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, 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" 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
view the rest of the comments
The last group of rebels we had in the US where scum.
The largest civil conflict in the United States, since the Civil War, were the Coal Wars in Appalachia, and those Socialist coal miners were pretty fucking rad
Thank you for pointing this out in a friendly non wanky way.
The weather underground weren't great, but 'scum' seems a little harsh.
Edit: wait, were the panthers after them? Because the panthers were awesome, and if you want to assert they are scum, the world is probably better off without you.
I assumed they meant the confederates from the US civil war, but I have no idea who's sincere and who's taking the piss online sometimes.
Yeah there's been no history since the mid 1800s and nothing counts unless a white supremacist does it. It's a pretty common view of history.
Admittedly, most formal attempts at rebellion against the American government since the Confederates are historically obscure. Whether they should be is an entirely seperate debate, but they are, so assuming malice on the part of someone not knowing more recent movements feels presumptuous
Because white supremacists who we let make all our economic decisions didn't put150 years of nonstop effort into valorizing them.
That does not change my point. Despite- or perhaps because of- their efforts, the average American couldn't even tell you accurately when the Civil War happened from memory. It's once again not strictly their fault they don't know about those movements.
Reading this, I get the impression you're taking the ides that people are products of their environment¹ and the concept of personal responsibility is mostly a tool to deflect from systemic horrors¹, and applying them very selectively² based on who you think of as evil².
Which is certainly a choice.
¹yep
²oof
Jesus christ you argue like a republican
Projecting and being incredibly nonspecific?
Being pandantic and smug when you knew what I meant
No I'm criticizing your assignment of 'fault' and the core of your reasoning being applied arbitrarily to create a very spotty paradigm of responsibility on grounds that may as well be arbitrary.
Are you interested in deciphering what they meant or in maximizing correctness?
A new account like that with exponential comments might just be rage baiting
Its genuinely a position lots of people holy uncritically. I don't respect it or the ~~people~~ entities that hold it