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!
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
(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.
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.
Spainish Socialists! Be nicer to Francisco Franco and maybe he won't coup you in a couple of years!
African Americans! Try not to upset any of your White Neighbors so they don't lynch you. It's the best way to guarantee your civil rights.
Chinese Catholics! Greet the Japanese with open arms!
Cenk is that you
Here's the Plan.
Funnel ridiculous amounts of gold back in time and use the wealth it creates to repair Germanies economy to the point where facism doesn't develop.
Meanwhile create a secret treasury system that keeps track of all the gold and when the time comes buys as much of it back as possible. Then the bought back gold is used to send it back in time creating a self sufficient solution to the problem.
Hollywood, I take checks and PayPal.
...
Wait that's just Tennet with extra steps, shit.
Why wouldn't you just assassinate him?
There was apparently an insane number of attempts that weren’t successful, so this plan may not work out
gotta git gud
[Time traveling back to summer of 2024 to coddle the sensibilities of "centrists" when pointing out that there was no anti-genocide option on the ballot, and telling them that anti-genocide voters weren't going to show up for genocide-lite]
Maybe give a few shooting lessons while you're there
the one time we wanted a Republican to lean a little more to the right
Not voting isn't saying "I don't like either of these choices".
It's saying "I'm happy with either of these choices".
And in any case, it wasn't an objection or support of genocide that handed Trump power. It was apathy.
for a "protest no vote" you can at least vote third party.
Hurts the main parties just as much, but they now know there are people willing to vote, just not for genocide.
Exactly, there were two anti war candidates running (Green and Libertarian for if you're anti war but still hate the poor), but they got a similar number of votes to RFK Jr who had dropped out several months earlier, meaning you're on par with people who not only wanted RFK to be president, but had also somehow missed the news that he'd joined Trump.
Meanwhile, over 80 million voters stayed at home. That's more than voted for Harris or Trump.
See UKIP (now Reform) in the UK as an example of how not winning can still get you what you want. They got a bunch of votes (although nowhere near enough to win, or even get any MPs), but they got enough votes to scare one of the main two parties into going along with their scheme in order to get those voters back on side.
Now in this case what they wanted was fucking stupid right wing exceptionalist nonsense (leaving the EU) that neither of the main parties wanted because it was economic suicide, and the only reason Britain didn't just implode and disappear off the map is because we did it really half arsed, and will hopefully rejoin the EU at some point down the line.
But you could do the same with left wing subjects as well. You just need people to vote for it, to show that they're willing to fuck your numbers up for what they want.
I always use UKIP/brexit as an example of the power of voting third party.
1% vote increase for a third party is much more significant to the major parties than 1% staying at home and not voting
Multiple things handed Trump the presidency, none of them were the only thing, but “protest” non-voters were one of them.
for a "protest no vote" you can at least vote third party.
Hurts the main parties just as much, but they now know there are people willing to vote, just not for genocide.
Lite?
It is a Simpsons reference, replace "Duff" with "genocide"
the simpsons didnt invent the concept of "lite" lol even the spelling can be found as early as the 1960s.
and the question probably wasnt "what does lite mean?"... theyre asking "how tf do you do a 'lite' genocide?"
Just a little as a treat
Me going back in time to tell the Communists to stop calling the Social Democrats "social fascists" so they don't both die in concentration camps:
Edit: I didnt even read the username, go to https://existentialcomics.com/ hit random and enjoy. Big fan of their work.
I have no idea about History or psychology but this was pretty funny
The SPD used people like Erich Ludendorff to eliminate Communists. The SPD directly inherited the government from the Prussian King, maintained the interests of the German Empire, and killed Communist political leaders prior to the first election of the Weimar Republic.
The SPD government was the power structure that directly empowered, then acquiesced to multiple coup attempts by the monarchist anti-democratic right wing.
Now, the Russian Social Democrat Party, on the other hand, won their war. So it's not necessarily the 'Social Democrat' part so much as the 'Maintaining Imperial Power Structures' part that the German SPD is faulted for.
The KPD also went on to try and do coalition with the Nazi right wing too, with likewise predictably terrible results.
Social Democrats? The ones that murdered Rosa and liebknecht?
Same as today they will turn their coat and collaborate, not a shred of doubt.
