this post was submitted on 21 Jul 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.
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)
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).
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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 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.
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What the fuck is a leftist.
Be a communist or a socialist, a syndicalist or an anarchist, a maoist or a ecosocialism, but don't be a fucking "leftist". Be something with a defined ideology, legitimate theory, and history of practice.
Leftists are just Democrats who want to seem to not be Democrats.
@nyar @dactylotheca a leftist is pro-democracy, anti-monarchy, anti-theocracy
leftism emerged as a coherent position during the french revolution as a common ground for the revolutionary coalition
also friends don't let friends be maoists, the environment can't take another round of that sort of thing
That's again vague enough to apply to some Republicans.
Or was coherent for the French Revolution, but we aren't currently undergoing the French Revolution. Also, not aware of a "leftist" party or organizing body from then. Were they the Jacobins, or the Feuillants?
@nyar you're overthinking it, 'left' was merely one of the sides of an auditorium where representatives seated themselves in a self-organizing way, choosing seats near others who shared their beliefs
also what do you mean this isn't the french revolution, there's literally a monarchist plot to reinstall a king with the help of church leaders and sheriffs, people are protesting in the boulevards, bread is unaffordable, guillotine memes are in
also also please apologize for pushing maoism
It's not the French Revolution because the French Revolution can only happen the once. History doesn't repeat, but it can rhyme.
Thanks for explaining to me something I already clearly knew given I gave you specifics about the French Revolution, very appreciated.
Not gonna apologize cause I didn't "push" maoism. I'm just asking for people with "left" politics to identify an ideological framework that resonates with them and then apply it to their lives instead of complaining about the right and begging capitalists for crumbs. If that's anarchism, great. If that's ecosocialism, great. If that's maoism, great. Anything is better than identifying as a "leftist".
@nyar relax, it's okay that i didn't take your bait, it was kind of obvious and you shouldn't feel bad about it not working
anyway have fun killing the sparrows or whatever ecosocialists do