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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
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 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:
- 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
The overwhelming majority of Marxists are Marxist-Leninists worldwide. Saying MLs are different is only true by technicality, really. Tankie is a slur for Marxists of all types as well.
These "tankies" largely don't exist, though I'm sure you can find fans of Pol Pot in some decrepit corner.
There's a lot to unpack here. The Hungarian Revolution was a very complicated situation. Among reasonable protesters were intentional agitators, fascists, and Nazi collaborators, who were pressured by the US, to destabilize the USSR and reimplement Capitalisn. It isn't a situation where the USSR can be praised as "good" for violently suppressing the Revolution, but it wasn't a clear cut case.
Secondly, defense of AES countries is Marxist. Trying to dispell myths like "Communism killed 100 million people" and critically analyze what went right and what went wrong is Marxist. Marxists also reject "Great Man Theory," the idea that society is driven by powerful individuals and their whims.
Thirdly, nobody supports Russia. Russia is a bourgeois dictatorship. Recognizing Russia as moving against NATO does not make them pro-Russia. Ask anyone if they want to live in Russia and the answer will be no, because it's a corrupt bourgeois dictatorship that happens to be fighting the largest Imperialist organization in the modern era.
Depends on the spaces. Again, though, as you admit, the Anarchists are the ones who generally refuse to work with the larger leftist movement, which isn't a problem Marxists tend to share.
There was an entire civil war, Anarchists were killing Marxists as well. During the revolution, Anarchists were allies, but eventually disagreed with the Marxists keeping the state, and fought against the Marxists. Leftist infighting is tragic, but to pretend the Marxists were the only belligerants for continuing to pursue Marxism is an extremely one-sided view of tragic events.
MLs outnumber Marxists who reject Lenin by such a huge margin that it's essentially noise. Anarchists lump all Marxists in.
Anarchists have very often gone to war against Marxists for continuing to use a State, and Marxists have fought against Anarchists for fighting against the use of a state. Liberals have additionally absolutely murdered both Anarchists and Marxists alike.
I try to explain Marxist theory as best I can to those who don't understand it.