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
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These are silly... like not even treating the knife wound because a violent society is really the problem
The orange pedophile is the immediate and urgent problem... sure, let's not get complacent after (if) we survive it
This analogy doesn't work. If we fixed the root problems (a feckless dem party, billionaires poisoning the media ecosystem, etc), Trump wouldn't have the power to be a problem anymore. But I'm all for getting rid of Trump; he makes the root problems worse.
The point is that, in almost all cases, you need to address the most urgent thing and THEN deal with the root cause
It doesn't matter if the Pedophile came to power because of Capitalism, you are not going to change the system before the Orange Turd ruins the entire planet, so maybe focus on that FIRST and then move on with Capitalism
The way I see it, this is yet another excuse for inaction coming from Americans... same as the "it's too hard to organize a protest because we are too big"
Let's face it, the libs will go back to brunch and not give AF about anybody else like when Biden put kids in cages, helped genocide Palestinians or when any/every other Dem president bombed brown people.
They never have. That's why I don't even have the littlest amount of sympathy for them now, whatever may happen.
On the contrary.
I do feel bad for the few authentic left in that shit country, both of them.
Agreed, which is why the American people need a revolution, otherwise, if the orange kid menace is not your new Hitler, whomever comes next will be
Americans haven't got a revolutionary bone in their body.
I'm European, a new Hitler will have to confront a lot more than signs, slogans and interpretative dance.
Even if there's plenty of fascists here.
"Someone threw a Molotov cocktail through my window. Better board up the window so it can't happen again instead of putting out the fire."
a much better analogy than mine, thank you
Feel free to use it!
Suffers from the same problem. In your analogy, fixing the root problem doesn't also fix the systemic problem. In reality, if we fixed the media, dem party, shored up labor, etc, Trump would be powerless.
Again, I'm all for getting Trump out of power. I just don't think there's a shortage of people motivated to do that, but there is a huge shortage of people who understand he's just a symptom.
I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm saying it's a matter of priority. It doesn't matter if people can no longer throw Molotov cocktails through your window if your house is a pile of ashes.
All of the things you're talking about take time, which we don't have.
I agree that Trump is a symptom of a much larger problem, but it's like telling someone whose throat is actively swelling up that they really need to focus on allergy immunotherapy instead of grabbing an adrenaline shot.
The reason they're ramping things up so much right now is because he's probably going to die soon, and without him the maga movement is going to lose a lot of steam. That's the point where it makes sense to focus on systemic changes.
Trump was voted out in 2020, look how effective that was.
The knife wound is capitalism. Trump is merely doing what his handlers want him to do. You get rid of Trump and they just replace him with someone else. Get smart fella.
to continue the GP's metaphor: trump is part of an infection entering thru the open gaping wound.
which is why the American people have fought neither? LOL this is not smart, is just another excuse for inaction
lol inaction? Buy a fucking gun already fella. Were all waiting 🤣
That's also another Murican myth completely exposed by this fiasco... instead of preventing a fascist gov take over, it is enabling it
Exactly my point, all the "braves" in America just sitting idly until someone else comes to the rescue
Nope, read a fucking book for once in your life my man. You will have to arm yourself whether you like it or not. That is how these things go.
“We” is referring to the rest of the world, not Americans. We are not gonna save you assholes, you gotta do it yourself. Stop being a lazy coward and buy a gun.
Now that I get it I agree... I think you owe me some slack by mentioning guns in a convo about America... 11 out 10 would have assumed you were talking about the 2 together
Again dude, I can only read your lines... I have no clue where you are from
If I talk about "my pet", you'd be forgiven for assuming it's a dog or a cat... I would expect you to magically know I have a Gharial swimming in my pond