Lefty Memes
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
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,
as well as 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.
7. Absolutely no posts or comments meant to relativize(/apologize for), advocate, promote or defend:
- Racism
- Sexism
- Queerphobia
- Ableism
- Classism
- Rape or assault
- Genocide/ethnic cleansing or (mass) deportations
- Fascism
- (National) chauvinism
- Orientalism
- Colonialism or Imperialism (and their neo- counterparts)
- Zionism
- Religious fundamentalism of any kind
(This is not a definitive list, the spirit of the other rules still counts! Eventual duplicates with other rules are for emphasis.)
view the rest of the comments
Way to miss the point. It's about some people acting like these are choices rather than "this is the best I can do". Would you really prefer the inconsistency of the gig economy if well paying consistent jobs were available? Would you eat rice and beans for every meal if you actually had the choice? Wouldn't you prefer just a few more square feet in your tiny home(maybe in the kitchen or bathroom)?
Acting like people are making all of these choices out of genuine desire and not a good helping of "this is what I have to do to survive" is what the meme is criticizing and what you on your high horse up there failed to see.
I get where you're coming from but in my ideal world we would all work gig jobs and they would provide us enough money to live at the very least at our current lifestyle.
The 40-hour work week is a lie. It's not needed anymore, and anyone who sits down for 4 hours and analyzes our current economic system would probably agree with me.
You have gotten up onto a high horse about how I am flawed and wrong before checking whether I was on your side.
Besides, the point you are making, while it has its merits, only touches on my point. My point is enjoy what you like. If you like overnight oats just go ahead and eat them.
It doesn't mean you're a "peasant eating gruel". It's okay to like what you like.
Good luck running your ideal society on all gig jobs. I predict total collapse of infrastructure within the first six months.
My point is proved.
Like I said, some people love nothing more than to reframe whatever you are saying or whatever you are doing in the worst possible light for no reason other than to make you feel bad.
I’m not trying to huwt yur feewsies, I’m saying you can’t run an advanced society on gig work. I’m sorry reality is a thing.
You seem to think I have some sort of emotional investment in this and I can assure you that I do not. I'm saying that today's reality is not tomorrow's reality and that things can get better, which is a fact and not really up for debate.
As to whether or not they will get better that very much is up to debate, but if you think that being condescending is proving your point then maybe you should take some time and think a little longer.