this post was submitted on 24 May 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)


0.5 [Provisional Rule] Use alt text or image descriptions to allow greater accessibility


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.


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:

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[–] [email protected] 95 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Sure, but if you can and don’t vote for Biden it means you’re at least ok with Trump.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 10 months ago (2 children)

No, it means I'm not ok with genocide but you are.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 10 months ago (1 children)

You have two options:

  • Ok with genocide. Otherwise relatively progressive. Has passed major important legislation.
  • Ok with genocide. Wants to be a dictator. Appointed half of the Supreme Court majority that took away women’s right to abortion. Will probably strip more rights if elected. Cut taxes on the wealthy and will probably do it again.

You can throw away your vote, but come inauguration, you will have a president who is ok with genocide.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 10 months ago (6 children)

But I will not have voted for one of them. But you will have and the blood will be on your hands.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 10 months ago (3 children)

You have an abysmally stupid sense of morality.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I think some of these people have to be trolls. We're basically in the trolley problem where the trolley is headed for 100,000 people, and if you pull the lever it will only kill 1. You can't abstain from pulling the lever and act like you're completely innocent of the deaths of the masses.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

That’s an awful lot of trolls.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

the trolley problem tests you ethical framework, it does not have a prescribed solution. your answer to it helps you understand your own approach. deontologists never pull the lever.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

If you truly oppose genocide. You should be plotting a coup against the US executive branch.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

We don’t know they aren’t.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

How is being against a genocide immoral?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (2 children)

If your morality prioritizes staunch adherence to standards over harm reduction, you have a stupid sense of morality.

It’s the kind of morality where someone would rather let a child die than push them out of the way of a speeding car, simply because pushing them would harm them.

Your morality should lead you to making decisions that result in the least harm. Look at it this way: if all of the people who voted third party instead of Hillary because Hillary wasn’t [insert moral standard here] enough had sucked it up and voted for Hillary, access to abortion would still be legal nationwide. (This assumes enough people to get her elected voted third party over moral objections.)

Trump is the worst president in my life time, by a huge margin, and he’s even more in favor of genocide than Biden, demonstrably. So if your sense of morality causes you to help put him in charge of our country again, in my mind, you’re a fucking moron.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (7 children)

I’m not talking about drug harm reduction. I’m talking about the reduction of harm. Put another way, aiming to reduce the amount of harm your actions lead to.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Rebellion? I don't like hearing such a word from you," Ivan said with feeling. "One cannot live by rebellion, and I want to live. Tell me straight out, I call on you--answer me: imagine that you yourself are building the edifice of human destiny with the object of making people happy in the finale, of giving them peace and rest at last, but for that you must inevitably and unavoidably torture just one tiny creature, that same child who was beating her chest with her little fist, and raise your edifice on the foundation of her unrequited tears--would you agree to be the architect on such conditions? Tell me the truth."
"No, I would not agree," Alyosha said softly.
"And can you admit the idea that the people for whom you are building would agree to accept their happiness on the unjustified blood of a tortured child, and having accepted it, to remain forever happy?"
"No, I cannot admit it.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky — The Brothers Karamazov

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Ok cool. Your choice is between genocide, and genocide but worse. You can proclaim how righteous and moral you are that all the pain everyone around you is feeling is not your fault, because you merely threw your vote away, but that won’t change the outcome, and it won’t make you anything but a moron.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

It’s my fault Biden won’t declare his intentions to stop the genocide. I’m to blame everybody. My vote has doomed us all. The horror.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

“And can you admit the idea that the people for whom you are building would agree to accept their happiness on the unjustified blood of a tortured child, and having accepted it, to remain forever happy?”

"No, I cannot admit it."

Dostoevsky never met American liberals lol.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 10 months ago (2 children)

But then if Trump wins because you didn’t vote for either, then you’re ok with Genocide+ rather than Genocide light. Meaning you have to vote for the lesser of the two evils if no matter what you do the majority are voting for the only two who are likely to win.

You’re either incredibly stupid, a troll, or are being obstinate on purpose.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Genocide light? Seriously?!? If the other guy is stupid, you are stupid+

There is no democracy if you are supporting genocide. There is no election worth voting on if the outcome is same fucking fascist, just with different colored flags. And don’t give me the lie how you’re gonna do something about a ‘genocide light’ if your guy is elected. Fuck off

This whole country needs to stop sucking Kissinger’s dick and change this bloodthirsty, greedy fascist system.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Ask the people in Gaza what they think about "Roe got overturned".

