this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2023
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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:
- 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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Wait, do you mean the China that American companies have already moved to and paid taxes to in order to avoid paying US taxes and employing American workers, thus never contributing to the creation of wealth in the US? THAT China?
...are you fucking serious right now? Do you really think that offshoring your manufacturing means 'moving out of America', or that it's done to 'avoid paying taxes'? Do you not understand that the vast majority of a company's value isn't created in the sweatshops where laborers are paid nickels and dimes, but in the boardrooms of megacorps where marketing departments put thousand-dollar labels on smartphones that cost a hundred dollars to make?
Yes. I totally get that. And if they dont want to pay workers and have a decent profit in favor of not paying workers for an obscene profit, they they can pack their asses up and move to China and let Xi tell them how to run their business.
Wow, rock solid argument. 'Yeah, idc if the US economy loses literal trillions if companies like MS and Apple move out! Who cares right?!'
Seriously, thanks for reminding me that, while things are already pretty fucking bleak, we're still not living in the worst-case scenario.
That is some serious corporate cuckery there, bro. Are you sure you arent three CEOs in a trenchcoat?
Better that than someone with no substantial argument to make. Maybe take some time to actually learn about how our economy functions? From books I mean, not YouTube videos
Our ecconomy does not function. It is wildly dysfunctional. It collapses on a regular basis by design. I for one am not going to defend it or the people who cause those collapses.
Complaining about capitalism isn't an argument.
Okay then how about the hoarding of wealth which removes money from the economy?
How much of it? The world's largest and most famous billionaires don't even make up a rounding error in the world's economy (hell, most countries blow Musk's entire fortune annually on the dumbest conceivable shit), nor is their money 'removed' from it. Hell, the richest people in the world have the vast majority of their wealth tied up in their own company's stocks, which by definition is money that's playing an active role in the economy.
Like seriously dude, there's good reasons to hate billionaires and the current state of the global economy, but at least come up with valid arguments and criticisms that can convince people; otherwise, you're just blowing hot air that only serves to paint legitimate critics as crazy people.
If all the money is going to singular people who cannot possibly spend it rather than to wage increases for workers and middle managers who can, then it is hurting the economy. Fiat currencies gain their value through the flow of money, not the stagnation of it. It's not complicated.
This entire fucking system is only 42 years old, and all the failures of it have become apparent in that time. There is no defense of it. We had proven in the decades before Reagan that economies grew when everyone could participate and economic power was not so outlandishly stratified. The only other difference between then and now was that blacks had no economic power at all then; today they are an entire economic demographic that could potentially contribute to the wealth of society as a whole.
Wealth hoarding is BAD. It is a BAD BAD THING. It is INDEFENSIBLE because it is a VERY BAD THING. Giving free things to rich people and charging everyone else is MORALLY WRONG. Doing favors for people because they are wealthy is MORALLY WRONG. Giving tax breaks to people who do not need them and do nothing with them is BAD ECONOMIC POLICY. This is a proven fact. It is not up for debate. The results are in.