this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2023
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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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[–] Nepenthe@kbin.social 0 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I think it should be acceptable to be visibly angry, but in cases where the oppressor is a huge demographic that easily contains allies and noncombatants, the major focus should still be concentrated on voicing the issue at hand rather than becoming distracted with tit for tat. Especially when it's the PR that makes or breaks someone's engagement when they first take notice, I hesitate to accept the whole discourse turning into a Twitter bitch fight in every direction unless we're at the edge of rioting anyway.

Feminism, as an example, to some extent has made good progress in its goals. Things like the KillAllMen crowd, though their anger is born from repeated trauma, do absolutely nothing but make the rest look petty and ridiculous and muddy the actual topic, making it increasingly common for the idea to be openly mocked when it comes up.

When I see someone use the phrase yt or cissie in a post that is important and stems from honest experience, my brain automatically shuts itself off and I have to struggle to manually turn it back on.

So it goes with every movement. Stand your ground, but stay focused.

[–] MemeCollector@kbin.social 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Na, fuck that MRA enlightened centrism noise, "tit for tat" my ass.

[–] Nepenthe@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago

Yes. And not all activists go out of their way to be inflammatory to randos. If you want people to listen to you long enough to actually agree with you, you're going to have to hold off directly insulting them.

This is not about those who are your direct enemies, those people were never up for grabs anyway. Go nuts. This is about people who try to be good (or at least survive) and still get lumped in with everyone else, that primarily decide who they go with based on who makes them feel the fuzziest.

It's not morally right, but it's how the nazis are still a thing. Nobody wakes up thinking, "today I am going to be an unforgivable shit," they want friends and will follow that slope down as long as they get to keep those friends/the opposition makes it unpalatable to admit fault and switch sides.

You still get to do all the other activism stuff.

Edit: while it's on my mind, bringing up MRAs is another example of this. Legitimate concerns collectively labeled as worthless and brushed under the rug on the basis that the men's rights people have a ton of incels who are very angry about their lives and take it out in slurs. Hurt and angry, sure. The solution to this cannot be to be MRA angry

[–] snooggums@kbin.social 0 points 2 years ago

So when someone is upset by discrinimatioj and have a valid complaint you will ignore them if they didn't present it to your satisfaction.

Like I find it off-putting too, but still listen.