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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I mean, we can make up buzz words all day if you want. Toxic solidarity. Class confusion. Stockholm solidarity. But the important thing is that people learn that solidarity should only be for your economic class or you're a dingus
Ah I think either I missed your point completely or you missed my point a bit.
Buzzwords are the entire vector used in delivering the message.
My question boils down to: Why use inefficient propaganda? Just because an old book used a particular phrase?
Memes are propaganda, and all I'm trying to say is that this could be done a very tiny bit better.
Giving up on the languages used is essentially giving up on the people who you want on your side... Isn't it?
As for your last point, I appear to be a dingus! Lol, what do you mean by "solidarity should only be for your economics class"?
Does the truth of a matter hold no value unless it gets shit done? Like, is your angle that it doesn't matter whether the feeling is real or not, so long as it's not productive to "our" (but who is we/our/etc all that pedantic bs etc etc) goals, it's justified in being called false? And if that is your position, does that not alienate people who have particularly strict measures for what constitutes something as true vs false/how would that be justified? (Then again, if I've mistaken what you meant by that line, this entire bit will probably make no sense, so if it seems like I'm way off base, please feel absolutely free to just ignore this whole section lol I like talking but not fighting, but I worry I may not come off that way here... So apologies in advance if that is the case)
When speaking of solidarity, it's a short form of saying class solidarity. So, true solidarity would be a member of the working class standing in solidarity with other members of the working class. When you see billionaires supporting the decisions of other billionaires they're showing solidarity for the bourgeois class. It's a term intended to spread and support class consciousness.
I understand your point on buzzwords, but sometimes vibes are more important than the semantics. But these is an Internet meme, not a political campaign. If you want to spread your buzzwords around, go ahead, they seem fun. But the vibes in this meme would remain the same if you swap false out with a better word. The intent is to teach members of the working class that supporting the bourgeois class is stupid.
As well as not letting the bourgeois define your preferences and ideals of what makes a good life, consuming the aesthetic of luxury/opulence etc. so you can experience some false sense that you aren't actually working class.
Also recognizing the opposite, when working class aesthetics are appropriated by the bourgeois.