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!
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.
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/36828107
ID: WookieeMark @EvilGenXer posted:
"OK so look, Capitalism is right wing.
Period.
If you are pro-capitalism, you are Right Wing.
There is no pro-capitalist Left. That's a polite fiction in the US that no one can afford any longer as the ecosystem is actually collapsing around us."
This is a really funny comment. What's the difference between your WOT and mine? Also as far as that last comment goes, you assume I am just angry at capitalism. No, I am actively organizing against it. As much as you might like to strawman me, I do help people, I volunteer my time, I host and help organize any number of events. So spare me the sanctimony? I may have an ideology but I understand it, and yours, while you seem to think you don't have an ideology. Its like a blind person saying there is nothing to see.
Is that all it is? What is power? Its effort expended over time. What effort, what time? It is the accumulated value of the commodities that workers create. So you admit one of Marx's basic premises, but ignore it out of incurious and dismissive nature.
So according to your definition of power we can answer your own question about what capitalism is: it is a system that pays an individual wage for socialized production methods (like assembly lines) where the compounding effects of socialized production are owned and realized by the capitalist. Its a complex topic. Wealth of Nations is 500 pages, Capital is over 1000. So you may like digestible little bites of info, but you might have to actually read a book if you want to understand it. Which you plainly don't, you just want me to waste time giving answers that are insufficient to answer your question, and then nit pick those answers to make yourself feel smart.
What you describe in your second paragraph is an epistemic crisis, and its very true. What you don't understand is that it is a two way street. Just because you don't understand me doesn't mean I'm speaking gibberish, it could be you just don't want to, or want to strawman me as unintelligible.
I already explained how it is an ideology and an economic system, try to understand instead of just claiming everything as incomprehensible. I actually teach this stuff, so the burden of learning is on you. Its not just an ideology. But how would we define ideology? Well in any historical era, the dominant ideology is the ideology of the ruling class.
Liberalism does have a through thread, in all historic forms and it is the development and state protection of private property. It has different aspects which appear at different times in different places, as you allude to, but it is the ideology of capitalism that emerged in the 17th-20th centuries which defeated the ruling kings and queens of Europe and established global capitalism by the middle of the 20th century.
You probably aren't going to investigate any of my sources, but a good place to begin is Socialism: Utopian and Scientific by Friedrich Engels, Wage Labor and Capital by Marx, Capital by Marx (just read Marx he's amazing) and Imperialism the highest stage of Capitalism by VI Lenin.
But really you could try and read any books on the topic to improve your understanding, which is actually ignorance of how much you don't know. And I mean this in the most generous way possible. I think I already partially addressed some of your questions in my first post so go back and read it before assaulting me with 1001 bad faith questions. I've spent years as an organizer and educator, don't belittle me to give yourself some wiggle room to hang on to your misconceptions. Actually test your own assumptions and see if they hold up under scrutiny; or if every "answer" as you see it leads to more questions, and doubts, about what is really going on.