After all said and nothing done, we are paying for those bullets that murder their children by accepting and even promoting a system that gives us braindead mouthpieces for weapon manufacturers to vote for.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Vote for whomever you want, or not vote. Make your own decision, stop letting others make the decision for you.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Why do you think I’m upset that you are voting for Biden? You should vote for whomever you want. I’m voting for genocide Joe and I understand the implications of that. What I won’t do is plead with others to do the same. It is their choice, not mine. I understand why someone would vote for Biden. But , I also understand others have different priorities and material interests. Forcing, or shaming others to vote your choice is not democratic… it’s authoritarian. And isn’t that what we wish to prevent?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

I’m an American, I’ve been drowning in piss my whole life. You want me to hate you for voting for Biden, even though he is helping a genocide. I won’t, because I understand you have your reasons. Or you want me to hate others because they won’t vote for Biden, because he’s helping a genocide. I’m not gonna do that either, because I support their cause.

Your anger is better directed at the institutions that allowed us to arrive at this juncture.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

November is quite cold where I’m at, we like to go hiking or skiing. Or staying in and watching movies. A nice dinner with friends? I hope I gave you at least one good idea what to do in November.

But you can go out and vote for a sociopath and genocide denier or for a racist rapist and when those clowns start killing and bombing some other people somewhere on the globe, you can just blame the Chinese or Icelanders for making you vote for a lesser evil…

Life’s good either way…

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Small problem. A person who is against genocide would not be okay with a genocide under Trump either, so why should they be okay with a genocide under Biden?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Did you even read anything I wrote.

The outcome of the election is going to be Trump or Biden. NOBODY ELSE IS GOING TO WIN.

So given that you have to choose the person less likely to escalate the situation, the saner one of the two.

I’m not saying it’s good I think it’s fucking abhorrent, but there is no choice.

To be abundantly clear about my stance on Palestine. I am out every weekend protesting in solidarity with Palestine. I am spreading awareness of the issue wherever I can and I am taking direct action against the companies that support the genocide.

Let me ask you this. What do you think is going to happen if you don’t vote?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (3 children)

If a genocide is going to occur regardless of the vote, then the vote doesn’t matter.

Let me ask you this. What do you think is going to happen if you don’t vote?

In regards to what? The genocide? Project 2025? Healthcare?

If people want to vote for Joe Biden to preserve LGBT and minority rights, that’s their choice. If someone wants to not vote for Biden because he is aiding in a genocide, that’s their choice.

It’s egotistical to think that my priorities are more important than others.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

The argument for voting against left-wing or socialist candidates on the grounds that they can’t win and are therefore helping the right wing into power has, of course, been a time-worn argument in the United States against bucking the two-party system. Engels, in an 1893 letter to an American colleague, pointed out that in the United States, the formation of a workers’ party is hindered by the "Constitution…which makes it appear as though every vote were lost that is cast for a candidate not put up by one of the two governing parties." isreview

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

If you don't vote against fascism, you allowed fascism.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Not voting is a vote for Trump.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

That’s not logical. So, if my choices are pizza or nuggies, and I choose neither. Then I chose nuggies? Make it make sense.

I may be intermittent fasting to lose weight, or rejecting imperialist capitalism.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

A tribe holds a vote to either cross a bridge to side A or stay on side B. Staying on side A means you won't have much food. Going to side B means you still won't have much food, but also most of the food is poisonous.

Part of the tribe (Group C) says "I don't want to starve, I refuse to vote in a way that accepts malnourishment as a solution!" Group C also opposes eating poisonous food. This partial group votes to try and find a better source of food (option C).

48% of people vote A. 49% of people vote B. 3% of people vote C.

Surprise, surprise, Group C had 0 impact on the starving situation AND helped facilitate the eating of poisonous food.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (4 children)

Seems like more from the other Groups should have voted with C, or C shouldn’t have been given the option to find a better source for food.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

Cool, I'll give you a pass on the genocide, but you will still be as responsible as anyone who voted for Trump for all the other terrible things he said he will do that you are doing nothing to prevent.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 10 months ago (1 children)

If you're not ok with genocide you should vote against Donald "just nuke them" Trump.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I am going to. Who said I'm not?

[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago

Voting for anyone but Biden is the same as voting for Trump.