this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2026
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Lefty Memes
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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.
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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)
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(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.
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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
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- af = AF
- ok => OK
- lol => LOL
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- bs => BS
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- 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
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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.
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That means condemning (their) imperialism, even if it is of the "anti-USA" flavor.
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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).
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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)
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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.
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Oh I mean like Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, etc. The list is long and contentious. Take your pick, theres no wrong answers for my purposes here.
Edit: let's play a fun game, reply with who i left out. I bet I left your favorite out.
Grail?
New entry, points to you for naming yourself
Thank you. Feel free to read My manifesto if you want to see how the next generation of communist thought differs from the previous
Kropotkin!
New entry! That's 1 point to nylo
Lenin, Stalin, Mao I get. Marx? Lenin Stalin and Mao like to use his name while rejecting his philosophy. So it seems odd to lump him with them. But then I suppose it's been a common thing in many western countries forever.
Can you elaborate on how Marxist-Leninists "use Marx's name while rejecting his philosophy?" Lenin's major advances on Marxism include analyzing imperialism as a higher stage of capitalism, something Marx lived to see only the very beginnings of, as well as organizational theory. Lenin represented a return to Marx, considering the Second International had at that point vulgarized Marx into a reformist. What part of Marxism does Marxism-Leninism reject? You specifically mention philosophy, but Marxism-Leninism affirms dialectical materialism, so I assume you mean something else.
Further, Marxism-Leninism is largely an ideology practiced in the global south, not so much the global north. Perhaps I'm misreading you, but you make it seem as though it's largely western, and that this is why it "rejects" Marx. More common in the west are Trotskyists, who still uphold Lenin, or Eurocomms, who also uphold Lenin. The number of Marxists that reject Lenin, even if they disagree with AES countries, is extremely small, period, global north or south.
Hey dude I just have to say that even though I'm more sympathetic to anarchosynicalist thought one of the high points of lemmy for me atm is popping into threads and seeing you (extremely charitably) demolish people who clearly haven't ever engaged with much literature but have strong opinons on it.
Cheers, people like you help us all hone our thoughts.
Thanks, I appreciate it! I genuinely am not trying to demolish anyone, though, I'd prefer if people could cooperatively build knowledge together. The idea of "debate" is so thoroughly ingrained in English-speaking spaces, but it isn't actually a very effective tool for learning, on either side. That's more the reason I'm charitable, I'd rather not have a debate, to be honest, even if that's what I used to do a lot of back in my more lib Reddit days.
Well there you go out charitableing me <3
Nah, you were charitable first!
Oh nice try but you did not add any new names to the list, no points to you
Heh fair enough