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
I think that even if you're talking to a lot of people, given our interaction, it's a blind spot for you. People may just give up and not talk to you when you are being condescending or just not day anything because they want to be polite. It's a little presumptuous to say "well most of the time it isn't a problem but since it's only come up once or twice I don't have to respect these people to acknowledge what they are saying and can just double down on educating them."
Maybe then people won't assume you're being low-key racist and call you out on it like I did.
I can acknowledge that you personally feel this way, but I don't see it as a broader phenomenon because I don't run into this problem. I was never being racist either.
If you don't get how you came off as racist then you clearly didn't care to listen to what I said earlier.
I listened, I just don't agree.
Wow, you sound like someone refusing to apologize for a rape joke right now.
I never made anything close to a joke about SA or any racist statements, though, and you sound like someone trying to discredit a point by wielding this accusation like a club just because I don't agree with you.
I didn't say that you said anything about rape. Damn you really don't care about what other people say do you... If you cared you'd actually read stuff and try to understand it.
You compared me to someone refusing to apologize for a joke about SA, which I said I never made anything close to that. I didn't say you said I made one. I really don't think I should listen to what you have to say if you don't actually care to read and understand what I say.
Never once said this.
I never said that there weren't a lot of cultures, my point was that those oppressed by present conditions most readily grasp the necessity of resisting them.
You completely invented a point I never made, accused me of racism for said point, and then tried to tell me to apologize for the point you invented. No, I am not apologizing for something I never said.
Nope, I know I'm not perfect. I do know that one person inventing a point doesn't mean I need to apologize for said invented point.
I'm not going to stand for libel, you're perfectly capable of admitting that you invented a point I never made. Asking me to apologize for a point you invented is absurd.
We aren't coming to a deeper understanding together, you're insistent that if I don't agree with you that I'm in the wrong. I understand that people can misunderstand or misinterpret my point, and I clarified that I think it's best to further explain points that are misinterpreted. You took deep offense to that and proceeded to have this back and forth for days with nothing constructive coming from it.
Be bigger than that. You don't need to make up what I said, you're more than capable of answering points I made directly.
You got a real white savior complex I'll bet, saying "oh you can be better than that". Sorry bud, if being better is making assumptions based on race, I don't think I will. You're not exactly the best person to take optics advice from, especially because, like I predicted, you really need that last word.
I don't make assumptions based on race, though, and your insistence that I do is plain libel. You completely misunderstood my point, and no matter how much I further elaborate on it, you try to flip it into being my problem when you invented a strawman to argue against.
I never made that argument, nor was my argument based on ethnicity. I said oppressed people, colonized people, are more willing to resist the system that oppresses them. There's nothing biological or race-based about that, except in that the US Empire is a settler-colony on stolen land. To deny that is to make a racist statement, akin to saying the US doesn't have racist systems.
I never once did this, again, more of you making up strawmen to fight. All of the various first nations are currently colonized by the US Empire, please speak with anyone from any of these cultures.
I understood perfectly, you keep digging deeper. It's not about me feeling right, it's about libel.