Lefty Memes
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
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,
as well as 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.
7. Absolutely no posts or comments meant to relativize(/apologize for), advocate, promote or defend:
- Racism
- Sexism
- Queerphobia
- Ableism
- Classism
- Rape or assault
- Genocide/ethnic cleansing or (mass) deportations
- Fascism
- (National) chauvinism
- Orientalism
- Colonialism or Imperialism (and their neo- counterparts)
- Zionism
- Religious fundamentalism of any kind
(This is not a definitive list, the spirit of the other rules still counts! Eventual duplicates with other rules are for emphasis.)
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This comment is the perfect example of why fascism has a habit of winning. Laziness from the populace. One election in one office is all you're willing to commit. We voted one time in one election, why wasn't that enough? One office wasn't run by a fascist and that's got to do it for the entire country for the rest of all time I guess. One vote is all you're willing to commit. People who don't understand fight against fascism is a lifetime of work are the people who deserve fascism. Beating fascism is about building a strong Democratic populace. About building a system and a society that respects the Democratic process. It takes decades and it has to be renewed constantly. Also wouldn't be a bad idea to just go around hanging fascist every 30 or 50 years or so either, that's also an option.
People don't want to hear that! Sheesh!
But really. Some people think voting and protesting is the epitome off not being lazy about about it, but it's the bare minimum.
You think ACAB? Be a cop and be the exception. You think the problem is higher up? Get involved in politics. You think it's corporate? Get involved with ethical companies, and shun unethical ones.
You think you shouldn't have to? That's because you've gotten lazy. There's nothing intrinsically wrong with that, it's just easy to take advantage of - and if you don't like the results of the laziness, eventually you'll like them so little you'll have to do something or die - and you'll probably get motivated at that point.
This is a very privileged point of view
bro every complaint and problem in your life other than eating, drinking, and sleeping is literally a privileged problem.
Eating, drinking, and "sleeping" (shelter/safety) are significant hurdles for a large portion of the population
which is why those aren't privileged takes :)
That's a very psychologically weak take, and comes from the privilege of not having to take up these matters into your own hands, because our society had enough flexibility that you haven't had to. ..but that kind of weakness is pretty common these days, because people don't have a lot to live for.
Regardless of whether you have a lot of power, personally, or whether you don't have a lot of power, spending what you do have ethically and prudently matters a lot. Although many may not be able to make things better on their own, many have enough power that they will regret inaction later, when action becomes absolutely necessary, and no real preparation has been made.
In short: Call it privilege all you like, see where that gets you.
its like you ignored his comment and responded to something else entirely. weird stuff.
I didn't say you said it I said you were an example of it. Hell you just did it again, every 4 years you say. Exactly the issue. You people think it's a one-time game. It's not , it's constant. It's every Congressional race it's every senate race it's every state race it's every School Board Race. The fight is unending. Also yeah some people deserve fascism, they're called the people that sit on their ass and let it overwhelm them. People that aren't willing to fight it are the ones who deserve it. Cuz they're the ones that enable it more than anyone else.
I agree it takes groundwork, what kind of ground work is my question though. Real groundwork? The kind of groundwork that endorses democracy and respect for democracy? The kind of ground work that keeps progressively moving us away from fascism step by step? Yeah that's the kind of ground work we need. That's the kind of ground work you're sitting here arguing against. Your groundwork is vote one time in one election and then turn your nose up at the entire process and sabotage anyone who wants to keep fighting. You all or nothing people are the problem. When you're steering a nation it takes a long time for the rudder to move. It takes constant pressure to change course. That course change is going to take years and maybe even decades but you have to keep pushing on the rudder. If you never try you go where you were headed in the first place. That's what your endorsing here. One brief nudge and then sitting on your ass. Doesn't move anything.
What do you think about direct action?
How do you define Direct? I'm open to a very wide range of it whether it's from going door to door all the way through throwing bombs into the carriage of a tsar. Action's fantastic particularly at local level, in fact primarily at the local level. Up to and including Carriage routes.
Show us how, genius
If you're capable of implementing a structure that can actually stand, direct action may be warranted. If not, then not, unless violent anarchy is better.
Start small. Build your structure and run some group that way. ..and expand.
Yup. There it is. The path of fascism victory. Exactly what I've been saying. Thank you.
you work with what you’ve got until you have something better… right now, you have a vote between 2 teams… get the fuck over it and vote, and in between work for something better
but right now, in this moment, in november
YOU FUCKING VOTE AGAINST THE MOST FASCIST
i’m am not an american
i live across the other side of the world
we have to live with the consequences of your decisions
we don’t get a choice in the matter