this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2024
439 points (95.4% liked)
Lefty Memes
4261 readers
1318 users here now
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)
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:
- 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
(This is not a definitive list, the spirit of the other rules still counts! Eventual duplicates with other rules are for emphasis.)
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Tails is only partly correct. The state is open about it's monopoly on violence , and it's a key argument in the philosophy of government. The state will use that violence against anyone who threatens it.
The state exists to protect the power that enables the state. Protestors object to some organization of the state, and so they're de facto threats.
Minorities are disproportionately targeted because they inevitably don't have the power that enables the state.
It's not the state being pro peace and making exceptions, it's the state being pro-state, and being structured around that principle. The violence is inherent and exceptions are made if you provide value or benefit from value being defined to include you.
Exactly so. I read "Why Nations Fail" a few years ago and it really drove home what happens when nations don't have a "monopoly" on violence. It's just that you also need your government to have many firm limits on its ability to use violence.
Modern societies are rather unstable, I'm noticing.
And in a democracy, the state ought to be synonymous with "The People" but under capitalism and privately funded election campaigns, the state is controlled by the corporations and the rich who can afford to run candidates that represent their interests instead of the majority of the common people.
A recent Factually! Podcast with Adam Conover interviewed a Political Science professor about why US politicians are so old and it came down to wealth. The boomer generation has more wealth and you need a shit load of wealth to jumpstart a political career so the US is stuck with older politicians because we are far closer to being an oligarchy or plutocracy than an actual democracy
Generally speaking, older people are often wealthier as they've had more time to make money.
A lot of people seem to have trouble with this.
Note that it doesn't mean that people who have accumulated obscene amounts shouldn't be taxed to hell and back.
100%
All societies use some form of violence to control people.
Even the Amish 'shun' the malefactors.
But not all societies monopolize violence in an institutional superstructure.
What does that even mean?
The Vikings let people go out and raid other villages but drew the line at murdering your neighbor. It that what you're going on about? You think any one who wants should be able to have their own army?
What exactly do you mean? Monopolization? Superstructure? Violence? Where do I need to start? At the definition of a state?
My critique is as follows: Violence is currently monopolized by a hierarchical system of command & control - the state. I (and I'm presuming: OP as well) question the legitimacy of the state and its' monopoly of violence.
I would prefer it if the necessary amount of violence would be controlled by horizontal power structures.
I've seen evidence that Amish parents hit their children with wooden spoons.