this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2026
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Lefty Memes

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An international (English speaking) socialist Lemmy community free of "ML" (read: Dengist) influence. 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, discussion and agitprop/stuff that's better fit for a poster than a meme 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. Please post agitprop here)


0.5 [Provisional Rule] Try to use alt text or image descriptions to allow for greater accessibility


(Please take a look at our wiki page for the guidelines on how to actually write alternative text!)

We encourage alternative text (from now referred to as "alt text") to be added to all posts/comments containing media, such as images, animated GIFs, videos, audio files, and custom emojis.
EDIT: For files you share in the comments, a simple summary should be enough if they’re too complex.

We are committed to social equity and to reducing barriers of entry, including (digital) communication and culture. It takes each of us only a few moments to make a whole world of content (more) accessible to a bunch of folks.

When alt text is absent, a reminder will be issued. If you don't add the missing alt text within 48 hours, the post will be removed. No hard feelings.


0.5.1 Style tip about abbreviations and short forms


When writing stuff like "lol" and "iirc", it's a good idea to try and replace those with their all caps counterpart

  • ofc => OFC
  • af = AF
  • ok => OK
  • lol => LOL
  • bc => BC
  • bs => BS
  • iirc => IIRC
  • cia => CIA
  • nato => Nato (you don't spell it when talking, right?)
  • usa => USA
  • prc => PRC
  • etc.

Why? Because otherwise (AFAIK), screen readers will try to read them out as actually words instead of spelling them


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" (read: Dengists) (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.


6. Don't irrationally 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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[–] Belly_Beanis@hexbear.net 36 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Nothing is stopping you from forming communes all over the place

The USSR, Cuba, North Korea, and Vietnam famously forming unopposed. Capitalists and feudalists famously did not try to invade them and overturn their elections.

[–] FALGSConaut@hexbear.net 15 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I would gladly run off and form a commune with a bunch of my like-minded friends, too bad we're all broke workers and can't afford even a house between us, let alone a plot of land big enough to support ourselves

[–] cecinestpasunecommunication@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Its not the cool communism unless you steal it from capitalists anyway.

[–] FALGSConaut@hexbear.net 5 points 2 days ago

True, I was just being snarky about the "just get some friends and make a commune" idea

[–] ddplf@szmer.info 0 points 2 days ago (4 children)

USSR

I swear, one more time I hear about this shithole being called a good example of a communist country I'm gonna obliterate someone's crotch.

It was a fucking earth shattering dictaroship without an ounce of actual communal care and cooperation.

[–] Belly_Beanis@hexbear.net 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....I wonder if they had problems of being constantly under seige by capitalists that affected their situation? Their condition of materials, if you will.

As I said in the earlier post, they were famously never invaded so IDK someone else can figure this shit out.

[–] ddplf@szmer.info -1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Shut up tankie, we're talking about a shithole that remained a shithole despite being extremely fucking rich in resources that could guarantee prosperity in complete isolation.

problems of being constantly under seige by capitalists that affected their situation

boohoo

[–] Belly_Beanis@hexbear.net 3 points 1 day ago

You're gonna make me post it, aren't you?

[–] CutieBootieTootie@hexbear.net 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

What about the colonial control and possession of those countries before like in Asia, Africa, and the Americas? The SSRs that made it up before their revolution were just as fucked over and destroyed as Cuba, Vietnam, China, Korea, Angola, Algiers etc due to colonialism. Maybe a world built on colonialism should have been shattered, and those people should be allowed to run their own show. You think revolutions occur because people were happy before? Its the last resort of an annihilated people.

[–] ddplf@szmer.info -1 points 2 days ago

What about the colonial control and possession of those countries before like in Asia, Africa, and the Americas?

What those countries? Because I see nothing in my previous comment this could refer to.

The SSRs that made it up before their revolution were just as fucked over and destroyed as Cuba, Vietnam, China, Korea, Angola, Algiers etc due to colonialism.

Yes, that's why you can't just jump from a decaying broken land straight into communist paradise and call it a day. That's just not gonna work, and that's what Marx was really precise about. You can't transition into a communist country without first being a very prosperous socialist country. USSR was a poor, imperialist, corrupt, and deranged authoritarian project that was producing more poor, imperalist, corrupt and deranged authoritarian satellites of big momma rassiya.

Maybe a world built on colonialism should have been shattered, and those people should be allowed to run their own show.

Sure, so what? Because that's clearly not something USSR was striving for. DEFINITELY not the last part.

You think revolutions occur because people were happy before? Its the last resort of an annihilated people.

