this post was submitted on 29 Apr 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.

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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[–] Ratio_Tile@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 6 days ago (2 children)

This feels like a right-wing dogwhistle but I agree with what the words say. I feel very uncomfortable.

[–] stollen@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Don't let the Right claim free speech, especially when they rarely even want it for anyone other than themselves.

Most of these are inspired by Marx quotes.

[–] Fifrok@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 6 days ago

It's because all of those images come from the chud basement that is 4chan

[–] alsaaas@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

From "Michael Parenti on the Cuban Revolution":

And those who demand instant perfection the day after the revolution, they go up and say “Are there civil liberties for the fascists?
Are they gonna be allowed their newspapers and their radio programs, are they gonna be able to keep all their farms?"
The passion that some of our liberals feel, the day after the revolution, the passion and concern they feel for the fascists, the civil rights and civil liberties of those fascists who are dumping and destroying and murdering people before. Now the revolution has gotta be perfect, it’s gotta be flawless.

Class struggle will never cease until we have a world socialist republic, until no capitalist can threaten socialism anymore; until then, the suppression of reaction, the necessity to oppress the oppressors remains a fact...

Another good one "Authoritarianism in Socialist Countries-Michael Parenti

[–] stollen@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 4 days ago

Acknowledging that a revolution can improve society even if it isn't flawless is one thing; actively promoting those "flaws" is another. I do believe that the humanity would ideally be acknowledged in the oppressors. Moreover, the benefits of free speech are greater to society than the individual.

[–] CubitOom@infosec.pub 5 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

I think as long as people are allowed to face the consequences of their speech, it is a self balancing system. I should be able to say black lives matter and Nazis should have to face the the community for saying they dont.

The issue is when the system protects the Nazis and labels "woke" language as wrongthink

If section 230 gets rewritten, the open internet is gone. When companies self censor in fear of the government, that's a different form of government censorship.

Look at this list of banned words, and tell me you think it would be good for the government to censor the internet.

https://pen.org/banned-words-list

[–] A404@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Banning words is so stupid. We would just invent new words.

[–] PolarKraken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 5 days ago

Occurs constantly, George Carlin had some good rants about it.

[–] stollen@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 5 days ago

The benefits to society of free speech are really only realized if people who have incorrect/offensive/unpopular perspectives on important issues are able to express them without severe enough consequences that they choose not to out of fear. That could include community reaction, depending on what it is.

I believe in freedom of speech for people not corporations or capital. Additionally I dont believe in freedom from consequences, you should have the right to be a shitlib but that doesnt mean I will want to talk to you. Also objectively people do not change their minds when shown information that contradicts their arguments.

[–] sem@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

A Song by Florence Patton Reece

Come all of you good workers
Good news to you I'll tell
Of how that good old union
Has come in here to dwell

Chorus
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?

My daddy was a miner
And I'm a miner's son
And I'll stick with the union
Till every battle's won

They say in Harlan County
There are no neutrals there
You'll either be a union man
Or a thug for J.H. Blair

Oh, workers can you stand it?
Oh, tell me how you can
Will you be a lousy scab
Or will you be a man?

Don't scab for the bosses
Don't listen to their lies
Us poor folks haven't got a chance
Unless we organize

[–] Quill7513@slrpnk.net 2 points 5 days ago

If anyone's interested, UMW is currently running a water drive. I can share details of how you can help. But the mining companies, particularly the Danish ones, have escalated the war against the union since Hurricane Helene devastated the southern coal fields. They have been without clean drinking water for nearly 2 years know and two days ago several ecological disasters all occurred at once:

  1. A breaking of a slurry pond, unleashing 50k gallons of coal slurry into the Kanawha River in Nitro, WV
  2. A 10k gallon soybean oil spill into into the East River in Glen Lyn, VA (officials report this has had no impact on drinking water. The funny thing is this is because the water was already not drinkable)
  3. A 10k gallon nitric acid spill into the New River in Radford, VA causing two nearby elementary schools to be evacuated
  4. Flooding in eastern Kentucky where the aforementioned Harlan County is (I used to run cross country there about 3 times a year)

I know one organization in particular that's been doing a lot to help. The people who are most directly impacted by this live in places where the median income is ~$13k/yr and are themselves the most marginalized in these places. We also need help supporting the immigrant families who are the lifeblood of our community, as well as the Cherokee families who are particular risk of ICE detainment.

It is also worth knowing that the recent reclassification of a border town to any town 250 miles from a border, coast, or international airport, means that not only does Glen Lyn have ICE raids and no drinking water, now they have BORTAC on the loose, too. Like the song says. Us poor folks haven't got a chance unless we organize. That is why ICE is run the way that it is. They have to maintain the status quo through violence because the rising union movement in the United States is a threat to them. That's why they've reclassified being in position of anarchocommunist zines as terrorism. They're even trying to restrict what clothes you wear in public, again, under the guise of terrorism and enforcing it through the threat of violent detention.

We want to do more, but we've been on the backfoot trying to regain control of the UMW in particular since the 1970s when the union bosses and the mine bosses made an alliance to ignore worker health to keep the mines open. These days though what the union lacks is support from other nearby people. The workers have control of their union again but the nearby towns don't trust it anymore after its internal war. We're working to fix that by bringing water, bread, and clothing to people regardless of who they are because deservingness hierarchies are bullshit.

I'll leave you now with some redneck slogans:

All wealth is the product of labor
Arm in arm, stronger together. Stronger than ever (this is my favorite)
Buy worker owned products
Child labor laws sent your kid to school, instead of a coal mine (this one in particular is big around here because we got our child labor laws after a war in Price's Junction for them)
Direct action beats inaction
Don't mourn, organize!
Freedom, Democracy, Unions
Happy Days are Here Again
I want ham and eggs, not a pie in the sky
It's your union too

[–] Tolc@lemmy.world 0 points 4 days ago

I support authcom movements so yeah censorship of reactionaries is good.

[–] alapakala@quokk.au 0 points 5 days ago

If you're honestly asking db0, the answer is blatant.