this post was submitted on 02 Jun 2026
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Lefty Memes
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An international (English speaking) socialist Lemmy community free of "ML" (read: Dengist) influence. 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, discussion and agitprop/stuff that's better fit for a poster than a meme go in c/Socialism.
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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. 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 theyβre 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.
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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
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- bs => BS
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- 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
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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" (read: Dengists) (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).
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The only dangerous minority is the rich.
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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.
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That's a good start, but nowhere near enough for someone whose actions were so monstrous.
I actually responded to a comment about forgiveness in anarchist spaces a few hours back. Platner fits the discussion like a glove. Unfortunately, Anarchist Nexus doesn't let you view comment links without a login, so I'll just quote myself:
Unlike what I said in the quoted comment about the veteran who got beaten up at Delaney Hall, in this case I am not willing to forgive Platner ... yet. I am personally leaving open the future possibility of my personal forgiveness ... but again, I must push back on the notion that anyone owes him, nor anyone else (myself included!), forgiveness for anything. Continuing,
As I said previously, Platner has a long way to go before I'm ready to forgive him. And it is completely understandable if some of his victims never forgive him at all, even if it is not politically expedient for people living in
who care about electoral victories.
Thats fair, and yeah you are right that he is not owed forgiveness. I apologize, I was wrong when I said otherwise. Frankly idk why I said anything to the effect he was owed it, that is my bad.
All good π
Because unless proven otherwise giving people the ability to grow and change is a good moral thing to do.
I don't disagree with that, but I also do not feel it is antithetical to also believing that people are entitled to forgiveness by everyone.
People should be able to move past their mistakes and able to grow, but that doesnt mean everyone needs to forgive them. The families whose loved ones were killed by Platner do not need to forgive him, and neither do people who wish to stand in solidarity with those families. But that also doesnt mean we have to hold Platner's past over his head while ignoring what he has done to grow into a different person.
I didnt mean to imply one is entitled to forgiveness, though I doubt many of the people pearl clutching were actually impacted by his actions, particularly when it's a bunch of hawkish Democrats who would gladly send the military to kill more innocents without a second thought but love trying to find ways to have moral outrage over Platner's past.
There is some real problematic shit, but he's saying the right progressive things, which is why the establishment is trying to fling as much shit at him as possible.