this post was submitted on 10 Jul 2024
413 points (82.6% liked)
Lefty Memes
4072 readers
18 users here now
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, upvoting good contributions and downvoting 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.)
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
At what point do our moral obligations directly conflict with the Rule of Law?
When does the need for doing The Right Thing™️ override the need for doing it The Right Way™️?
Before you answer just know that I know that I don’t know that I’ll ever know the full and complete answer to that question
The Right Thing™️ means a great many different things to a great many different people. Law is a way of funneling the most functional of these things into rules that most can agree with and live by. This requires a sacrifice of living not by your own ideology, but by one best for the whole, in exchange for a safe and functional society.
When The Right Way™️ starts catering to the interests of a few, the society becomes less safe and functional for the majority of its occupants. Thus making compliance and participation in its rules a bum deal for the populous. We obey by choice to get safety and security. When people stop feeling like society is fulfilling it's end of the bargain, they revolt. So the question is, at what point do you feel like you're being fleeced?
In the grand scheme of ethics... Probably immediately. There's nothing about the police or the legal system that entitles them to moral superiority. They're just richer and have more time on their hands. Keep in mind the legal system is the same legal system that gave us citizens united, two calamitous wars in West Asia, and golden parachutes for rich criminals. They're just a system of exploitation that makes sure their favored corporations get to exploit everything and everyone while we're all too poor and hungry to fight back because they've made it sink or swim for us
I agree. Legal and ethical are not the same. Legal does not imply just.
That's conservative ideology. Liberal only means not conservative. Stop trying to pretend that liberal means centrist. There's already a word for that. It's centrist.
Liberal is the opposite of authoritarian. Progressive is the opposite of conservative. American 1 dimensional politics does not define all of political conversation.
Liberal is the opposite of authoritarian.
Riiiight... until you threaten their precious private property, capitalism, and/or imperialism. Then you quickly see liberals singing the same song fascists do.
view more: next ›