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Another World is Possible
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this post was submitted on 16 May 2024
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Lefty Memes
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An international (English speaking) socialist Lemmy community free of the "ML" influence of instances like lemmy.ml and lemmygrad. 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, and discussion go in c/Socialism.
If you are new to socialism, you can ask questions and find resources over on c/Socialism101.
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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)
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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" seen on lemmygrad and more specifically GenZedong (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.
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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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I've only read two books of Le Guin's, and they were both memorable:
The second one is more relevant to this meme.
Absolutely 100% run (don't walk!) and get The Left Hand of Darkness. It is easily one of the best sci-fi/fantasy books I have ever read.
I just finished it two days ago. I agree completely.
I will caution people that because of the writing style the beginning of the book (at least to me) is a bit disorienting. It takes a minute to find her rhythm.
The Dispossessed had been in my backlog for a while now. I really need to get to it.
Funny this cropped up, I just finished The Left Hand of Darkness two days ago. Very good book with some beautiful prose.
It was the first Le Guin book I've read. I'll be reading more.
I just finished the dispossessed. Didn't find it as compelling as reviews had me hoping. The sci-fi depiction of anarchism wasn't flattering and the main character wasn't easy to like either.
Spoiler and trigger alert: I put the book down for a while after he sexually assaulted a woman, but eventually finished it and wasn't impressed by the ending or by the fact that his assault was glossed over and not mentioned again.
Yes, that's a fair assessment. It's not an enjoyable book and to some extent isn't meant to be -- the cover of the version I read said something about an "ambiguous utopia," the story structure is pretty far from a Campbellian Hero's Journey, and the main character is not relatable. The book is more memorable than enjoyable.