this post was submitted on 09 Dec 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

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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[–] [email protected] 71 points 1 week ago (9 children)
[–] bdonvr 78 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Most leftists, generally yes.

Doesn't mean they like US style gun culture or obsessed with them. But the system leftists oppose is armed and has/will use those arms upon leftists that gain any significant amount of power.

Arm the oppressed.

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[–] [email protected] 64 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Honestly, the "likes guns" part doesn't work anywhere outside the US, if that. And that includes conservatives.

Internationally I'm pretty sure "hates Trump" would absolutely be in the center, too.

[–] [email protected] 52 points 1 week ago (16 children)

"Under no pretext should arms and ammunition be surrendered; any attempt to disarm the workers must be frustrated, by force if necessary" - Karl Marx

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 week ago

A fascist has a gun and your minority neighbor doesn't. The fascist will get their gun illegally if necessary to spread fascism. Do you trust law enforcement to be the shield for minorities against gun-wielding fascists?

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Kinda have to, since none of the "leftist" ideologies has any chance of hell of being bought into action without revolution.

Since revolution requires some degree of violence, and established states have access to not just man portable firearms, but bigger guns as well, then attempting to use violence to change said state without access to firearms is what you might call dumb. You might call it suicidal. You might call it a form of Darwinism whereby the truly stupid leftists get killed off by whatever government they're going at so that the non-stupid leftists that are left breed smarter babies that will then realize that without equal access to arms, no populace can revolt.

I guess you don't have to like guns. It is possible to dislike something immensely and still use it as a tool. Like toothpaste. It tastes weird, it's not fun to use, but without it, you have no teeth eventually. Guns are like toothpaste, your squeeze them and weird things come out, but at least your teeth are clean.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 week ago (10 children)

To make a revolution you need the people on your side, not guns specifically. The bastille was torn down by hand. Just look at the USA 6 jan. They didn't need guns, and thats fu-king USA!

If you needed guns to make a revolution, you'd probably need RPGs and tanks too.

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

They didn't need guns on Jan 6 because there were traitors in major government offices - namely the White House and the Pentagon - who withheld the National Guard from mobilizing and reduced the number of police in the area that day.

There were soldiers ready and waiting, guns in hand, who were told to standby.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 week ago (8 children)

As a leftist who grew up with guns, I'm neutral on guns. individual gun ownership is historically meaningless. Only organized defense and resistance stands a chance against state violence. Our hobbies and consumer identities aren't radical, and political struggle, which will need to be defended by organized armed resistance, is the only way to get to socialism, unless you're a fan of that lib Stalin.

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[–] [email protected] 44 points 1 week ago (15 children)

I like any political map that triangulates liberals from the left and right.

And I love any one that properly omits libertarians.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (13 children)

Leftist here: I swear to fuck if I hear one more Tankie put a "Trump winning is actually a good thing because Kamela's literally the same person as Trump" card on the table with a "Actually North Korea is this amazing paradise and EVERYONE ON THE FUCKING PLANET is just pretending it's awful. Source: Trust me bro!" stat booster

So help me God I will.... Roll my eyes and drown my sorrows in another round of Dead By Daylight where I hope to find a Joshua in the lobby because I'm a Killer Main...

Seriously, why can't we have unity like the Rightists do? I mean they just point and say "Look! It's a gay!", they all form in a line.

If I point and say "Look! It's a fascist!", the whole squad starts pointing at each other and somehow I'm "cancelled for being a rape apologist" because the way I pointed was actually a dog whistle because it vaguely resembled the ancient Anti-Black symbol called "Ligma" popularized in the year 19Dickety2 in response to white men being annoyed that black people could afford chewing gum or something... Which obviously everyone totally knows is a real thing!

I just want us to ya know, save the fucking world from Neolibs and Literal Nazis before we start doing purity tastes on each other. Like, can we wait to do the "Everyone in the group gets chronic backstab syndrome." shit AFTER we win?

