84
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.
Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent by Eduardo Galeano
this is the perfect book to understand what's about to happen to latin america again.
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
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
I forget the name (maybe "the verdict"?) but I read a john grisham book about a fictional trial of a chemical company contaminating drinking water. It dealt in a lot of detail with real-world political and legal structures and how open to abuse they are by the super-rich. It really eroded any belief I had that billionaires can exist peacefully in society without making things worse for everyone.
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.
The dude is a total hack too. There was an If Book Could Kill episode on it that was fantastic.
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn
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)
Quel banger
I loved this book!
Stolen Continents
The Bible
Every time I see the nice leather bound Barnes and Noble edition with all the other leather bounds I say “I love to see all the works of fiction together in the same section”
Never fails to get a laugh.
For me, it was Quran who made me question the majority and gave me a questioning mind and now I am an atheist.
The book that reads at the very beginning something like "you must believe everything written in this book with blind fate" made you question things? Or maybe I picked up a tampered copy.. 🤔 I read that, put it back on the shelve and never picked it up again.
yeah cuz I wanted to be a better Muslim and I dove deeper and deeper and that made me question my sect, then my religion, then all religions.
For me, i was raised religious. Fully believed it all because I was a child and the idea that its all a con was way beyond my capabilities. Got a little older, family fell apart and religion stopped being shoved down my throat.
Decided to read the bible so I could understand the whole story instead of just being lectured about a couple of paragraphs plucked at random.
God creates everything and then straight up fireballs everyone to death in the first like 5 minutes of reading. Ive been taught since birth that God loves us. Been drilled into my head that God has a perfect plan. Chapter fucking one God says whoops and does a genocide.
I did not finish the book.
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.
But why then US fought Germany if US also likes fascism?
Read 1984 and you'll understand. Or any history of a region just after WWII with insane leaders.
It's not just a question of fascism or no fascism. It's that fascist leaders only want their fascism out there. Neighboring fascist counties usually hate each other because of the competition.
Also we can spot evil in others. Its dangerous for us to recognise it and then realise its us too.
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.
History books got names too!
Yeah I know. But I don't like to recommend just random topics, because when I do, I've noticed that people just go "oh wasn't interested in that" so I'd rather ask a bit about what topics and time periods people might be interested in, before recommending.
And to be clear, I don't really have a specific book or books in mind that radicalized me. It happened by reading tens, or a hundred, books in the period of 10-15 years. So in that I can't give a recommendation, other than, just start reading about stuff. Start with something you wanted to know, wanted to know more about or were interested in, then during reading that thing, note down anything else that comes to mind that might interest you. Either something the book mentioned or something that popped in your mind randomly. Then get a book about that thing. Repeat.
That's how I got sunk into this hole of reading about history. I just go "huh, what's that about?!" and proceed to find out. /r/askhistorians subreddit has a excellent reading list in their wiki, its sorted into periods and topics, easy to search. That's a good place to start.
You want something strictly relevant to all the messes we're in today?
The Hundred Years' War on Palestine and The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine are must reads. Round them off with Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History
Then read Inventing Reality: The Politics of News Media and Manufacturing Consent (obligatory fuck pedo-associated and possibly pedo Chompsky).
Take a break from reality and read a quick fiction: The Trial.
If you're not radicalized by anger at this point, you're one of the baddies.
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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
I know I at least read Animal Farm and To Kill a Mockingbird when I was younger. I wonder how much those ended up influencing me. At the time I wouldn't have totally agreed with them, and I don't remember them having a particularly large influence, but they probably did affect me without me knowing. However, I also watched a lot of sci-fi and Star Trek, which probably had an even greater influence.
I wish there was a way to analyze our past and pick apart what effect different things had. It'd be really fun to know. I think when you consume something that you think really changes you, you were already primed for that change before. A lot of things lead up to that moment that you don't even recognize.
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Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent
Lord of the flies
I know Lord of the Flies is an allegory for the authors experience during and after WW2, but I do think its incredibly ironic the only real life example we have of the book turned out the complete opposite
A People's History of the United States blew my mind wide open in high school.
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.
Well I grew up in right and far right environment.
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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.
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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'
Purely Functional Data Structures by Chris Okasaki. It took the blinders off and I became a convert to functional programming.
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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...."
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.
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The Grapes of Wrath
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this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2026
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