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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] Try to use alt text or image descriptions to allow for greater accessibility
(Please take a look at our wiki page for the guidelines on how to actually write alternative text!)
We encourage 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.
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
When people say Russia, do they include their government? Because the Russian government can fuck off alongside any government. I consider myself far left and I refuse to simp for any government or its leaders. Now if we’re talking about the Russian and Chinese working class, I’ll always support them.
I would think that would be all they are including. regular russian civilians aren't out there making a lot of propaganda, it's all either state owned media or right-wing nationalist influencers. except for the occasional video trying to convince people that pork tongue is actually good.
Well of course we should support the international proletariat, even the ones heavily propagandized to the right such as in Russia and the US.
Yeah, this can’t be a partisan thing. That’s just feeding into the same nonsense division governments manufacture. It has to cross those aisles and educate folks on the fact that all working class are in the same battle against the same collective ruling class around the world. We’re seeing authoritarian regimes forming around the world and they are working together. We have to do the same.
No government can wage a war for twelve years against wishes of their own population.
How do you explain the US wars in Vietnam and Afghanistan?
The US population elected a president who was promising to end the Afghanistan War in 2008. That war ended in 2021. That's at least 12 years of war against the wishes of the majority.
The Americans were asking for it. Did you see how they were dressed?
Good question. For most of those years (goes for both wars) they just straight up lied about how bad things were going. Then there's the propaganda. Holy hell, so much propaganda. Like not saying you're wrong by asking that question but there are ways of selling unpopular wars.
Added to this, capitalists fucking LOVE wars. And without breaking capitalism all they're really going to do about the majority coming out against war is say 'yeah, what the fuck are you gonna do about it then?'
Wait, I thought China was capitalist?
How many Chinese billionaires are there again, I forgot
Yeah, that's the idea! China is capitalist but
And China hasn't fired on a ship since 1988 and hasn't dropped a bomb in a conflict since 1989.
So is it that capitalists love wars or that China isn't capitalist? I'm confused
The question itself is ridiculously reductive. Let's also not forget how China has ongoing border disputes with pretty much every neighbor that occasionally flare up, is expanding its reach in the South China Sea with artificial islands that serve as military outposts, is building up a massive navy and is in the process of modernizing its army.
The .ml explains a lot lol
Says the person who says "China is imperialist" and "China is capitalist" and "All capitalists love war". Not reductive at all.
Yup, pretty normal stuff for a country surrounded by borders and "international norms" defined by genocidal European imperialists.
Against whom I wonder? https://www.navy.mil/Press-Office/News-Stories/Article/3771407/us-navy-destroyer-conducts-freedom-of-navigation-operation-in-the-south-china-s/
I wonder why?
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-american-pivot-to-asia/
https://www.aerotime.aero/articles/us-replicator-drones-counter-china-military-mass
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2021-12-16/washington-preparing-wrong-war-china
Lmfao ok buddy exactly the crashout I was hoping I'd see. Well done!
Whatever you have to believe to help you feel better about yourself.
History says you are so, so wrong. Indisputably wrong
Am I? In all those long conflicts the population was at first at least indifferent(Like the US in the Vietnam war or USSR in Afghanistan war) or outright supportive(Like the US in their Afghanistan war) and after the public opinion changed the wars quickly ended. On the other hand the tsar was deposed after less than 3 years of WWI.
Damn, americans must love expensive insulin
Ok? They might, if they wanted they could have adopted one of the European healthcare models a long time ago.
Voting is a sham in the US. whatever the owning class pays for is what we get here. They just propagandize the voters they can control and disenfranchise the rest. Regardless of what percent of the population wants something, the scales only move when the elite tip them. We don't have a true democracy here.
Hell yeah
I'll support a government in so far as it does something to help the working class, generally that means I've only ever supported a government on one issue and told it to fuck off on the rest. I vote as far left as possible and that means I've never actually had a government comprised of people I've voted for.
You're based.
I truly don't understand that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" rhetoric that LOT of folks maintain out there just because they hate the US. Like if China or Russia were better places to live. The worst part is that this is what dominant classes want, polarization.
It’s wild because I know the folks saying those things are aware that politicians are not their friends. So I don’t know why they allow themselves to be captured by otherwise problematic beliefs. We don’t apply enough nuance and separation of ideas from people.
Yeah, it's really wild.
I personally am from center-left, though I have some common views with anarchism and this is one of them.
When people say [country] it's their government.
When people say [group of people] it's that group of people.
I still support worker-lead efforts. I just don’t fold to singular figures or authorities. I’ve watched people excuse abhorrent shit simply because it’s a person they otherwise like.
Hey bud I don’t actually think you can get any further to the left than anarchism.
Ironically, calling anarchism "disorganization" is almost always a result of capitalist/authoritarian propaganda about what anarchism is. Sorry you can't conceive of a world where people organize themselves without the use of oppressive violence.
"Without a hierarchical authority system of a small group 'directing' the large group, the people can't remain organized!" - every supposed "stateless", "classless" ML.
Incorrect. Anarchism is against unjust hierarchies. It can absolutely be organized.
So two things worth mentioning IMO, one important, the other kinda pedantic but still important from a theory POV:
Being the "furthest left" is not always the best tactic, and certainly not a strategy. If being far left means a practical program to unified liberation and resistance to capitalism, that's great, I'm right there with you. But actual conditions are contradictory and constantly struggling to be the furthest left is sectarian/opportunist and not practical/critical.
Capitalism contains anarchist elements, such as anarchy in production. There are right wing anarchists ho want to consolidate power by delegitimizing/eliminating social protections; not liberate the masses to self actualize, but liberate the individual to rob and oppress.
I don't make these point to attack you or anarchism, I work with anarchists and feel affinity with them, and I think they would agree with me on these points. But in my experience, the point is not to be the furthest left, but to have the best means to determine actual truth and teach others to think critically. In some ways, the left/right paradigm does more harm than good, even if it is useful in other contexts.
Au contrare, virtually all anarchists are ultra-left.