this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2025
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You can't tell me Parenti isn't much more readable and less jargony than other, more bourgeois historians. Finding the one counter example just feels pedantic af.
Literally no one is arguing this point with you. Have fun with that, though.
I can recall all the words in the OP being used by him, other than Oppobrium (though I’m sure he has used it somewhere). The reason I used Yellow Parenti as an example is because that is the first time I heard of it and I looked it up. I have never heard of it from any source other than
After hearing this for years I was taken aback by the forward to Blackshirts and Reds, followed by relief that the rest of the book wasn’t like that.
I didn't remember that the preface of Blackshirts and Reds was more jargony, but here I am rereading it ATM and I can't argue with that. I'm guessing that he wrote it last and, as his motivation was sapped, put the least amount of effort into rewriting it. Just a guess though.
Honestly I fall into jargon in my field when I'm tired or lazy. Making things make normal sense takes extra effort.
It's not pedantic, he used one of the example words in his most famous lecture. Why?
Were his ideas not clever enough? Is he bourgeoise? Did he change terminology afterwards?
Pedantic as in finding an individual example, ignoring that overall Parenti doesn't put unnecessary jargon in his work, especially compared to someone like Jordan Peterson or even Chomsky. Pedantic as in nitpicking a tiny element and ignoring the wider reality.
Incredibly bad faith questions that I'm not going to answer.
Broadly the discussion has been very absolutist about these terms, I don't really care wether or not Parenti is "better" on a spectrum.
I want to hear what his usage of the term in his most famous lecture actually implies about him and these sorts of terms as a whole. Is this post actually a discussion about language or just a massive circlejerk about how much we dislike academics.
disengage
ITT: anti-intellectualism is revolutionary when I like it, but reactionary when I don't