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] Try to use alt text or image descriptions to allow for greater accessibility
(Please take a look at our wiki page for the guidelines on how to actually write alternative text!)
We encourage 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.
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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@therealdries@lemmy.dbzer0.com funny thing is, the tiananmen massacre was against unions and students and people revolting against the capitalist reforms that the government was trying to do (and did).
Anyway, the imperial enemy of my imperial enemy can be my other enemy too, let's stop this binarist nonsense.
...This is the exact opposite of the student movement. The Protestors were pro-capitalists.
No, I'm sorry but there can only be two categories, and I need a 'self' because I'm a child. I gave decided things with red paint on them are self. Therefore you have wounded me. Moooooooooooooooooooods!
say what you will about Leon Trotsky, but the man knew what he was about when it came to the approach of the third camp rebellion. none of us can be free of our imperial overlords if all we do is switch from one capitalist structure to another with a different coat of paint. socialism without international solidarity for the working class isn't socialism at all. it's just politics as sports with a new coat of paint
That totally ignores what the goals of the USSR were: ending capitalism while being a transition to communism. This is literally "don't let perfection be the enemy of the good situation." Capitalisms power needs to be crushed before any extreme leftward movement can happen, otherwise you just get color revolutions and CIA-ops forever. It seems like you believe that the "international solidarity" that the USSR was building was imperialism, and if that's the case, how would international solidarity look different as it slowly spread across the globe?
Is that what their goals were? Really?
They sure had a strange way of showing it... you know, crushing anything that was too socialist and radical for their reactionary tastes.
You got a source on these claims? Who was "too socialist" and by that do you mean adventurism?
The Kronstadt rebellion is a "claim" now, is it? What about the mass-murder campaign the Bolsheviks used to repress the Makhnovists in Ukraine? Is that now a "claim," too?
Last time I checked none of these were "claims" - they were, and still are, merely recorded history.
Claims are statements without proof, and this was a list of claims without any historical reference. Kronstadt rebellion did happen, and the Makhnovists did exist.
So historical record only qualifies as proof when they align with your ML vibes?
Is that it?
It's why they made ProleWiki, facts hurt their dead dictators' feelings.
Don't waste your time on her.
Please be mindful of folks' pronouns
Whooop sorry, fixed it. 😅
I am making no critiques of the USSR in this statement. I am critiquing an approach I see leftists take with modern colonial-imperialist regimes that aren't the United States today. If I want to overthrow the imperial powers of today, I have to do so by helping the people resisting their oppressors where ever they are, even if their oppressors oppose my oppressors. The people can only ever free themselves, they can never be freed by an external force. If I am going to call myself anti-imperial, I am going to act and speak in support of people resisting oppression be that a genocide in Latin America, Sudan, the Congo, or Palestine.