Michael Parenti "The Political Uses of Religion" Denver, Colorado 4.18.87

[@tyleronearth]

Michael Parenti has battled sound systems his entire life.

[@crispnhollow7300]

A Veteran Revolutionary.

[@forgottencomrade26]

babe wake up new parenti just dropped

[@nygilmccune8114]

New Color Parenti!!!! Mandarin?

[@matthewstone1362]

​@@nygilmccune8114parents struggle evolves from the audio to the visual.

[@vivalaleta]

That's what my guy said to me. I found my Marxist.

[@Turdfergusen382]

Yeah wake up 36 years later…..

[@reversefulfillment9189]

For Sunday night service we have Mr Parenti!

[@smilectics]

Amen!

[@ntokozosibanyoni1421]

Dr Parenti

[@figurefiguras4104]

@@ntokozosibanyoni1421 Father Parenti

[@anthonyroman2070]

1:24 mandatory microphone issue. No parenti speech without one.

[@sidDkid87]

*_as it shoud be!_* 😉

[@willshogren1987]

My man looking good as hell in '87.

[@nygilmccune8114]

New Color Parenti!!

[@ntokozosibanyoni1421]

24:30 😂Dr Parenti's outrage and passion is so genuine you gotta love it.

[@salty9544]

LETS GO!

[@BreezeTalk]

The ceaseless arguments of man. The permanent truths and great conversation. We love you.

[@BreezeTalk]

Fantastic channel

[@johnnydarf]

thanks for another great upload!

[@virginpoppy]

If you’ve ever lived in Colorado you can see how brilliant his use of the example of ashram is. Colorado has a lot of “spiritual” communities, specifically ashrams. Thank you Dr. Parenti for your service to the world.

[@davidhill452]

Leo Tolstoy wrote on this subject as well. "What Is My Religion" and "The Kingdom of God is Within You" approach this same topic from a religious perspective. Tolstoy's religious views are different from what contemporary Americans would expect, but he was excommunicated for essentially saying that the Church wasn't following Christ's teachings about pacifism and generosity. He also connects the Church to the State as being inseparable, power-hungry institutions. When the State wants war, the Church gives its blessing. When the Church wants to exploit the masses, the State drafts laws to help. I wouldn't say Parenti has any particularly 'new' insights in some ways, but he definitely delivers a speech that is accessible to a very broad audience. His approach is obviously more material/economic/political than Tolstoy, but Tolstoy isn't invoking mysticism in his critique either (rather, he hinges it on one specific verse from the Sermon on the Mount). I think everyone familiar with Parenti wishes he was still with us.

[@TheJesus318]

Oh shit its a new Parenti

[@LethalBubbles]

RIP Madalyn Murray O'Hair. Both she and Parenti are amazing speakers.

[@brina6680]

He had never given up the good fight w the Mic 😂

[@hardrocklobsterroll395]

Amazing someone is going through the effort of making this channel documenting one man’s struggle against microphones

[@WhySoSquid]

Thanks so much for your work delivering these for us, comrade 💕🙏

[@balesprint]

OMG !!!!!

[@figurefiguras4104]

Not even 2mins in and the Mic starts acting up again lmaoo

[@julianbullmagic]

very good channel, thankyou, much appreciated

[@davidhinkley]

Parenti is the ultimate test. An enemy of the people will never like him.

[@TheDylan0070]

Thank you for posting highly appreciated.

[@matthewstone1362]

This was the most intellectual episode of the Simpsons ever. Neds looking well though.

