this post was submitted on 13 Oct 2025
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Lefty Memes

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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.

Agitprop (I.E. everything that would be more fitting on a poster than a meme) goes here.

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

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" 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.



  1. Absolutely no posts or comments meant to relativize(/apologize for), advocate, promote or defend:

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[–] biotin7@sopuli.xyz 7 points 4 hours ago

Surveillance capitalism

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 10 points 11 hours ago (3 children)

What the fuck even is "stakeholder capitalism". You mean the people with money???

[–] merdaverse@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 hour ago

It is the fantasy that corporations can serve the interest all stakeholders (employees, customers etc.) rather than a minority of shareholders as is currently: https://www.investopedia.com/stakeholder-capitalism-4774323

[–] Schmoo@slrpnk.net 6 points 8 hours ago

I assumed it meant capitalism where everyone is a stakeholder of the company they work for or something like that.

[–] mistermodal@lemmy.ml 3 points 10 hours ago

Maybe they don't know what a retail investor (hog for slaughter) is but tried to express the same concept

[–] Jankatarch@lemmy.world 63 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (3 children)

To be fair experimenting is good. It's still better than feudal system. I just wish we experimented with other models once in a while too.

I will read a sci-fi novel thousands of years into the future with fantasy-magic system, and economic model is still "21st century capitalism but we replaced the word money with credits so it's future now."

[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 10 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

we do. those just get bombed away a lot of the time they pop up.

or explained away as a brutal undemocratic regime or something.

[–] RaivoKulli@sopuli.xyz 1 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

Would be harder to explain it away if they weren't brutal undemocratic regimes though

[–] Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 22 minutes ago)

Would be harder to explain it away if they weren’t brutal undemocratic regimes though

They aren't though.

Cuba passed a new constitution by referendum in 2019 with 90%+ in favor.

A common perspective I've heard here in Vietnam is "socialism means the government has to represent everyone". (Another common perspective is that the party is openly corrupt and not meaningfully democratic. Those typically aren't held by the same people)

Most every Chinese would tell you 1. Democracy is important. 2. The CPC represents my views via democracy.

[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (1 children)

don't be silly. the most brutal and undemocratic country in the world is the us.

[–] RaivoKulli@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

What relevance does the US have here

[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

its literally the country pulling the lever in the meme, AND the one bombing or propagandizing against others trying to do things differently.

[–] RaivoKulli@sopuli.xyz 2 points 57 minutes ago

Why do you think it's the US specifically and none of all the other capitalist countries?

[–] Soup@lemmy.world 29 points 12 hours ago

Capitalism exists to replace feudal systems. It’s easier to have kings, and to have a handful of them so they aren’t fighting as much for a single spot, when you convince the average idiot that now they can also be a king and its their own fault that they aren’t(or better yet, another person’s fault as you oppress them both).

When all the people who had gotten rich by being parasites because of who they were related got afraid they just changed the rules so that it wasn’t ahout blood relation anymore(on paper) but they still had all the money they’d stolen. Nothing functionally changed.

The entire system “the rich get everything they want and no one gets to stop them” does not have a good version. It’s fucked every single way.

[–] masquenox@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 14 hours ago (3 children)

It’s still better than feudal system.

According to whom? I wonder what we would see if we were to compare the average amount of labour time feudal peasants had to put in to survive vs. that of the current global proletariat.

I'd agree that capitalism has been better for some - like, for instance, white ex-peasants who now gets to be members of the (so-called) "middle class" or gets to cosplay as pseudo-nobility in colonised spaces- but it has been an unmitigated disaster for lots of others.

[–] commiunism@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 4 hours ago

According to whom?

According to Marx, Engels, Lenin and any other respectable communist.

Capitalism is a historical progression rather than something you adopt willy nilly, and it has expanded productive forces significantly allowing us to produce stuff far more efficiently in far higher quality and complexity. With feudalism, it's mode of production was far more individualized, with peasants essentially producing for their and their family's subsistence only, and artisans in guilds would only work in small groups, limiting to what they can produce.

