this post was submitted on 05 May 2025
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Lefty Memes
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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
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)
0.5 [Provisional Rule] Use alt text or image descriptions to allow greater accessibility
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.
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.
- 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
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Marx never got to see socialism implemented. When discussing its implementation, he is not a good source. When discussing the issues of capitalism, he is great. This absolutist, primitive thinking on the matter only serves the bourgeoisie.
I really don't think you've engaged much with Marx if you think the fundamental distinctions between Capitalism and Socialism have changed to the point of calling systems thoroughly dominated by Private Property "more Socialist than Capitalist." Marx called this Social Democracy "Conservative Socialism," or "Bourgeois Socialism:"
His analysis is still on the nose for Social Democracy, where worker protections are sliding, and the system itself reliant on exploiting the Global South.
That's Marx's conclusion. Again, he did not see what happened in the 20th century and revolutionary socialism failed catastrophically. We will not get the chance to try that again. Cry into your copy of Capital all you want.
Socialism exists in forms that are not pure. Every co-op is socialism existing within capitalism. And they are worth celebrating their successes. Instead of adhering to some rigid doctrine that has failed to make any sustained progress for two centuries now.
Revolutionary Socialism hasn't failed catastrophically, there are still Socialist states and more are cropping up. And further, I already acknowledged that there's no such thing as a "pure" system, Cuba for example has private property in a limited fashion. It's still Socialist, because the large firms and key industries are public.
As for cooperatives, they aren't anything in and of themselves. In the context of a Capitalist economy, they are a little cooperative bit of the overall Capitalist pie, they still rely on Capitalist infrastructure, Capitalist aquisition of raw materials, and consumers who gain their wages from Capitalist jobs. It's certainly a better form of organization for those who can find or start one, but to give it the descriptor for a broad system is devoid of context.
Marxism absolutely isn't rigid, it's seen success in many countries and continues to get developed and iterated. This is why I say you haven't actually engaged with Marx, your criticisms of Marxism are criticisms of a strawman. You could do with reading some of the works listed in the post body, I recommend Critique of the Gotha Programme, I think you'll find it relevant.