Lefty Memes
An international (English speaking) socialist Lemmy community free of "ML" (read: Dengist) influence. 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, discussion and agitprop/stuff that's better fit for a poster than a meme 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. Please post agitprop here)
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" (read: Dengists) (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
- Sexual 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
Virtually every communist party uses it, and has since before the USSR existed.
And? The swastika wasn't always a Nazi symbol. Now when people think of it they think Nazis. The hammer and sickle make people think USSR. Making people think of Stalin is not the way to go. A new symbol or simply not using that symbol would be a better choice.
Swastika means Nazis now, hammer and sickle means communism, not USSR, that is what comes up when you think about it, not when everyone thinks about it. what, just to accommodate you specifically every communist organization must change signs?
It was the symbol on their flag. More than just me. There are people outside of Lemmy, you know. People relate things when they see them associated over and over their whole lives. But even if only a smaller percentage associate it, I would still prefer a symbol that no one associates with mass murder.
so, everyone must change their sign usage to accommodate you because your ignorance must be protected?
grow up and find some real problems.
No, its called bad marketing. If as a group socialist and communist would like to promote their ideas then having the symbol they are using be associated with the worst of the worst is not good. That is why I would prefer for something else to be used. You're welcome to disagree but you don't need to be rude just because you don't agree with what I'm saying.
it still sounds like what you associate, not normal people. you're saying we should all conform with your ignorance? like, you can't separate the logo of an ideology with states that were related to it? and your tearing the ussr like it was Nazi Germany. are you going to bring the 100 million deaths by communism? because that's what you're alluding to. many of those made up 100 million were straight up Nazis, so it's a good things the Soviets (under the sickle and hammer) got rid of them. making the symbol even better.
get your head out of your ass and stop telling everyone how to organize.
if you want to, no one is stopping you from starting your own communist party with your ass as a flag instead of the hammer and sickle.
Your inability to have a normal conversation is a bit ridiculous. I didn't tell anyone how to organize, but I am allowed to have ideas. The swastika is still and has been a religious symbol. Stalin was a mass murderer. Hitler was a mass murderer. Doesn't matter who had rockets. When you look up hammer and sickle on Wikipedia, it says Russia in the first paragraph. Sorry you are sheltered from other humans, I guess? I'm done with you, though, you're really not worth talking to if you can't have an actual conversation. Hope you find peace one day.
☭☭☭☭☭☭☭☭
Because it is not a conversation, I am not invested in changing your mind, all I am doing is calling your petty bullshit.
I am organizing I have a group of over 60 commies who are pushing the local DSA further left, and no one gives a fucking damn about your petty branding grievances. so far, it seems to me all you do is whine about branding. no one has time RN for that. we are at the cusp of a civil war and WW3 and you are bitching about ☭?
And you yet again bring Russia into the mix.
☭☭☭☭☭☭☭☭
lol cry more
what part of my text gave you the sense that I was upset. at worse I'm slightly annoyed and suffer from second hand cringe. get a life you shitlob troll
Keep crying
it is indeed sad that people like you exist. anyways, enjoy being a shithead. blocking your troll ass
Kettle meet pot
This association is due to not challenging cold war propaganda over the last century and look where its gotten the American left.
Rejecting the symbol of communism because a project that transformed 250 million illiterate, starving peasants into a space-faring superpower with a quality of life comparable the west used it is the equivalent of prefacing every discussion of Palestine with rejecting Hamas and acknowledging a settler colonial state's right to exist, every discussion of Venezuela with calling Maduro a dictator who should be sanctioned, every discussion of China with "ccp evil".
You've already lost if you're gonna go along with whatever horseshit your opposition says about you.