this post was submitted on 31 May 2024
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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, 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!

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)


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.



  1. Absolutely no posts or comments meant to relativize(/apologize for), advocate, promote or defend:

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 5 months ago (1 children)

You can actually be a good landlord. In theory. But at the point where you actually become a good landlord, it's more of a public service than something you actually make money on.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago (3 children)

But at the point where you actually become a good landlord, it’s more of a public service than something you actually make money on.

Why is that a but? They're still a landlord, right? I really don't get the attempt of separation of the same thing.

[–] qarbone 10 points 5 months ago

Because most people don't get into real estate to do public good. Most people get into real estate, become landlords, to make money off people's need for land and housing. It'd be like trying to whitewash criminality because vigilante heroes exist. Yeah, vigilantes might exist and are technically criminals, but that's not really the core conception of "a criminal".

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Because if you're a landlord as an individual, a a human being, you're not what people mean when they say "landlord". You rent property - you can do that with a conscience, but that doesn't deserve the title of landlord

The term "landlord" refers to people who own homes as a business - people who create layers between them and the people they affect, bureaucracies or sheer numbers they can min-max without guilt.

That subtle difference is everything

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

How do you call an individual that rents you a place then?

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/landlord

A person that leases real property; a lessor.

I really don't see the distinction. And while I'm not a native speaker, I've never heard nor think this is a common distinction or understanding.

Landlord is singular. It does not sound like a company or manager.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

Context matters - the person I rent from is my landlord, but that person is not primarily defined as a landlord. They rent out a couple properties, but they have a job - being a landlord is not their career

You can call them a landlord (and they can call themselves one in certain contexts), but in the larger systematic context someone who rents out a room obviously is categorically different.

The line is blurry, but honestly I don't think it matters if you rent out your basement, your old house, or even a few houses. At some point it becomes a full time job (for someone), and that's where I think the line is

And as far as companies, the landlords are the ones who own the company holding ownership.

It can also refer to the company itself as it's a person legally (unfortunately). It's not used that way in everyday conversation

But in everyday conversation it's normal to refer to the manager of the management company as your landlord, which is often an employee of a company that oversees bookkeeping and maintenance hired by the actual owners

Ultimately, I think it's important to fight for this distinction because language changes with use. By dragging in everyone who owns a second property or rents a room, we draw a line on the wrong side of working class people and their family who aren't the problem