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[-] AnarchoSnowPlow@midwest.social 54 points 1 week ago

I live in a fairly conservative area that's working class.

People intuitively understand when you describe how much capitalism sucks because they're living it.

If you say "capitalism sucks", you are going to get reactionary thought and action. You have to say things in a way to engage their experience and understanding without tripping the propagandized brain worms.

If you can do that, you'll find that they're primed to reject capitalism, they just don't know it yet.

"These rich fuckers don't give a shit about us, but they have no problems helping each other out."

"Everybody's boss is the same, they want you to work harder, more hours, and do it all for less money. They want us to be able to barely survive."

"The only way we can make them change is to all work together. They'll screw over each one of us individually, but if we're together they'll know it's actually them who needs us."

[-] Schmoo@slrpnk.net 20 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

If you say "capitalism sucks", you are going to get reactionary thought and action. You have to say things in a way to engage their experience and understanding without tripping the propagandized brain worms.

Explaining socialism without mentioning scare words

Extending your metaphor, this is what your average American's brain looks like. There is a lot of propaganda and social conditioning working against you here.

[-] degen@midwest.social 7 points 1 week ago

Extending even farther, there's nothing especially different about the American brain. Propaganda and social conditioning are natural to human cognitive bias and on the other side of the coin is our ability to learn.

Now the environment of conditioning and propaganda may be another story.

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[-] nothx@hexbear.net 15 points 1 week ago

You have to say things in a way to engage their experience and understanding

This! You can’t teach someone without appealing to their lived experiences and current understanding of the material conditions.

[-] naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

To my endless frustration leftwing thought and policy is popular until someone knows it's left wing.

I spend so much time talking to people and skirting around terminology/avoiding describing things in clear terms because they set off alarm bells.

As you say everyone gets that we're screwed and pitted against each other while dipshits up top have their snouts in the trough. There is a spectrum on how far we ought to go to address this but it's also really hard to get any action out of people because they'll nod along until you try point them at a union or something and then the propaganda kicks in.

[-] crusa187@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 week ago

Well said, and thanks for including some examples at the end!

[-] Soot@hexbear.net 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)
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[-] essell@lemmy.world 28 points 1 week ago

To all the Americans waiting for Trump to leave and things to go back to normal..

The world is never going to trust you while the half of the country who voted for him is still alive

[-] pressanykeynow@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago

By "the world" you probably mean US allies so like 8% of the world by population. The real world didn't trust the US well before Trump.

[-] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 6 points 1 week ago

I think that's too generous, but "fortunately" we won't have to worry about that because Trump won't leave and things won't go back to normal. 2025 is America's 1933.

[-] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 22 points 1 week ago

You're fighting 2 generations of built in propaganda and warped history taught in schools. When I was in school I was taught Hitler came to power because he was a great speaker. Not that he championed a police state that maximized corporate success at the expense of the people. A terrible expense.

If people learned capitalism leads to fascism they would stop teaching capitalism. The world is unjust and will continue to be.

[-] 9point6@lemmy.world 17 points 1 week ago

People don't know better because the system is geared towards ensuring the average person doesn't understand politics.

They look for the most visible change and place all the blame on that, and they don't understand that the most visible thing is usually a symptom of a deeper issue.

We all need to be making sure every time shit goes bad due to right wing politics, that we don't let them pin it on one guy. The whole school of thought is destitute. It's not always pleasant to have those conversations, but the alternative is it gets worse.

[-] TheLeadenSea@sh.itjust.works 15 points 1 week ago

It seems a lot of people on Lemmy at least think capitalism is bad, and most of my IRL friends do too, but tbf they're not American

[-] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 18 points 1 week ago

As an American on Lemmy, I feel very much alone. Most Americans I know don't know what Lemmy is, and they aren't interested in learning. The average American is barely engaged with politics or technology, and rarely both.

I do remember a time when the word "capitalism" was synonymous with "freedom" and "democracy," and I consider it progress that it isn't anymore. But now, if an American hears the word "capitalism," they think, "ugh, here comes some political bullshit. How can I get out of this conversation immediately?" Doesn't much matter where they fall on the ideological continuum.

Conservatives won by burning out the tolerance for dealing with crises. Support for progress is subsurface and dormant, as most moderates are simply waiting for fascism to blow over, like a parent at a mall food court eating their lunch stone-faced while their toddler throws a tantrum on the floor.

[-] 14specks@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 week ago

No local DSA or PSL branch for you?

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[-] Olgratin_Magmatoe@slrpnk.net 14 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

American here. Both are a problem and need to be burned to the ground.

+ a myriad of other things

[-] dogbert@lemmy.zip 10 points 1 week ago

If you think the dismantling of capitalism doesn’t eliminate Trump on its own then I dunno what to tell ya.

[-] Olgratin_Magmatoe@slrpnk.net 8 points 1 week ago

Trump is a cult personality. Even if tomorrow capitalism fell apart a la soviet union style, Trump would still have his ignorant worshipers like a mega church pastor.

[-] dogbert@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Not if you follow the Soviet/China method.

Re-education camps will be a necessity.

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[-] Gathorall@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago

Also Trump is bad as if he couldn't be rotting in prison for life if it pleased GOP. But the descend to fascism is what pleases GOP.

if it pleased GOP

Or if Dem leadership had a spine

[-] SayJess@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 1 week ago

Bruh, they’re almost done with the rough draft for their next letter. It’s going to slam.

[-] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 5 points 1 week ago

But the descend to fascism is what pleases ~~GOP~~ capital.

FTFY.

[-] Nioxic@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 week ago

your political system is the problem

[-] Jhex@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

These are silly... like not even treating the knife wound because a violent society is really the problem

The orange pedophile is the immediate and urgent problem... sure, let's not get complacent after (if) we survive it

This analogy doesn't work. If we fixed the root problems (a feckless dem party, billionaires poisoning the media ecosystem, etc), Trump wouldn't have the power to be a problem anymore. But I'm all for getting rid of Trump; he makes the root problems worse.

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[-] hark@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

Trump was voted out in 2020, look how effective that was.

[-] dogbert@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 week ago

The knife wound is capitalism. Trump is merely doing what his handlers want him to do. You get rid of Trump and they just replace him with someone else. Get smart fella.

[-] onoira@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

to continue the GP's metaphor: trump is part of an infection entering thru the open gaping wound.

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[-] DupaCycki@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

That's one of my main worries with the current situation. That Trump will leave office or die and everything will go back to 'normal', because all the issues supposedly disappeared with him. All the while the USA will continue terrorizing the EU, bombing civilians and mass murdering their own citizens.

Trump or no Trump, the current USA needs to go. Abolish the federal government, return sovereignty to all individual states, pay reparations to all countries harmed by American imperialism, prosecute all oligarchs to the fullest extent of the law.

[-] Someone8765210932@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

Are they really a significant number of people who see Trump as a problem, but think he is the only problem? I doubt that.

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this post was submitted on 16 Jan 2026
435 points (93.1% liked)

Lefty Memes

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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

Version without spoilers

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.

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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
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  • 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.


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That means condemning (their) imperialism, even if it is of the "anti-USA" flavor.


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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).


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The only dangerous minority is the rich.


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We must constructively learn from their mistakes, while acknowledging their achievements and recognizing when they have strayed away from socialist principles.

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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.



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