this post was submitted on 31 May 2024
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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.

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

Version without spoilers

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.



  1. Absolutely no posts or comments meant to relativize(/apologize for), advocate, promote or defend:

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[–] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (21 children)

The Bible is the Torah + the Gospels of Jesus + a ton of editorialized commentary, filtered through multiple stages of politicized selection. Yes, the fundamentals fit on a post it: love God with all your heart, love your neighbor as yourself. All the rest is parables and commentary, some by Jesus, some by less gregarious personages.

Some modern "Christians" obsess over the less gregarious commentaries (e.g. Paul), some obsess over twisted interpretations of these already twisted commentaries. Such is history.

But the message is the golden rule: love thy neighbor as thyself. All the rest is parables to illustrate variations on that theme. The bad stuff was added later, and it's the same exact bad stuff that creeps into any emergent structure. Shitty people will gravitate to The Current Popular Thing to peddle their shitty ideologies, especially if they can creep in under the premise of divine sanction.

You'd have to be pretty stupid to believe that centuries-later editorialization by opportunistic shit-heads is representative of the core ideologies of an older movement.

[–] Zozano@aussie.zone -1 points 1 year ago (20 children)

What a load of shit lol.

Let's keep arguing, you're getting real close to convincing me your religion isn't a load of dog shit splashed over a fat girls cunt.

[–] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago (19 children)

You said you blame capitalism for problems, I assume you like Communism/Socialism?

Stalin co-opted Communism, that means Communism supports authoritarianism right? National Socialists are obviously Socialists since they took the name and published a lot of stuff right? That means Good Communists support Siberian prison work camps and Good Socialists support the Holocaust, right? Any Communist or Socialist who acts like a decent human being in spite of the evils done in the name of a twisted simulacrum of Communism or Socialism is a Bad Communist/Socialist, right?

Otherwise, you'd have to acknowledge that sometimes, over the course of a movement, bad actors try to co-opt the name of that movement for their own corrupt personal gain, and that sometimes if those bad actors have secured significant political influence they can manufacture consensus on the "official" beliefs of that movement through "official" publications.

So choose: is Hitler a Good Socialist, or is Paul a Bad Christian?

[–] Zozano@aussie.zone -1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I'm sure we can both agree that Hitler wasn't a socialist.

The difference here is that you presuppose people are poorly interpreting the bible when they choose one contradiction over another.

There is no interpretation of communism where the current state of China is permitted.

The bible CLEARLY endorses/encourages/condones MANY fucked up stances and never corrects for them.

Paul is a good Christian, since what he says is in the bible.

[–] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There's no difference, you're just a hypocrite. What's good for the goose is good for the gander: either a message is corruptible, or it isn't. Either the total corpus of Christianity/Communism is canon, or it isn't. Either the evils enshrined in later "Communist" literature is sacrosanct, or the evils enshrined in later "Christian" literature is suspect. "The Bible" is a political corruption of Christianity no less than modern China is a political corruption of Communism. If the Bible denotes the definitive Christianity, then Mao denotes the definitive Marxism.

To claim otherwise it's hypocritical double-speak. Are you a hypocrite, or do you acknowledge the Bible might be a slightly more politically compromised document than you've heretofore claimed?

[–] Zozano@aussie.zone -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You're a hypocrite.

There are no inconsistencies in the communist manifesto as far as I'm aware. It certainly doesn't endorse totalitarian dictatorships or genocide (though the bible does, multiple times).

Yet, your bible details rules for slaves and never corrects itself. The bible endorses and encourages slavery. You just choose to ignore it.

I'm not a hypocrite.

[–] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The Bible is a particular selection of disparate writings collected over centuries and codified millennia after the events described.

By like comparison, Communism as a corpus is composed of the exploits of Hitler, Stalin, and Mao.

The gospels of Christianity are more similar to the Manifesto itself, and contain none of the dictatorships or genocides to which you allude. The gospels do not encourage slavery. If you judge the Bible based on the commentaries and political corruptions, then so judge Communism by gulags and genocides. If one is corruption, then both are. If one is canon, then both are. If you judge Christianity by Paul, judge Communism by Mao. Mao published. Paul published. If it's unfair to judge Communism by Mao, it's unfair to judge Christianity by Paul.

Make up your mind.

[–] Zozano@aussie.zone 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Lol so you are cherry picking your flavour of Christianity.

I'm done, have a nice day dickhead.

I'll see you in hell for failing to bash gays over the head with bricks.

[–] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So you are cherry picking your flavor of Communism.

[–] Zozano@aussie.zone 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] Zozano@aussie.zone 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

As I said, fuck off.

You're exactly why I hate religion, you make me sick. Go to hell.

[–] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The exposure of your own hypocrisy? I can understand why you'd be opposed to that. That doesn't make your opposition righteous. Mostly just sad.

[–] Zozano@aussie.zone 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Look how pathetic you are that you need to get the last comment to win the argument.

Don't you think Jesus would want you to turn the other cheek and walk away?

[–] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Do you think your behavior elevates the fundamental equality implicit to communism?

[–] Zozano@aussie.zone 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)
[–] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Clearly you're a Bad Communist, or perhaps a Good Communist by Mao's metric

[–] Zozano@aussie.zone 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Man, this is really a sore point for you huh? You are really so desperate to get the last comment in so you can prove to yourself you didn't lose?

[–] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If continuing is desperation, why do you keep trying to get the last comment yourself?

[–] Zozano@aussie.zone 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Because I want to win, duh.

Now stop replying so I can be the bigger man. Or you can continue being a hypocrite.

[–] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

As is obvious. If you'd like, I can recommend you a 2000 year old source who spoke at great length about hypocrisy.

[–] Zozano@aussie.zone 1 points 1 year ago

At this point I'mm simply in awe of your dedication.

I'll let you get the last post. Congratulations.

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