this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2025
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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.

Please don't forget to help keep this community clean by reporting rule violations, updooting good contributions and downdooting those of low quality!

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] 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 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).


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 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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[–] njm1314@lemmy.world 0 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

You're not familiar at all with what propaganda is? What dehumanization is? What nationalism is? What capitalism is? That's how.

How about I ask another question. Who specifically are the groups susceptible to war crimes. Point at them. Every single russian? How do you identify them? Every single American? Every single German? Every single British person? Every single person from sudan? War crimes and atrocities and the like are carried out basically globally by every people. You really think it's just select people or do you think maybe it's something that humans are susceptible to and we should guard against? Don't be naive and assume you're special.

[–] _cryptagion@anarchist.nexus 1 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

those arguments are the same ones the nazis used to defend themselves at nuremburg. they didn't work several decades ago, so what do you think has changed in the interim that makes them a good argument now?

[–] njm1314@lemmy.world 2 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

Listen I say this is someone who's looking out for your own good. I want you to educate yourself on how easy it is for fascism to infect people. Read They Thought They Were Free. Understand that Nazis weren't comic book villains. They were for the most part regular people that fell for the grift. That went along with it cuz it was easy. That you couldn't look at them and identify them by their evil eyes. Because people that think Nazis were some kind of comic book evil villain instead of regular people who did Evil are people who are going to fall for the same thing. They don't understand how easy it is to fall for fascism. They're the reason fascism has overtaken the world again. Because they think it couldn't happen to them.

[–] MutilationWave@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Ordinary Men is another book on this topic, mostly following a group of older police officers who turned into perpetrators of genocide. It affected me deeply. It's based on interviews and Nuremburg testimony.

[–] Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

This just comes across as too prejustifying become a war criminal.

It ignores all the people who resisted and all those who resisted and died.

You have already decided you would rather survive by murdering and raping and being a good soilder and that's all on you.

You are what allows fascists to operate and that was the point of the thread. You've been given enough rope on your his and you used it all thinking you were winning.

[–] njm1314@lemmy.world 0 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

What an absurd comment. What an enormous straw man you've managed to build here.

Truly this is the mindset that scares me about the future. The idea that education and knowledge and preparedness should be discouraged. The idea that being able to look at and identify the trends of impending fascism should be discouraged. You're like an anti-vaxxer. The disease of fascism Rises and you sit there without a mask.

[–] Clent@lemmy.dbzer0.com -1 points 3 weeks ago

Your visceral reaction to the summation of your words presented back at you succinctly is not a straw man. It does nothing to address my concern that you're primed to be a fascist boot, instead it reinforces it by illustrating your lack of culpability in what you preach.

[–] njm1314@lemmy.world 0 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

What on Earth are you babbling about?

[–] _cryptagion@anarchist.nexus -2 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

I'm just curious as to why you think the nazis were innocent of their war crimes? after all, you're using nazi apologia.

[–] njm1314@lemmy.world 4 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Literally no one is saying that. You sound ridiculous.

[–] _cryptagion@anarchist.nexus -1 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

your argument against mine saying that people have a personal responsibility for engaging in war crimes like rape and torture, is to absolve them of that guilt by claiming that anyone could be tricked into such acts. that's nazi apologia.

you're obviously a terrible fucking person.

[–] njm1314@lemmy.world 3 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

That's not even remotely close do anything I said.

However I wanted you to consider something. In our conversations you've shown yourself to be extremely judgmental, quick to anger, exceedingly hostile, inability to consider points of views of others, you've shown a sense of innate self-superiority, and an inability to empathize. If I were trying to describe the people most susceptible to being conditioned to commit war crimes and atrocities those are all traits I would absolutely list. You're not special. Nobody is.

[–] _cryptagion@anarchist.nexus -1 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Netanyahu thinks Palestinians are subhuman, and has convinced the nation of Israel of the same. does that excuse the IDF soliders for raping Palestinian prisoners? yes or no, please, I want you to answer that.

I want you to answer this too. yes, or no?

[–] njm1314@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I'm not sure who on Earth you were quoting here (im guessing yourself) or what it has to do with anything we said. Absolution has never been our topic.

