this post was submitted on 05 May 2025
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Lefty Memes

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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

Version without spoilers

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] Use alt text or image descriptions to allow greater accessibility


(Please take a look at our wiki page for the guidelines on how to actually write alternative text!)

We require 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.

(if you are reading the rules to apply for modding this community, mention "Mantic Minotaur" when answering question 2)


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.



  1. Absolutely no posts or comments meant to relativize(/apologize for), advocate, promote or defend:

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[–] masquenox@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 year ago (5 children)

If you think you can actually radicalise liberals you probably haven't tried talking to them during an election year.

It's much easier to de-extremify (or even radicalise) a fascist than a liberal, and the reason why is pretty clear to me now - liberals are far, far more invested in the maintenance of the status quo than the rank-and-file fascist is.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You can't radicalize a liberal during the worst fucking time to radicalize a liberal. Libs have their hearts in the right place but believe in the system, fascists understand the system is fucked and take the worst possible position in response. Fascists can be converted reasonably quickly but are much easier to convert back. Liberals need you to convince them, and it'll be slow, and they'll resist and they'll probably stay where you leave them.

I don't want the people more committed to radicalism nearly as much as I want the people more committed to ethics.

[–] masquenox@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 1 year ago

You can’t radicalize a liberal during the worst fucking time to radicalize a liberal.

So when is the correct time to radicalise them? When they're asleep? You know, like they are as long as there's a lib in the Waffle House?

Libs have their hearts in the right place but believe in the system

How can your heart be in the right place if you believe in the status quo?

Fascists can be converted reasonably quickly

I said it was easier - not quick.

Liberals need you to convince them

They can't be convinced - and that's not just my opinion.

they’ll probably stay where you leave them.

I'm afraid not - liberals are perfectly easy to reel back in. The very function of liberalism is to co-opt radical ideas and make them subservient to the status quo - to play the political carrot as opposed to the political stick (the latter being what they keep fascists around for).

I want the people more committed to ethics.

How can you trust people's ethics when they can be so easily convinced of that which is utterly unethical?

[–] MITM0@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago

They're smug too

[–] AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

"It's much easier to de-extremify (or even radicalise) a fascist than a liberal, and the reason why is pretty clear to me now - liberals are far, far more invested in the maintenance of the status quo than the rank-and-file fascist is."

This is super interesting to me, because it simultaneously challenges my assumptions while making intuitive sense. I don't have any experience trying to de-extremify a fascist, but what you describe feels plausible

[–] masquenox@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 1 year ago

There's a good reason why overtly fascist regimes rely on much, much more overt and direct forms of censorship than liberal ones - it is far easier to throw a spanner into the logic machinery.

The problem with liberals is that liberal propaganda starts making more and more sense the higher up in the working class' class structure you go - a well-to-do lawyer from an upper-working-class family is going to be far more invested in the capitalist status quo than a hot-dog salesperson who is struggling to pay the rent. The more invested somebody is in the status quo, the more their logic will shield them from critiques of said status quo. Where you sit is where you stand... like the German quote goes.

There's a distinct class thing going on here which we on the left has completely ignored - you can just hear it in the way liberals talk about people lower down the economic pecking order. Just see how upper-middle class folks talk about the "hillbillies" and "inbreds" that (supposedly) all voted for Trump.

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 0 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Every fascist is a fallen comrade the capitalists got to first with the wrong solution?

Horseshoe brainlessness aside, there are certainly quite a lot of the opposite, Marxist/anarchist scholars in America who ended up swerving hard right as they aged under Reaganism. It's pretty weird to me.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Moussilini was an anarchist activist first. But yes, some fascists are fallen comrades, but others very much aren't. The ones who really aren't love to bait the left so we waste our time on them instead of others who are more dedicated to change than cruelty

[–] djsoren19@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 year ago

I mean, horseshoe theory can be useful, if you look at it more as "status quo adherence vs dislike of the status quo." Whether you're on the left or the right, you agree that things right now are fucked and need to be fixed. From that stance, it's not surprising that you can break a Trumper's conditioning by turning their ire from the culture war to the oligarchs that puppeted them, but it's also not surprising that someone who was already against the status quo could fall for fascist propoganda.

[–] masquenox@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 1 year ago

Every fascist is a fallen comrade the capitalists got to first with the wrong solution?

Not every one... there are lots of utterly irredeemable people in the fascist rank-and-file. And there's no point in trying to differentiate which is which when they are marching down the street.

There is one thing that we on the left needs to take cogniscance of. The (so-called) "liberal democracies" we exist under only allows for the existence of two distinct ideologies - liberalism and fascism. It is only logical that when the one fails, people will attempt the other.