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!
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
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.
Remember - they didn't throw Martin Skhreli into rich-guy's prison because he caused thousands of people to die by raising the prices on lifesaving medicines out of reach of poor folk... no, no, no, they threw him into rich guy's prison because he embezzled some of his fellow rich parasites' money.
The way it looks is the way it is.
Fuck the poor, get rich
Fuck the rich, go to prison.
I might get in trouble for this, but if I ever see Skhreli in person, I'll do my best to make sure his nose lays flat across his cheek. He's a garbage being that's less than rats
Make sure to use a blunt instrument - you don't want to be touching that toxic thing with your bare hands.
I've been told a sock full of oranges doesn't leave a bruise
40 months is slightly less the six years in the same way my pay check is slightly less than my CEOs
Yeah... Really bending the definition of "slightly" there. It would be far more accurate to day "slightly more than three years".
It costs what $30k a year to keep someone in prison? Great use to taxpayer money for that $100 theft.
It unironically is a great use of money, if it wasn't they wouldn't do it. Prison Labor is basically slavery, and just as absurdly profitable, plus private prisons make more money with more inmates and can lobby as such.
Well, mainly it's about funnelling taxpayer money into the hands of the prison industrial complex cause most states don't go quite so hard on the prison labor
It's a positive feedback loop built off of human suffering. Private Prisons lobby for more slave labor, making the Capitalist State more money, while the Prison Industrial Complex gets more money for imprisoning more people, and more slave labor to sell cheap commodities.
A great use of money to whom is the question. Varies wildly depending on your perspective.
Sure, but money exists to benefit the ones holding Capital. The system itself supports and reinforces profit above all else, as such, it's a great use of money for Capitalists.
If you mean that it's unethical and negative for the health of society, of course, I agree entirely. We can't solve this problem outright without transitioning to Socialism.
Oooofff... So close until you replaced liberal cult ideology with tankie cult ideology.
I would advise you to read some books (like actual books, not a YouTube video essay about a book) about socialism because it seems to be something very different than you think.
Snopes: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/homeless-man-vs-corporate-thief/
It's true, but note that Allan received a reduced sentence for testifying against the actual mastermind of the fraud, who got 30 years.
So him defrauding millions of times more than what that 15-year sentence guy stole is less bad because the fraudster also snitched on an even bigger fraudster?
I think that isn't an issue. The issue is the clearly disproportionate punishment of 15 years for 100 dollars.
A few years for fraud especially you helped the catch more fraudsters is fine.
15 years for something that won't cover a night out is fucking wrong.
In most circumstances the dollar amount does matter. The titles are cherry picked. The 100 dollar theft wasnt from a convenience store, he robbed a bank. Is your argument that it was such a bad bank robbery that we shouldnt punish the guy? What about criminal history?
Dramatizing the facts does not help make the point, it makes it less resilient. The situation is already lopsided if we just take the simple facts of what happened, but the titles of these articles are not that.
Trying t8 defend the US justice system is a bold fucking move.
You do knowing about three strikes laws and mandatory minimums right?
There are people serving life sentences for stealing food while most white collar crime, even when convicted, don't get much jailtime at all. Usually fines, or parole or house-arrest in their mansions.
Sometimes a non-violent felony also counts as a third strike, which thus would result in a disproportionate penalty., Three-strikes laws have thus also been criticized for imposing disproportionate penalties and focusing too much on street crime rather than white-collar crime.
The US manufactures crimes so it can legally enslave the poor people. Because slavery is still legal in the US, as long as the slaves are convicted criminals.
That's genuinely propping up a significant portion of the US economy; slave labour from prisons which are filled up with all kinds of excuses.
The wealthy 'make mistakes', the poor go to jail
Pretending you don't understand this is the reality of the situation is making me question your humanity.
Well you just keep on pushing people away with your exaggerations. My second favorite part is where you assume any critique must mean I support the current system.
Read better. I said this is already a great example of inequality without obfuscating details. Since it stands on its own merits, any efforts to exaggerate either way is reducing the effectiveness of your message. Honesty is important.
Read more and stop licking the boots of your oppressors.
Why We Let White-Collar Criminals Get Away With Their Crimes
How white collar criminals get away with it
Is white-collar crime treated more leniently in the US?
How They Got Away with It: White Collar Criminals and the Financial Meltdown
Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison: Ideology, Crime, and Criminal Justice
"Cherrypicking"
Twice as long as the homeless man, yes.
The difference in dollars and impact though, and considering who turned themselves in... It's still an egregious sentence for $100.
you can't easily or directly compare the monetary value of violent vs non-violent crime. Robbery is not about the money from a severity perspective. Any robbery will be much more heavily punished than a theft of the same monetary value due to the violence or threat of violence agaist the person or people.
If you stick a gun in someones face and ask them for one cent, you still should be going to jail for a decent amount of time - way more than shoplifting a 500 dollar tv.
15 years does seem a lot though, you might have expected them to at least wave the weapon around, or put it direct to someones head, or put a knife to the throat - that doesn't seem to be the case here. but if it were less than 5 , I'd think they'd got off lightly for robbery.
The homeless guy should have shoplifted food from grocery store - not gone and threatened someones life.
That's certainly quite the interpretation of what happened when Roy Brown went into the bank, said "this is a stickup" with no weapon, was handed three stacks of bills, took a single $100 bill, handed the rest back and said "Sorry, I'm homeless".
In other words, not remotely what you described.
Goodbye.
It wasn't the amount - It was the "who" that the homeless person robbed. He didn't steal from a local liquor store or 7/11. He robbed from a bank. And bank robbery, since the time there have been banks to rob from, has always carried certain heavy punishments. And the punishments are well known to even a homeless person. And very often the judge gets no choice or leeway in the sentencing.
And the punishments are well known to even a homeless person.
The bootlicking condescension is strong here.
And TB&W also stole from banks through fraud.
The judge isn't the issue being called out, the laws and associated punishments are.
So.. yes. And my point stands.
For the curious, this is factual, not just true. Source: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/homeless-man-vs-corporate-thief/
The homeless man understands the actual value of money which is why he felt remorse.
“Let’s see Paul Allen’s sentence.”
I love that fraudster’s name is actually Paul Allen
his subtle off-white colouring got him a lighter sentence
Off-white collar crime.
"It's a big club, and you ain’t in it." - George Carlin
Impressive. Very nice. Let's see Paul Allen's sentence.
Lore accurate Paul Allen
It is whom your stealing from. Madoff for instance robbed the wrong people, should've robbed proletarians.
End Stage Capitalism: "Laws for thee (the poor), not for me (the wealthy)."
That's regular Capitalism, end-stage is when Capitalism reaches out internationally to dominate less developed countries with predatory loans (like from the IMF) and exporting Capital to produce goods for far lower wages than you would domestically.
Are you trying to imply that the US doesn't already do this? They've overthrown democratically elected governments all over the latin americas (and other places, like hawaii) and imposed more fascist ones for access to their raw materials. Sure it's not exactly using loans to do that, but the real end-game is fascism anyways once markets are fully saturated and there are no more ways to generate capital.
Are you trying to imply that the US doesn't already do this?
No, the exact opposite. We are at End-Stage Capitalism, there's not much left for it to go.
While a 15 year sentence is definitely too high, it's important to acknowledge that there is a difference between a bank robbery and fraud.
Tbf, sounds kinda like the homeless man wanted to get caught, maybe for the free rent.
You are showing your innocence.