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Lefty Memes
An international (English speaking) socialist Lemmy community free of the "ML" influence of instances like lemmy.ml and lemmygrad. This is a place for undogmatic shitposting and memes from a progressive, anti-capitalist and truly anti-imperialist perspective, regardless of specific ideology.
Agitprop (I.E. everything that would be more fitting on a poster than a meme) goes here.
Serious posts, news, and discussion go in c/Socialism.
If you are new to socialism, you can ask questions and find resources over on c/Socialism101.
Please don't forget to help keep this community clean by reporting rule violations, updooting good contributions and downdooting those of low-quality!
Rules
0. Only post socialist memes
That refers to funny image macros and means that generally videos and screenshots are not allowed. Exceptions include explicitly humorous and short videos, as well as (social media) screenshots depicting a funny situation, joke, or joke picture relating to socialist movements, theory, societal issues, or political opponents. Examples would be the classic case of humorous Tumblr or Twitter posts/threads. (and no, agitprop text does not count as a meme. Please post agitprop here)
0.5 [Provisional Rule] Use alt text or image descriptions to allow greater accessibility
(Please take a look at our wiki page for the guidelines on how to actually write alternative text!)
We require alternative text (from now referred to as "alt text") to be added to all posts/comments containing media, such as images, animated GIFs, videos, audio files, and custom emojis.
EDIT: For files you share in the comments, a simple summary should be enough if they’re too complex.
We are committed to social equity and to reducing barriers of entry, including (digital) communication and culture. It takes each of us only a few moments to make a whole world of content (more) accessible to a bunch of folks.
When alt text is absent, a reminder will be issued. If you don't add the missing alt text within 48 hours, the post will be removed. No hard feelings.
0.5.1 Style tip about abbreviations and short forms
When writing stuff like "lol" and "iirc", it's a good idea to try and replace those with their all caps counterpart
- ofc => OFC
- af = AF
- ok => OK
- lol => LOL
- bc => BC
- bs => BS
- iirc => IIRC
- cia => CIA
- nato => Nato (you don't spell it when talking, right?)
- usa => USA
- prc => PRC
- etc.
Why? Because otherwise (AFAIK), screen readers will try to read them out as actually words instead of spelling them
1. Socialist Unity in the form of mutual respect and good faith interactions is enforced here
Try to keep an open mind, other schools of thought may offer points of view and analyses you haven't considered yet. Also: This is not a place for the Idealism vs. Materialism or rather Anarchism vs. Marxism debate(s), for that please visit c/AnarchismVsMarxism.
2. Anti-Imperialism means recognizing capitalist states like Russia and China as such
That means condemning (their) imperialism, even if it is of the "anti-USA" flavor.
3. No liberalism, (right-wing) revisionism or reactionaries.
That includes so called: Social Democracy, Democratic Socialism, Dengism, Market Socialism, Patriotic Socialism, National Bolshevism, Anarcho-Capitalism etc. . Anti-Socialist people and content have no place here, as well as the variety of "Marxist"-"Leninists" seen on lemmygrad and more specifically GenZedong (actual ML's are welcome as long as they agree to the rules and don't just copy paste/larp about stuff from a hundred years ago).
4. No Bigotry.
The only dangerous minority is the rich.
5. Don't demonize previous and current socialist experiments or (leading) individuals.
We must constructively learn from their mistakes, while acknowledging their achievements and recognizing when they have strayed away from socialist principles.
(if you are reading the rules to apply for modding this community, mention "Mantic Minotaur" when answering question 2)
6. Don't irrationally idolize/glorify previous and current socialist experiments or (leading) individuals.
Notable achievements in all spheres of society were made by various socialist/people's/democratic republics around the world. Mistakes, however, were made as well: bureaucratic castes of parasitic elites - as well as reactionary cults of personality - were established, many things were mismanaged and prejudice and bigotry sometimes replaced internationalism and progressiveness.
- Absolutely no posts or comments meant to relativize(/apologize for), advocate, promote or defend:
- Racism
- Sexism
- Queerphobia
- Ableism
- Classism
- Rape or assault
- Genocide/ethnic cleansing or (mass) deportations
- Fascism
- (National) chauvinism
- Orientalism
- Colonialism or Imperialism (and their neo- counterparts)
- Zionism
- Religious fundamentalism of any kind
And this excuses your grandfather being a Nazi... how?
Well, that's not the important part. The important part is that he was murdered by damn dirty commiesÂą.
Âąfor running a concentration camp
Saying that Stalin was a communist is like saying Trump is altruistic.
Call it like it is: he was a dictator and the following regimes were dressed in the same cloth.
Communism (correction - Socialism) is a dictatorship of the proletariat. Resources must be usurped from the ruling class by force, as they cannot be reasoned with. There is nothing wrong with that.
And of course everyone who disagrees with you even a little is part of that class.
no, the dictatorship of the proletariat is supposed to be a transitional phase. once you get to communism, it's not supposed to be a dictatorship of anyone. even Marx allowed that it was possible that in a country with a strong democratic system, that the dictatorship of the proletariat might not even be needed. ironically, one of the countries where he said it might be possible was the United States and Great Britain.
clearly, times have changed.
You’re correct. Thank you for clarifying.
My point about “dictatorship” being “not real communism” still holds though. The dictatorship is required to achieve communism.
There's nothing wrong with usurping resources from the ruling class, but there is a lot wrong with imposing tyranny on the proletariat.
For many westerners, communism is just a fantasy. They have no material grasp on what happens when you try to do it. They think you just magically redistribute resources while the ruling class stands by without interference.
MF Bought reciepts
That's why you have a big list of it ready to go?
They literally didn't bring any recipes though. Just unsubstantiated claims. Anyone can do that.
are you saying holomodor didn't happen, and that stalin wasn't an authoritarian bastard?
fair
Are you saying that you're a child molester who supports the KKK?
nope. what's that got to do with the chain of reasoning that we are discussing?
Forester : Holomodor was a famine that caused deaths
Me : Damn, Forester brought up many examples of deaths being caused by communists (NB : not communism, particular communists) that were not right wing assholes.
you : he provided propaganda (unsubstantiated claims)
me : are you saying that https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor didn't happen?
you: are you a child molestor
What's the deal my man?
So you make an obviously bad faith "are you saying [obvious strawman that is not at all what I said]?" comment, but then have a tantrum when I do the same back to you? Fuck off. How about you actually read and respond to what people actually fucking say, rather than literally making up your own bullshit quotes that noone said: literally manufacturing fictional conversations whole cloth. Until you actually respond to what actually said, without making up fake quotes or other bad faith bullshit, I'm going to keep treating you the same.
So you're saying that you're actually a neo nazi who loves child porn?
why is holomodor an "unsubstantiated claim"?
Why do you support Hitler and masturbate to child pornography?
Average Tankie response to "The holodomor happened".