Lefty Memes
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
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.
- Absolutely no posts or comments meant to relativize(/apologize for), advocate, promote or defend:
- Racism
- Sexism
- Queerphobia
- Ableism
- Classism
- Sexual assault
- Genocide/ethnic cleansing or (mass) deportations
- Fascism
- (National) chauvinism
- Orientalism
- Colonialism or Imperialism (and their neo- counterparts)
- Zionism
- Religious fundamentalism of any kind
view the rest of the comments
I know that Žižek isn't an actual Marxist and I figured out that his writing is chaotic (also repetitive and hypocritical. (As a Slovenian) I also know about his affiliation with the "Levica" liberal party which is really far from a socialist party.
The text was a good read and very concerning. I thankfully never was a Žižek evangelist.
I know about the participary democracies like in Cuba and understand the people aren't actually living under a dictatorship (in the sense that rules are set by an uncontrollable force). I just tried to say, that the people don't actually vote their leader and the authorities in power, the position was (for example in Venezuela, when it wasn't fucked with by the US yet) inherited by the person the country's leader chose.
I'm confident to disagree with anyone on that point. Most of my relatives lived in Yugoslavia and still wanted private property (some people in SFRJ(/Y) still imported cars (because property made them feel superior) (even having to pay an outrageous after-tax price compared to a comparable VW Golf model produced in TAS or ... well a Yugo, but still). Their priority when buying a car wasn't their comrade's financial wellbeing or the worker rights of an employee in a capitalist country, but their own public image. Also, practically everyone imported clothes from neighboring countries and didn't give a shit about buying domestic. ... Or somewhat likely, I'm just traumatized and can't comprehend people being moral.
Fuck it, I have to read Marx.
Thanks for the stuff I need to research eventually.
You're partially correct, partially wrong about socialist democracy. The people do elect and nominate candidates. What's highly unusual in socialism is the kind of multiparty factionalism that is common in capitalist countries, as unity and cohesiveness is valued. Both policy and candidates come from the working classes, and those that are nominated to the party usually have to work their way up to the top, from the bottom. Xi Jinping is a famous example of this, going all the way up from his local council to the top of the CPC. Roland Boer's Socialism in Power: On the History and Theory of Socialist Governance is an excellent view on this process (though the bit on the DPRK is now outdated, in 2024 they abolished the Democratic Front previously used to select candidates, and have now begun rolling out multi-candidate primaries in certain jurisdictions).
As for your point on Yugoslavia and people wanting luxury goods and whatnot, I don't see that at odds with Marxism at all, nor with socialism. Just because the way we live and exist shapes how we think, does not mean we suddenly become selfless paragons in socialist society. The anecdote I linked regarding the Soviet Union didn't mean people suddenly became completely devoted communists overnight, just that the people began seeing themselves as more of a cohesive whole than people in endless competition. Further, the Titoist model is something more critiqued by modern Marxists than supported (though many still do support it and as I understand many who lived in it thought it was an amazing system).
The alternative to people's thoughts being shaped by their material conditions is a supernatural idea of ideas being prior to matter. I don't mean to say biology has no effect on thought, but that matter is prior to thought, and this means we may make history, but we do not choose the conditions we are born and made in. If you want a place to start with Marx, I recommend the basic Marxist-Leninist study guide I made. You don't need the whole thing to get an idea of Marxism, just the first couple sections can give you the big picture. It's mostly designed for reading groups and individuals who want to join communist parties to have an idea about what they are getting into.
And no problem!