this post was submitted on 17 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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[–] Alaik@lemmy.zip 94 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The janitor adds value. The CEO does not.

[–] Bazell@lemmy.zip 31 points 3 days ago

The CEO adds garbage, the janitor reduces it.

[–] cyborganism@lemmy.ca 51 points 3 days ago (2 children)

At least the janitor keeps my workspace clean and enjoyable and picks up my trash.

[–] SanctimoniousApe@lemmings.world 25 points 3 days ago (5 children)

You don't pick up your own? Must be on the fast track to CEO, then...

[–] IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world 29 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Even the most considerate person will mindlessly make a bit of a mess. that's why we need janitors who's labour is necessary and dignified.

[–] SanctimoniousApe@lemmings.world 10 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Oh, absolutely agreed. I was making an apparently poorly worded joke, not intending to attack the commenter. Apologies for the confusion.

[–] IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

you absolutely made a mess, good thing there are janitors when needed.

[–] WarlockLawyer@lemmy.world 14 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Many offices only have trash cans at each desk and no option to clean to out in a dumpster, leaving trash to gathered up by a janitor. Doesn't mean the op is lazy or entitled .

[–] SanctimoniousApe@lemmings.world 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I was just being a wiseass, not really meaning to offend. Sorry if I did.

[–] cyborganism@lemmy.ca 5 points 3 days ago

Nah you good lol

[–] Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 3 days ago

I make extra mess so one day they can be extra proud they were given an opportunity to cleaned up after me, future CEO.

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[–] FosterMolasses@leminal.space 4 points 2 days ago

I haven't legitimately laughed at this meme format in a while, thanks haha

[–] Faydaikin@beehaw.org 33 points 3 days ago (3 children)

I feel so much better about my job now.

[–] IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world 25 points 3 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

There's a Douglas Adams subplot about a civilisation run by "executives" who determined janitors as useless. they got rid of them only to quickly die from diseases.

rule of thumb, if a job has to be done it is as dignified as every other job. it is BS propaganda that some jobs deserve to live in abject poverty without any respect.

[–] axexrx@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago (1 children)

They sent them all to crash land into earth, iirc, saying theyd be 'right behind them.' There are supposedly 3 ships: one with all the elites, executives, politicians, and another one with all the actual laborers. The middle ship (the one we actually see, and presumably rhe only one actually built) is full of middle managers, insurance salesmen, HR, and PR people, and telephone sanitizers. People labeled as a 'bunch of useless idiots' the rest of their society is then wiped out by a disease spread telephone handsets.

The ship crashes into earth, and the inhabitants become our progenitors.

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[–] Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it 13 points 3 days ago

Your job count!

(Thank you for making our places tidy)

[–] P1k1e@lemmy.world 7 points 3 days ago

My friend, you provide a valued and necessary service. Not only do you prevent pests (and therefore disease) from ever being a problem, but you maintain the morale of every person who uses the space you clean. You generate motivation but eliminating the negative debuff of a nasty environment. YOU make a difference

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 21 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Especially the janitor at the Federal Bureau of Control.

That guy just wants a little cabin on the edge of complete existential void where he can chill from time to time. And probably a sauna.

[–] Hazmatastic@lemmy.world 7 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

I can tell you are not a yesterday's grouse's son

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[–] YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 9 points 2 days ago (21 children)

Sorry if this is a bad question, but can some explain "liberals" to me? Being from the US,I understand it as the opposite of republicans. But I see the word get a tons of hate here and really just want to understand.

[–] Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Liberalism is the philosophy of capitalism. The people attacking liberals are either socialists who read literally any book in the last two centuries or confused conservatives.

The people who get angry about this are liberals who want to maintain the system of capitalism by buttressing it with welfare and technocratic tweaks as opposed to socialists who want to replace the system with one that serves the workers instead of capital.

[–] YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 4 points 2 days ago

Thank you for the explanation, also fucking love that username!

[–] Hadriscus@jlai.lu 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

To add onto the other comments, I'd like to point out that there are two distinct things that are called liberalism. If you're in the US, liberalism employed on its own usually refers to social liberalism, ie essentially progressivism. In that regard it is understood as the opposite of conservatism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_liberalism

In France (and elsewhere), when we say "liberalism" we mean economic (or "classic") liberalism, which essentially means : free to entreprise, free from the burden of social contribution (few taxes), free from regulations (small government), etc. which is closer to the economic policies that conservatives (and their equivalents over the world) typically defend.

The word iberal is built from the latin root "liber", meaning free. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/liberal

So in practice, there's a mixup of these terms where for americans/britons liberalism=left, whereas for a lot of other people liberalism=right. Hence the confusion.

For the history side of things, I can't help... but reading the above article should help already.

Cheers,

[–] YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I'm getting that sentiment. Also jealous of you French fuckers and your ability to protest correctly.

[–] Hadriscus@jlai.lu 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Time to turn that envy towards the malagasy ! and the nepali !

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[–] RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I believe it tends to mean Neo-liberal, which is basically the modern corporate-friendly Democrat party, as opposed to the descriptor for 'not conservative'. So basically, there's liberals, and there's Liberals.

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[–] just_an_average_joe@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Liberalism is the ideology that says everyone should have equal rights, freedom of speech etc except "bad/troublesome actors".

In practice, bad/troublesome actors can include anyone. This ideology was created in early USA and in britain. And its proponents, on one hand said "equal rights for all" but also had slaves. In britain, liberals supported the subjugation of india because india was "a bunch of barbaric savages who needed to be civilized". Today immigrants or religious minorities are also excluded from these rights under the pretense of national security.

What we have today is neo-liberalism, that extends liberalism to include economic policies such as capitalism, and finance banking etc. (There's probably more to it, but i am a bit rusty in my knowledge about this topic).

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[–] luciferofastora@feddit.org 5 points 2 days ago

I can treat the CEO with respect, if only out of self-preservation. Doesn't mean I actually respect him, nor does it mean I'll judge him by a more merciful standard.

Capping yearly salary at 200k, for instance, wouldn't hurt the janitor a whole lot. Taking the life who ruin lives for profit also probably wouldn't.

I'd kindly thank the CEO for his contribution to cutting excess spending. I'll promise to ensure that his legacy will be remembered. I'll do my best that nobody else will have to suffer his fate.

How exactly I'd achieve that is left to the reader's imagination.

[–] aeternum@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 2 days ago

Wait till I tell you about the Liberal Party in Australia..... who are very much conservative.

[–] YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 5 points 2 days ago (4 children)

Love the username, it sucks he turned out to be a trump supporter.

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