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: 3 stills from A Bullet for Baldwin (1956)
Alfred Hitchcock says "I've just come into possession of a cure for fascism"
He sets some bullets on his desk and says "they come in capsule form. For best results, they must be taken internally."
He holds up a revolver and says "here is the handy applicator."
You're jumping the gun (no pun intended) a bit too far here.
You have to wait until fascism is literally tearing apart the whole world before you attempt that remedy. In the meantime, we just watch the world slowly burn.
Thanks America.
"it could never happen here"
Until it does
Then all future historians look back and say
"How sad they couldn't see the writing on the walls even when it was so plainly obvious. It's an indictment on that society as a whole that there were no armed revolutionaries fighting against the fascists when they started making moves in the mid to late 2010s."
Yeah, that's the thing, this has been obvious for a while now. I've been screaming it from the rooftops
And what answers did I get?
"Naaaah, that will never happen, stop being so alarmist, it's going to be fine" or any of the numerous alternatives to this
...especially the "what do you mean? We live in the best time of history!! Just look at all these stats" which always infuriates me to no end
Well, what good are those stats now?
Wellp, honestly we know whats going to happen now. corpos are gonna get "permission" for anything they ask for. Lets actively deny them. Organise, become engaged in local government and dont be afraid to sabotage and resist. In short, no one wants status quo, lets make shit better.
All that too. But anyone who think fascism is going away without armed self defence is, at the very least, not paying any attention whatsoever.
Oh I'm taking about armed sabotage. Also armed self defence
Oh ok, cool, so we're on the same page lol
E: I guess I'm just too used to libs suggesting boycotting individual companies as a solution to our problems..
Time for people to learn how to make and use molotovs again.
Everyone worried about paying their bills and not securing their freedom, forgetting peaceful protests didn't stop fascism the previous times.
Everyone worried about paying their bills and not securing their freedom
This of course is a feature, not a bug.
It's why building solidarity and community support is essential - we need to help each other out (to enable people to make and put those molotovs to good use we also need people to help feed, help babysit, help educate, help propagandise, help as a medic, help maintain safe houses and community centres, help support and defend those unable to participate in any of the other activities due to age or disability, and so on and so on) so that we can collectively become more powerful.
We need a good poster/sticker to start pasting everywhere.
I'm down to educate, and propagandise.
Back when I was more able to leave the house I used to go stickering quite a lot, it's a great way to spread the word, and signal to other marginalised people that they're not alone! Now I mostly stick to educating folks online to the best of my ability.
It's been a while, but I had a very quick look and there are some independent places where you can get stickers and posters:
https://store.c4ss.org/index.php/product-category/stickers/
http://afed.org.uk/publications/stickers/
https://www.activedistributionshop.org/product-category/stickers/
https://black-mosquito.org/en/fabrikat-bm/aufkleber.html
As for educational resources, the anarchist library is a treasure trove, there are also recent links like this and this that have come up on my feed and seem like great places to start!
Well I'm not gonna say this won't demand warmed conflict.
But I do want to note that I don't think the only options can be harmed conflict or an ineffective boycott of a multinational conglomerate.
There has to be other ways. And I've actually thought of several, but nothing so simple I could propose it in a single sentence and usually when I get into talking about it the some people get heated up and I'm tired of the same fights over and over. It's hard to fight alone, but I seriously think the internet would be a more powerful tool in the larger picture than personal firearms. Or at least, I very much hope so.
But life has had a way of doing exactly the opposite of my wishes.
So.
Fuck...
Gl Americans
Most armed people in the US nowadays are in favor of the main fascist, so...
All the more reason for anti-fascists to arm themselves..
USians are deluded in believing that they're the heroes of the movie.
They'll do nothing of the sort. They will endure, obey, and rat on the dissidents.
This isn't defensiveness for myself since I'm not American, or of America, being what it is, but you could say that about pretty much every country in the world, and that's because capitalism is pretty much decaying globally.
It's why focusing on superficial "fixes" like a change of administration is a waste of our collective time and energy as the working class, which is exactly what it's designed to do - keep the public busy and placated with artificial tribalism and an illusion of choice, while those at the top keep collecting and hoarding power and resources.
As long as there is a class of people who benefit from the exploitation of the rest of us, they will do everything in their power to manipulate society to serve them.
You may be right in principle, but I'm not willing to die for it for it. Sorry if that offends your purist revolutionary mind.
No one asked you to die for anything.
But some of us don't have the privilege of choosing.
Whatever you imagine my sensibilities to be has nothing to do with it, you don't get to shift the blame, it's all on you to pick a side for yourself, and live with that choice.
Well, shut up and do it.
Everyone here helped get us to where we are now.
Thank you.
A couple guys tried that during the campaign IIRC.
Wouldn't do any good... You got Vance next then that other worm. We're just fucked.
What isn't doing any good is perpetuating the absurd notion that fascism is a single man, as well as the defeatism in its face.
That's why we have multiple bullets.
I'm 50/50 on this.
On the one hand, clearly Vance will be worse than Trump on many key issues. The man is significantly more intelligent, low bar, and has a higher potential for harm.
However, I do not see a world where Republicans crown Vance president for life. I don't think he's charismatic enough, I don't think he's liked enough. I think if Trump falls, trying to get that seat will lead to a lot of infighting.
So even if it would be worse for the short-term, I think Trump dying before they install him as president for life is the only way the U.S. can have future elections. Because once the dictatorship is established, Vance can slot in as a successor, but they won't establish it with him.
However, he can't be assassinated. That would make him a martyr, and then Vance will be able to be installed in order to "secure the peace" or w/e bullshit they make up. Have to pray that McDonalds can take him out.
Vance looks like the kind of guy that wouldn't tell anyone if Trump died, and would pass off some AI video of Trump talking every once in a while as proof he's still alive and running things.
There's an interesting possibility.
If Trump strokes out before the EC votes are cast, Vance becomes president.
But, if Trump strokes out after the EC votes are cast, but before they are actually counted in the House, Vance will be properly elected to the vice presidency. No presidential candidate will have 270 votes, so the decision will be made by the House, and the House can only choose from the top 3 candidates based on EC vote count. Harris being the only other candidate to win any EC votes, the House can only choose her. We end up with a Harris/Vance administration.
Alright, what day do we have to shoot Trump to make that happen?
There is a line between "wishing for death" and "inciting violence". You're on the wrong side of that line.
The EC votes are cast on the first Tuesday after the second Wednesday in December. (December 17th). They are counted on January 6th.
He's a Nazi. You're supposed to kill Nazis with guns.
If liberals understood reality they wouldn't be liberals.
You don't go after the politicians, you target the billionaires funding them.
No, you go after both. Powerful corrupt politicians create billionaires and billionaires make corrupt politicians powerful. If you only get rid of one half of the problem, you get rid of none of the problem.
What about the people walking around with ~~armbands~~ hats, signalling they're enthusiastic members of the party?
Not with an armed coup
You have to understand that the Republican party is now a cult. And a cult has ONE person at the top. Without Trump, the cult falls apart.
Are you going to walk the walk or just talk the talk like all of those that supported fascism with their non-voting to score "I'm a leftist, really" cred at the expense of all of the peoples that are now going to have genocide?
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