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!
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
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.
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.
pls don't let all the liberal downvoting discourage you. posts like this are more than welcome here <3
If Harris were actually leftwing, she'd pull that lever instantly, burn NATO to the ground, crush Isn'treal and many other based things
but alas, she is just the "good" cop of the bourgeoisie
(which essentially just means slapping BLM, LGBT and "feminist" stickers onto the bombs she drops wherever Wall Street requires it)
i'm an anarchist, but i'm also polish, and we kinda need NATO right now, with the whole Russia thing at our doorstep. i know it's not ideal, but fuck, not many other options out there and i do enjoy not being forcibly drafted to war
You’re not wrong.
thanks, much appreciated. It’s very stark contrast to the real life discussions where they are mostly furious at harris & dnc. most of the time we are infact discussing that sanders, aoc and warren should create a new party as dnc has become beyond repair. they can definitely crowdfund the support like in 2016.
unfortunately neither Sanders, AOC, nor Warren are real solutions and never will be the solution. They mostly pay lip service to progressive causes but then actually support atrocities like the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia (in Sanders' case).
their job seems to be to "capture" progressive support and then endorce the reactionary candidates they actually plan on pushing. And even if they were to come to power, the best case is a renewal of capitalism so that it may exist another year/decade/century
as the DNC has become beyond repair
that is the case with the whole of the USA, it's beyond repair and in dire need of abolition if humanity is to have a future. Bourgeois "democracy" is inherently designed to halt real progress and to preserve the private (not personal!) property of the rich and the economic system that makes it possible in the first place (capitalism).
One viable future would be a socialist council democracy as one of the few true solutions
This is old, but do you think the same of Zohran Mamdani?
Oh hi, I'm not that well informed about Mamdani, but to me it seems like there are two possible trajectories to his career:
Still even Corbyn would never threaten capitalism, but he was pushing for what Labour once was, before full on neoliberalism/the third way
that’s the dream. but for now leaders like aoc, sanders are acceptable. someone like harris is not who just want to be slightly left of trump.
I don't think I am understanding this right. I thought liberals would be generally against big evil companies doing big evil stuff and big evil rich people doing the same.
Am I wrong in this?
Liberals don't rly care about that systemically or rather they only end up paying lip service to those issues instead of wanting to tackle the problems at it's root (and that is ripping out the system that is capitalism)
The left wing is against big private companies. Liberals are all about capitalism and the free market. These two ideology often get mistaken for each other, even though they actually oppose each other.
It’s not a trolley problem if you aren’t given a choice to pull the lever. There is no viable candidate who fights against super pacs.
If you are an American and not a Harris votes, what do you expect will happen to political power in the next year?
Are peacefully voting against a dictator, general strikes and forcefully guillotining the bourgeoisie all mutually exclusive?
What political power?
You're not wrong, but it was a difficult vote because all she lobbies for is "The Middle Class". Like I don't give a rat's balloon knot about the middle class. What about people who are stuck in a lower tax bracket trying to get a house? What about those same people trying to get enough money to save so their children can be in a higher tax bracket. Dem reps are throwing "Middle Class" around like they're an unrepresented minority, and haven't said anything about lower Class people that are having to live paycheck to paycheck because of inflation and shit peasant pay.
I propose that once Kamala officially assumes the position and we can ignore demented Hitler again we do our best to yeet her straight back out the Whitehouse.
We have to start getting actually mad, but in such a way where we keep thinking clearly and do not expose ourselves to emotional manipulation.
No. Don't yeet her out, but lobbying, absolutely. We as Americans need to start pushing OUR representatives to do what WE want. The official middle-class annual income is around $54K - $161K. Huge window, and those numbers are obviously embellished because it's claimed those numbers make up 50% of Americans. 11% of the percentage left over is poverty level, lower Class is 29%, and the rest is upper or upper-middle class.
So 41% of Americans can't or struggle affording the American Dream.
Now, let's look at tax brackets (which socially in America is what really defines your class)
$0-$11,000 essentially means you're homeless or in prison $11,001-$44,275 means you're impoverished $44,276-$95,375 is lower Class $95,376-182,100 is lower-middle class $182,101-231,250 is middle class $231,251-$578,125 is upper-middle class $578,126 and up is upper class.
So in substance, there are 7 tax brackets that represent "all" of the American people. When they say "Middle Class," they include all of the tax brackets that include the word "middle" and take the higher ends of lower-class. So they are embellishing the numbers to make it look like the majority is being spoken for, but what they're actually doing is fudging statistical numbers to try and cover the "majority" of Americans in 3 tax brackets.
Edit: Forgot resources
https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2024/07/22/salary-needed-to-be-middle-class-in-largest-us-cities.html
https://www.irs.gov/filing/federal-income-tax-rates-and-brackets
You appear much more knowledged about taxes then i am.
What way can a laymen worker lobby effectively?
Proportional taxes, inflation defense, lower credit standards. My wife and I live in the lower-class bracket. We have been trying to move to a different state, and even with a credit score within the standards, the missing pre req is a standard income. Since my VA disability is tax-free, it is not supposed to be registered for income, and if one person uses that as their primary income, It's shown that one spouse has zero income and that the other spouse is paying an amount that's shows that income is hemorrhaging
no one ever said anything about boycotting the vote. If you think trying to curb unconditional support for genocide equals Trump, that's on you. Ofc one should vote blue in a swing state, but don't act like it's a good thing that'll fix anything. Strategic and conscious voting may be necessary but is by far nor enough political action
sigh, it’s not about trump. its about dnc wanting to get a free pass on genocide, inflation and they seem to be getting away with it. everyone wanting them to compromise on humanitarian crisis in gaza has been labelled tankie, russian troll.
candidates usually over-promise and underdeliver. and here we are being given shit so what do you think will happen when harris gets elected and says america has voted for the genocide, fracking, wall and more corporate greed ?
we should just bend over now when we have the leverage ?
What leverage?
"The leverage" to do what exactly? Put in someone who will be way worse? How does that help the left accrue power or accomplish our goals? If you think the Democratic Party's takeaway from the left tanking a major election will be "we need to move left more" I have a bridge to sell you. We are not a majority, which means we need to form coalitions. We can't do that with a reputation of blowing up everyone's shit when we don't get our way. We do it by showing how successful the party is when they listen to us and include us. No, this time we don't have a particularly left candidate to vote for. Yes, it all sucks. But I have yet to see a concrete explanation of how picking or allowing "far right fascist" over "moderate" has any benefit in the short or long term. To my eyes, it just causes vulnerable people here and around the world to suffer.
We are not a majority, which means we need to form coalitions.
forget majority but the entirety of dnc voter base is against genocide, that didn’t stop them from doing it and now declaring in the campaign they will continue it. they are ok with loosing the election than even discuss it. they are not leaders but employees of lobbyists who care more about toeing company policy than winning the election.
from two party it has now become one party two candidates system.
One of those things on the bottom path is not like the others.
