this post was submitted on 18 Sep 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.
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If you are new to socialism, you can ask questions and find resources over on c/Socialism101.
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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)
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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.
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Sadly, I'm an English speaker so I'm very limited in my options.
You mean the most widespread language on earth?
But you always have the option to learn another language. It just takes some effort. It is easier to do than it ever has been before in history.
Finding an employer to sponsor you in most countries is exceedingly difficult for most Americans. We can't just move, unfortunately. There are strict immigration laws in most countries.
There were entire subreddits dedicated to this topic in the before-days. We need a Lemmy community for this complex topic.
Unless they've changed policy in the last six months, Portugal will take nearly anyone with stable remote work and fast track them to EU citizenship. This was/is the most viable choice for US citizens.
You are thinking of their nomad visa (D8) which takes 5 years and requires a monthly income of at least $3200 Eur/mo. The problem has always been getting a U.S. employer to allow you to work remote AND out of country.
HR and payroll departments absolutely hate letting remote workers live outside the country because it makes tax liabilities and benefits complicated for them. So, it's quite rare to find a U.S. company that will do it. Even most multi-national megacorps are assholes about it.
But, if you are a successful freelancer with a very reliable income from non-Portuguese sources, then this may be an option. Most of us don't fit that bill, unfortunately. Hell, most Americans struggle just to get a hybrid work situation. The idea of international remote or stable freelancing is quite a tall order.
When I pursued it there was a provision for the administrative tax burden of the employer. My employer withheld as usual for a US worker, then I would also need to file and post-pay Portugal's taxes.
Double taxation; an employer comfortable with it; new culture; national economic issues: I agree it's a tall order for the vast majority of Americans. And, it also seemed the most viable option. I think we agree that emmigration is quite difficult.
Many are readily importing my skillset. But, then I'd have to go back to corporate slavery.
I'm worried about the inaccessibility of the freedom to choose for the vast majority of Americans.
Find yourself a nice blue city and move into the suburbs. Lots of good jobs too.
Come to New Zealand.
We still have Nazis but they spend all their energy on hating the Māori population.
Thats ok, us Maori spend our whole time hating normal kiwis, who then hate nazis. They just need to slot in and direct theirs in the right direction (/s).
I mean, what are they really going to do - deport us back home? Actually don't answer that, they may try it.
I realised after posting that my post could easily be read contrary to what I meant too; it could easily read like I'm minimising the problems Māori face (TL;DR: colonisation).
I was trying to imply that an immigrant could be spared attention from our Nazis because the Nazis are already busy being Nazis to Māori.
It's not like our government has spent the last 150 years being Nazis... Ah shit.
All good - I actually wish some of us would stop using the last 150 years as an excuse. Did we have to deal with alot of shit - absolutely, and a not 0 ammout is still ongoing. But FFS, the opportunities are there if you stop using it as an excuse to not do better.
My ancestors spent generations screwing over Māori, maybe not personally (I don't know) but I'm not prepared to give them a pass on it.
I'm quite happy to let some laziness slide or some rules being taken advantage of or me personally having some tax dollars pent when it's making up for generations of actual evil.
I've been studying our history and it's pretty fucked... It's not what we got taught in school.
Oh, im aware. Lots of stuff we thought was limited to American colonization, education that has since been whitewashed to make it sound not as bad as it was, and general comments that miss most of the story. Even at the high school level.
You are not responsible for the actions of your ancestors, regardless of how direct or indirect it was. The flip side is that I did not suffer that treatment, and therefore can no blame my life and actions on it. Very different viewpoint to a number of my iwi, who are still stuck in the take take take and I'm owed mindset. Screwing over the next generation with their excuses.
It fucking sucks.
You can go to literally any city in Earth and find many English speakers. Estimates are 1.5 - 2 billion people on earth are Anglophones.
I've traveled to numerous cities in Europe and East Asia and visited many places where little to no English was spoken.
You can usually find a handful of people in a major business center who specifically cater to foreign visitors, if you're willing to spend extra for the privilege. But get outside the center of Paris or Berlin or Malmo or Shanghai or Tokyo, and its very easy to find yourself amid a sea of people who have no idea how to understand you much less respond.
Yes, there are call centers in Manila or Taipei where tens of thousands of people have to speak English for their jobs. Yes, the entire staff of the The Palm in Dubai is fluent. No, that's not really helpful if you're out in the suburbs of Brussels or living as a student in Seoul. If you need to call a plumber because the sink of your flat in Palermo sprung a leak, there's a very good chance you're going to be explaining the problem in Italian or in very elaborate hand gestures.
If it comes to your life, you really may need to learn another language. It happens anyway, move to a new place with a reasonable population of foreign language speakers and you'll start picking up some words here and there.
I don't know your situation, just wish you luck, and remember to forward that same welcoming other communities may share with you to others in the future. You may not be the only one intent on escaping.
Sure. But then moving from Berlin to Krakow isn't necessarily going to save you from the imperial march.
Also, not a trivial thing to accomplish. It's a bit like telling a 40 year old who has never learned to swim to brush up real quick before we push you off the side of the boat.
I mean, for the most part I'm fine. This is all hypothetical, right up until it isn't. But "you should just learn an extra language maybe?" isn't what I'd call a practical response to the problem of a fascist local government.
Yeah, it's definitely not trivial, but not impossible, and the relocation may even be a temporary situation. I only suggested taking the leap regardless because that seemed to be your trend, "I'd like to leave but perhaps the language barrier is too intense", to paraphrase.
And you're right that it won't stop the march. I don't intend to give up my country to fascists. Some people, just due to physical ailments etc, may need to leave vs fight and that's ok too.
I'd go so far as to say "incredibly difficult, expensive, and time consuming to do well".
Oh, absolutely. Know when to hold'em, know when to fold'em.
I just see a lot of fascist tendency building up in English-speaking corners of the world. That 1.5-2.0B English speakers figure isn't a great solution when it just means moving from Fascism HQ to Franchise Fascism. The spots with the most English speakers - India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the UK, and the Philippines are plagued by some deeply reactionary domestic situations.
It's a tight spot to be, is all.