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.
ID: A Sophie Labelle 4 panel comic featuring Stephie in different poses, saying:
Landlords do not provide housing.
They buy and Hold more space than they need for themselves.
Then, they create a false scarcity and profit off of it.
What they're doing is literally the opposite of providing housing.
Ok but where's the punchline? Why is this even a comic?
Not all sequential art is meant to be funny.
Side note: One of the best non-fiction books of all time is Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud.
You'd expect a sub that's about memes to contain memes, or, if not quite memes in the "proper" sense of the word, at least generally funny or entertaining content. This is just a brief lecture in four panels. McCloud's wonderful comic is pretty much the last thing this could remind me of.
"memes" in the proper sense of the word are not inherently funny or amusing. Same with "satire", for what it's worth.
I disagree, i do agree that a comic is not perse a meme but a meme does not need to be entertaining or funny.
Memes are an evolution of language. A picture can convey a thousands words at a glance and by sharing recognizable meme patterns we can streamline that language for efficient consumption.
Most memes do tend to be humor because humor is an effective and popular language format but plenty of nom humor examples exist: Rage comics/Wozak, loss.
Other argument: In some ways the “4 panel comic” pattern is a meme. And there is something funny in that its a child saying it while holding wildly different positions. That does convey a certain recognizable “but what do i know, I am just trying to live my own life”
We could argue its subjectively bad or ineffective at being a meme, but in the subjective nature of information you can’t argue that this is definitely not a meme.
Yeah, comic only laugh. Funny funny or else why? Why comic if no funny? Funny pages, comics, funny /s
Dude, comics can be whatever the fuck you want. Want to make a comic that's just four panels of an unmoving rock? Still a comic. And there's no reason why anyone should question otherwise.
Between this and all the "how is this a meme?" comments. Most inane, useless comments. Maybe, just maybe, it wasn't meant for you? Clearly it's getting upvotes
Sure, except that would be a somewhat shitty comic and anyone would have the right to say that if that's their opinion.
Maybe my comment wasn't meant for you if it bothers you this much? Just move on bro.
Let me help you.
The comic, as many other do, revolves around the final panel where the character portrayed wandering in a state of frustration comes to the somewhat paradoxical conclusion that landlords, that supposedly provide housing, do the opposite.
It's political, but also plays on the relatableness of the situation and has a certain quirky dinamicity to it, with changes of location, gesturing and inbalanced poses.
Its effect on some people is best summaryzed as "it's funny because it's true".
It's 4 sentences with a hard hitting message. This doesn't need to be in a comic 🤪
Nothing needs to be anywhere.
Oh, I mean you're not wrong. Let me adjust my message:
I dislike this comic, not because of the message, but because it is in the form of a comic. Personally, I think it's gimmicky and unnecessary to put this message in a comic. Though, I understand that the person trying to get this message out might use comics as their main platform, which then brings me to understand and respect their decision. Still, the comic adds nothing to the message, and that was my original point.
What should go in paintings?
I'm not sure I follow.
I dislike this painting, not because of the message, but because it is in the form of a painting. Personally, I think it’s gimmicky and unnecessary to put this message in a painting.
I hear ya, cool opinion.
Joking aside, I get it. Art is art. I respect it. Doesn't change my opinion that the comic doesn't add to the message. But I respect it.