this post was submitted on 19 Jun 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,

as well as 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.

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

(This is not a definitive list, the spirit of the other rules still counts! Eventual duplicates with other rules are for emphasis.)

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[–] [email protected] 121 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (3 children)

Capitalism is the only system that lets you chase your dreams, if those dreams are stomping on the dreams of others through a position of privilege.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Yeah “acquire passive income through exploitation and then pursue your dreams”

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago

Especially if by "pursuing your dreams" you mean exploiting workers, protecting capitalists, making opportunities for money laundering (for capitalists), or oppressing and killing minorities domestic and foreign (to help the capitalists).

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[–] [email protected] 61 points 4 months ago (15 children)

Sometimes I think about how much art was never created because of capitalism. It either never got funded, or a potential artist never got the chance to make it, because just to scrape by, they had to spend too much time toiling to make some business owners money. It's depressing.

And, just to cut off one potential counterargument: I don't give half of a shit how "good" that art would be. I'm confident there are spectacular works of art that never came to be, but even putting it aside, it's all subjective. Some folks would have loved it, and the artists would have found value in making it. That's more than enough, and a hell of a lot more meaningful than breaking your back working for a living so that other people can own stuff for a living.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 4 months ago (1 children)

And how much crappy art was pushed to popularity just because it was more easily marketable. To be popular you have to somewhat sell out and there are probably thousands of marginalized artists no one ever discovered because of that :/

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago (1 children)

40 hour workweek is excessive. This is based around units containing at least two adults, maybe multigenerational homes with grandparents doing childcare. Now that we expect dual incomes the workweek should be 20 hours at most before overtime kicks in.

What I am getting at is that just giving people time back to exist could happen with changes to the current system. Unfortunately that means smaller yachts for the people on top, so we cannot have it.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago

20 hours at most before overtime kicks in.

As a perpetually single guy I'm actually behind this. Most of the time I'm completely forgotten about and the conversation goes as if being married is the default position for everyone.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago

I was just talking about this yesterday with a friend. They're a writer with a few small published things, but they can't do it full time because they're barely scraping by with work.

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I've seen so many youtube videos from conservatives where they literally just listen to someone saying what their minor/emphasis was and saying "wow, it's so stupid that's even offered, that's completely useless". The comments tend to be more unhinged, I frequently see "these universities should lose their accreditation", "it should be illegal to offer these", etc. Usually it's something extremely basic, like the impact of colonialism on X, or something to do with intersectionality. Like, these aren't even their majors, they're just a component of their degrees that they can freely choose. I feel like many conservatives are just against any new ideas regardless of their validity.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 4 months ago (2 children)

many conservatives are just against any new ideas regardless of their validity.

You got it right there. That's exactly what conservatives are.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago

Oh but they fucking love evo psych when a shitty study confirms their biases, but when they run into replication issues they just ignore it.

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (8 children)

Also capitalism: “Lol sure, you can give us $40k per year to get this art degree”

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Reminds me of George Lucas talking about how Soviet filmmakers had more creative freedom than American ones https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWqvaMEFIdI

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

While there is absolutely truth to what he's saying there, I do think it is sort of a "grass is always greener" thing.

For example, Tarkovsky famously butted heads constantly with Soviet censors/authorities about the content of his films (though to be fair, he was making some out there shit). I believe it's ultimately why he left the USSR.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 months ago (4 children)

Thus political economy – despite its worldly and voluptuous appearance – is a true moral science, the most moral of all the sciences. Self-renunciation, the renunciation of life and of all human needs, is its principal thesis. The less you eat, drink and buy books; the less you go to the theatre, the dance hall, the public house; the less you think, love, theorise, sing, paint, fence, etc., the more you save – the greater becomes your treasure which neither moths nor rust will devour – your capital. The less you are, the less you express your own life, the more you have, i.e., the greater is your alienated life, the greater is the store of your estranged being. Everything which the political economist takes from you in life and in humanity, he replaces for you in money and in wealth; and all the things which you cannot do, your money can do. It can eat and, drink, go to the dance hall and the theatre; it can travel, it can appropriate art, learning, the treasures of the past, political power – all this it can appropriate for you – it can buy all this: it is true endowment. Yet being all this, it wants to do nothing but create itself, buy itself; for everything else is after all its servant, and when I have the master I have the servant and do not need his servant. All passions and all activity must therefore be submerged in avarice.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

This goes hard.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Neo cons unironically love all of those degrees, at least in the US. Don't forget that student loans are a big business.

Non-occupational degrees give a steady supply of young workers with massive debt and qualifications that won't enable them to get a job with a high enough wage to pay back the principle of that debt.

This is how the gig economy flourishes.

This is how Amazon stays in business.

This is how the hospitality industry thrives on a deliberately broken business model.

This is how landlords profit.

This is how the post-boomer generations are oppressed.

We are cannon fodder.

Rise up.

Become ungovernable.

FTP

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

I was with you, but I don't think becoming "ungovernable" would help anything. Cool slogan and all but seems pretty counterproductive.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago

It's really just a call to change by not playing by their rules, eg get a degree and then move to a jurisdiction where the loan people can't get to you, or get a degree from another country where it's less expensive.

I'm not really advocating for riots or anything.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Communists: communism is the only system that creates equality.

Also Communists: Fuck art degrees, ...work the factory cogs comrade & think of the collective!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Don't forget the few artists that do exist are forced to make state propaganda

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago

Capitalist: If you aren't a simp for capitalists, you must be communist. There is literally not other choice. Trust me bro.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago

The problem is it doesn't let you catch them.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago

Capitalism is the only system that lets you chase your dreams as long as you can sell them

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago

Dude, capitalism has been taking advantages of those degree, or rather, the whole education system!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago

It assumes one only dreams of making money.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

I keep saying this to conservatives: what do they think will happen if there is oversaturation of "useful" jobs? They do not want an educated population, they want a dumbed down and compliant one who are unquestionably obedient.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

It's true. ...As long as your dream is to make money or owe someone money, capitalism can make it happen!

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