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.
ik that Biden isn't re-running, but Kamala is basically the same from the macro pov
The high horse you've chosen to mount will get us more genocide and a whole host of new issues for queer people and people of color. Nobody will be giving you moral brownie points for allowing that to happen.
Is your moral grandstanding worth the lives it'll cost?
If you don't like Trump then you should be begging Harris to act like she wants to get elected. Chastising voters because they don't like your candidate is only going to make them dig in their heels.
Thanks for saying this. All she has to do is say that it is illegal and immoral to kill innocents, and she will work to reign Israel in on this.
If Israel can't get rid of Hamas without committing state terrorism, they they just have to fucking stop.
You're the one arguing in support of a situation where innocent people are dying right now. If killing based on group identity is wrong, as you say, then this is wrong.
This isn't an either/or situation. We don't have to sacrifice Palestinians (and Lebanese, and any other groups of civilians who become involved because Israel decides to do so) - including queer and of colour members of those communities - for our own safety.
And, if this is an either/or situation, we do need to allow people in a far-off country to die for our safety: fuck it. I don't deserve to be safe more than them. Take my safety and kill me. The human world is not one I want to live in any longer, if we must sacrifice innocents in one country just because of the accident of their birth.
As you said elsewhere:
You clearly can't reconcile the equivalent idea that people have to be killed just because of where they are. People should not be targeted with violence because they are queer, because they are of colour, or because they are in Palestine, Lebanon, or a similar country. Right?
Because of how First Past The Post voting works, it is an either/or situation. It's just how the math works out. Democrats splitting their votes across multiple candidates means their influence is divided by the same amount. Republicans effectively have zero division in their party, so Democrats can't afford to not vote for Kamala if they don't want Trump to get more people killed.
I understand being disgusted by the lack of options, but the fact of the matter is you can prevent Trump from making it worse. Or you can sit on your ass while Trump gets more people killed.
No, I cannot.
Then stand by and watch him increase the death toll you claim to care about.
I'll vote for the candidate who wants a cease-fire, rather than let the one who wants Israel to "win" get into office.
I would definitely vote for a candidate who committed to pushing through a cease-fire, if I could vote. And if that person wasn't Trump, because he'd be lying. And he wouldn't say that anyway, because it's not macho enough.
Is your relative safety worth the lives of thousands of Palestinians? You seem to think so. But always remember - "pragmatic" support for the "lesser evil" isn't going to result in less genocide - it just teaches them exactly how many atrocities you're willing to accept.
When you tell politicians they can bomb any country, support any ethnic cleansing, and expand any war while still getting your vote as long as they wave a rainbow flag - you're not preventing fascism, you're just giving it a differently colored stamp of approval.
The fact that you think "moral brownie points" are even part of the discussion only shows you view the lives of people as nothing more than a political tool.
And look, if your moral framework tells you to vote blue - vote blue - but don't let that be the end of it - go out and risk losing your freedom before there's no-one left to risk theirs to save yours.
Which of the two choices in the US presidential election aren't supporting a genocide?
Does your not voting for Harris end the genocide?
This is my take. The U.S. government has already decided that it is going to support genocide. This topic is not up for a vote in 2024, the American public (i.e. voters) do not have the option of voting "no genocide please."
We really need some reform to our election system, because when the 2 parties both decide they want something we are railroaded. We need to get rid of the Electoral College and have ranked-choice or some other form of voting that makes 3rd party candidates viable.
I'm not just talking about our safety, I'm talking about the lives of Palestinians.
Nobody on the left likes FPTP or anything else about our voting system, and we all know it's bullshit, but this is what we have to work with. The moral brownie points you seem to be after won't be found by crossing your arms and allowing Republicans to pour gasoline on the fire, and no amount of Democrats doing the same will outweigh the political BS that influenced the party to fund a genocide in the first place.
Is your moral grandstanding worth risking more lives in Palestine (in addition to all of the issues it'll introduce for our own marginalized citizens)?
Again, vote for the lesser evil - just don't forget they're evil and even after the election cycle is over continue to employ direct action to force the complicit ruling class into actually doing something - instead of being able to rely on "vote blue no matter who" voters to get elected year after year while they're slowing sliding to the right trying to win over conservatives.