this post was submitted on 05 Jan 2026
661 points (98.5% liked)
Lefty Memes
6467 readers
945 users here now
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] Use alt text or image descriptions to allow greater accessibility
(Please take a look at our wiki page for the guidelines on how to actually write alternative text!)
We require 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.
(if you are reading the rules to apply for modding this community, mention "Mantic Minotaur" when answering question 2)
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
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I wonder if Trump and Putin talked about this, and Putin was OK with this in return for Trump being OK with Ukraine.
If Putin was genuinely surprised by this, as plenty of Russian milbloggers seem to think, that would seriously weaken his legitimacy. Certainly, Russia and China's seeming inability to offer any serious support, has seriously weakened their prestige. Especially because both Russia and China have invested heavily in Venezuela's oil industry, especially in recent years, so this is a potentially very serious blow. Why would any leader sign a deal with them now, if the Americans can just swoop in and kidnap you and your family?
On the plus side, maybe the Chinese and Russians will learn their lesson and help elect a more sensible candidate this time around. Maybe stop meddling in European politics, sowing division, and funding the invariably Trump aligned far right.
Why would they do that? Helping the European far right lead the West to its doom is a frankly brilliant play by Russia and crew. They can withstand more aggressive Western foreign policy longer than Western liberal democracies can survive with Nazis at the helm.
Not so long ago, people were also saying Russia getting Trump elected was a brilliant play.
Meanwhile, Assad's gone. Iran's been bombed and Trumps threatening invasion if they use violence to put down protests, and just before christmas openly supported Israel going to war with them. Venezuela's been bombed and is being pressured to open up their oil industry to the Americans, not so long ago China signed a deal with Maduro but that's now uncertain. Cuba's probably next. Panama too, also not great for China. Oil prices are set to fall even further, and this is an existential threat to the Russian government. Africa? The US bombed Nigeria just before the new year. Why sign a deal with Russia or China and risk angering the US? Unlike China or Russia the can and will happily kidnap you and your family, or worse.
Sure, the European far right has received money from Russia, but you can't buy the loyalty of mercenaries. Trump certainly isn't particularly loyal, is he? So if the far right gain power in the wrong country, you'll end up with recently re-armed fascist countries on Russia's border. Fascist countries with a historical grievance against Russia, which are just as likely to seek common cause with Ukrainian nationalists. Fascists respect strength. Russia hasn't been projecting a lot of that lately. Trump certainly doesn't, as is obvious from how he's treating traditional Russian allies.
Meanwhile, Japan's defense budget just hit a record for the tenth year running and they're seriously considering acquiring nukes. Nuclear proliferation is likely. South Korea may be next. Hell, Poland's defense budget also keeps hitting records, they all seem to virulently hate Russia, and both Tusk and Duda are on record as saying Poland MUST acquire nuclear weapons. To quote Tusk: "Poland must pursue the most advanced capabilities, including nuclear and modern unconventional weapons." They don't have the means to do it soon, but that kind of rhetoric from an antagonistic neighbour isn't great.
TLDR: it's a huge gamble. We often overestimate the abilities of people who were simply lucky. Putin is no different. He takes risks, sometimes it pays off. If Russia had managed to capture Zelensky in the initial three day invasion, we would all have called him a tactical mastermind. But it still wouldn't have been true. It would have been a dangerous gamble and him having had luck wouldn't have changed that fact. Now that he lost that gamble, and we're on day 1412 on a three day miltary operation, it's even more obvious. His meddling in European and American politics is no different.
You say this as if either of those countries had free and fair elections. Putin has been jailing everybody who could stand a chance to run against him, and in China everything is under the CCP.
Sorry, you misunderstand.
Help elect more sensible candidates in the US election. Obviously Xi and Putin aren't going to ever lose an election.