But since we're asking questions I'd like you to go back and answer the question I asked a couple responses ago that you ignored. Your argument is that people who commit war crimes atrocities are special. Only certain select people do them. You're not one of those people, you're innately Superior to those people. And I just want to know again who those people are? How do you identify them? What makes them so inherently evil? How are there so many of them? Inexhaustibly throughout human history in every people and culture.

Before you answer that question though I'd like you to look at that quote you posted that I assume is from you. I noticed you said something in that quote. You said Netanyahu convinced the people of Israel of the same. He convinced them. How did he do that? I thought it was only certain people. I thought you couldn't be convinced of things like that. Isn't that the Crux of your entire argument? That only the other people are capable of those things? How do you convince a whole people? Surely you're not going to make the argument that all Israeli people are inherently evil, so doesn't that rather break your entire argument apart here?

[–] _cryptagion@anarchist.nexus -2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

But since we’re asking questions I’d like you to go back and answer the question I asked a couple responses ago that you ignored. Your argument is that people who commit war crimes atrocities are special. Only certain select people do them. You’re not one of those people, you’re innately Superior to those people. And I just want to know again who those people are? How do you identify them? What makes them so inherently evil? How are there so many of them? Inexhaustibly throughout human history in every people and culture.

yes, I am absolutely superior to people who would do those things. idk, maybe that's different for you. maybe you think you could be convinced to do horrible things like that. maybe you think you'ree suspectable to propaaganda in a way that could convince you that something like that was OK. idc what propaganda you show me, I'm not going to decide it's OK to rape somebody. I guess I'm just fucking built different than you are, but there is no conditions that you could ever possibly conceive of that would convince me to do something like that.

I thought you couldn’t be convinced of things like that.

gods, you're so fucking thick, aren't you? idk why I gotta explain this so many fucking times to you. yeah, propaganda can convince people that another group is subhuman and beneath them. but normal fucking people don't go around raping and torturing animals either, you fucking shit-for-brains twatwaffle. no fucking normal person engages in shit like that. if they do something like that, THEY AREN'T FUCKING NORMAL PEOPLE.

now answer the fucking question, do you think the IDF soldiers who raped those prisoners are absolved of their guilt because they've been propagandized? and a follow up question, just based on your responses, why do you think you personally could be convinced to rape somebody?

[–] njm1314@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

Well okay, even I'm a little stunned at how easily you walked into this.

So to summarize your comment there. You are an inherently Superior being. No matter what situation you were thrust into raised into whatever, you were better than other people. Kind of an Übermensch if you will. You're just that much better than those others. Those others can be convinced to do evil because they're inherently less than you. Those others include the entire people of Israel. They're inherently less than you, the Übermensch. Interesting...

[–] _cryptagion@anarchist.nexus -1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Well okay, even I’m a little stunted how easily you walked into this.

I didn't walk into anything. I knew what you were doing. it was an amateur fucking attempt. and yeah, I'm not a fucking rapist and never will be. and I absolutely think I'm a much better person than a rapist, or anyone who has such a fragile fucking mind that they could be propagandized into being a rapist. you seem to think that's some kind of fucking "gotcha", but it isn't, you dipshit. I would wager most of the people reading this, besides you obviously, would agree that they would never rape somebody. and one hundred percent of those people think they're better than a rapist.

cause guess what, fuckwad? people who refuse to rape someone ARE ABSOLUTELY BETTER PEOPLE THAN RAPISTS. go ahead and report me to the mods for that, please. I'm a nazi because I won't rape people, no matter what? that's your fucking argument? you're a fucking piece of shit if you think that.

[–] eugenevdebs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 3 weeks ago

As we all know, if you refuse to rape someone, you're a Nazi. Makes total logical sense.

[–] eugenevdebs@lemmy.dbzer0.com -3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

"You won't rape Nazis because rape is wrong? Huh, must be a Nazi."

Listen to yourself. You just want rape someone and make it justified. Maybe we don't rape people?

[–] njm1314@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I cannot even imagine the amount of mental gymnastics it took to try to justify making that comment.

[–] eugenevdebs@lemmy.dbzer0.com -3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

No reflection at all, got it.

[–] njm1314@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago

No I don't typically have much to reflect on from absurd straw man arguments.