ID: photo of Martin Luther King Jr. waving at the crowd during the March on Washington, on it is his quote: "He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it."
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, 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!
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)
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 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.
"You shouldn't pay attention to politics it's unhealthy." - My "liberal" "centrist" family. "You should focus on yourself" they say, "It is what it is, can't do anything to change it, work on yourself" they say, as if the most enlightened and reasonable perspective is to put a blanket over your head and pretend that the monsters don't exist. They'd say "It's hard to take you seriously, maybe become a politician or economist" but when you give them reading material written by economists, politicians, as well as lauded minds like MLK Jr or Einstein, they roll their eyes and go "You shouldn't pay attention to politics it's unhealthy, focus on yourself."
I'm not American so I'm not in as desperate a situation as you might be. That said, I have had the same discussions with many people and I've learned a few things.
One, ignoring a problem and hoping that it goes away is a totally natural coping strategy that works more often than we care to admit. It's a perfectly appropriate coping strategy when you're waiting out winter, but it's maladapted to stopping fascists from knocking on your door.
Two, people only have so much bandwidth. Their jobs, kids, school work, and just existing takes up that bandwidth. When someone's bandwidth is maxed out the only time I've been able to reach them is when they're already thinking about something I have a very strong argument that aligns with their goals. Otherwise it's a waste of time, they're worried about getting their kids fed and in bed, they don't have the brain power to think about how they could help overthrow the oligarchy.
Three, when those opportunities arise patience is key. Listen way more than than I speak, always keep the conversation focused on what they're concerned about.
'Know when to hold em, know when to fold them. Know when to walk away, know when to run.'