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
spoiler style tip about abbreviations and short forms
(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
- lol => LOL
- bc => BC
- bs => BS
- iirc IIRC
- cia => CIA
- nato => NATO
- 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 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
view the rest of the comments
The piece from kropotkin i referenced was about nonhuman animals.
Referenced solnit. Think this comes up-in the context of places i have been, during severe crisis. I don't know why i bothered.
Yeah, anarchists have never organized any sort of education. Guess we're fucked.
You seem really convinced terrorism accomplisjes this. Why dont you cite some sources?
Im down to quibble about the things i have said if you want to talk to me, but you seem to be talking at rather than to me and just looping. I have no interest in perpetuating your weird obsessive compulsive mental illness.
bad actors have existed since the begining of time. and society must have the means to handle, and preferably rehabilitate them. this requires the means to compel people. traditionally with the state monopoly on violence. i fear that anarchy would be liberalism in disguise, where power would form around one who by some mechanism finds them selves with greater means.
the reason i bring up water systems is because it is a societal necessity, but would not only require mass agreement across the board, but thousands of specialists which necessitates its own large system, education
in regard to education, i am not talking about grade schools, i am talking about specialist training. in examples i see, they are non existent, and borrow from capitalistic systems. you did not answer my concerns, but just asserted they are not an issue.
most like because my main reason for concern is scalability, in which you had previously argued a fractal quorum senario. i am unconvinced, i see only possible blockage of needed decisions at every level, and when things don’t go the way groups want, an exodus of the quorum.
i guess the assumption is that people would naturally vote for what is best for society, but that assumption i know to be false, AND in cases where that is true, the individuals will not agree on what that “best for society” even is. this very conversation is proof your assumption, if i have the make of it, is wrong.
Bad actors are fine? Shrinkage. It's whatever. And what 'bad' is changes when you have a society based on provoding for people. Your premise is fucked. You're just crying about shit, there sre books you could read on the topic if you were interested in learning.
Bitch i already referenced this. Read what i recommemded, historical fucking examples, or fuck off. You are wrong, this is nonsense, we are better yhan you, and book explains how.
Yeah im not either. You seem to think there are no educated anarchists. You seem so attached to your boot on neck fetiwh that theres no point arguing with you. Like you cannot imagine anything cohering without threat of violence, like youve never so much as played a sport or a ttrpg, or a poker night, been in a book club, gone on vacation with your friends without a gun to your head and that comes off as extremely bad faith. Fuck off.
It's been addressed in multiple different ways throughout history. I wont go over them becauee, again, you're unconvonced anyone would ever do anything other than rape or pillage wuthout a gun to their head.
If you cqnt accept that, I don't need to talk to you; i don't have a gun to my head, and im very done dealing with your sickness.
You're high.
if you can not be an honest interlocutor then you do not have an opinion on the matter worth engaging. hopefully someone who has the capability to articulate your position for you will eventually present themselves. this has been a total waste of time and you have addressed none a of my concerns other to say, they are not real. and with such assumptions i can equaly dismiss without effort. i think we are done here in all branches of this conversation