this post was submitted on 11 Oct 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
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.
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"Not like that! We meant we should debate whether trans people should exist or not! Redistributing wealth is just evil."
"OK FINE! You can own the means of sexual reproduction if you stay the hell away from the means of production, ya pleb!"
"Actually, scratch that, we need more wage slaves to make line go up."
The only wealth redistribution they allow is from the poor to the rich. Bonus points if they can:
- Increase tax pressure on the poor.
- Make it so the poor vote for tax cuts.
- Hand out said tax cuts to the rich.
- Profit from "donations".
The liberal play book is so dumb and yet so effective.
EDIT: To all those that got offended by the dunk on liberals, consider this: When did your liberal government in practice and in a meaningful capacity increase tax pressure on the rich and allocate the increased funds to the benefit of the poor? Also, if you are not for more equitable redistribution of wealth, what are you even doing in this community?
You're forgetting the vehicle of modern plundering: the Corporation
The corporation is the weapon the capitalist class uses to make liberal democracies into dictatorships of the bourgeoisie.
They don't only exploit human resources but also natural resources and communal resources.
The extraction of surplus value is usually done with no regard for and to the direct detriment of the well-being of the foundation on which value is being created.
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Hear me out, this isnt a flame.
The word liberal has lost some of its historic connotations.
I am a believer in Economic Liberalism, broadly defined as;
Economic liberals tend to oppose government intervention and protectionism in the market economy when it inhibits free trade and competition, but tend to support government intervention where it protects property rights, opens new markets or funds market growth, and resolves market failures.[2]
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_liberalism
Genuine question: Which party do I vote for?
As I see it, none of them are championing economic liberalism.
Note: before someone replies with: what about climate change, inequality etc. These are market failures that Economic liberals believe should be fixed by government.
As I see it, liberal economics is politically dead.
Do you think the government should enforce some limits on wealth accumulation? Genuine question, because this doesn't appear on neither the pro nor con lists in that definition and I'd like to hear a take of a self described economic liberal on this
I don't think total accumulation of wealth would be a problem in itself IF it was taxed properly.
If I was in charge I'd do the following:
- Simplify the tax code and remove exemptions.
- Set a threshold for inheritance tax, say $5m, and tax anything above that at close to 100%.
- Setup a department to review and adapt to tax avoidance strategies I.e. billionaires taking out loans to avoid paying themselves in dividends, which would have been taxed.
- Make the tax code progressive e.g. you pay more tax the more you earn. Set this up for capital, income, pension etc. Tax it all at the same level.
I think this provides enough of an incentive to work hard but removes the inter generational plutocracy issues.
Equality of opportunity and all that.
P.S. In my opinion, the accountancy profession should not need to exist. Rules should be simple enough for an average person to follow.
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