this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2025
594 points (87.5% liked)

Lefty Memes

4816 readers
390 users here now

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:

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

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."

(page 2) 38 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] 0x520@slrpnk.net 12 points 4 days ago (8 children)

This isn't changing people's minds about crapitalism. Amerikkkans will keep calling liberals, "the left," and liberals will keep loving crapitalism. This only shows how right wing Amerikkka is as a country. Liberals would much rather be forced to identify as right wing than as anti-crapitalist. These distinctions only bother the keft as we get conflated with liberals constantly. Nobody else gives a shit.

man i love satire, satire is my favorite.

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] Chakravanti@monero.town 0 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

LEFT...LEFT...LEFT, RIGHT 'O LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT...

[–] nifty@lemmy.world -2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (5 children)

Disagree, but I propose this: the universe is infinite, maybe then we should just have a planet where the socioeconomic system is capitalist, and another one where the socioeconomic system is communist/marxist. I don’t care about winning or being right. I want to live freely, and I want that for others as well.

Better nations on Earth already use what’s known as the Nordic model to help offset the adverse effects of capitalism. Cue (and queue) people who’ll say that “that only works because the ‘imperialists’ exploit the global south”. So again, let’s just make it easier for people who don’t want to live in a world like that.

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] Blindsite@lemmy.today -2 points 2 days ago (4 children)

So what? You don't like the voluntary exchange of goods and services? Trade = capitalism. Furthermore you'd rather trust the government than the average individual? Yeah I get the desire for socialized medical care and welfare. Whatever. But even countries with socialized public services have private sectors. So let's get more fundamental.

Capital = having money. Capitalism = engaging in trade, that is exchanging one asset or services for another for mutual benefit. Fascism != Capitalism. Government != Fascism Fascism = government + capitalism. More specifically there are certain hallmarks of fascism that sadly are showing up in western society. But capitalism alone does not equate to that. You don't get an authoritarian regime by engaging in trade. You need to pass laws in order to get that. You wouldn't even have corporations without government support.

So again I'm hesitant to throw in with the pro government movement when half of this whole fascism/corporate problem is government. I mean I'm against the whole monopoly on violence to begin with but saying voluntary interaction is bad but violence is good seems rather counterintuitive to me. You don't need government to decentralize things or return the means of production to the people or whatever but still such things should be voluntary. That's why open source is so revolutionary. It's essentially a gift economy and doesn't use transactions or violence. People give their time and labor away and everyone benefits. Code ensures transparency and decentralized distribution. Furthermore without patents and copyright from the private sector we wouldn't have copy left and open source software. Just some food for thought there.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] Spiderwort@lemmy.dbzer0.com -1 points 3 days ago

You could also be called a biologist. Capital is the equivalent of teeth and claws.

[–] cynar@lemmy.world -5 points 3 days ago (10 children)

Capitalism is like fire. Unchecked, it will happily consume your house. Never the less, it's an excellent tool for certain tasks. It must be handled with care and contained appropriately.

Right now, a lit of the world looks like London during the great fire. Capitalism has been allowed to run unchecked, and has gotten completely out of control. The massive dilemma is how to reign it in, without collapsing large chunks of society.

Abandoning Capitalism completely is almost as bad as letting it run unchecked.

load more comments (10 replies)
[–] hemmes@lemmy.world -2 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Greed is really the problem. Capitalism is just another apparatus without the means to solve it.

yeah uh, that's why we invented government homie.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›