Lefty Memes
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, and discussion 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
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)
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,
as well as 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 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.
7. Absolutely no posts or comments meant to relativize(/apologize for), advocate, promote or defend:
- Racism
- Sexism
- Queerphobia
- Ableism
- Classism
- Rape or assault
- Genocide/ethnic cleansing or (mass) deportations
- Fascism
- (National) chauvinism
- Orientalism
- Colonialism or Imperialism (and their neo- counterparts)
- Zionism
- Religious fundamentalism of any kind
(This is not a definitive list, the spirit of the other rules still counts! Eventual duplicates with other rules are for emphasis.)
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Once, years ago, went out to a restaurant with some friends and had a couple drinks. Wasn't paying close enough attention to my intake, and ended up a little too tipsy to drive (not, like, belligerent drunk or anything, just not safe to drive). Hung out sitting on the hood of my car watching videos on my phone for a while with a friend until he had to leave. Before he left, this super cute guy started talking to us. We hit it off, and dude and I started getting flirty. Went back to his place because it was walking distance, did the deed, and when we were done I went to get some water from his kitchen.
Wherein I see not one, not two, but no less than a dozen coffee mugs, posters, fucking rugs, and all manner of paraphernalia with right wing nonsense. We're talking he had a fucking swastika area rug. I begin the heavy breathing of a scared little gay boy (6'3 and nearly 300lbs/190cm 135kg), and he notices my discomfort. He acts like this is nothing unusual and says he's just a collector of WWII shit.
Yeah, bro, maybe you are. But that doesn't explain the don't tread on me poster, the trump 2016 merch, and fucking birth of a nation movie poster!
I got the fuck outta there before his lawyers had a chance to try out a gay panic defense.
Isn't is funny how nobody collects the stuff from the Allies?
Only my grandparents stuff from when they kicked Nazi ass. They’d be horrified at todays bullshit.
I have WWII stuff from the allies, but it isn't even from the European parts of the war. From my grandfather. His father earned US citizenship by fighting in WWI.
You have inherited stuff, but do you collect and display it?
There actually is a pretty large WW2 Allied collector and reenactor community. I know a guy with a Jeep with a mounted quad MG.
Just don't ask too many questions about the other team.
To be fair, it is more intriguing to collect the stuff of the objectively bad guy. A lot of it is like, it feels almost unbelievable, so nazi memorabilia helps ground that reality that, yes, it actually happened (and how it might have happened)
Of course there is nuance to this, though
Everyone loves an unterhund?
Probably just Axis being the driver of history at the moment.
It started there, and what Allies did is they put this down.
People tend to be more interested in what started the fire and what has let it burn; what has left a dent in history. Doesn't mean they lean to Nazi ideology.
(Disclaimer: I collect neither and am not interested in war history, or war in general)
I don't want to nitpick but plenty of historical gun owners love both sides weaponry and display both. Personally, I know a friend that owns a STG 44 and a ppsh and a tommy.
Collecting multiple kinds of guns is a bit different than collecting all of the other things that are clearly nazi branded propaganda. Having one or two guns isn't really collecting in the same way as having a bunch of nazi branded everyday use items with the red black and white swastika flag.
I'm not disagreeing that was my point. However the people who are in that hobby normally get other kit than just guns. What matters is how it's displayed.
Nazi rug in the bathroom is OK with me
Long as it’s in the toilet (and the bathtub has a big drain)
Anyone displaying a swatstika anything that's a reproduction or new production item needs to get their head checked IMHO. I'm only ok with actual historic pieces from the era.
Holy shit I died
Thank you, I'll be here for the foreseeable future... As I can't afford to leave
Wait, are you a gay man or a female? This story's context changes drastically with your answer.
Gay man
Nice. I feel bad for these fundies that have to pretend to be conservative but are actually pretty liberal sexually.
Ugh, gay guy here, totally relate. Hate it when the cute gay guy is a fascist. Has happened multiple times for me.
Seriously? Because out of 20 years of homoing professionally this is my sole example. I hope to God I don't run into it again lol
Sadly yeah, flirting with guys online, lots of them turn out to be far-right. Luckily, I’m no longer single, so I don’t have to deal with it anymore. But at least 3 guys I’ve been kinda interested in turned out that way. Found out before sleeping with any of them, thankfully
That sucks! My only other kinda close example is a dude I used to blow back in my "falling for straight guys" phase ended up going ancap, but that was a while after we were hooking up.