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 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, 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" 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 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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[–] LumiNocta@lemmy.zip 129 points 4 days ago (6 children)

right wing architecture: jail

[–] NotASharkInAManSuit@lemmy.world 12 points 4 days ago

“Rugged individualism.”

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[–] Hawk@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 3 days ago (1 children)

And yet, there's more greenery around this blocks than you'd see in a US city.

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[–] slaacaa@lemmy.world 227 points 5 days ago (3 children)
[–] Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it 166 points 5 days ago (12 children)

those are FUCKING SPIKES to keep people away, the fact that they don't use daggers instead is strange

[–] thethunderwolf@lemmy.dbzer0.com 38 points 5 days ago (7 children)

HOMELESS PEOPLE ARE NOT PIGEONS

[–] pivot_root@lemmy.world 43 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

Actually, they are. As far as the average conservative cares, both of them are dirty pests that should be driven away.

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[–] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 152 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (24 children)

As someone who's grown up in one of those and now rearing a child in Canada, I'd like to tell you that it was an absolutely incredible place to grow up in. The urban planning is such that there's parks with kid playgrounds sprinkled between the buildings. There's ample trees. There's schools and kindergartens at walking distance where kids would often walk alone to/fro. There's convenient public transit stops. There's density that lets kids make tons of friends and always have someone to play with without "playdates." Parenting in such a social environment is so much easier than what parents face in Toronto, it's not even funny.

E: Oh and the square footage in the average commie block apt is equivalent to a large old-school 2 or 3-bedroom apartment in Toronto. Most are family-sized units.

[–] kameecoding@lemmy.world 45 points 5 days ago

I still live in one of these, walking my dog is a treat, so many trees, kindergarten, school, pharmacy, groceries, even a pub all within 200 meters.

The part I hate about this place the most is that they made a roundabout in front of the school so parents can drop their kid off by car easier, it's the most americanized aspect, absolutely disgusting, there are literally two bus stops next to this school going in both directions.

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[–] irelephant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 50 points 4 days ago (9 children)

Honestly, commieblocks arent that bad. Most of the pictures of them are cherry picked to be the unmaintained, dirty ones, and are exclusively taken in gloomy weather. The houses on the inside are usually good quality as well (though likely not well maintained anymore).

Hell, if you just painted them colourfully, they'd look nice.

[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 21 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Most of the pictures of them are cherry picked to be the unmaintained, dirty ones, and are exclusively taken in gloomy weather.

Look at the trees. They don't have leaves. The image was definitely taken in winter. That adds a lot to the depression of it.

[–] Digit@lemmy.wtf 4 points 3 days ago

Didn't anyone think to scatter a few evergreens around?

E.g. a few pine and yew trees would be nice.

[–] 0x0@lemmy.zip 11 points 4 days ago (2 children)

That looks like a SimCity screenshot.

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[–] Digit@lemmy.wtf 6 points 3 days ago (9 children)

Imagine what "left wing architecture" looks like after we end manufactured scarcity...

Vast forest arcology-scapes.

Enough to increase the carrying capacity of earth past 300 trillion humans, with vast space enough to live in lush nature...

But no, we have to keep the polluting rents extraction to keep the little people down, to keep the billionaires on top, even if it means even the billionaires have vastly less than they could in egalitarian emancipatarian abundance. At least they have more than others. That's the most important measure. /s :-/

And pay no attention to the imminence of the bubble popping. ;D

Crazy how detached from reality, compassion, and morality, some are, that they pleep about aesthetics, preferring to keep millions destitute and homeless, to maintain their profiteering gamble.

[–] Fredthefishlord@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Enough to increase the carrying capacity of earth past 300 trillion humans, with vast space enough to live in lush nature...

I want what you're smoking

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[–] Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it 70 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I mean, after we build them we can also let people do gorgeous art on them

[–] FartMaster69@lemmy.dbzer0.com 67 points 5 days ago (3 children)

You also like.. don’t have to use brutalist architecture. You can build them in any shape you want so long as the building won’t fall down.

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[–] TigerAce@lemmy.dbzer0.com 34 points 4 days ago (1 children)

That isn't left wing architecture. It's USSR architecture. Don't make everything bad from that dictatorship a part of the left. The Soviet Union wasn't even real communism. Because communism wouldn't have a regime consisting of oligarchs and a dictator for example. Just because some people abused something for bad, doesn't make the thing itself bad.

But these Stalin blocks were actually built an mass to house all the nomads living in the USSR. Most people didn't have a home, electricity, running water. They used to live in tents. So even though these blocks are ugly and depressing, it made sure people didn't have to live in a tent with -40°C and Stalin was widely praised for that.

[–] Aljernon@lemmy.today 21 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I am a loud critic of the USSR but WW2 destroyed an enormous amount of housing in their country and they spent decades struggling to catch up. Even prior to that, they had WW1 and a civil war negatively impact housing and during the interwar industrialization they focused on increasing industrial output with most home building relegated to cheap temporary construction. A number of the economic issues faced by the USSR were unrelated to any specific political or economic system (for example, the vastness of the country added transportation expenses)

Better than live in ugly apartments than freeze in the harsh Russian winters.

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[–] SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social 19 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Those look very similar in style to the 5-over-1s being built all over the United States. Four floors good, ten floors bad? Or does "left-wing architecture" refer to leaving the trees instead of paving every square inch of outdoor space for parking?

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[–] Tiger_Man_@szmer.info 11 points 4 days ago

I mean the dark grey houses of capitalism using every square centimeter of ground are way more depressing than blocks with a lot of trees around them

[–] Emi@ani.social 47 points 5 days ago (3 children)

Also these are not painted, where I live we have their walls painted in colours with sometimes shapes and some have big art on them. Also there are usually small parks or grass plots with trees around and playgrounds.

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[–] Cybersheeper@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 3 days ago (9 children)

Ok, but we have to agree that Soviet blocks are systematic government slop that destroy individuality and make people miserable.

[–] naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] Cybersheeper@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

They are designed with productivity in mind, much like capitalist architecture, they aren't designed to be liveable.

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

I would like evidence supporting

systematic government slop that destroy individuality and make people miserable.

I was under the impression they were centrally planned, modern brutalist buildings that didn't meet all expectations as 2was typical of modernist project of the time (c.f. le corbusier's projects).

Not some darstardly unliveable conspiricy.

Why did they leave so much room for light and green space?

They left so much green space so the workers would be happier and wouldn't revolt

[–] InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world 11 points 3 days ago (2 children)

I can see some of that given the uniformity, but suburbia isn't exactly all that diverse. So ¯_(ツ)_/¯

[–] Cybersheeper@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 days ago

Yeah, I know. But these are exclusive to America and the underdeveloped world, and we're not defending that. It also has similarities with it. Europe has good housing (Though unaffordable) that isn't suburbia, but modern day commie blocks aren't exactly affordable in Russia either.

Funny story, suburbia is systemic government slop that destroys individuality, too.

[–] BlushedPotatoPlayers@sopuli.xyz 5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I loved to hate these buildings, but behind those grey boxes there was planning. Lots of nurseries, kindergarten, schools, playground, pharmacies, shops, and parks in-between, and public transportation. Whereas modern construction is all for maximizing profit, "luxury residence" everywhere, putting the most of sq meters in every plot, and f.ck the rest.

Also: the size layout of the flats is really good, not like the 39.5sqm random polygons of a modern buildding.

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