is stuff like e.g. programmed to kill or the devil's chessboard worth reading as in does it lead anywhere, like to any big-scale insights about how power operates, "structural" history, some real cultural insight or is it just a slumgullion of evocative loose ends? like i want to read the franklin scandal but i'm really vulnerable to conspiratorial thinking and paranoid ideations and don't want to get wrapped up in something so morbid if there's not some big brain payoff like you might get with horkheimer or whatever
I heard Aaron Good is the respectable protege of Peter Dale Scott. Academically rigorous, solid Marxist without being a prick, that sort of thing.
I don't think there's anything wrong with them but if you're inclined to TrueAnon type thinking then you should probably be aware of that as a potential bias.
I picked up The Devil's Chessboard from this thread, as it was a title I recognized and thought why not get around to it. I don't think you will get a big brain payoff from it, OP, if you are the type to have even heard the name Horkheimer. It is not a big revelation that some spooks do even spookier and stupider shit than their peers (and I despise books that are written in a quasi-fictional storytelling tone to get their point across). The names are interchangeable once you have matured to a certain level of academic thinking. What aspects of Horkheimer did you find valuable? Many "foundational" International Relations theory is downstream of the Frankfurt school, perhaps that is what you mean by para-political.
From Goodreads: >When I first began to travel to Europe more than thirty years ago, I was initially surprised at how often pejorative comments were directed to me about the United States government and its "empire". Had David Talbot's book been available when I began my travels to some fourteen countries, I would have been better equipped to understand how America is perceived through an international lens. This is the intended audience for this book, lel
You've likely seen it shilled on other boards but Aberration in the Heartland of the Real by Wendy Painting is great. It covers every angle of the OKC bombing. Don't be put off by the Trine Day publisher; it's a proper academic book. Maybe academic is the wrong word but it doesn't push schizo theories like David McGowan does— it just gives you the theories and a sort of cultural explanation around them. I'd rec Tavistock Institute: Social Engineering the Masses by Daniel Estulin as well. Very few conspiracy books about the UK but there is that one.
Programmed to Kill was fucking garbage. I'm reading Aberration in the Heartland of the Real right now and she actually uses sources and footnotes. Could use more mentioning of Walpurgisnacht though - Programmed to Kill had that going for it at least.