this post was submitted on 17 May 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

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:

(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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[–] [email protected] 107 points 5 months ago (4 children)

Step 1: hit snooze

Step 2: use the extra time to build dual power and/or electoral reform.

Note: The time to build an alternative to the DNC for 2024 was no less than 4 years ago. The time to start building the coalition for 2028 starts no later than December 2024.

Note: the time to build dual power is any day you can afford the time, acumen, and experiense.

Step 3: hit snooze again.

Voting doesn't change anything. Not voting kills us.

We vote to buy time. We use that time to perform direct action.

These 2 things are not mutually exclusive.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 5 months ago

Voting doesn't change anything. Not voting kills us.

We vote to buy time. We use that time to perform direct action.

These 2 things are not mutually exclusive.

This is what I've been trying to tell people, especially young lefties.

It just does not make sense to me why you would look at a broken system which gives a massive advantage to one party, see that the people trying to fix the system all belong to the other party, and arrive at the conclusion that both parties are equally at fault and the only solution is to throw your hands up in invisible protest.

It would be one thing if they just said they didn't care, but they seem to be convinced they are actually able to affect change this way.

It's like finding yourself in a fist fight and seeing your buddy just standing there laughing.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 months ago (1 children)

We need to get ourselves some Approval Voting and some kind of proportional representation (linked is one way you can use approval in a proportional election)!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Approval voting, STAR voting, Ranked-choice voting- I don't care, just get me out of this first-past-the-pole nightmare!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

Yeah I agree, arguably the proportional representation part is more important, but it's easier to start small and then repurpose your organization for bigger goals. I push for approval because:

  1. practically anything is way better than FPTP

  2. It requires zero voter education to implement

  3. it can easily be adapted to any kind of winner system

  4. A whole bunch of other stuff that gets into graphs and voting criterion and shit like that

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I really dont understand americans, they are so proud of their weapons yet can't control them so theres a school-shooting every month or so. But when there is a grown-up (politician/capitalist) they suddenly dont have their guns anymore?

It seems shooting kids is easier then shooting the evil people. Not that I would ever do either...

just saying, dead people cannot maintain a broken system.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I really dont understand americans

Politicians strategically used gun rights as a wedge issue to ensure that the segment of the population with the most guns are more likely to be intensely loyal to the fascist continent of our political class. Furthermore, our law enforcement has more and even bigger guns.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

"Furthermore, our law enforcement has more and even bigger guns"

yes, but guns kill people. if you manage to shoot someone in the head, say from a window/balcony in a hotel, they are dead. regardless of bigness of gun.

The people with bigger guns ought to protect the children or something.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

depends on whos asking.