I've always been annoyed by all the country flags. I don't think any country should be represented on there and am not sure how the Nato flag is much worse. But unfortunately many people seem to be pretty patriotic :(
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,
as well as 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.
7. 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
(This is not a definitive list, the spirit of the other rules still counts! Eventual duplicates with other rules are for emphasis.)
They just do not have nothing else to be proud of.
NATO has a far-right historical context and does not exist out of that context. Like, nobody is from NATO, it's an Imperialist millitary alliance.
Well, countries are also just made up and serve to divide people. Not much better than the NATO...
I'd say 'no border no nation' and then we've also solved the problem of NATO!
Countries exist regardless, they are pockets of self-governance. NATO is an explicit defense alliance among the largest Imperialist Powers. In Star Wars, it's the Empire's military forces, it's a defense of the status quo against those under the thumb of Empire.
Sure, I can agree that the NATO is considerably worse than countries. I still think that there shouldn't be any country flags on spaces like this and that patriotism will always lead to nationalism and then to fascism.
Sure, I can agree with most of that. I think Nationalism is worse than Patriotism, and won't inherently lead to fascism, as fascism is more of a "turning back of the clock" to the "good old days." A flag of progress can be useful and good.
I drew the hungarian flag in EU, not for being patriotic to my country (It's disappointing to be hungarian) but for my love to EU.
the EU is just a (neo-) imperialist/colonialist block submissive to NATO
To clarify: I am very much in favour of a union of peoples, just not under the auspices of and in servitude to the rich
Well, we are indeed too reliant on the US, especially in military-related affairs, but at least NATO sorta provided a guaranteed safety from countries called Russia for example, even with some of NATO's controversial choices in the past (I haven't formed an opinion on the involvement in the Serbian-Croatian war yet, both sides have its merits). We will see how the independent European army plan will fruition.
i think it would be more symbolic to extend the rainbow peace flag over it.
Why do you keep trying to kill the heart between the flags with nato blue?
That's a much better idea!
Reminder: this is a meme community
Damn that’s really interesting how you aren’t calling this out on the hundred other meme communities using their comm to blatantly organize canvas activities right next to this post in the feed
This is the only one I saw on my all feed, clicked the community because I've not really paid attention to it and thought it was a funny pairing of pinned posts. If you don't see the irony, what are you even doing in a meme community.
Oooh... I see the "Liberals-Masquerading-As-Leftists" downvote brigade has been here.
I’ve been hit by them before. They dislike anything that points out that they’re part of the problem.
I really can't see how anyone considering themselves a Leftist could support NATO, let alone stan it to the point of personally identifying with it. Like, you don't in any way need to be a Marxist-Leninist, Anarchists hate NATO too. All it requires is an understanding of the historical role of NATO and opposition to the furthest reaches of Capitalism that form the primary contradiction of the modern era.
The folks over on NCD that stan NATO are an interesting bunch, it starts with a nerdy interest in military gear and history, and turns into outright fascism very quickly.
Any progressive should be against imperialism and imo it is a "mask off" moment which rly helps distinguishing between well meaning progressive libs and neoliberal posers
Agreed. I don't fault libs for not reading Lenin, but again, you don't need Lenin to understand the negative role NATO has played historically. Even well-intentioned non-Marxist, non-Anarchist liberals can deduce that NATO is the largest Imperialist military alliance in history.
To not only not recognize this, but to further support NATO, shows where your stances really reside.
So what's the alternative to combatting Russian and Chinese imperialism as a western-born leftist?
How would/should an organised socialist military industrial complex shake out and not also be labeled imperialist? As someone who hasn't read Lenin, what is the solution to creating a society we dream of without the "big stick" that is NATO?
Even well-intentioned non-Marxist, non-Anarchist liberals can deduce that NATO is the largest Imperialist military alliance in history.
Yes they can and do... and that's why liberals love NATO.
@onoira@lemmy.dbzer0.com had the much better idea of extending the prideflag over the imperialist stain!