this post was submitted on 05 Jan 2026
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#GeneralStrike2026

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[–] unfreeradical@slrpnk.net 69 points 6 days ago (3 children)

Strikes are organized through unions not hashtags.

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 49 points 6 days ago (9 children)

We don't have unions anymore. Reagan busted them.

[–] unfreeradical@slrpnk.net 15 points 6 days ago

All we can do is rebuild.

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[–] aesthelete@lemmy.world 24 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

General strikes don't require you to be in a union. They do require a larger amount of organizing than simply having a lot of the workforce in unions though so...

[–] unfreeradical@slrpnk.net 27 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Strikes require unity across a workforce.

If some workers in a local context work instead of participating in a strike, then the business is not pressured to acquiesce, and the sacrifice is in vain.

Striking in any case results in lost pay, which promotes fear and threatens survival. Solidarity improves morale and saves lives.

Fostering unity and solidarity is among the essential functions of a union.

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[–] AnchoriteMagus@lemmy.world 63 points 6 days ago (3 children)

Next nationwide 50501 protest is a national walk-out on Jan 20th.

We'll see you there, right?

[–] leftist_lawyer@lemmy.today 31 points 6 days ago

I'm my own boss. It's never an issue. Thanks for the tip. Just joined my state's 50501 group.

[–] rayyy@lemmy.world 6 points 5 days ago (1 children)

nationwide 50501 protest

That isn't all. There is the Tax Strike that many MAGAs are pushing. There are "Stop the Trump Takeover" events. There are also other actions to rein in the dictator.

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[–] HalfSalesman@lemmy.world 33 points 5 days ago (3 children)

Some leftists talk about a general strike like its the rapture. You need the ground work done. We've done none of the work broadly to make something like that feasible. Strikers need economic and legal leverage, they'd have basically none if they tried.

You have to walk before you run.

[–] AdolfSchmitler@lemmy.world 11 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Anytime I see posts talking about a general strike I equate to "thoughts and prayers".

[–] HalfSalesman@lemmy.world 11 points 5 days ago

Yes, but also its worse. They are demanding people shoot themselves in the crotch and saying we're cowards for not shooting ourselves in the crotch.

[–] DomeGuy@lemmy.world 7 points 5 days ago (5 children)

A general strike would need to be huge to work. And yet we see folk bitching that the No Kings rallies "did nothing", as if.just getting America to stand up wasn't an accomplishment.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 6 points 5 days ago (1 children)

It may have been a accomplishment, but it was not even nearly enough. Nobody was impressed, least of all the fascists. If you want to hurt trump, hurt the moneys

[–] chaonaut@lemmy.4d2.org 5 points 4 days ago (3 children)

And it's sentiment like this that makes it clear that the people clambering for people to "just do a general strike" or "just take up arms" have given no thoughts to how to do that without wasting the resources or lives of the people they demand take action. If you take part in union organizing, you learn that you have to make all of your attempts count, otherwise you're blowing your chances and making it harder in the future by alerting the bosses. Yes, you have to impact their money, but just like "vote with your wallet" is an empty phrase if there's no mass movement around a specific product/company, to actually deal with the structural issues that billionaires and the companies they represent present, individuals have to band together to create structures that can contend with them. Otherwise, it's just proposing individual actions to address structural problems, and that plays enough into the hands of these tyrants that they'll say that's the "right" way to deal with the problems they cause.

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[–] Naevermix@lemmy.world 11 points 4 days ago

A general strike requires organization, but US society is completely atomized.

[–] Mulligrubs@lemmy.world 26 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (7 children)

In the USA health insurance is tied to work; if you're fired "with cause" (like from general strike) you don't have health insurance or any "unemployment".

They don't make these laws without reason, they know what they're doing. The USA is a plutocracy designed to squash unions, and does a pretty good job of it

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[–] ameancow@lemmy.world 27 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

As you look outside in the US on the first Monday after a holiday and see the countless millions of people driving to work, going grocery shopping, dropping off and picking up their kids, you need to ask yourself if you really think the bulk of the money-spending, child-feeding, bill-paying population of the US is ready to sacrifice weeks of services and food for an outcome that they don't actually want or understand.

You know it's not going to happen, but the next best thing is political organizing and getting social and making people more aware in REAL LIFE about issues in their community that impact them, and the people who represent them. Volunteer to get petitions, sign up for Progressive Victory, use that energy to help the systems already working to mitigate or even reverse damage being done to our nation.

