this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2025
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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.

Agitprop (I.E. everything that would be more fitting on a poster than a meme) goes here.

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. 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" 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 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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[–] Credibly_Human@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I assume we also blame Chinese citizens for everything the CCP does too or does that only apply to western nations.

Does it even apply for all western nations? What about Norway?

[–] dogbert@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

When was the last time China invaded a country again? I’ll wait…

[–] Credibly_Human@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Less than half a decade ago with Hongkong...

Are our blindspots this wide?

[–] dogbert@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Wow China invaded… themselves???

They took their city back from foreign imperialists. Get fucking real.

[–] Credibly_Human@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Foreign imperialists consisting of residents that want their freedom who already were independent from their prior occupiers?

This is one way to say you don't support freedom in a very literal anti democracy sense.

[–] dogbert@lemmy.zip 0 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Hong Kong belongs to China. Not western imperialists. Their “freedom” can suck my nuts from the back.

[–] Credibly_Human@lemmy.world 1 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (1 children)

You are quite literally ignoring the will of the people who lived there, who lived there before the prior take over too, being ruled by some third party they don't want to be ruled by.

How can you justify that?

[–] dogbert@lemmy.zip 0 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

lmao “ruled”. A city full of capitalists afraid their workers will be liberated with economic democracy. Boo fucking hoo.

[–] Quill7513@slrpnk.net 1 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

it was the workers who were protesting for an independent city state. you are letting one imperial power convince you it's not an imperial power simply based on aesthetic. the idea that hong kong protestors on the ground were capital class is absurd. the people's republic of china is communist/socialist in name and aesthetic only. it is functionally a state with a select few who control the means of production and uses that power to maintain control. being a capitalist-imperial power in apparent opposition to another does not justify being a capitalist-imperial power. the people of the world will not be made free by the CCP's controlling power expanding their power. the people of the world will be made free by true solidarity amongst the workers in opposition to the three imperial powers of america, russia, and china

[–] dogbert@lemmy.zip 1 points 21 hours ago

Quiet, liberal

[–] celeste@feddit.org 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] dogbert@lemmy.zip -2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Did you even read the first paragraph? It literally says China’s offence was retaliation after Vietnam invaded Cambodia. You’re comparing this to unprovoked western aggression. Y’all need literacy…

[–] celeste@feddit.org 3 points 1 day ago
  1. You asked for when china invaded another country not about their motivation. This is an example of China invading a sovereign country.
  2. Vietnam invaded Cambodia to stop a genocide.

If we are going to allow these excuses, every single bit of western aggression had its own flimsy justifications as well.

[–] kazerniel@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] dogbert@lemmy.zip -2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

LMAO 1951

I suggest you learn about Tibet’s history as well. They were a slave state before China liberated them. Dalai Lama has been shitting and pissing himself for decades trying to get his slaves back lol.

Those islands also belong to China. If you think defending it from western imperialism is “bullshit” you might not actually be a leftist…

I would caution against attributing altruistic motivations to the actions of nation states. The Spratly Islands are having their ecosystem trashed so the various powers can have a fucking dick measuring contest over imaginary lines on a map. So far a bunch of fishermen have been killed and irreplaceable coral reefs have been destroyed, all in service of building artificial islands for reasons that vary depending on the state actor.

Debt trap diplomacy is a problem with every large power including BRICS, the west is currently the biggest offender because the World Bank and the IMF has the implicit backing of US military power projection. It is easier to strong arm "client states" into onerous loan terms and "free trade zones" when there is the threat of their nation being labeled as "supporting terrorism" and have a carrier battle group off shore within days.

I have no reason to doubt that once that BRICS has the ability to project power, basically whenever China has several modern carrier battle groups, they won't operate any differently than the west does now. The flag and justification will be different but the global south will continue to be exploited.