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.
Frankly, I think the Professional Managerial Class is more of an impediment to progress in the US. They're content with having 25-80% more than their peers, and thus will happily unite with the petite bourgeoisie to punch downwards at any progressive reforms.
The billionaires are the real problem. Targeting anyone else is just a distraction.
They are, but if you're only focused on one element, without seeing the whole picture, than any solution is temporary at best.
It's not just that billionaires are bad, their existence is a symptom of a larger broken system. And within that same broken system are millions of cogs that perpetuate and solidify the system's processes. So without addressing the Professional Managerial Class and petite bourgeoisie's complicity, the system would simply create more billionaires after enough time has passed.
To say that these other elements are "a distraction" is dismissive of larger root problems. So consider that your perspective is too narrow.
Bourgeois is the characteristic of the middle class.
Bourgeoisie is the middle class itself.
The Aristocracy is the class that controls most governments.
that's not the Marxist definition most leftists use
During the time of Marx, the bourgeoisie was keeping the proletariat down.
Now, the bourgeoisie has become smaller and less influential.
Our oppressors are the aristocrats.
More like plutocrats. Aristocrats would be the nobel left after the fall of monarchies. Plutocrats are the rich corporate elite.
Or just go with the umbrella term: Oligarchs.
Facebook memes... nice.