Lefty Memes
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
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.
- 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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... Doesn't help that it described fascism as well.
I mean that's, like, literally their name
I honestly don't see how literally all politics don't boil down to "apes together strong".
Some of them have smart apes manipulating the rest to use their strength against their own interest. Some of them have apes going together using their strength to enforce things we don't agree with, like racist tribalism/nationalism. But it's all a matter of people cooperating to enforce and otherwise enable what they think they need to, to meet their goal.
Isnt anarchism more scattered and small groups of people fighting one another over power?
Thats what I imagine when I hear anarchism
And that's very unfortunate that that's the most common perception of anarchism, because all anarchist theory focuses on how cooperation beats competition. The "anarchy" in the name means that nobody has rule over someone else, but rather all members voluntarily help one another because it's the most efficient and safest way of living.
But what about bad actors? Surely anarchists believe, that there are "bad people" who want personal gain/wealth/possessions by stealing or through fraud for example?
So then there needs to be a (central) authority who can make enforce rules, even if they are trivially "natural" or democratically validated.
And for that authority to do their job, they need authority over other people. The ability to lock a appartment up to investigate a murder for example. Or maybe even search a house of a alleged criminal.
Or is all of that just the capitalistic way of dealing with things and there is an other way? Or do anarchists believe that problems of that kind wont exist in their utopia?
If there is a bad tone, Im sorry, not a native speaker and I am not trying to argue in bad faith.
Edit: Thats kind of the thing about the intersection of anarchism and feminism I find curious. (In my city I see stickers like "feminists for anarchism" or "anarchy: ..., ..., and feministic")
And at the same time feminists want a stronger percicution (sorry) and punishment for sexualized crime, better institutional protection in labour-law and so on. In my view all things that are only achiveable with "more government", or at least better government/laws and certainly not with less government/rules/authorities.
That is a big question which I am sadly not equiped enough to answer adequately, as I have not invested that much time into anarchist works. What I can give is an example from Kropotkin's book "Mutual Aid":
He mentions how in village societies every dispute was treated as a comunal affair. If no resolution could be found, the case was brought to a group of people (can't remember specifically how they were chosen), and they would pass a verdict and resolution. The disputing parties could then either accept the verdict, or they would be excluded from the community. By excluded I mean that they would not enjoy the hospitality and aid of other members, and would thus have to leave the community. So if you are deemed a problematic member and won't change accordingly, nobody would exert power over you, you would just cease to be a part of the community. Obviously if someone got violent, self-defence would be acceptible.
As for feminism, I know that there is a thing called "anarcha feminism", but I don't know any details.
Thanks, sounds interesting altho on first impression it doesn't seem too viable to mee. It reminds me if the "jury" some countries have, where a group of people decide, what to do with a alleged problematic person. Am not too sure thats the best way to do it.
And also the "I am not angry, just disappointed" vibe and love-starving seems a bit odd.
It seems hard to imagine in todays world. But maybe on a local level? In Switzerland we have communal-discussions and votes as local legislation, the other two state powers on communal level are elected. Thats enough politics for most people.
It's a question Anarchists in general can't answer. But they can make some shit up, hope to get a chance to give it a go, and fail miserably some day though.
So many ways to exploit weak cunts. Just threaten them, show up in force, take what you want, do fucking whatever. See where they snap and where they'll bend. Abuse their weaknesses.