this post was submitted on 28 Feb 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.

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. 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.



  1. Absolutely no posts or comments meant to relativize(/apologize for), advocate, promote or defend:

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Found this graph online for anyone who might still be confused. I think this makes it much more clear.

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[–] ChonkyOwlbear@lemmy.world 30 points 3 days ago (6 children)

There is no left or right anymore. There are only fascists and antifascists.

[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 22 points 2 days ago

so.. left and right then?

[–] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 8 points 2 days ago

Which are basically just synonyms for left and right.

[–] desiccated_event@piefed.blahaj.zone 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Why did George Washington lead the continental army again?

[–] Trying2KnowMyself@lemmy.ml 16 points 2 days ago (2 children)

To avoid taxes on “owning” people:

none of those whose misfortune it is to have slaves as attendants will visit the City if they can possibly avoid it; because by so doing they hazard their property

when slaves who are happy & content to remain with their present masters, are tampered with & seduced to leave them; when masters are taken at unawar[e]s by these practices; when a conduct of this sort begets discontent on one side and resentment on the other, & when it happens to fall on a man whose purse will not measure with that of the Society, & he looses his property for want of means to defend it—it is oppression in the latter case, & not humanity in any; because it introduces more evils than it can cure.

it being among my first wishes to see some plan adopted by which slavery in this Country may be abolished by slow, sure, & imperceptable degrees

Whoever apprehends the said Negroes, so that the Subscriber may readily get them, shall have, if taken up in this County, Forty Shillings Reward, beside what the Law allows; and if at any greater Distance, or out of the Colony, a proportionable Recompence paid them, by George Washington

[–] OwOarchist@pawb.social 5 points 2 days ago (2 children)

it being among my first wishes to see some plan adopted by which slavery in this Country may be abolished by slow, sure, & imperceptable degrees

Honestly, I could see this as being better than the alternative -- better than having a Civil War. Especially if it was started during Washington's time.

Say, just pass a law that says no new slaves can be imported and anyone born after the law passes is not born a slave, no matter the status of their parents. Then, (hopefully) slave owners don't get all violent over losing their 'property', and slavery is slowly abolished in the country over the course of a generation.

Is it as good as complete, total, and immediate abolishment of slavery? Hell no. But if it could have ended slavery without a war that killed millions, maybe it's worth it. Especially if it was done in Washington's time, such that slavery would already be essentially over by the time the Civil War would have otherwise started. So, on the balance, less people suffering under slavery overall. Pragmatism?

Oh well, who are we kidding? The slave owners would never have allowed such a law to stand, and they'd start a different Civil War about it if nothing else worked.

[–] Serinus@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Just for reference. It was more than I thought.

Our national estimate is 698,000 Civil War deaths. This is substantially higher than the conventional historical estimate of 618,000 but lower than the most recent estimate of around 750,000 deaths based on a 1% census sample.

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2414919121

New estimates of US Civil War mortality from full-census records
Joan Barceló, Jeffrey L. Jensen, Leonid Peisakhin, and Haoyu Zhai
Edited by Margaret Levi, Stanford University, Stanford, CA; received July 25, 2024; accepted September 25, 2024

[–] OwOarchist@pawb.social 2 points 2 days ago

Oops, shit. I was off by about an order of magnitude on the death toll. Still, though.

[–] Trying2KnowMyself@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Oh wow, defending a slaver for wanting to keep his slaves? I wasn’t expecting to actually encounter one in the wild today. JB-shining-aggro

[–] OwOarchist@pawb.social 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Oh come off it. I'm not defending the fucker. Just saying that a slow, gradual abolishment of slavery that started much earlier might have been an overall better outcome, with fewer people enslaved and fewer people killed over it.

[–] Trying2KnowMyself@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] OwOarchist@pawb.social -3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

That is indeed a very nice goal. But is it practically achievable?

[–] Trying2KnowMyself@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yes, start with every prison guard in the US.

[–] OwOarchist@pawb.social 2 points 2 days ago

Smart. If you take out all the guards first, they won't be able to throw you in prison for doing it.

Forgive my propaganda learning, I thank you good person.

[–] Riverside@reddthat.com 0 points 2 days ago

Always has been, it's only that now the violence turns inwards.

[–] eatCasserole@lemmy.world -1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Those are just different words for the same things.

[–] Trying2KnowMyself@lemmy.ml 11 points 2 days ago

They’re not, but your antifascism meter is mis-calibrated.

[–] Trying2KnowMyself@lemmy.ml -1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

If only more than one of those were pictured.

[–] ChonkyOwlbear@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The only ones that want us to believe that are the fascists. If they can keep us fighting each other, we won't be able to fight them.

[–] Trying2KnowMyself@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

lmao, agreed.

E: whoops, those two sentences were so contradictory I could only remember the second by the time I was responding.