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.
American leftists, perhaps. The vast majority of the developed world wants nothing to do with guns, on either side.
Even then, I don't think that this is necessarily true. I'd probably swap that part with free healthcare, as it's something that's equally true across the world.
I just want to live on mountain, make LSD and moonshine, and tweek out playing video games where you build shit.
But someone says they "own" the mountain. How do you own a mountain? They didn't build it. They were forced to be born on this planet just like me. Just another human full of blood and made of meat.
So I guess I'm stuck in this basement instead, forced to live in this "civilization". Doesn't seem very civilized to me that's for sure.
Maybe next life.
As a Leftist there are a few types of leftists I hate
the worst by any margin are the leftist gatekeepers ! I hate those guys, they're not real leftists
supporting the other empire [...] Cuba, Venezuela
Tell me you don't understand imperialism without telling me you don't understand imperialism (especially funny coming from someone criticising people who don't read theory). Cuba is possibly the most peaceful nation on Earth, with the core of its international policy usually being sending doctors to countries in need. Please tell me a single imperialist act by Cuba or Venezuela.
Critical support to flawed countries is a sad consequence of Realpolitik. Do you support England and the USSR joining forces against Nazism in World War 2? Because they're otherwise geopolitical enemies that only joined the effort because there was a greater evil.
Cuba is possibly the most peaceful country on Earth
Yup, they're so incredibly peaceful that they have an entire Wikipedia article deticated to their foreign military interventions
If [socialist country] is so [good characteristic], how come [wikipedia article predominantly edited by people from the west, citing sources from the west].
Also funny that even the article starts claiming that it's a list of "military and medical support", and most of the involvements you're seeing are support of emancipatory movements against imperialist aggression.
Damn leftists, they ruined leftism
Jokes apart, language is an important tool to express thoughs and persuade people what is better or worse. And when so many concepts get conflated in a single word "leftist"/"leftism" /"socialism"/"communism" , it diminishes the focus of conversations around it. It confuses and distracts from the ideas worth discussing.
this is a way to confuse, divide and defeat the healthy expression of ideas, debate, and by consequence, the capability of people to organize around the ideas that resonate with then.