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Lefty Memes
An international (English speaking) socialist Lemmy community free of "ML" (read: Dengist) influence. 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" (read: Dengists) (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
- Sexual assault
- Genocide/ethnic cleansing or (mass) deportations
- Fascism
- (National) chauvinism
- Orientalism
- Colonialism or Imperialism (and their neo- counterparts)
- Zionism
- Religious fundamentalism of any kind
As some who has lived in and is from a culture where it's optional based on how pious you are, this doesn't ring true. While some places have it as oppression, sometimes people do it because they genuinely want to be modest, or feel more religious. Some people spend most of the time without it, and use it only for religious occasions, and it's not forced.
I've visited graves with female family members who don't wear it during day to day, and they put it on when visiting the gravesite, or during prayers. No one forced them. I've had family members who didn't put it on when visiting the gravesite, and nothing happened to them, because it's not obligatory in my culture.
We've even had headscarves (not face covering) be banned for people attending university or working for the government, in the name of secularism. In other cultures related to mine,
Unfortunately for atheist edgelords , the truth is more subtle and nuanced. It's not as simple as "It's oppressive!".
There ARE people who do force it on others, and the widely accepted religious teaching is that it should NOT be that way. But extremists gonna extremist. There ARE people who enact the bans as a show of harassment towards ethnic minorities, for example, in not allowing people to participate in sports or swimming in adequate and safe aquatic apparel, in order to prevent religious people from participating in activities in the water.
Specifically headscarf bans have been enacted this way in western countries, but also in secular countries with 90+ percent muslim populations, in an attempt curb islamists from taking a foothold within the country.
It's not at all cut and dry. Have a look into countries that have heavy percentages of muslim populations and their application of secularism OUTSIDE of the MENA region, where they do take this shit too far. Places in SE and Central Asia for example. They have problems with authoritarianism, yes, but, not in terms of religious oppression.
Cool story except the history of religion is rooted in the patriarchal oppression of women (and the working class but that's tangential). Just because some women of the modern day have internalized their own oppression does not justify the origins of why the practice was first institutionalized nor negate its roots as an oppressive institution
You're right. It is nuanced. Women want to cover themselves because it makes them comfortable? Okay, cool, that's what they want and that is valid. Women doing so for "religious reasons" is literally just internalized oppression. Those religious reasons are inherently oppressive. Religion itself as a societal institution is a tool of oppression.
Sure and the history of all atheism everywhere is rooted in communism, because it was invented by Karl Marx himself when he wrote "religion is the opiate of the masses". /s
Take this as an opportunity to learn something. Goodbye.
The irony that someone who cannot recognize that religion is itself as an institution is a tool of oppression telling the other to learn something.
You're a joke.
FYI, I'm not a fan of Marx. I prefer Kropotkin.
No Gods, No Masters.