We can still turn this boat around with traditional politics, but it takes actual humans getting involved with other actual humans. Since capital has successfully turned most of our socialization muscles to mush, it will be uncomfortable at first, but far easier to pull off than trying to get several hundred million comfortable people to break their own system.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 21 points 5 days ago (7 children)

They've cultivated this culture where nobody can afford to do any kind of direct action like a general strike. There's a reason why nearly everyone in America works paycheck to paycheck and has essentially zero savings.

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[–] KiwiTB@lemmy.world 29 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Or goto the capitol and kick them out... Vs wasting time.

[–] NoTagBacks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 6 days ago (10 children)

While I wholeheartedly agree with both your sentiment of anger and who that anger should be directed toward, I must point out that what you propose is not realistic. We're just not at that point, nor is there sufficient political will to do so. Protests/walkout aren't a waste of time since they are actionable steps to growing movements that enact systemic change. The point of these demonstrations isn't to enact direct change, but to bring people together to organize.

Besides, how would you get enough people together to do as you suggest if getting people together to organize is "wasting time"?

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[–] Formfiller@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Do a working class revolution

[–] leftist_lawyer@lemmy.today 3 points 4 days ago

Just want to pop in and thank all the trolls in this thread for pushing to the #1 active post three days after I created it. Give yourselves a hand 👏 👏👏 👏👏 👏👏 👏

[–] Madzielle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 5 days ago (9 children)

I'm gonna end up committing sui before the general American populace does a gen strike.

No one should be buying from Amazon. Start with one big company, simple yeah? No, because post Christmas season now, the amount of people who still use amazon has not changed at all. For me sure, the general populace? They're fucking morons. Consume consume consume. I'm gonna consume myself from the inside out. These rat bitches only care about themselves. American individualism is a cancer.

I'm struggling to exist in this. I cannot tell you how much these assholes don't care.

[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 9 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

This isn't corporate social media, you can say suicide there's no algorithm to punish you.

[–] Madzielle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 5 days ago

Fair. I didn't write it like that for algorithm sake or whatever. I'm just so familiar with the term I shortened it lol "to commit the sui". It's just dark humor/play on words. Fuck the algorithm

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[–] takeda@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 6 days ago (1 children)
[–] LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I wonder if it's a coincidence that Jan 20th is the day our boss required us all to show up for a special training required 8 hours that day, and this is extremely rare, like randomly once a year do we have a mandatory training event like this.

[–] SpookyBogMonster@lemmy.ml 5 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Oh, we're declaring random general strikes on social media again, are we?

This shit takes a very high level of labor organization, class consciousness, and coordination.

The UAW is already pushing other Unions in the US to align their contract negotiations in 2028, to instigate a kind of general strike. Are you helping organize that? Because you sould be

[–] YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 5 points 4 days ago

Doesn't help that one of the other heavy hitters(the teamsters) supported trump. Fuck Sean O'Brien to hell and beyond.

[–] slappyfuck@lemmy.ca 14 points 6 days ago (2 children)

General Strike? My friend, we aren’t even in unions right now! It will take years to build that kind of power.

Let’s focus on building a new mass political party that does not exist in the wilderness, then we can work to that point.

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[–] LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

If I "strike" i.e. don't go to work today, I won't get paid and I won't be able to buy food or pay my bills or survive, and I will die. And I suspect many other people have the exact same conundrum.

[–] Doc_Crankenstein@slrpnk.net 10 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

If anyone thinks a strike is actually happening with the state of things then they are incredibly naive and do not understand just how much foundational effort and structuring needs to be in place first for that to even be considered a possibility, much less actualized.

[–] WanderWisley@lemmy.world 9 points 5 days ago

I’m all for it but I feel that a large population of the country is just not gonna care enough to get activated. I would love to be proven wrong, this needs to be massive to the point it makes the no kings protest look like a farmer market.

[–] silentjohn@lemmy.ml 9 points 5 days ago

The bourgeoisie have the ability to ride out a strike for weeks, even months. Can you? How long can you go with no pay? We are nowhere near organized enough.

[–] orioler25@lemmy.world 7 points 5 days ago

"The most vulnerable should pay for the revolution." People aren't just stupid, liberals have spent the last century implementing anti-popular-labour-action measures. A general strike would require people who cannot afford to survive to risk what little they have, mutual aid networks and consequences for those in positions of power must exist in order for that risk to be minimized.

[–] Hermit_Lailoken@lemmy.world 7 points 5 days ago

I work in the care industry, my clients need support 24/7 and there are only so much staff around. Should I leave my clients to their own designs‽

[–] gmtom@lemmy.world 6 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Well you would need strong unions and a non apathetic population to pull off a general strike.

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[–] svcg@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 5 days ago (1 children)

These kinds of things tend not to happen until people are starving and have nothing left to lose.

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