I mean fuck the Deadly Alliance had the fucking patience to wait till they killed the main cast, Raiden included, before that shit.. and they're literally Shang Tsung and Quan Chi, the exact two people I expect to constantly lose Among Us by reporting each other when they're both the Imposter! In a SELF-REPORT! Because I'm reliving all of my negative experiences with other socialists, and when I'm angry I try to make the nerdiest references I can make while still ensuring there's a chance for others to get them.

starts frothing, dies of self-inflicted rabies

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (15 children)

I haven't seen anyone say Trump winning is a good thing, nor have I seen anyone say the DPRK is a paradise (closest to that is people saying the DPRK has living standards around the level of Cuba these days). Where are you finding these people at significant enough numbers to cause you anguish? Legitimate question here, you're calling for Left Unity but it seems like you're misframing others at best, which goes against that ideal.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 week ago

I would heap written abuse upon you, but it's true

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 week ago (8 children)

Wait, why do leftists hate leftists?

[–] [email protected] 70 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (20 children)

It's a joke, but "leftist" is such a wide term that it encompasses groups which don't really want to do much with each other, such as anarchists, bernie-bros, and ~red fash~ ~tankies~ marxist-leninists. Anarchists tend to not hate anarchists for example.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 1 week ago (1 children)

No I don't disagree with you! But you are still somewhat wrong! Hey social traitor, I'm splitting and creating my own leftist memes! These will be actual trotskyist memes, unlike your bourgeoisie-tainted memes!

rinse and repeat

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[–] DJDarren 24 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Most conservatives are able to band together regardless of whether another of them is too racist, or too capitalist. They're able to look past flaws in that regard.

Meanwhile, we lefties fight among ourselves for not being left enough, or for being too left. It's why there are very few leftist governments.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 week ago (16 children)

Nonsense. conservatives inflight and even kill each other all the fucking time. This is a myth promoted by "left unity" leftists, and "big tent" libs to force everyone to follow them.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Have you never met leftists?

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 week ago

dern leftists… ruinin' the left

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

As a leftist... I can't say I see a flaw here.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

As a leftist, I resent that

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 week ago

Hey, fuck you, buddy!

See you at the next meeting.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (8 children)

What do liberals like?

I'm only told what they dislike. I even know what conservatives like, that's an easy answer. Liberals, I haven't a clue.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Given their recent electoral strategies, they mostly expect to be elected for not being Trump/conservative.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 week ago

It's an effective strategy, up to a point. "Vote for me because I'm not the guy you hate" is one of the oldest political strategies around. And Democrats have even openly said that they've been funding the most extremist right-wing candidates on the ballot for years to set up easy wins when people think their opponent is a nutjob. There was a lady who even wrote a book about how she won an election doing this. And then she lost to that same extremist in the very next election. Because what they've actually done is push the Overton Window further and further into extremism.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

They like progress that happened in the past, and they like stories about that progress where an individual, not a movement, fought for what was right and the individuals in charge of the system, now aware that it was hurting people, changed voluntarily without political struggle or mass organizing.

They like voting in parliamentary representative elections, even if every step of that election is rigged to benefit the rich capitalist class, in fact this is the only kind of democracy they like.

They like the feeling that words like freedom, justice, liberty bring. They like ideals, in fact they are total idealists who dont understand that progress should be based on more than ideas. Change does begin with an idea, but so does reaction.

They like to believe that there is no such thing as class.

They like experts and repeating the opinions of experts, and they like to not think about from what institutions and incentives exist to bestow expertise.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 week ago (16 children)

Both liberals and conservatives are right wing (capitalists).

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 week ago (4 children)
[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 week ago

Leftists ruined leftism

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Leftists necessarily fall into different ideological frameworks and camps, like Anarchism and Marxism, because they oppose the existing order. These camps often have fundamental disagreements, such as Marxists supporting full Public Ownership and Central Planning while Anarchists support full Horizontalism and Decentralization.

Right-wingers get by on having irrational, contradictory stances of loose structure because it fundamentally doesn't matter, right wing ideology is the Global Hegemon and status quo so it supports itself regardless of rationality.

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