this post was submitted on 31 Jul 2024
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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.
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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)
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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.
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I haven't made an argument, I made a personal observation.
I don't understand any of this.
My point is that there were already conservatives 200 years ago claiming that socialism was utopian, and people like Marx and Engels proved them wrong. Lenin and Fidel, and all the workers who followed and guided them, adhering to Marxism-Leninism, successfully organized revolutions that abolished capitalism and Tsarism and turned their countries into socialist ones.
So your comment that it seems "utopian" has already been answered by Engels 150+ years ago, and confirmed wrong by Lenin and Fidel.
I didn't claim that socialism was utopian, I pointed out that there is seemingly no proposal for how to make socialism come about, much like The Venus Project.
I haven't used the word utopian. You're putting words in my mouth. You're so blinded by your expectations about what you think people are going to say about socialism that you literally can't read what people are writing. Sort your shit out please.
How's that not basically the definition of utopia?
There pretty much is: create a vanguard party of Marxist intellectuals, create unions and give services to citizens in order to organise them, help them in their lives and their struggle, and educate them into class-consciousness. This makes a grassroots dual-power structure that makes workers class-conscious and politically involved as well as provides them with safety networks that they themselves maintain. When the material conditions for the revolution eventually come, the vanguard party and the grassroots organizations coalesce and take power from the bourgeoisie
LOL it's not because that's how concepts work.
What revolution?
What's the Marxist plan for preventing the people who take power from becoming the new exploiters? How do Marxists propose to overcome the fact that power corrupts?
You can tell that to yourself, it's the core of what you meant, regardless of whether you want to use the specific word "utopia" or just talk about "ideal societies that won't take place". I'm not here to argue semantics.
Whichever comes. Revolutions take place periodically in different countries. French revolution, October revolution, revolutionary struggles against colonialism... All of those were revolutions, i.e. events in history with rapid radical changes in the form of governance and organisation of a system, possibly with a change in the classes of society.
The solution is being as democratic as possible. Establishing grassroots, dual power structures early and way before the revolutions. Strong unions, neighborhood associations, social rights movements like current feminist organizations... All of those linked and in collaboration with each other and with a vanguard party of Marxist intellectuals who guide these collectives and vice-versa.
That's not what I meant though. You can't even listen when someone tells you you're not listening.
LOL so no solution in fact, just hope that things might turn out better. Selling a better future. Like a religion. It all makes sense now. Best of luck.
Not if you choose to ignore everything else I said after that. But that's just you wanting to argue in bad faith
Nothing you said after that prevents corruption. You haven't offered a solution, you've just offered a hope.
That's just, like, your opinion, dude. Anarcho-syndicalism doesn't logically eliminate corruption either, no system does
Exactly. Socialism brings no solution to the table. To think, all this time Marx was just faffing about the difference between being stabbed with a six inch knife and a twelve inch knife. What a palaver.
Marx's point wasn't the complete elimination of corruption, but the elimination of the exploitation of the working class by the owning class. This has historically happened in several countries and can (and will) happen again.
But not the elimination of exploitation. In which case: meh.
There's no surplus labour extraction, hence no exploitation
LOL you're deluded. What does it mean for there to be corruption without exploitation? Corruption is a form of exploitation.
Corruption isn't systematic, it's an isolated and illegal activity, unlike extraction of surplus value in capitalism which is legal and encouraged and systematic. The extent of corruption is orders of magnitude below capitalist exploitation.
LOL
I see.
Well, good luck.
Dude, you're deluded if you think capitalist exploitation is even close to corruption in communism. There was no Bezos and no Elon in the USSR. There were no yatchs and hookers. There were no homeless workers, or workers without access to healthcare. The inequality was extremely low compared to Capitalism, even comparing workers with your dreaded "bureaucracy". The fact that you'd even compare the both just shows how stupidly uneducated you are in this.
O_o
I'm not going to waste my time learning about a field that brings no solution to the table.
Six inch knife vs twelve inch knife yawn
Big quantitative differences turn into qualitative differences. But thank you for finally admitting you're talking out of your ass
LOL