Average Internet leftist discussion
this post was submitted on 18 May 2026
56 points (92.4% liked)
Lefty Memes
7046 readers
214 users here now
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] 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" (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.
(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
- 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
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Yes, because the joke is that the actual sentiment is that communism is the goal and socialism is a potential way to make the transition easier. See: The State and Revolution, chapter V.
ETA: completing the thought: and "internet leftists" are not interested in actually understanding the writing of historical figures.
Yes, I understood that. My joke was that internet leftists often engage in stupid arguments with themselves and have clashing ideas of what is 'right'.
(Example A: this discussion lmao)
Yikes I did the thing where I replied to what looked like the most relevant comment but wasn't necessarily replying to that individual. Sorry 😐
Never apologize. Coward.
Ah, all good lmao
Tbh was a decent comment just not in reply to me 😅
that apostrophe is bugging the shit out of me
"Socialism is the goal, communism is the way to reach it" is actually what a lot of MLs seem to secretly believe in the sense that they want to use the appeal of communism to motivate people to create socialism. I have seen very little interest from them in actually building communism.
This is literally the first time I have ever encountered this take.
that's because it's a nonsensical take.
I have seen very little interest from them in actually building communism.
Or even socialism, for that matter - despite the fact that they had oodles of time and resources to do it.
you can wishcast communism without going through the stages of socialism
What no theory does to a mf
Your interpretation of Stalin's interpretation of Lenin's interpretation of Engels' interpretation of Marx's unproven conjecture is not a scientific law.
Imagine being able to press the communism button 
when there's still imperialist forces/states ready to undo your revolution. You understanding of socialism and communism is idealist.
if you're waiting until Empire falls to try communism, then you're going to be waiting a long time. empires rise and empires fall, but one thing that never changes is there's always another one to replace the old. that chain isn't going to break if you're just going to sit around waiting.
If your going to jump to anarchism/communism when there's still empires around your not going to have it for a long time see e.g. Rojava
So is the author saying Che Guevara didn't exist?
No he did and still does. I've seen photos of him running around south America doing first aid in the jungle, but they were all very blurry.
Should get those ai enhanced, but it's good to hear che working with big foot to help those having trouble in the jungle
That was what I noticed as well, scare quotes atound his name as if he was a vague or fantastical or concept.
The Facebook Boomer form of grammar is fascinatingly stupid.
Personally I'm a Che truther. He really does exist. A friend of mine found some of his poop once near a recently quenched campfire in Chile.
Yeah but if I believed in scary quote then I'd think everyone would get scared if I said "lacked good hygiene ritual"
But my next thought was they believe the person in the picture was doubted to be Che. Maybe that adds fantastical element of Che living on and orchestrating events presumably to this day
But the author was being petty
Che isn't his name it's a nickname. I think they're using quotation in the sense of naming convention Ernesto "Che" Guevara would normally be used to denote it is a nick name and not part of his legal name.
I'm old though and reading things with continually common grammar from the last few centuries until the modern digital era has started changing things isn't a problem for you people who are bothered by "scare quotes"