this post was submitted on 06 Jan 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.
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
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.
- 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
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I agree with the sentinment, but please don't take this literally.
Example: If you are at a car crash, and you literally remain silent and don't verbally deny fault, the cops will assume its your fault (since the other driver will obviously deny fault) and the police report is say "[Your name] is at fault", and that's gonna fuck up the insurance claims. Always deny fault (but don't make up false statements in the process of doing so).
Also, if you are in the US, and is a suspect of an alleged crime, don't actually literally remain completely silent. You have to verbally invoke your 5th amendment rights to protect against court shenanigans.
Excerpt from wikipedia:
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution#Explicit_invocation
Just say a simple phrase such as "I hereby invoke my 5th amendment right to silence, and I want to talk to a lawyer". Or if not in the US, just leave out the "5th amendment" part.
(also, might be a good idea to have a few phone numbers of criminal defence attorneys memorized)
TLDR: Please don't interpret a meme literally
Also it is probably already known but e.g. well-dressed/spoken cishet white males in affluent areas are at times able to gamble and - by being incredibly polite, deferential, apologetic, and forthcoming - save time and money by taking the risk of piping up for the fuzz.
Something tangential but potentially more useful: remember as citizens, our day comes in court and not on the side of the road. Politely/firmly assert your rights, but allow them to be violated. The alternative is struggling, being overpowered anyway, and making your lawyer’s job harder. Hope that bystanders are recording, remember every detail as best you can, and consider calmly verbally reasserting your rights.
On the flip, don't even say sorry unless you were at fault. Saying I'm sorry can be an admission of guilt.
Canadians have left the chat
well that's gonna be a problem
Also, it's "don't", and that's even worse.