this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2023
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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.

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If you are new to socialism, you can ask questions and find resources over on c/Socialism101.

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Rules

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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


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The only dangerous minority is the rich.


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Image of post by ginnydi:
Okay, here's the problem with the idea that oppressed groups can "alienate allies" by not being nice enough:
You shouldn't be an ally because oppressed groups are nice to you. You should be an ally because you believe they deserve basic human rights. Hearing "I hate men" shouldn't make men stop being feminist. Hearing "fuck white people" shouldn't make white people stop opposing racism.
Your opposition to oppression should be moral, and immovable. Your belief that all humans should be treated with equal respect shouldn't be conditional based on whether or not individual people are nice to you.

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[–] stealth_socks 32 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I completely agree that a person's belief that everyone should be treated with respect shouldn't be conditional.

However I do think it's possible for someone to want to distance themselves from a movement without compromising that belief. For example if you heard lots of people who identify as feminists saying "I hate men" you might start to feel that feminism was less about equal respect and more about hate.

Not saying that this is always the case but I do think it's worth bearing in mind.

[–] venorathebarbarian 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

To add on to your comment, if we want other groups to work with us they need to feel comfortable doing so. I wouldn't blame any man who didn't want to protest side by side with women who say they hate all men, for instance. I wouldn't blame men for supporting in other ways and staying home from the protest.

So if we want other groups to want to be next to us, we have the obligation to make them feel welcome and wanted. Imo. Anything less is rather unfair and unwise.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

of course it comes with conditions. everything comes with conditions.

hopefully those conditions are just "don't be awful people yourselves", but unfortunately most people are not that pure in their morality.

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