this post was submitted on 02 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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cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/7527794

average conspiracy cycle when it’s actually real

https://xcancel.com/i/status/2018074567395119477

all 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old

Sometimes it happens on a scale of months, youre proven right on a quarter, then on half, and you beg them to take any precaution against that last 25%.

[–] Pajonk@szmer.info 10 points 1 day ago

Don't get me wrong, but you have to live under a rock, or be very hard indoctrinated by USA imperialistic propaganda, to ignore all the facts, movies, stories, unclassified documents.

Everyone knows what CIA did, from black community to left wing and regular people in the USA, and everyone in the rest of the world.

We know, that this type of agencies, no matter is it from USA, China, Russia, Europe, or any other place, will do very shitty things, to gain political or economic power. And it's some sort of normal for this type of organizations. Not normal is thinking that police is here to protect regular people, or the government agencies are here to protect your freedom. Read the history book, most of this type of agencies, was formed to

a) invigilate and ruin workers/revolutionaries/rebel fronts, b) to direct arrest, and remove opponents of whoever is in power.

The same story all over the world.

[–] canofcam@lemmy.world 16 points 1 day ago

And people will still continue that 'Conspiracy theorists are nutjobs' rhetoric.

Yes, don't get me wrong, believing that there are lizard people or aliens pulling the strings is questionable. But when somebody points at something highly suspicious and says, "hey, look at this, isn't that weird?" if your first response is, "go get your tinfoil hat" then you're being closeminded. So much in the Epstein files was called years and years ago, and even today people are reluctant to believe it.

[–] AntiBullyRanger@ani.social 8 points 1 day ago

Fav one: “who cares boomer!”

[–] jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 22 points 1 day ago (1 children)

People are emotionally driven. Admitting something scary is more emotionally taxing than pretending it's fake.

Then that's just a tool for the biggest asshole in the room to use.

[–] Digit@lemmy.wtf 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Yup.

[Edit: PS, while seeing this post, I happen to be playing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evCh28gVap8 ]

[–] LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net -2 points 1 day ago (2 children)
[–] unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 45 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

I mean basically everything bad ever right? Coups and proxy wars all over the world, spying on everyone, torturing, human trafficking, drug experiments, assassinations, mass murder, etc.

[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 22 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Color revolutions. Tunesia, Bahrain (thanks Hilary), now Iran.

[–] LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net -3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Can you point to relevant documents? I have heard of involvement in coups but I have not heard anything about them being behind so-called color revolutions, which I believe is a dangerous made up word used to justify imperialist repression against dissidents and protesters.

Some on the right are now referring to the current events in Minnesota as a color revolution, and I believe this is a result of our lack of criticism of this very dubious term.

[–] Juice@midwest.social 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net -2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Well I am using the term as distinct from a coup. A coup is when a small circle of power holders (usually but not always the military) seize power without the involvement of the masses.

When people talk about color revolutions in my experience, it's usually an attempt to smear popular uprisings as being artificially created by some hostile foreign power. To my knowledge, such a thing has never happened. This is because it's far more difficult to motivate the thousands or even millions of people needed to take such actions. You can't simply pay them off or order them the way you can with a handful of generals.

The Shah was put in power in one of many coups supported or orchestrated by the US. But I would not describe it as a color revolution because there was little involvement of the general public. It was a struggle between elite factions.

[–] Juice@midwest.social 16 points 1 day ago

No, it was exactly a color revolution.

Roosevelt quickly seized control of the Iranian press by buying them off with bribes and circulating anti-Mossadegh propaganda. He recruited allies among the Islamic clergy

And the Wikipedia for Operation Ajax:

In August 2013, the U.S. government formally acknowledged the U.S. role in the coup by releasing a bulk of previously classified government documents that show it was in charge of both the planning and the execution of the coup. According to American journalist Stephen Kinzer, the operation included false flag attacks, paid protesters, provocations, the bribing of Iranian politicians and high-ranking security and army officials, as well as pro-coup propaganda.

So I guess you're saying that a truly popular uprising, like a spontaneous movement of the people orchestrated by the an imperial power has never happened? How narrowly do you need to define your definition, like, what evidence would convince you? I think your "its never happened" is an over correction, out of annoyance with online ML default talking points. And that's understandable, they can be ridiculous. But where an online ML misapplies the label of a color revolution to a popular uprising, the opposite of that is not the truth. And practically, declaring the opposite of an untruth to be the truth is not the best way to combat misinformation.

Idk how practical it is to nitpick this in our current struggles. Like the tea party was kind of an inside job, right? The right wing funded, and continues to fund, a bunch of loonies to attack liberal democracy, directly connected to Koch money, which continues to fund the Heritage foundation and project 2025. Hell, it even appears that Epstein and collaborators had something to do with 4 Chan and Qanon, so the January 6th attack was heavily influenced by private capital with government connections in intelligence in the USA and Israel.

Also its not like Radio Free Asia was just some hobby amongst people interested in liberating their own countries, they are concerted efforts to sway public opinion toward outcomes favorable to the US. Why would they waste the resources if there wasnt a popular component needed to affect real change? Were we just wasting time and resources?

At what point does a corporation capable of affecting public policy, like an oil company (relevant in every example), when they fund protestors, or counter protesters, how do you slice that? Was it like 3 months ago when a bunch of old Mexican business people donned one piece shirts, and protested the social democratic policies of Mexico's president Sheinbaum, using Trumpian talking points like resistance to cartels? If those business leaders or organizers had any connection to US intelligence, how does that figure? Or with the numerous failed coups in Venezuela, where the US declared Juan Guaido president? The US verifiably had connections with Venezuelan businesses and right wing leaders in orchestrating capital strikes and various economic attacks against the people.

If we crush the economy of a country and that causes a popular uprising, how does that figure? Does that ever happen completely absent of mass propaganda? I dont think so.

Like its very messy and amorphous, constantly changing and shifting dynamics, I think you're being too hard and fast with how you want to categorize, or decategorize, a color revolution. And the reason is kinda silly. To me its like youre saying that because (almost) everything is an op, then absolutely nothing is. Not a single tankie gets owned by being a different stripe of wrong, and certainly no one is educated. Campism creates as many enemies of a cause as it creates allies, because truth isnt weighed according to facts but by opposition to the other.

If you want to defeat tankies, or any political sect, you have to out-organize them, not steelman or debate. So it's not even a very practical position.

[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That you would accept, or even consider? I doubt it. If you are sincere, there is an article on prolewiki.

[–] Shatur@lemmy.ml 14 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Their operations become somewhat declassified after X years (I don't remember the exact number, but there is law for it). You can see many of their documents on the CIA website. For example, the Aerodynamic operation.