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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Question: my landlord ethically renovated and rented out a historical building. There are a lot of nuances with the upkeep that none of the tenants would necessarily be qualified to handle on their own. The landlord has educated themselves on the historical and legal needs of the building, sourced period accurate replacement parts for repairs, renovated and continually upkeeps an antique elevator, organizes cleanings and inspections for our antique windows, and a whole lot more. At times that tenants have experienced financial hardship (pandemic), they have even adjusted rent to match financial ability.
How is that not a job?
No doubt that some (maybe even most) landlords out there exploit their position to get money for nothing, but there are also those out there who are doing the job properly as a caretaker for the property.
The parts that are work are the job, but extracting rents for owning something is not work. I realise it's not a clean break, but the idea is landlords usually get a lot more value than they put in.
Whereas most of us work jobs that take more value from our labour than they'd ever actually pay us for.
In my opinion, the work and the liability are both part of the job. If something goes terribly wrong in this place, I am not on the hook for it. I can call them at any time to report a problem, and they are now going to be the ones to have to fix it—not me.
That is a benefit I get from renting that I wouldn’t have if I owned the place. Even cooperatives, which I have lived in several times before and that eliminate the existence of a traditional landlord, are not without the need to collect additional funds to offset the liability of major repairs in the future.
It seems like the primary difference with a landlord is that a salary gets calculated into that, and people often perceive that salary as too high.
Compensation regulation seems more reasonable than cursing all landlords, in my opinion. I think there is a realistic use for people who want to be a steward of homes for other people who aren’t ready for the responsibility of ownership.