this post was submitted on 17 Apr 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

Version without spoilers

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.



  1. Absolutely no posts or comments meant to relativize(/apologize for), advocate, promote or defend:

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[–] Worx@lemmynsfw.com 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

I don't believe that every society / political system does seek to cut crime. For example, parts of the USA right now are seeking to criminalise sleeping outside and other forms of homelessness rather than solving the problem. It has been proven (and is also very obvious) that if you give someone housing and a stable income, they stop being homeless. It's kinda in the name of "home less". But a lot of powerful people in America are more interested in keeping rich people rich and people who "don't deserve it" in the gutters - figuratively and literally. In my vision of an Anarchist Utopia Society TM, the main goal would be to keep as many people happy and healthy as possible which would, by definition, involve lowering crime, anti-social behaviour, homelessness, etc.

A good example would be the UK which offers speed awareness courses to drivers who are caught breaking the speed limit. This is sometimes cheaper for the offender and avoids getting points on your driving license (too many points means a driving ban). Drivers who took this speed awareness course are less likely to reoffend than people who chose not to take it.

As for a moneyless society, I think it is possible as part of my Anarchist Utopia Society TM and I don't want to start another arguement about that because I have limited time and energy for online arguments. We'll just have to agree to disagree for now :)

[–] IrateAnteater@sh.itjust.works 1 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I really am curious what you mean by "moneyless" though. Like, is it just doing away with the money systems we've built (like banks, stock markets, etc) or is getting rid of the concept altogether and returning to simple bartering?

[–] Worx@lemmynsfw.com 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Gift based economy. I help you because I know that you will help me. If someone doesn't pull their weight then they won't get help. Basically everything runs on social currency and who owes who (but it's not as strict as "I owe Jenny £5.83", it's more like "Jenny's my friend so I'll help her)

[–] IrateAnteater@sh.itjust.works 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

How does that scale up to large communities where people aren't generally going to know each other on that level?

[–] Worx@lemmynsfw.com 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Just swap people for communities. "we should help community X because we know they'll help us".

Or maybe you do need to barter at a larger scale? This is all theoretical anyway because, remember, this is in Fantasy Utopia Anarchy Land TM

[–] IrateAnteater@sh.itjust.works 2 points 7 months ago

All good ideas start off theoretical. These are just the details that need to be considered in order to turn a good concept into an actual functioning system.

[–] Five@slrpnk.net 0 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Bartering is a feature of money systems, not their origin. Andrewism summarizing David Graeber YT.