this post was submitted on 16 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, upvoting good contributions and downvoting 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)

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,

as well as 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.

7. Absolutely no posts or comments meant to relativize(/apologize for), advocate, promote or defend:

(This is not a definitive list, the spirit of the other rules still counts! Eventual duplicates with other rules are for emphasis.)

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)

… but it’s just a few bad apples. Most cops are very fine people.

Edit: /s Jesus

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

I'm sorry, kinda hilarious that you had to add a sarcasm tag. And sad.

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

Can we take a second to appreciate that those hands were drawn very well? Like, most times I draw a hand, it just ends up looking like a stupid blob, but this poster has gotten the shape and proportions pretty decently. And not just once, but twice. Good.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

And the shading is excellent as well!

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

Even worse. The police has both the authority and the budget to:

  1. Test candidates before they hire them as cops.
  2. Train their cops.
  3. Discipline the violent cops.

Protest organizers can't do these things. Anyone who wants to join the protest just needs to arrive at the appointed time and place, and if they behave badly - the ones allowed to punish them are not the protest organizers but the police.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago

And, whats more, is that if your in Louisiana, Mississippi, or Texas, the protest organizer, too, gets punished for the bad behavior of others.

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

Its even more true when the most violent in a protest are working with the cops or are cops themselves.

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

It's interesting how much in this thread aligns with what people on the right say about Jan 6.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

Go astroturf elsewhere asshole.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

i support this sign and its artist but someone needs to teach them forearm anatomy they kind of said

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

Yes! I was actually admiring the artistry of the fists and the shadowing and everything and then I followed it down to the shapeless skinny forearms. looks like they put all their effort into the fists and couldn't be bothered to make realistic looking forearms

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

I'm going to judge apples and bananas differently.

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

People don't stop being people just because they're wearing different clothes, you goober.

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

There's two different power and political dynamics at play, you dildo.

So actually yeah, they do.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] -1 points 4 months ago

Intellectual superiority complex but no actual brains to back it up, I see.

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

Fine message, but if you have 33 words on your protest sign you're really missing the mark.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

am I the only one who counted? it's only 25. you could have used the real number you lazy ass.

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

Pretty hostile, you doing ok buddy?

[–] [email protected] -1 points 4 months ago

Welcome to Lemmy, where we wonder why we aren't growing very quickly

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I dunno. This is more meaningful than an ACAB sign.

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

You're making a sign, not writing the abstract to a political science paper. You get like a dozen syllables, max.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

You messed with the wrong guy. I'm going to protest the fascist restriction of syllables going on here.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Maybe when we didn't have phones to constantly take photos, but you could literally take a picture of many "too long" signs and read them at your own pace.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 4 months ago

Your solution to this nonsense is taking a picture of a sign to read later?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

And yet, it's the one showing up on social media for discussion post-protest.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

I've seen a bazillion of them so far. Must've all been good ones

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

internet users be like, i can’t read anything longer than a short tweet actually

edit: also ignoring that this poster made it to the internet and got >1k reads and counting on one platform alone. 😛 epitome of nitpicking the unnecessary

[–] [email protected] -1 points 4 months ago

Yeah, internet users and their centuries of punchy picket signs …

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

So close to being self aware. What happens when you reverse the roles with the same logic then? Judging a police force for their most violent cops but not judging a demonstration for their most violent participants is what? Are you suddenly a 'freedom fighter' because you believe your cause is just? History proves the worst people always think their path forward is the righteous one. I really wish we'd stop getting distracted by this shit and fight against the real oppressors of us all: The wealthy.

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

The counter to hypocrisy is not more hypocrisy. It's no hypocrisy

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

I'm 14 and that's deep. Way to sidestep the actual point.

The counter to hypocrisy is to be principled, yet that sign seems to accuse people of the exact thing it represents. I'll ask again, if your enemies are oppressors, does that make you a self-claimed freedom fighter? Rebel? Or something less flattering - Terrorist.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

None of the above.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Cops are tools of the wealthy to oppress us.

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

So when a man hits you over the head, you go after the hammer?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

yeah grabbing the hammer is a remarkably wise plan as far as self defense in this hypothetical

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

Wonderful, then you'd agree we should get rid of all hammers then too right? Clearly it's the fault of the tool, not the one wielding it.

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

Yeah it's hard to stay consistent when warped logic is applied to different scenarios. I'll spell it out for you, Mr. White.

If a murderer uses a hammer to murder, you don't ban hammers, you go after the murderer. So then why when the wealthy use the police as a tool, you try to ban police, instead of going after the wealthy?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

breh you asked what we do if a man hits me on the head with a hammer

my genuine immediate reaction would be to wrestle the hammer out of control of the man

but for some reason you think that my first reaction, being in imminent danger of immediate injury and death, is to start canvassing the neighborhood? gathering signatures to ban hammers from the local Lowes or something? meanwhile the guy with the hammer still has his hammer and is beating the shit out of me. i actually would not do that.

i’m being quite consistent where you are being quite silly 😛

edit: also no one said “instead” but you. pardon me for not taking this seriously i just don’t care (about your messed up hypothetical; i care deeply about institutional violence)

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

I'm not asking for your emotional or instinctive response to the situation, I'm asking you who you hold accountable. Your response seems to hold a tool (hammer/cop) instead of the thing that used it to hurt you(criminal/wealthy).

Yes, you don't care, I get it. You can't engage with serious shit so why the fuck are you responding? There will always be another tool, always be another way to hurt people, stop fucking focusing on the tool and go after the person using it. So exhausting trying to teach morons unwilling to learn.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

oh ok well when you put it that way :)

cops aren’t hammers they are people. the wealthy aren’t hammers either they are people.

so both. i’d hold both accountable.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 4 months ago

Again, cops are just doing their job. You want to change what their job is, you need to go after the people giving them that job. You aren't going to topple a critical pillar of society, law enforcement, because you think it's corrupt.

For the last time, eat the rich, stop getting distracted.