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.
People who tell me the anti-trans anti-POC laws in my state are good actually because the majority support them. People who treat people as pawns in an electoral campaign.
So tired of people like that.
Update: Examples found within the thread! I don't even need to link to examples of this happening. They're right here!
Our system has underpinning it unalienable rights that are enshrined in our Constitution that no law approved by the majority are allowed to remove (Article VI, Section 2 US Constitution). And all States are bound to uphold this aspect of the Constitution in the due course of the Law (14th amendment, Section 1).
So there can be things that the majority support but can never be enforced because the Constitution overrides that as a right granted to all people and is irrevocable in nature without obtaining the bar set forth in amending the US Constitution. That's why fundamental rights are incredibly important, because there does exist times when the majority subjugates some minority and that goes contrary to pretty much the charter of the United States.
(US Declaration of Independence)
In this they are indicating that by the nature of existence (and in this case they indicate that is endowed to them via a Creator) that there exists things that no Government, no entity, not anything can remove from the people and then give three examples of those things. The second part indicates that it is the charter of Government to secure those rights, to fight things that may seek out to remove them from the people. And that the power that Government gets to do that thing is derived from the people. Because remember, up to this point (minus the French Revolution), Governments had power because "God" said so. In this case, a person has power not because of "God" but because of people. This is a big difference in how Governments get ran now. The one in charge is held to account not by "God" but by the people.
(US Declaration of Independence)
And this is one of those things that's really shows how well the people who wrote these documents understood mankind. Basically this statement is saying "people don't just overthrow their governments on a whim". But deeper it is saying, people are such that they adjust to suffering and being denied basic human rights because they are comfortable with the suffering they receive. And while this is a good point to overthrow the government, it's also an important highlight that any government wishing to endure, enshrine rights that preempt that suffering.
And there's so much more the people who created this nation had to say about all of this, but it boils down to, there has to be some line in the sand that no matter if 100% of the people support it, we just cannot cross it without a monumental effort to do so. That sometimes, the majority is very wrong and they need something to stop them and have them seriously think about the consequences of what they are asking.
People who say this kind of nonsense about "the majority support them" are the same folks who have zero clues about civics and the nation that they live in.
Thank you! I've been rapidly losing faith in people lately. My dad taught social studies, and this is exactly the same things he would say. Seems we've lost sight of this somewhere along the way.
Might I add that it is so important that we not treat any person, including the president, as if they are beyond reproach. I find this trend of deflecting any criticism of one president with wild unfounded accusations of supporting an even worse candidate to be extremely troubling and, quite frankly, anti-democratic. I wish I could persuade more people to support equity and oppose systemic oppression, but it's frustrating when the very people who proclaim to care refuse to engage in good faith.
99% of people who attack Biden are doing so to defend Trump. That's just how the discourse is.
False. Provide evidence before you make such a claim. This is a lie used to silence progressives, leftists, and post-leftists, because what we say makes you uncomfortable.