this post was submitted on 07 Oct 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.

If you are new to socialism, you can ask questions and find resources over on c/Socialism101.

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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] Try to use alt text or image descriptions to allow for greater accessibility


(Please take a look at our wiki page for the guidelines on how to actually write alternative text!)

We encourage 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" (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.


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.


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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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/53714894

cope, shitlibs

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[–] psycholocomotor@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Have you read the books? You should really read the books. It certainly can't hurt.

[–] basiclemmon98@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Recommend me a book of theory written after the invention of the desktop computer and all the infrastructure involved, and then I will take said "theory" seriously.

[–] psycholocomotor@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Kwame Nkrumah wrote Neo-Colonialism, The Last Stage of Imperialism in 1965 exactly coinciding with the release of the first ever desktop computer, the P101.

Thank you for providing what I asked for. I will read that.

[–] basiclemmon98@lemmy.dbzer0.com -1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Psychologists don't read Freud for the correct takes in the mind, and biologists don't read Darwin for the most accurate biological theories. Why should I read Marx and Engals to know the best political models?

[–] psycholocomotor@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Darwin is a terrible example because biologists didn't throw out Darwin did they? I guess general relativity is a bunk theory and nobody should read about it, because now we know it's probably only a low energy limit of some kind of 11 dimesional superstring theory.

Here:

Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher written in 2009.

Women, Race and Class written by Angela Davis in 1981. (This one is a really good analysis of slavery in America.)

Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George Jackson was written in 1970. (I haven't read this one, but it's on my list. It definitely is still relevant: the horrific oppression of black people by the US carceral system is still ongoing and you can make comparisons to the treatment of immigrants.)

[–] basiclemmon98@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (2 children)

First off, I do not think either example I gave was bad, because they did not "throw out" Darwin, nor did psychologists even fully "throw out" all of Freud. My point was that it would be accurate to say that the base theories arn't actually very helpful for advanced precise sciences without the additional revisions made by new scientists after more tests and data. That is also true for political and philosophical theories in my opinion and I rarely see people trying to revise Marx' perspectives. Which has been my turnoff for a lot of "communism", because at the end of the day, Marx was not all knowing and did not have perfected concepts. And when people act like he, an educated white male author, did have it perfected, it makes anything they say after that seem cultish to me.

Thank you, genuinely, for some more neuanced (I hope) writings. I will definately read them :)

[–] psycholocomotor@lemmy.world 1 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

"Nuanced."

You're gonna have fun reading them, especially, George Jackson. He'd have a lot to say about you.

[–] UiUiUiUiUi@piefed.nl 2 points 21 hours ago

Marx Orthodoxy is the word you’re looking for.

For example the difference between a social democrat and a democratic socialist is that the latter read marx and disagreed while the former never read him at all.