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!
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.
In the 20th century, the "Roaring Twenties" ended with the great depression.
In the 21st century, we're in the "Screaming Twenties", and I hope it ends with a manic frenzy of plutocrat cannibalism... But I doubt it will have a catchy name or be called "great" by anyone.
So many are living in total wilful ignorance of politics that I don't think anything is going to happen, most people barely even look at the news and if they did they wouldn't understand most of it, nevermind the subtleties and nuance of identifying bias and dogwhistles etc., they just check twitter feeds for their product fandoms so they know when to consume product and when to get excited for the next product.
They are happy being fucked for all their labour value as long as they get that dopamine hit from whatever vapid bullshit is trotted out of some dystopian shithole like SK.
I've decided the best and most feasible thing I can do right now is thoroughly decoupling myself from the corporate consumerism world, I haven't had Netflix (boycotted over Chapelle initially then just stuck with it) in many years now and I just got around to cancelling Prime too, I've deleted all food delivery apps and I pirate all my media and use ublock/sponsor block everywhere, the only thing left to cancel is Spotify, I only ever buy used gadgets like old laptops that'd probably end up in a landfill, some of which I use to host Jellyfin etc.
I am sorry, but what does SK stand for? All I can think of is Slovakia and it is just too funny 🤣
God I hope so
Great. When do we eat?
Arr ye matey whale be back on thee menyew.
I've yacht that sinking feeling.
Once Trump can no longer stand at the podium the establishment Republicans are going to be underwater with the monster they created.
Maybe direct (organized) action. You know, in Minecraft.
That organized part is the hard part. Everyone is so atomized.
Yeah. Agreed. I even fall into that category sometimes. It's a difficult thing to overcome.
Suffering winds the spring of reform.
I think the biggest issue is that we don't know what to do when we're mad anymore. People think that being mad is all you need - that if you say you're mad, things will change. I often see people get pissed about something, then calm down and move on, as if they somehow achieved something with their anger alone.
I'm hoping that there's some pressure going on under the surface, and people will eventually reach a point where enough anger has built up that they can't take it anymore and they really take action, but from what I've seen, people are so against the concept of acting upon angry feelings that I worry they'll just hold it in until they die.
Look at other countries, plenty of places where angry people are doing something about it...
Action needs to be organized and have a clear purpose. Disorganized, unfocused action is easily overcome by the powerful. After decades of a very deliberate culture of individualism, we have a psychological mountain to climb in finding our way back to focused collective action. Not to mention that the mechanisms of such action (such as labor unions) have been gradually dismantled for half a century or more.
Dear god I hope so.
I've seen a lot of comments like this for a lot of years...
If there was hope, it must lie in the proles, because only there, in those swarming disregarded masses, eighty-five percent of the population of Oceania, could the force to destroy the Party ever be generated. The Party could not be overthrown from within. Its enemies, if it had any enemies, had no way of coming together or even of identifying one another. Even if the legendary Brotherhood existed, as just possibly it might, it was inconceivable that its members could ever assemble in larger numbers than twos and threes. Rebellion meant a look in the eyes, an inflection of the voice; at the most, an occasional whispered word. But the proles, if only they could somehow become conscious of their own strength, would have no need to conspire. They need only to rise up and shake themselves like a horse shaking off flies. If they chose they could blow the Party to pieces tomorrow morning. Surely sooner or later it must occur to them to do it.
I'd like to believe it, but based on recent evidence, the next decade is going to be defined by how incredibly apathetic the general public continues to be about matters that actually affect our lives.
Employees where I work went on strike to accept pretty much the same deal two weeks later...
I don't like asparagus
I made you some green beans Amandine and slow roasted cabbage, bon appetit.
If SpaceNoodle doesn’t want it, may I have their portions?
No, my partner loooooves asparagus.
I would love to see it, but I'm mostly just gobsmacked by how much balls-out plutocratic fuckery we're already accepting. Corporations snatching up all the houses, grocery stores jacking up prices with abandon, our sick joke of a medical system pricing us out of being alive, insurance companies charging more and covering nothing. People seem more upset about streaming services raising prices and shovelling ads into everything, but they're still fucking paying for them. It's insane the abuse that the public is willing to accept, provided that there's someone worse off who we can look down on.
Bread and circuses
The systems of control they have created are resilient.
When you hear the GOP talking about how privileged we are to have indoor plumbing and refrigerators you really start to understand where they think the bottom is.
"You have a cellphone, in a world where everyone is pretty much legally required to have one...."
Yeah at this point they might as well complain we poors don't literally dress in rags and cough when we talk ala Middle Ages beggars
I never say this, but fucking preach
Look all I’m saying is, when shit like this happened to medieval Chinese peasants, millions of landholders died and they still had more free time than us
(Before a liberal points out the obvious, I am aware technology has advanced since the Qing dynasty)
I hope the reckoning is swift and soon but I have a feeling this decade is going to end with most of us still saying "any day now"...