this post was submitted on 25 Jul 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] 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.


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

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[–] Banana@sh.itjust.works 3 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

I disagree that the "billionaire narrative is ass" because it does help to unite people in the moment, however you're right that billionaires are a symptom and not the cause.

The issue is not just the capitalist system in the west, it's the fact that the overarching system of the world is capitalist, and capitalism operates by rewarding maximization of profit (by means of exploitation) with concentration of power.

So while the billionaires are a symptom rather than a cause, demonizing them helps to turn working class people -- a lot of whom lack the education or context to understand the systemic issues creating billionaires -- against the concept of concentration of power as reward.

At least, in my opinion, anyway.

[–] commiunism@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 16 hours ago (1 children)
  1. In what way does the working class benefit from the anti-billionaire narrative, assuming that we live in an imaginary world where their goals are realized and reforms are put into place (which have no chance of happening in our world)? Who benefits from this if not nation states arming themselves for upcoming imperialist war or medium sized capitalists absorbing the company splits?

  2. This narrative isn't even being spearheaded by "the working class", but progressive bourgeois standing to gain for it via either opportunism or the aforementioned capital absorption/takeover. Workers aren't some goycattle that you need to tell who the enemy is and bam, you suddenly have class consciousness, that's how the world works only in fiction.

[–] Banana@sh.itjust.works 3 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

My answer is in my initial comment and I don't wish to elaborate, I am not emotionally attached to this opinion enough to defend it further.

I believe you have good reason to think that narrative is ass, I just disagree with you (for personal, idealist/optimist reasons that likely won't change your mind), and I'm okay with that as I don't think you believing that is causing any issues.