Lefty Memes
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:
- Racism
- Sexism
- Queerphobia
- Ableism
- Classism
- Rape or assault
- Genocide/ethnic cleansing or (mass) deportations
- Fascism
- (National) chauvinism
- Orientalism
- Colonialism or Imperialism (and their neo- counterparts)
- Zionism
- Religious fundamentalism of any kind
(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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You people have said this exact nonsense since Reagan.
It's always the next election that you might get to vote for something, instead of against something.
No, child, I'm not voting for genocide. Your idealized fantasy land you call a world view isn't valid. There are no good people in either the democratic or Republican parties. They are all literally genocidal fascists. No exaggeration. They are actively commiting genocide.
Your vote for either of those parties is to normalize and consent to that genocide as well as any other that doesn't affect you. That is quite literally, again not exaggerating, a Nazi belief. That genocide needs to happen, because otherwise you'll be a victim of genocide. That is literally the line used by the Nazis to justify killing the Jews before the Jews kill them.
Now if I'm wrong and vote third party and that third party wins, I have not voted for genocide and we at least entirely withdraw from the middle east.
If that third party does not win or I'm not wrong and they do win, genocide happens that I have stated my explicit disapproval of, I continue to join protests, work in my mutual aid group, and work to make the world better against the government who wanrs to make it worse until im i evitably killed by either the trump or harris governments.
If trump wins, the safety of people in my family and of my friends is in danger. I have come to this conclusion by what he and his associates have actually said and written. Not some random scare tactic. This is not a moral handwringing. They are going to harm my folks right here, as they have gleefully said.
Do we like ‘lesser evil?’ No. But I have unfortunately not been wrong about these horrible people since I began researching the alt right trend in 2014. Making sure they don’t have power again is far more important than a protest vote.
The likelihood you’d get killed by a Harris government is by FAR less than with a Trump govt, and if you don’t see that you are fearfully delusional, and I am not saying that as a personal attack, but as a genuine concern.
So we are clear, I am against this farce of a war in the mid-east, against the surveillance state we are building, for ranked choice voting, strongly for healthcare for all, for housing first, and am a part of the local mutual aid groups.
And Reagan really started this slide, so not terribly useful to call that crying wolf.
Youre not the only queer person, you are not the only person with queer family and friends, you do not get to speak on behalf of the queer community. I am queer, I have family that are queer, I have friends that are queer. I am not supporting genocide. I am not voting democrat, and I am not voting republican. And I will not let democrats hold me, my family, and my friends rights hostage to coerce me into voting for them. This whole idea that if you dont vote democrat you vote republican is exactly why third parties have no chance of winning. This isnt a "if you vote democeat you are voting for republican," this is a situation where if you don't vote third party or boycott, then you are voting for genocide. You could stop genocide and keep yourself, friends, and family safe if you stopped letting democrats hold you and everyone else hostage. I will not be forced to choose between one genocide or two genocides, I will choose no genocides.