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.
Or they'll blame you for roping them into this exploitative shitshow with a side of climate apocalypse, and they'll be correct.
I say stop having kids to wholly avert the undeserved and nonconsensual suffering that is inherent to a sentient life and suffering across sentient lives should be minimized
Buddhists hate this one weird trick.
There was a christian sect that managed to be so sucessful at this, it went extinct.
Better than the enthusiastic nihilism in this thread, tbh.
You mind expanding a bit more on that? Not trying to take a jab at you. I really want to understand.
Just a joke about practicing what you preach, I suppose.
I think we all write our own stories, for ourselves and humanity at large. If we're able to turn this ship around, it won't be because of the attitudes in this thread. It will be in spite of them.
Kids are great. Life is challenging but worth living and worth fighting for.
Positive perspective is valuable, and cynicism is just lazy counterproductive nonsense without it.
I believe you used Nihilism wrong in your previous comment based on what you've written here. I think more fitting words are hopelessness, pessimism, or defeatism.
Nihilism is simply refutation of meaning within the world. You can still think kids are great and that life is worth living while believing that there is no meaning to life or any of the other nihilistic assertions. You can even choose to attribute new meaning to your life, as Nietzsche's Übermensch does. See also Absurdism.
I did not. I was referring to a specific premise involved, which includes "extreme pessimism and a radical skepticism that condemns existence." Which is relevant and appropriate. In short. But philosophy 101 is always enjoyable to discuss.
Yes, there is philosophical pessimism and skepticism within nihilism, but those can be mostly or entirely separated from the philosophical stances espoused by nihilists.
I would argue that most of the comments we see in this thread actually show is more of David Benatar's antinatalist argument which is apart of philosophical pessimism. You don't have to be a nihilist to agree with what he is arguing in it.
But yet, they do
I understand. And I agree with those words.
Not having kids cuz I'm not especially fond of the idea of throwing the poor little shits into the dumpsterfire we've made our world. That and I don't want to pitch my offspring as ammo into a breeding war against the Nazis/cultists/idiots. They can have it.
I don't trust humanity with my offspring. Especially not the people who demand more people in this world. They have to be sadists.
What if the reason I got sterilized is that I don’t want to deal with raising them, knowing full well the burden would fall to me and I can’t even manage to keep myself fed most of the time (effort, not availability) and it just works in everyone’s favor?
I can feed my cats twice a day and clean their boxes once, and they manage themselves otherwise if that’s all I have the energy for. That’s called neglect with children.
Makes more sense than either in the meme. Carry on, friend.
Having kids seems like the punishment to me
I intend on adopting (in a distant future if I'm ever financially and psychologically stable). Lots of kids who have already been born could use a loving family.
Why would not having kids punish men?
It's part of the "no sex, no marriage, no kids" platform that focuses on bodily and personal autonomy for women by withholding sex from men and ensuring they'll never be tied down in any form.
women and men both surprised that neither needs the other all that much, but somehow, both are equally mad about it
No fucking clue either. Some kind of random misogyny most likely
*Misandry?
No, I'm saying that the idea of women punishing men by not being good little brood mares is misogyny.
Tell that to the feminist movement in South Korea that came up with it.
Korea and Asia in large is not that much of an example for womens rights, on any front.
Hence the feminist movement that spawned the initial thing that made this meme.
Equality between genders should never be something arguable. Movements that claim for it should and must beuphold and I sincerely hope it fosters true and meaningful change. Longlasting and profound.
I also hope that in this well intended objective, women that, although supporting the cause, wanting to nonetheless have a family are not labelled as traitors to the cause.
I just don't want anyone new to come to this atrocious world.
The rich can only stay in power when there is a constant new supply of naive workers
Existence is when capitalism.
Oh, just fuck right off. If you don't want children, just don't have children and shut up about it instead of making yourself feel superior by making it a moral thing. And if you're actually just concerned about them ending up in the meat grinder of exploitation, get organized to rid the world of the capitalists and save all the children from that fate. Stop whining about how terrible the world is and start making it better.
The likes of musk are breeding like crazy though, arguing against a "population collapse". But idk if the rest of the little musks would be willing to fill in the white collar jobs that made daddy rich in the first place.
I'm not having kids because I am a man. Where do I fit on the scale?
its like i found my people. while also against pro-creating, i'm pro-abortion too. if we could cause extinction, we could be heroes.
God, would then be forced to create a world worth living in. unless we stop him from doing this to us, we will be forced to return.
All this has happened before, and all this will happen again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again...