this post was submitted on 02 Nov 2024
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Lefty Memes

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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).


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The only dangerous minority is the rich.


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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.



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[–] webghost0101@sopuli.xyz 25 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (4 children)

If you are an American and not a Harris votes, what do you expect will happen to political power in the next year?

Are peacefully voting against a dictator, general strikes and forcefully guillotining the bourgeoisie all mutually exclusive?

[–] krolden@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 weeks ago

What political power?

[–] EABOD25@lemm.ee 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

You're not wrong, but it was a difficult vote because all she lobbies for is "The Middle Class". Like I don't give a rat's balloon knot about the middle class. What about people who are stuck in a lower tax bracket trying to get a house? What about those same people trying to get enough money to save so their children can be in a higher tax bracket. Dem reps are throwing "Middle Class" around like they're an unrepresented minority, and haven't said anything about lower Class people that are having to live paycheck to paycheck because of inflation and shit peasant pay.

[–] webghost0101@sopuli.xyz 10 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

I propose that once Kamala officially assumes the position and we can ignore demented Hitler again we do our best to yeet her straight back out the Whitehouse.

We have to start getting actually mad, but in such a way where we keep thinking clearly and do not expose ourselves to emotional manipulation.

[–] EABOD25@lemm.ee 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

No. Don't yeet her out, but lobbying, absolutely. We as Americans need to start pushing OUR representatives to do what WE want. The official middle-class annual income is around $54K - $161K. Huge window, and those numbers are obviously embellished because it's claimed those numbers make up 50% of Americans. 11% of the percentage left over is poverty level, lower Class is 29%, and the rest is upper or upper-middle class.

So 41% of Americans can't or struggle affording the American Dream.

Now, let's look at tax brackets (which socially in America is what really defines your class)

$0-$11,000 essentially means you're homeless or in prison $11,001-$44,275 means you're impoverished $44,276-$95,375 is lower Class $95,376-182,100 is lower-middle class $182,101-231,250 is middle class $231,251-$578,125 is upper-middle class $578,126 and up is upper class.

So in substance, there are 7 tax brackets that represent "all" of the American people. When they say "Middle Class," they include all of the tax brackets that include the word "middle" and take the higher ends of lower-class. So they are embellishing the numbers to make it look like the majority is being spoken for, but what they're actually doing is fudging statistical numbers to try and cover the "majority" of Americans in 3 tax brackets.

Edit: Forgot resources

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/09/16/are-you-in-the-american-middle-class/#:~:text=We%20use%20your%20size%2Dadjusted,to%20be%20considered%20middle%20class.

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2024/07/22/salary-needed-to-be-middle-class-in-largest-us-cities.html

https://www.irs.gov/filing/federal-income-tax-rates-and-brackets

[–] webghost0101@sopuli.xyz 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

You appear much more knowledged about taxes then i am.

What way can a laymen worker lobby effectively?

[–] EABOD25@lemm.ee 2 points 2 weeks ago

Proportional taxes, inflation defense, lower credit standards. My wife and I live in the lower-class bracket. We have been trying to move to a different state, and even with a credit score within the standards, the missing pre req is a standard income. Since my VA disability is tax-free, it is not supposed to be registered for income, and if one person uses that as their primary income, It's shown that one spouse has zero income and that the other spouse is paying an amount that's shows that income is hemorrhaging

[–] alsaaas@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 weeks ago

no one ever said anything about boycotting the vote. If you think trying to curb unconditional support for genocide equals Trump, that's on you. Ofc one should vote blue in a swing state, but don't act like it's a good thing that'll fix anything. Strategic and conscious voting may be necessary but is by far nor enough political action

[–] shadowfax13@lemmy.ml -1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

sigh, it’s not about trump. its about dnc wanting to get a free pass on genocide, inflation and they seem to be getting away with it. everyone wanting them to compromise on humanitarian crisis in gaza has been labelled tankie, russian troll.

candidates usually over-promise and underdeliver. and here we are being given shit so what do you think will happen when harris gets elected and says america has voted for the genocide, fracking, wall and more corporate greed ?

we should just bend over now when we have the leverage ?

[–] GuyDudeman@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago

What leverage?

[–] chaos@beehaw.org 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

"The leverage" to do what exactly? Put in someone who will be way worse? How does that help the left accrue power or accomplish our goals? If you think the Democratic Party's takeaway from the left tanking a major election will be "we need to move left more" I have a bridge to sell you. We are not a majority, which means we need to form coalitions. We can't do that with a reputation of blowing up everyone's shit when we don't get our way. We do it by showing how successful the party is when they listen to us and include us. No, this time we don't have a particularly left candidate to vote for. Yes, it all sucks. But I have yet to see a concrete explanation of how picking or allowing "far right fascist" over "moderate" has any benefit in the short or long term. To my eyes, it just causes vulnerable people here and around the world to suffer.

[–] shadowfax13@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

We are not a majority, which means we need to form coalitions.

forget majority but the entirety of dnc voter base is against genocide, that didn’t stop them from doing it and now declaring in the campaign they will continue it. they are ok with loosing the election than even discuss it. they are not leaders but employees of lobbyists who care more about toeing company policy than winning the election.

from two party it has now become one party two candidates system.