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, upvoting good contributions and downvoting those of low-quality!
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)
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.
as well as condemning (their) imperialism, even if it is of the "anti-USA" flavor.
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).
The only dangerous minority is the rich.
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)
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.
(This is not a definitive list, the spirit of the other rules still counts! Eventual duplicates with other rules are for emphasis.)
Problem is class, not race. A capitalist profiting from other peoples labour is the problem, may they be black or white. Pinning the problem on blacks or whites or men or women or straight or gay is just turning the proletariat against each other. Instead of attacking the few capitalists, we look at what they look like and attack those who look the same. Class, not race. Class, not gender. Class, not serual orientation.
Rent. Rent needs to die in a fire.
Landlording needs to be less lucrative than a private mortgage or land contract. Jack up the taxes on all residential properties, and grant steep exemptions for owner-occupants only.
Jacking up taxes jacks up rental prices
Rent control has worked, but it stopped those places getting needed maintenance
My town is trying land tax discounts to landlords that rent out their place sufficiently below market rate
Read my comment again: I am trying to eliminate the concept of renting. Practically nobody should be renting residential property, or property used as a residence. A hike on rent prices would be a good thing, as it would drive tenants away from renting and toward the better option I have been alluding to.
Tax discounts to lower rent prices only incentivize the worst, most negligent slumlords, in a race to the bottom for housing quality. That is not a viable long-term strategy.
I want to replace "renting" with "land contract".
A land contract is a type of purchase agreement that starts off similar to a rental. They aren't used very often because they are somewhat complex, and they put a lot of power in the hands of the buyer/tenant rather than the seller/landlord. Land Contracts have a fixed monthly price: there is no year-to-year price hike.
Most importantly, they gain equity for their tenant/buyer.
Be very careful with the wording of those exemptions, or you're going to have an owner living in a tower with 230 roommates.
True. I would only allow the exemption on 1-4 unit properties. I would allow an on-site landlord to rent out the remaining 1-3 units without losing the exemption.
Renting should be a wildly atypical housing arrangement. "Land Contracts" should replace virtually every circumstance where renting currently makes sense.
Didn't black capitalism get burned down
Got bombed, burnt down, shot, lynched, and every means possible.
Even then, I don't want black capitalism, I don't want white capitalism, I want capitalism abolished to help end the struggles of hating someone for the color of the skin they were born with.
Omg is that the real Eugene V Debs???
His ghost at least! A specter is haunting Lemmy!
The only felon I would vote for. Please possess Biden or Harris and turn this shit around 🙏
If I could, we'd probably have a higher minimum wage and not locking up protestors alone!
I was arrested for being against a war we had nothing to do with!
Jesus, you could have hit us with a trigger warning before spouting such a controversial take!
Clearly all we need is a "Black Wall Street." What could go wrong?
The way I see it is that we don't have enough anti-monopoly legislation. If we guaranteed small businesses could get products at the same prices as megacorps and we broke up businesses that took too much market share we could have small business again. Regulation is also too punitive. Lower taxes, lower compliance and permit fees. The government has a spending problem and the people need to tell them to fuck off and cut their spending in half, then add half of what they cut back into public services, not spending on wars or deep state letter orgs dedicated to spying on its own citizens.
So instead of the simpler system, we pass millions of layers of more bureaucratic laws that will require even more expensive legal teams for companies to parse, resulting in even fewer companies existing and monopolizing markets all to save billionaires and the failed ideology of capitalism?
Great work.
If we’re forced to have capitalism, can we at least use the social kind?
A social market economy is a free-market or mixed-market capitalist system, sometimes classified as a coordinated market economy, where government intervention in price formation is kept to a minimum, but the state provides significant services in areas such as social security, health care, unemployment benefits and the recognition of labor rights through national collective bargaining arrangements. Source
In my opinion, using terms like 'capitalism' or 'socialism' or 'fascism' is a losing game for anyone except the Right.
The second you use those terms you get forced into a fight about the definitions and get sidetracked from the actual issues at hand.
Substitute other terms instead. Don't say "Why can't we have Socialist healthcare like Sweden?" say "why can't we have the kind of health care Eisenhower offered in 1956?"
I agree with this approach, most people hate politics. They either have an aversion to words like these or, use them incorrectly.
I think a very large part of educating, agitating and organizing is meeting people where they are. Once they get over their aversion, one would hope they will become class conscious.
Exactly. Trying to force people to use your terminology only makes them resent you.
Put your argument in terms they understand.
I am going to disagree with you on this. Here’s why:
No one forces anyone to fight about anything. It’s a choice you make. If you find yourself in a conversation with someone who is unwilling to hear reason, then you can choose to continue or you can walk away.
I also disagree with avoiding certain words simply because you’re concerned how other people will react to them (of course exceptions apply). Now if you can find a simpler, less controversial, way to express yourself, by all means keep it simple. Using “$5 words” in an attempt to make yourself sound smart or better than somebody else is counterproductive. And, in most cases whether you talk about “Socialist healthcare in Sweden” or “health care Eisenhower offered” is moot, because a bad actor is going to twist your words regardless.
Finally, in the context of this thread, we are specifically talking about Capitalism, so it makes little sense to skirt around the term. Some might as well embrace it and explore it as far as we can.
There's a giant difference between a discussion between two people and a political campaign.
And you're right, anyone can twist words, but it's harder for them to twist "Eisenhower's 1956 plan" than it is to scream about Socialism.
I personally have no problem with capitalism dealing with non essentials, but essentials should be nationalized.
Why can't we shorten is it to Is't, but It's is fine? Absolute hypocrisy, if you ask me.
they have played us for absolute fools
Seen this meme posted more times then I can count
Well that could mean two things