[@mattesparza2072]

I love Parenti but I believe he answered three of those questions at the end quite poorly. The one on anti-sovietism, the one asked by the Democratic Party organizer, and the one asked by the man quite worked up about organizing who I have to say was unfortunately 100% right. I’m not say Parenti should’ve been able to write what he did and also be able to answer every question perfectly, but us as organizers today should pay attention and understand where great people like Parenti got it wrong in the past. Him not fully disavowing the two party system as a one party dictatorship with two flavors as the women who asked so heavily implied was a large and unfortunately fatal mistep that was not just made by Parenti but by many organizers, it is still done today as well which is why it is especially important to understand. Unfortunately Parenti tried to lean into American rhetoric like calling the flag “our flag” and by separating the struggles of left wing organizing at home and anti-sovietism as though our lack of victory wasn’t intimately tied in with anti-communism. That organizer was right that America wasn’t our country then and it isn’t today, not unless we organize and make it our country. I recommend people check out parties like the Party for Socialism and Liberation and try to see if they have a chapter near them. We need organizations and socialist/communist parties free of Democratic Party influence like the DSA is knee-capped by.

[@pkingperk6628]

I dont know what you are talking about. You wrote this a year ago. This speech is almost 40 years old. You cant expect a forty old speech to line up perfectly with what you are talking about today

[@mattesparza2072]

@@pkingperk6628 of course not, but I still think he could’ve answered better. Regardless Parenti is an all time great.

[@ntokozosibanyoni1421]

I 100% agree with you. & I guarantee you you'll see more "bi-partisan" coordination in attempting to crush your efforts, and that's not because these two "parties" are opposed to one another and only gonna unite against a legitimate left challenge but it's because they are one and the same thing. One is firmly on the right and the other is on the far right (so it's one party with two different wings) and the sooner ACTUAL Left organizers make that fact clear to the masses the better. & This is not just semantics, because you are defining political reality by making it clear that the Democrats are NOT a leftist organisation, nor are they an ally of the left or the workers. Parenti's analysis of the issues is incredible but some of his recommendations are too timid to deal with the kind of forces we're fighting against. The DEMOPUBLICAN Party is NOT democratic, and advocating for changing either of these two wings of the same party is ultimately a failed endeavour and wastage of our resources. If they're gonna rule Americans, you should force them to drop the sharade and do it via repression knowing they are despised than some pretense of democracy in an effort to hopefully maybe hope they do the right thing (they won't, ever).

[@ntokozosibanyoni1421]

​@@pkingperk6628I suppose, I mean Democrats were definitely much further away from the right back then than today but they were still rightwing even back then, so I don't think it's entirely irrelevant to bring up how they were almost just as unreliable back then as they are today. 40 years is a long time for us, but for politicians it isn't. Many of the same politicians that were there back in Parenti's time are still there today. I doubt their fundamentally rightwing beliefs have changed.

[@pkingperk6628]

@@ntokozosibanyoni1421 I agree

[@FWAKWAKKA]

Parenti, hakim, and midwestern marx are all i have in this world. My brothers in arms, ill die for any of them.

[@quinsutton7097]

based.

[@jameswilkinson138]

From around the same time and making the same point, Frank Zappa's "Heavenly Bank Account".

[@qwertyqwerty-tx1zk]

(algorithm comment)

[@alexrsuarez1]

The old conservatives also were pro choice since they say it as the government intervening in people's lives.

[@sidDkid87]

0:55 ... *_meh, call me impatient_*

[@elonmusksellssnakeoil1744]

Fighting microphones like they are capitalists.

[@smurfmama2020]

What a nice orange glow

[@samblaze3223]

How do you find these?

[@themichaelparentilibrary]

I was Dr. Parenti's assistant in 2022 and his VHS tapes were given to me to be digitized and shared.

[@devinB1917]

Thank you for all your work

[@samblaze3223]

@@themichaelparentilibrary wow that’s amazing! Thank you, your doing the world a service my friend. Also I was wondering since he hasn’t been very public anymore, how he’s doing?

[@themichaelparentilibrary]

@@devinB1917 You're very welcome! Thanks for your support.

[@themichaelparentilibrary]

​@@samblaze3223 Dr. Parenti is happy and he loves his fans and supporters very much.

[@BreezeTalk]

Theologians literally create religions to appeal to the authenticity of societies in different regions

[@noheroespublishing1907]

☭

[@jessee5559]

*tips fedora* It's funny how badly the cringe atheist rhetoric has aged over the years