Therefore, this expansion of productive powers in capitalism in theory leads to better life quality, less socially necessary labor time to provide for everyone, less mortality given how we can now produce things like insulin in complex labs, etc.

Keyword is in theory - in practice, everything else in the system goes against that, leads to overproduction and having us proletariat work for much higher hours than is socially necessary, it concentrates wealth to private owners giving them immense political power. That's what communists are trying to do - progress forward so we produce not for profit, but for use based on need which would solve these issues.

Btw, comparison between feudal peasantry and proletariat is flawed - peasants were based in countryside and essentially were the middle class of it, owning a small amount of land that they worked for themselves. Proletariat are urbanized, work in factories they don't own and produce for thousands of people. A more apt comparison in work hours would be proletariat vs guild apprentices - their exploitation and work hours were essentially the same and this system was precursor to capitalist wage labor.

[–] RaivoKulli@sopuli.xyz 1 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Who has switch over from feudalism been a disaster to?

[–] masquenox@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

I mean, just off the top of my head...

And, let's not forget, those conditions never ended - they were just exported.

[–] RaivoKulli@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Do you think mining workers had it better under feodalism? Not sure things went worse for them because of capitalism, mining was always a dangerous and shitty job, often done by slaves or convicts because of how shit the conditions were.

[–] masquenox@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 42 minutes ago

Do you think mining workers had it better under feodalism?

In the pre-capitalist world mining practices were all over the place... it wasn't just chain-gangs and overseers. And the conditions for it isn't fundamentally any shittier than working a farm or a factory - I know because I can literally walk down the street and ask a zama-zama (an artisinal - "illegal", according to our bootlicking media - miner) and ask him who and what it is that actually makes their work conditions shitty and dangerous.

We all know what happens to miners under the capitalist mode of production, however - it's literally why some of the most vicious crackdowns on organised labour in history involved the mining industry.

[–] pahlimur@lemmy.world 1 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

The unmitigated disaster part existed under feudalism also. Capitalism is slowly turning back into feudalism, which is kinda why it sucks so much now. I hate capitalism, but feudalism was worse.

Fuedalism with a fuckload of democracy might work. But it always turns into a bloodline thing.

[–] masquenox@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

The unmitigated disaster part existed under feudalism also.

Perhaps, but I have to wonder how many feudal peasants would willingly exchange their existence for the precariat one we exist under.

Capitalism is slowly turning back into feudalism

If that is true, then it must mean that capitalism never replaced feudalism, but was instead built on top of feudalism - which is not that difficult to believe if you live in a 3rd-world extraction zone (like I do).

[–] loonsun@sh.itjust.works 1 points 47 minutes ago

Its also not hard to believe if you ́look at the continuation of power across much of Europe. Its not a 1:1 comparison but lots of families of feudal lords are still wealthy and powerful today if they didn't completely fuck up. The power has spread out but has concentrated in other ways.

[–] _cryptagion@anarchist.nexus 17 points 16 hours ago

plz bro, just one more time, bro

[–] Hackworth@piefed.ca 28 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (1 children)

Blue Raspberry Capitalism. No, wait... Peanut Butter Capitalism

[–] The_Che_Banana@beehaw.org 19 points 17 hours ago (1 children)
[–] _cryptagion@anarchist.nexus 10 points 17 hours ago

spirits deliver me, but I do love baja blast

[–] MotoAsh@piefed.social 19 points 17 hours ago (19 children)

Best economic system ever, they say. Unlike communism, this is a situation where you can say it has been tried many times throughout history.

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 1 points 23 seconds ago

Communism, in the sense of the future stateless, classless, moneyless society, hasn't been reached, but socialism absolutely has been and exists in several countries today. Communism is necessarily post-socialist.

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