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)
0.5 [Provisional Rule] Use alt text or image descriptions to allow greater accessibility
(Please take a look at our wiki page for the guidelines on how to actually write alternative text!)
We require 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" 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 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
- 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
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uuu Le Guin posting. One of my favourite authors, I love her works both the Hainish Cycle and Earthsea...
Great classic quote and gorgeous photo, thanks for sharing this!
I have to admit I've not read the full works (focus eludes me!) but I'm familiar with and generally support her views and ideas!
Understandable and valid, but if or when you decide to give it another try I can recommend starting with "The Word for World is Forest", then going on to "The Left Hand of Darkness" and later "The Dispossessed"
imo the barrier of entry for Le Guin's SciFi works (especially in that order) is relatively low compared to other progressive and socialist SciFi novels (which is quite a feat as well, since her works handle important themes just as well if not better thanks to her relatively concise but still "warm" writing style)
That's a great tip, I'll try to remember that, thanks!
As a somewhat contrary opinion, while I agree that Le Guin is a fantastically good worldbuilder, sadly her stories and characters often barely reach mediocre quality. I still strongly recommend The Disposessed - it shifted my politics massively towards anarchism and I re-read it every few years.
Otoh many of Le Guin's works feature strong misogyny, and The Word for World is Forest is one of the worst examples.
While the depicted native culture is interesting, we see very little of it in proportion to all the violence and destruction.
spoiler
Lots of sexual violence, and one of the PoV characters being a rapist.Then there's The Left Hand of Darkness which I'm quite on the fence about. I'm fascinated by the gender and sexual dynamics of its society, but sadly we experience the whole story through the thoughts of a very sexist cishet guy. Imho that spoils it a lot.
My second favourite Le Guin novel after The Disposessed is The Telling. Here, too, we see very oppressive societies, and as symptomatic of Le Guin's works the pacing is uneven and the plot feels unfinished - but in its entirety the novel still feels like a beautiful poem about cultural and personal resilience in face of oppression.
That is very valuable information that I will definitely consider before deciding to read her work, thanks!