this post was submitted on 28 Feb 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] 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.



  1. Absolutely no posts or comments meant to relativize(/apologize for), advocate, promote or defend:

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Found this graph online for anyone who might still be confused. I think this makes it much more clear.

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[–] super_user_do@feddit.it 11 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (3 children)

No way fr? It's like being a liberal doesn't make you a leftist and that you can definitely be a right wing liberal

[–] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago

Yeah in the rest of the world Liberalism is a right wing political philosophy. Just because you believe in the words of Voltaire doesn’t make you a left wing. Liberals aren’t even center left progressives.

[–] Draconic_NEO@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 4 days ago

I would say that most liberals are right leaning. They're not willing to stand up for leftist values. When people "accuse" them of wanting open borders they backpeddle like crazy.

[–] yabbadabaddon@lemmy.zip 7 points 4 days ago (1 children)

You can indeed be a right wing liberal, it is however more difficult to be a left wing conservative

[–] super_user_do@feddit.it 4 points 4 days ago (6 children)

is being a left wing conservative even possible?

[–] yabbadabaddon@lemmy.zip 4 points 4 days ago

If we consider one of the key value of the "left" being progress, I think it is difficult to concillate both.

[–] BanMeFromPosting@hexbear.net 3 points 4 days ago

Depends on the country. The "conservatives" in the late USSR were the people opposing abolishing the union. I think the same descriptor is used for chavistas and Cuban communists.

[–] Collatz_problem@hexbear.net 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

People who tried to conserve Soviet Union can arguably be called left wing conservatives.

[–] yabbadabaddon@lemmy.zip -1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I'd argue they were totalitarian and not conservative. The funny thing about Totalitarianism is that it does not really care about being left or right and seems to share the same values : https://news.emory.edu/stories/2021/09/esc_left_wing_authoritarians_psychology/campus.html

[–] BanMeFromPosting@hexbear.net 4 points 4 days ago

Totalitarianism is a made up word by a CIA stooge (who was an actual anti-Semite, before the word lost all meaning) cooked up to draw parallels between the USSR and Nazi Germany so as to propagate red scare propaganda.
In Hannah Arendt analysis it does not matter for what purpose the tools of state power are utilised, merely that they are utilised. It does not matter if the state has broad support from the population, all that matters is that the state acts. This is an infantile worldview.
The word itself is without any meaning beyond "descriptor of enemy state". Any definition is either so broad as to describe every nation-state or so narrow that it could just be replaced with the name of the state one is trying to foster fear of.

[–] gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 4 days ago

Not really no, closest is a Moderate Conservative, which is just any conservative with a leaning towards the center

[–] bouh@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I am of the opinion that green are very often left wing conservatives.

[–] super_user_do@feddit.it 2 points 4 days ago

I thought they were communists 

[–] GregorGizeh@lemmy.zip -4 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Not on lemmy, where being left means you have to absolutely and entirely go along with whatever the others feel should be a leftist belief. Purity tests all day every day, followed up by literal campaigns and concerted efforts by other "leftists" against the offending people.

See the whole online boycott war being fought against .ml because the owners ran afoul of something. Lemmy is just as stupid as other social media but has a different demographic, which makes it at least for the time being more palatable.

A "conservative" leftist would probably be someone who generally agrees on economic theory but has a less open and progressive view towards social issues such as marriage rights or immigration.

[–] yabbadabaddon@lemmy.zip 7 points 4 days ago (1 children)

What you define is segregation : a society where progress benefits me, but not you, because you are different.

[–] GregorGizeh@lemmy.zip 0 points 4 days ago (1 children)

What i define is how most actually socialist or communist countries of the past were organized though. See for example the GDR, socially just as conservative as most other countries at the time; to the point that the formerly GDR part of germany is now a breeding ground for far right political power.

My point is not that socially conservative ideas have merit, but that they are not inherently ideologically incompatible with wanting a not-capitalist economy. And that we do ourselves little good by constantly falling back into the old leftist trope of never being able to achieve political power because everyone only agrees on like, 90% of issues.

[–] yabbadabaddon@lemmy.zip 6 points 4 days ago

You are mixing a lot of things here : capitalist vs anti capitalist regime is not this same as progressive/conservative politics.

If you believe social progress should benefit only you and not me, you are not progressive.

And I'd like to point out that all regimes you mention are not different from any other : they all had a ruling class. This is, again, not progressive.

And as I pointed out in an other comment: studies suggest that Totalitarianism is not about left or right, because they use the same concepts to validate their ideologies.

[–] Calfpupa@lemmy.ml 5 points 4 days ago

Damn you're hilarious, any more jokes in there?