Isn't this just a dumber version of horseshoe theory?
this post was submitted on 08 Dec 2025
288 points (82.7% liked)
Lefty Memes
6321 readers
301 users here now
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, 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] 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" 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).
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.
- Absolutely no posts or comments meant to relativize(/apologize for), advocate, promote or defend:
- Racism
- Sexism
- Queerphobia
- Ableism
- Classism
- Rape or assault
- Genocide/ethnic cleansing or (mass) deportations
- Fascism
- (National) chauvinism
- Orientalism
- Colonialism or Imperialism (and their neo- counterparts)
- Zionism
- Religious fundamentalism of any kind
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
If the CIA was half as effective as tankie seem to think it is, there's no way Russia or China would exist today.
load more comments
(2 replies)
Tankies are so close to the far right when they defend the dictatorship of the totalitarian USSR.
Far right stuff like the defeat of Nazism in Europe which saved all 100+ million peoples between Berlin and the Urals from extermination.
Far right stuff like universal healthcare and education to the highest level for free, leading to an increase from 28 years of life expectancy in pre-revolutionary times to almost 70 years of age by 1960s.
Far right stuff like universal right to housing and to work, bringing the complete abolition of homelessness and unemployment.
Far right stuff like bringing about the lowest income inequality that the region has seen in its history by an incredible margin
Far right stuff like supporting anti-imperialist liberation movements all over the globe as early as 1936 (civil war in Spain, my homeland, was only given weapons by the Soviets to fight the fascists) and throughout its entire existence (Korea, Vietnam, Cuba, anti-colonial movements all over Africa, Latin America and Asia)
Far right stuff like having the highest female representation in institutions at the time and being the first country to give voting rights to women
Far right stuff like the policy of preservation of local cultures and languages (for comparison, look up the number of Occitan speakers in France between years 1900 and 2000)
Far right stuff like having a self-sustained economy that didn't rely on the exploitation of billions in the global south and which had favorable trade terms with other countries in the COMECON and subsidy of third countries such as Cuba through e.g. the "programa petróleo por azúcar"
But yeah, the evil stalinists had prisons during WW2, a war that killed 25 million Soviet citizens!! What a bunch of evil right wing totalitarians!!!!
Describing ethnicity based deportations and gulags as """"prisons"""" is one hell of a stretch.
This also neglects the amount of emancipatory legislation that Stalin repealed during his reign. Like recriminalizing homosexuality, abolishing the local language initiatives and instead pushing for his russification of the country (compare the ethnic make up of the Soviet leadership in 1921 and 1939)
The Soviet Union had its successes and it had its abject failures. Acknowledging them doesnt make you a librul or a revisionist.
Describing ethnicity based deportations and gulags as """"prisons"""" is one hell of a stretch
Ethnicity based deportations were in fact not prisons, and they were a deplorable and unjustified episode that I wholeheartedly condemn and must be never repeated again. The GULAG system was literally prisons though, it's just the acronym of the prison system at the time.
As for the rest of your comment, yes, bad policy and mistakes were made during the hardest times of history. We could have a calm conversation and discussion about those, and honestly, I haven't seen more honest criticism of failures of policy than that in Marxist-Leninist discussion, because people actually bother getting informed and reading about the topic instead of reproducing CIA propaganda. "Goolag hundred million deaths" is not good analysis.
The Soviet Union had its successes and it had its abject failures
Yes, and you'd be surprised how much debate there is about the problems of the USSR in actual Marxist-Leninist circles. The fact of the matter is that it still was the most emancipating socialist experiment up to its day, the first state in the world to achieve collectivization of lands, it empowered hundreds of millions of people to fight against western imperialism, and achieved all of this while living in a world dominated by western imperialism and under constant threat and the most refined and well-funded strategies to topple it.
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(31 replies)
