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stethoscope theory
(quokk.au)
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this post was submitted on 08 Dec 2025
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Lefty Memes
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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.
Serious posts, news, discussion and agitprop/stuff that's better fit for a poster than a meme 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
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- 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
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Any leftist and every sane person says "Amerikkka bad"
It's the worst thing to happen to humanity in the second half of the 20th century and beyond
But the same people usually praise other regimes that also abuse human rights. It's not about the humanity, it's about not being the right brand of authoritarianism (the right brand is anti-west)
I suspect once Trump goes far enough up Putin's ass and turns on its European allies, tankies will also start celebrating the USA and ignoring everything that the US is doing in... *gestures broadly everywhere*
What.
Where do you stand on the war in Palestine and where do you stand on the war in Ukraine?
What version of 'tankie' is the one that would praise the US for literally anything trump does?
Like if there's one thing I thought I knew about tankies, it was that they fucking loathe the US and Trump
I've literally seen and heard German tankies praise Trump for trying to force the Ukrainians to capitulate to Russia in Ukraine. They like that he's undermining NATO and wants to appease Russia, think it'll bring us Peace in Our Time. Literally marching with a communist flag, and saying Trump has the right idea. Horse shoe theory applies.
Like many they've fallen down the rabbit hole. Became justifiably critical of traditional western media reporting on Iraq, Israel, Vietnam, Argentina, Guatamala, etc. ... Turned to supposedly more critical media, which unfortunately are often operated by Russia, Iran, China, etc. Became indoctrinated, before they realised said media are even more biased, just in another direction.
It can happen to anyone.
e: I see someone downvoted me withing 5 seconds of me writing this comment, probably without even finishing reading it, so apparently I hit a nerve.
Lmao, thats actually amazing - which communist flag??
Soviet hammer and sickle. It's utterly absurd, but yeah.
I think some people get off on being contrarian and not being part of the mainstream. Lie to themselves that it means they're special.
We're all a bit like that, vanity is the Devil's favourite sin, but most of us largely outgrow it in adulthood. I hope I have anyway.
They tend to hate Western democracy as a whole. If Trump brings about complete Russian domination in Europe and ends elections in the US for good, of course they'd cheer for their comrade.
That's my theory anyway. I don't see modern tankies caring about socialism, that's more of a guise for their authoritarianism fetish. After all, one of their most celebrated countries, Russia, is not at all socialist either.
Mind that I'm talking about tankies specifically. Plenty of leftists out there who are sensible. Asking about the two wars was kind of a litmus test. To me, if you approve of one offensive war, but not the other, you have some heavy geopolitical bias. Tankies are happy when Ukrainians die, but against the war in Palestine. Fascists are happy when Palestinians die, but have differing opinions on Ukraine. If you just don't like people dying and think neither Israel nor Russia is in the right, then you're not a tankie. Oversimplified, but very quick way to gauge whether someone is opposing some geopolitical bloc, or injustice and violence.
Every proper socialist hates bourgeois "democracies" lmao
But Russia (capitalist) and China (capitalist) are fine, right? Since they don't have democracy at all.
Nobody said that, nice try fishing for strawmen though LMAO
No, that's what tankies say all the time. If you're not of that opinion, why the fuck are you defending them?
You're not talking about tankies then.
I am. So many proclaimed "communists" don't really care about the whole communist thing, they just want a dictator.
The "leftist" spaces on grad, .ml and Hexbear were SUPER pro Russia last time I cared to see what they were up to. Tell me, in what universe is Russia a communist or even socialist nation? And at the same time, socdems are seen as evil incarnate. China, too, allows for billionaires, but since there's a strong one party rule and they're not allies of the west, they're A-OK too.
I already said I'm talking about tankies, not leftists, socialists or even communists. Tankies just use their so-called leftism as a disguise when really they just worship authoritarianism.
So the difference between a modern day tankie and a socialist is that the former would prefer everyone in the geopolitical west to die or suffer, whereas the latter would prefer socialism to spread to the west.
Idk what to tell you bud, boldly declaring that a political label specific to socialist infighting has nothing to do with socialism doesnt somehow make it true.
Do you see yourself as a tankie? Is that why you're offended?
There isn't anything there to be offended by, it's just a lazy and ill-considered application of a political label
It honestly just seems like you dont really know what the politics are, you just know 'tankie' as a loosely pejorative term for someone you have strong disagreements with.
So do you see yourself as a tankie or not? Why do you refuse to answer the question?
Read the room, kid. I'm an anarchist, but I dont run around pretending not to understand the ML perspective just because it's easier than treating it as coherent.
So why would you, an anarchist, defend those who literally simp for dictators? Because I'm talking about people who literally simp for Russia and China, which are capitalist countries - China minted more new billionaires in 2024 than any other country. Sure, it also has a bigger population than any other country, but if it was in any way communist, wouldn't they prevent billionaires from happening? And I'm sure you understand that modern day Russia is about exactly as communist as modern day USA.
I simply dont believe the people you're describing exist - at least, not as you've chosen to describe them
If you were describing a werewolf, it wouldnt be a defense of their cannibalism to say they aren't real.
I simply don't believe an "anarchist" can defend authoritarianism, such oxymorons cannot exist.
Also just an FYI that the non-revisionist internationalist socialist position is one of not supporting either side in an inter-imperialist war (read: a conventional one between two capitalist governments, not an anti-colonial one e.g.) and if viable go for revolutionary defeatism in ones home country
I thought tankies were marxist-leninist, which is both socialism and authoritarianism.
The socialism is optional now. Which is why they love Russia and China, two capitalist nations.