this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2025
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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

Version without spoilers

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).


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 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.



  1. Absolutely no posts or comments meant to relativize(/apologize for), advocate, promote or defend:

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ID: Kомисcap Rareș is gay for Skye @DerLinkePixel posted:

"Boss makes a dollar

I make a dime

That was a poem

From a simpler time

Boss makes a hundred

I don't make jack

That's why I riot

To seize the means back"

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago (3 children)

If you're saying that you own the means of your production while working under an employer, then we might have different definitions of these words.

Screwdrivers are a trivial component in the "barrier to entry" to starting a business. Those extra bucks to you can be a very significant "surplus value" for most employees.

[–] Tja -2 points 5 days ago (2 children)

My means of production are a laptop and an internet connection. I have both. My employer can keep the surplus value, as long as they do the customer handling, accounting, marketing, etc, all of which I had to do myself being self-employed.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Do you own the servers your company use? The software you write? Etc.

[–] Tja -1 points 5 days ago

We rent servers in the cloud because it's cheaper than owning them. I did the same for some projects when I was freelancing.

The software I write... I don't own it, same as an electrician doesn't own the cables he installs in your house. It's the product I'm getting paid to create, why would I own it?

This whole "we should own the means of production" screams of 19th century farmers and factory workers. It's 2025, plenty of people already own their means of production, from IT bros and lawyers to farmers, electricians and cleaning personnel. And communism didn't have to do anything with it.