Once again, I've no idea what you're getting at if you're somehow referring to my previous comment

[–] jack@hexbear.net 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I swear, one more time I hear about this shithole being called a good example of a communist country

it was a pretty good first attempt

I'm gonna obliterate someone's crotch.

mac-concern

It was a fucking earth shattering dictaroship without an ounce of actual communal care and cooperation.

nah it actually had pretty sick vibes and legit community, lots of bureaucracy doesn't wipe that out of existence. If you could give me a time machine and a passport fabricator it's hard to imagine a better time and place to live than this place newly built: The Crowning Gem of Soviet Urban Planning (Lazdynai, Lithuania)

[–] ddplf@szmer.info -2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

It was so good it left a scar on the entire post-second world sphere, which is now super conservative, America-enthusiastic and exclusively vote on libertarian parties.

Such a great fun they had they now get a PTSD when you say socialism in their vicinity.

But what am I saying, I'm just some Polish guy who now has to deal with this post-soviet national resentiment that makes it impossible to build any lasting socialist structures in my country.

[–] jack@hexbear.net 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Things being extremely bad when socialism is defeated is only evidence that the structure was not strong enough to last, not that it was bad at delivering for the people. The numbers are endless and clear, but summarized best by one fact: the collapse of the USSR was followed by the worst mortality crisis in human history outside of war time.

The horrors of the post-Soviet world are the horrors of the post-Soviet world. The Soviet union deserves blame for being weak enough to fall and allow therefore allow these things to happen, which is the result of deep structural problems in the USSR and rest of the socialist bloc. The USSR, obviously, was not a perfect utopia or it would not have died and millions of innocent people along with it. It was the first ever large scale attempt to build socialism, under impossibly hostile circumstances, and still achieved enormous, world-historic strides in the improvement of human life and community. To say "there's nothing to learn, it was the devil's work, the most evil system of all time" when you, right now, are living under its way worse successor seems ridiculous. There's nothing contradictory about appreciating the enormous achievements of the USSR and the smaller socialist states around it while carefully studying to avoid its enormous flaws.

[–] ddplf@szmer.info 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If it was so prosperous then please do explain to me how is it that regions that were prosperous before communism, such as Czechia or East Germany, Western Poland etc, ended up being just so extremely under the water compared to The West when the Iron Curtain has fallen?

Why do the older generations keep saying that the communism was a reign of terror with extreme poverty and that right now we're living in times of great prosperity? Ah, but you probably don't know those people anyways, the ones that survived the communism.

Why were there so many rebellions in Eastern Bloc countries and why did the USSR had to suppress them with tanks and violence?

I'm a democratic socialist myself (demsoc, not socdem!), and the only thing I genuinely miss from the times of Polish Socialist Republic is the fact that we were able to develop heavy industry and grand projects that are now impossible to go through with the post-soviet libertarian boiling pot politics.

[–] jack@hexbear.net 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If it was so prosperous then please do explain to me how is it that regions that were prosperous before communism, such as Czechia or East Germany, Western Poland etc, ended up being just so extremely under the water compared to The West when the Iron Curtain has fallen?

Because they got plundered by the West during liberalization. They were not economically behind under socialism, but they are under capitalism. The West was never interested in bringing freedom to these places but dominating them economically and politically, and that's exactly what happened when socialism fell in Europe. They massively economically developed under socialism, obviously far, far beyond whatever state they were in beforehand.

Why do the older generations keep saying that the communism was a reign of terror with extreme poverty and that right now we're living in times of great prosperity? Ah, but you probably don't know those people anyways, the ones that survived the communism.

They generally do not say that. In the post-USSR proper, only the Baltic republics, who got fully integrated into Europe socially and economically, generally say things got better post-dissolution, excluding Ukraine since Russia's invasion, which caused a huge inversion in opinion there that had been super pro-Soviet. In the non-USSR post-socialist states of the Warsaw Pact, answers are more mixed, but it's rarely strongly negative and often mildly positive towards socialism.

Why were there so many rebellions in Eastern Bloc countries and why did the USSR had to suppress them with tanks and violence?

Oustide of Hungary in the 50s, what are you referring to? The USSR and the socialist states pretty much all came apart peacefully with no meaningful state violence in reverse, even in places where the dissolution had little to no popular support.

I'm a democratic socialist myself (demsoc, not socdem!), and the only thing I genuinely miss from the times of Polish Socialist Republic is the fact that we were able to develop heavy industry and grand projects that are now impossible to go through with the post-soviet libertarian boiling pot politics.

It's worth asking why the socialist states were able to do that. I would argue it's because there was a serious effort to investment in economic independence under socialism while today, the post-socialist states have largely been completely subordinated to the US's economic interests, with industry sold out to foreign capitalists and eventually deindustrialized to concentrate profits in the imperial core, which would literally never have happened under socialism because of fundamentally different economic objectives.

[–] ddplf@szmer.info 0 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Fuck that, I'm not doing this, this is some fucking load of bullshit I can't handle anymore. What are your sources???

[–] jack@hexbear.net 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Well I provided a well sourced link for the polling. What else do you want sources for? I'll see what I can do. (Not that you've provided any sources)

What specifically that I said do you disagree with?

[–] Tabitha@hexbear.net 1 points 2 days ago

stalin-pipe hop into your time machine and go back 80 years and say that to my face