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Having never understood the role that existing communist powers played in tempering the worst impulses of Western capitalism and imperialism, and having perceived communism as nothing but an unmitigated evil, the left anti-communists did not anticipate the losses that were to come. Some of them still don't get it.

— Michael Parenti Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism (1997)

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Communism

More quotes by Michael Parenti

The slums are not the problem, they are the solution; they are the way capitalism deals with the surplus people of a market economy.

Democracy for the Few (2010)

How one gained power by fighting for the rights of powerless groups was never explained.

Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism (1997)

Through all this, one seldom actually hears from the “politically correct” people who supposedly dominate the universe of discourse.

Contrary Notions (2007)

For all their faults and shortcomings, the people are all we have.

Contrary Notions (2007)

The dirty truth is that many people find fascism to be not particularly horrible.

Dirty truths (1996)

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For the state to wither away completely, complete communism is necessary.

Vladimir Lenin The State and Revolution (1917)

I dislike Communism because it is undemocratic, and capitalism because it favors exploitation.

Bertrand Russell Unarmed Victory (1963)

Communism is the doctrine of the conditions of the liberation of the proletariat.

Friedrich Engels Principles of Communism (1847)

Communism has sometimes succeeded as a scavenger, but never as a leader. It has never come to power in a country that was not disrupted by war or corruption, or both.

John F. Kennedy

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Michael Parenti (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.