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)
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.
- 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
view the rest of the comments
Isn't is funny how nobody collects the stuff from the Allies?
Only my grandparents stuff from when they kicked Nazi ass. They’d be horrified at todays bullshit.
I have WWII stuff from the allies, but it isn't even from the European parts of the war. From my grandfather. His father earned US citizenship by fighting in WWI.
You have inherited stuff, but do you collect and display it?
There actually is a pretty large WW2 Allied collector and reenactor community. I know a guy with a Jeep with a mounted quad MG.
Just don't ask too many questions about the other team.
I don't want to nitpick but plenty of historical gun owners love both sides weaponry and display both. Personally, I know a friend that owns a STG 44 and a ppsh and a tommy.
Collecting multiple kinds of guns is a bit different than collecting all of the other things that are clearly nazi branded propaganda. Having one or two guns isn't really collecting in the same way as having a bunch of nazi branded everyday use items with the red black and white swastika flag.
I'm not disagreeing that was my point. However the people who are in that hobby normally get other kit than just guns. What matters is how it's displayed.
Anyone displaying a swatstika anything that's a reproduction or new production item needs to get their head checked IMHO. I'm only ok with actual historic pieces from the era.
To be fair, it is more intriguing to collect the stuff of the objectively bad guy. A lot of it is like, it feels almost unbelievable, so nazi memorabilia helps ground that reality that, yes, it actually happened (and how it might have happened)
Of course there is nuance to this, though
Everyone loves an unterhund?
Probably just Axis being the driver of history at the moment.
It started there, and what Allies did is they put this down.
People tend to be more interested in what started the fire and what has let it burn; what has left a dent in history. Doesn't mean they lean to Nazi ideology.
(Disclaimer: I collect neither and am not interested in war history, or war in general)