this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2024
379 points (92.0% liked)

Lefty Memes

4355 readers
404 users here now

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

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)

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.

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

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
alsaaas@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Flatworm7591@lemmy.dbzer0.com
squid_slime@lemm.ee
379
Abolish capitalism (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 months ago by return2ozma@lemmy.world to c/leftymemes@lemmy.dbzer0.com
46 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Flatworm7591@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

MLs have been predicting the "inevitable" collapse of capitalism for a century now. When can we expect some progress? :p

You can’t get change just by getting people to agree with you, otherwise America would have Ranked Choice Voting, Medicare for All, free public College education, and legalized weed and abortion nationwide.

I think this is great point. In spite of majority public support for issues like these, it's seemingly impossible to get either party to take action. That's not how healthy democracies are supposed to work. I'd probably agree that public support is a pre-requisite for change, but it's not always sufficient. If the public want something and the government don't agree (say, over suspending arms shipments to Israel), what can the public actually do about it? Really nothing, other than disruptive protests or taking direct action to physically stop the shipments. And then it's obvious what would happen to the protestors.

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 months ago

MLs have been predicting the "inevitable" collapse of capitalism for a century now. When can we expect some progress? :p

I mean, regardless of what anyone individually or collectively wills, disparity is rising, wages are stagnating with respect to productivity, and enshittification is continuing. The logic and math behind Capitalism's unsustainability hasn't changed. Monopoly and Financial Capital are growing ever-more grotesque and are crushed under their own weight in search of endless growth. The fact that the US hasn't collapsed yet doesn't mean it hasn't been working towards that collapse.

I think this is great point. In spite of majority public support for issues like these, it's seemingly impossible to get either party to take action. That's not how healthy democracies are supposed to work. I'd probably agree that public support is a pre-requisite for change, but it's not always sufficient. If the public want something and the government don't agree (say, over suspending arms shipments to Israel), what can the public actually do about it? Really nothing, other than disruptive protests or taking direct action to physically stop the shipments. And then it's obvious what would happen to the protestors.

That's why the Owenites and Utopian Socialists all failed. They thought they could just convince everyone of a better path, and that it would magically appear and form around them.