black Panther Party ten point program - Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale

Guerrilla Warfare -Ernesto "Che" Guevera

Just read people's history by Howard zinn and that'll radicalize a lot of people. It's just the rich fucking everyone over and over.

The terms of service for the warranty on my first car after the first time I tried to use it.

Rich Dad Poor Dad (no joke). It's a glimpse into the inner workings of a wealthy shithead's mind. It unironically tries to convince you that profit is the only thing that matters, people are disposable and those who disagree with these ideas are intellectually inferior. The "poor dad" in the book is a teacher (and the guy's biological dad) who's pictured as someone well-educated, who tries to live an honest and modest life, and is therefore a "loser". It's nauseating.

Terry Pratchett's Discworld series.

The Jungle

Have you heard about the communist party manifesto? really simple book, 30 pages, you can skip the third chapter, but a real banger I couldn't recommend more

The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson. I'd be shocked if every person who bought a copy isn't on a watchlist automatically.

Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent

There was a book which I picked up from my high-school library and it really did a number on the younger me. "Green Rage" was a book written by Chris Manes in the early 90s about radical environmentalism and it gave me a new perspective on things I had not been aware of at the time. While I never actually got directly involved with any environmentalist groups, I did start to better appreciate how our Capitalist system's need extract value at any cost from natural resources would have disastrous consequences.

Fast forward 35 years and I can't honestly say if the author's more dire predictions haven't come to pass since you simply can't trust corporate media to give unvarnished truth about anything. But I have seen and experienced things with my own eyes that give them credence. The fact that the title for this book came to mind immediately when I read this post/prompt says something about it's impact I think.

These books opened my eyes.

From Freedom to Slavery: Rebirth of Tyranny in America by Gerry Spence

https://archive.org/details/fromfreedomtosl000spen/mode/1up

Quantum Psychology: How Brain Software Programs You & Your World

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/62558.Quantum_Psychology

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_New_World

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_an_Economic_Hit_Man

Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator by Ryan Holiday

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13542853-trust-me-i-m-lying

The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappe.

The methodical whitewashing by Zionists of the crimes against the native inhabitants of Palestine combined with the crocodiles tears of liberal Zionists was eye opening to say the least.

the rise of fascism radicalized me and made me sought out the books to learn about it and solutions by the communists of yesteryear.

not the other way around.

the Bible, unless you're a physcopath, that shit will make you an atheist if you read it and don't have cheery picked bits thrown at you by those trying to gas light you.

1984 is intertwined into the modern zietgiest

Mother Night, Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut

Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert Heinlein (it does have some anti-lbgtq messaging, but if I recall correctly it's a single paragraph and Heinlein has known biases. The term "grok" came from this book; I'm not the only one who despises how it's been co-opted by Musk)

Makes Me Wanna Holler - Nathan McCall

The Emperor's New Mind - Roger Penrose (especially pertinent with the hype/propaganda coming from oligarchs surrounding AGI/ASI/the singularity)

The Demon Haunted World - Carl Sagan

Lord of the flies

Benjamin Blümchen audio story series. Mayor and most business men are corrupt, main character regularly engages in political action like organizing protests for animal rights and another major character is a female journalist.

It's insidious because they're popular children's stories featuring a talking elephant as main character. Back before everyone lived on TikTok, even conservative parents bought it for their children. And I think even if you don't quite remember most of it when you get older, stories like these really do influence how you see the world.

Other than that, reading newspapers did most of the work (of course that only works if it's not all full-on fascist propaganda).

A People's History of the United States

• The Shock Doctrine: The Rise Of Disaster Capitalism
• The Divide: Global Inequality From Conquest To Free Markets
• Anarchism And Its Aspirations / Anarchy Works
• The ABCs Of Socialism / Socialism ... Seriously: A Brief Guide To Surviving The 21st Century
• Trust Us, We're Experts: How Industry Manipulates Science And Gambles With Your Future
• The Search For A Nonviolent Future (Michael N. Nagler)
• Feminism For The 99%
• Currently reading "Secret Affairs: Britain's Collusion With Radical Islam" And "Devil's Game: How The United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam"

Stranger In A Strange Land

The Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord.

Island - Aldous Huxley

Less radicalized and more just opened my thinking about how society could be and how imperial forces and people's desires get in the way constantly. More of a 'this is why utopia can't happen' vs Brave New World's 'look at this dystopia'