There is, in fact, a lot stopping people from forming communes all over the place
Lefty Memes
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.
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Rules
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).
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.
- Absolutely no posts or comments meant to relativize(/apologize for), advocate, promote or defend:
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But try!!!, dont use the difficulty as an excuse
Namely, capitalism.
...and if you do, hoooooo boy. I hope you like a coup, because you are going to get a coup.... or sanctions... or a blockade... or all three.
And don't get too big or the FBI or ATF is on their way
That's just a shitty thing to say. As if the CIA doesn't do this work, local business owners and sheriffs won't form a militia, or any of dozens of other federal agencies don't put in the work murdering people for trying to share.
Worker unions bad, police unions enforcing corporate-aligned government rules good.
"Nothing stopping you" except the government. "Which government?" Most of them.
To them communism is what capitalism is to us
This assigns too much legitimacy to the position. The working class are not capitalists because we have no capital with which to commit legal theft through property law or pay thugs to enforce those laws with violence.
The working class under capitalism are beholden to systems they often do not understand, cannot exercise agency within, and are actively stymied from prospering under.
Capitalism dehumanizes even those who support it. Those who support it are conditioned to reflexively demonize alternative systems. To rise above this culturally ingrained propaganda and advocate for alternatives requires seeing capitalism for what it is.
Alternative systems are to them what the bogeyman is to children.
"Nothing" is definitely an interesting way to pronounce "many things"
Nothing stopping you. Well, except for the federal government and its military.
"Nothing is stopping you" - actually not true, you need government permission and they will just say no.
Every single attempt at establishing a communist society was fought tooth and nail every step of the way by capitalists. By any means necessary.
Yep. Everything is designed to force individualism. You need to buy a house, illegal to live in a tent even if you own land which is comparably cheap.
So I can legally buy an acre of woodland for under £20k, possibly £10k at a push though they usually charge more per area for small patches, depends on location. I could also build several cabins or put up multiple tents, so far all legal.
The moment someone lives there, illegal. The government can now seize the property. They have done so in the past when people have tried.
Remember, the capitalists caused famine all over the place too!
Okay but they weren't communist about it, so it doesnt count. Stop whining Ireland.
uproar from India, Bangladesh, The Congo, Kenya, and about 100 other countries
Yes but they're not white so we don't have to pretend to feel guilty about the atrocities.
‘Member when people tried building there own communes outside the US and the CIA intervened.
Stop trying to enslave me in a world where my neighbor gets to eat! I wanna live in a world where none of us get to eat, and we work all day to maintain our poverty!
In Caliban and the Witch, Silvia Federici proposes that even before the 1500s as a process of primitive accumulation, proto capitalist used the witch purges in Europe to usher in the family structures required to begin capitalism, killing hundreds of thousands of women in the process.
They teach that communism is evil where they should be teaching Soviet Union wasn't communist, they were doing the same thing the US is doing now.
there are people around who think Soviet Union still IS communist. (Or at least Russia, but it's all the same!)
Yeah, those are usually the people who never were anywhere near either
Hello, my name is Marc Parella and I am laughably ignorant of the entirety of human history since roughly 1880.
I had an argument with a friend where he was like "capitalism is everywhere because it works!! How can you say communism is good when it doesn't survive but capitalism does!" It's like yeah bombing and invading other countries worked, that doesn't mean that it's a good thing we want to keep happening...
People, people, please. You'll be enslaved no matter what economic system you're under.
What an utterly shitty take.
Give it a try and tell me how it goes. "If you think you're free, try going into a deli and urinating on the cheese"