Lefty Memes
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] Try to use alt text or image descriptions to allow for greater accessibility
(Please take a look at our wiki page for the guidelines on how to actually write alternative text!)
We encourage 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.
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
view the rest of the comments
Why not loathe the existence of every nation state on earth? The worst religion is nationalism, and there is stiff competition.
ML discovers anarchism.
Spending time on Chinese social media has shown me platforms that read exactly like the garbage from the right wing talking heads here on Twitter. Extreme nationalist sentiment is very, very, common. I have seen soooo many memes expressing desire to just wipe out the Philippines, and just repopulate it with mainland Chinese. Memes about their eventual control over Africa, which uses surprisingly western racist stereotypes to portray Africans. So much discussion that mirrors MAGA like behavior, in many ways, but just discussing the greatness of China, instead. So many who, at least claim, to wholeheartedly believe revisionist, extremely idealized, versions of China's past, often including things that just are not physically possible. There is a lot of open talk about what China is going to do to so many of it's neighbors when it over takes the US, and NATO recedes from the region. I stopped going on their, because it was just becoming more, and more, X-China. Then my translator stopped using social media there, expect for work, as well, and now I just can't.
Friends of mine who have spent the past 20+ years living in China are reporting seeing more, and more, of it offline too, when politics was not something Chinese would publicly really talk about, especially to foreigners. However, especially in the past 10 years, they said their open expression of xenophobia, hardline nationalist sentiments, desire to take, and punish other countries, has become almost common in certain social spaces there, and it is worrying them. These people moved to China after studying Chinese language, culture, and history, for many years, including attending Chinese universities. They loved it there. Now they are talking about how it is sounding more, and more, like the rhetoric you get from flag wavers in the US.
So I do not trust China to maintain it's non-expansionism once NATO not longer controls so many of the waters around them. Nationalism is popular their, and the idea of finally taking revenge for the century of humiliation only grows.
It is so annoying to hear people prop up China or Russia and North Korea as these moral islands. There is no moral outpost in the world.
Right. China bad, I forgot. This isn't sinophobia at all.
Do you have anything else than anecdotal evidence? How much of a percentage of the Chinese social media can you scan for this type of ultra-nationalist and fascist content? There are like 1 billion people there.
China is a country which throw ethnic minorities into concentration camps and executes political prisoners. Workers are exploited to the point where they throw themselves off the roofs of factories. It's an entire society where the only way you can advance is by screwing the people below you.
So yeah, China is bad.
So you think the unhinged ramblings of an Austrian Christofascist have some kind of merit? That's all I'm getting from this comment.
You could win an Olympic gold medal with the leap in logic you just made.
Ok, find me a source for that assertion that isn't
...or his allies in the recognized terrorist group the ETIC or the US State Department.
I'll wait, knowing that no such source existed the last time I looked in to it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Uyghurs_in_China
https://www.hrw.org/reports/1994/china1/china_948.htm
I actually thought you were joking at first.
Edit: You understand me criticizing the CCP for human rights abuses does not automatically make me a Nazi, correct?
Lol. Wikipedia? Now i know you must be joking.
Go down to the "references" section and look at the sources they're citing. It's just a bunch of academics quoting each other quoting Adrian Zenz, who is categorically an Austrian Christofascist who has been lying about a genocide in Xinjiang since he first heard of the place in 2016, with a few scattered quotes from ETIC terrorists.
HRW is a privately funded (read: billionaire controlled) organization that is basing its assessment on the same debunked lies from Zenz and the ETIC.
But since that's obviously too deep for someone who thinks Wikipedia is a valid source, let's try it this way: the genocide in Gaza is being live streamed daily. Genocide in Sudan and elsewhere invariably produces a refugee crisis. If China is actually doing what Dr Zenz and his CIA handlers claim, where is the actual evidence? Where are the photos, videos, refugees, etc? You'll notice they always have the same three or four Uyghurs show up to testify, because those are the ones that have CIA handlers and can be relied on to push the right narrative.
Don't bother coming back with more pureile, vapid repetitions of the same nonsense, I won't bother coming back to refute it, just treat it as a rhetorical question. Do you genuinely believe China has become so advanced at information control that they've managed to pull off the first secret genocide in history? Or is it more likely that Zenz, the CIA, and the ETIC are lying?
While you chew on that, here's some food for thought:
Source: YouTube https://share.google/SKRcPUNM8oeGkFaO7
Edit: no, I don't think you're a Nazi, but I think you're exactly the kind of Liberal that Nazis love to have giving them cover.
Ahh, so you're a genocide apologist.
Yeah further conversation between us will not be productive, I agree.
Edit: Since you asked:
I think you're ignoring evidence because it conflicts with your ideology, yes.
You haven't presented any evidence. A wikipedia article and a Western NGO opinion piece are not sources. If you want to find a primary source please bring it to the table, but so far all you've done is repeat lies said by known liars with strong ideological incentive to slander China.
Hey I thought you said "I won't be coming back to refute it?" I guess you forgot the meaning of your own words. I, unlike you, actually do the things I say I'm going to do. I said this conversation is over - and it is. You know why? Because I do not debate conspiracy theory-riddled asshole wackaloons who apologize for genocide.
There was nothing to refute. I came back to point out that shitting all over the board and pretending you'd won isn't the same as winning, pigeon boy.
But you clearly are happy to carry water for conspiracy theory riddled theocrats who lie about genocide. Keep going through life believing that the US State Department is trustworthy. It will definitely not bite you on the ass at any point.
I don't give a shit what you're pointing out. I refuse to argue with genocide deniers.
Now I'm blocking you. Bye Bye.
P.S. If you really think the Ughur genocide is some kind of conspiracy theory invented by the west to make China look bad then you've got some serious mental problems. Wake up and smell the bullshit please.
WaKe Up aNd sMeLl ThE BuLlShIt!
As if you'd actually presented a shred of evidence that doesn't require believing known liars as a prerequisite.
"It is known"
Way ahead of you
Nice instance name 👍
I think most anarchists do exactly that. The obvious tension is that marxists want to replace one state with another, whereas anarchists would prefer not to swap one yoke for another.
Is there such thing as a Marxarchist? Lol. I read Marx, but don’t believe in swapping one ruler for another, or that one governing body is somehow magically morally above another.
Marxxxxanarchisting.
the most common strain of anarchism these days is anarchocommunism, which is by and large a movement that is defined by defiance of all hierarchy and broad agreement with Karl Marx on matters of economics as they apply to hierarchical violence
There is anarcho-Communism but Marx's philosophy is very state-centric, even if it does ultimately oppose the existence of a state.
If you've read Marx, I'd suggest reading the anarchist criticisms of him by Kropotkin, Proudhon, and Bakunin.
I’m not well-versed on those yet, so definitely piquing my interest. Thanks!
Conquest of Bread by Kropotkin is an absolute must read.
I actually started reading this a while back. This is a good reminder to go back to it.
Closest thing that comes to mind is autonomism
I do!
They're after my stuff?!