this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2025
37 points (93.0% liked)
Socialism
729 readers
27 users here now
#Welcome to /c/socialism
Socialism as a political system is defined by democratic and social control of the means of production by the workers for the good of the community rather than capitalist profit, based fundamentally on the abolition of private property relations.
Socialism is also a sociopolitical movement dedicated to the critique and dismantling of exploitative structures, including economic, gendered, ethnic oppression.
Socialism, as a movement, confronts these different systems of oppression as mutually conditioning, intersectional, and/or dialectically related within the current hegemonic order. It seeks to overcome oppression in a holistic manner without neglecting any particular axis so that it might be eliminated and genuine social emancipation may be realized. We recognize that Socialism cannot be achieved while structural oppression continues and workers are divided.
We look forward to your participation in our sub, but please be mindful of our posting guidelines.
Are you new to socialist ideas? Wondering what alternatives to capitalism exist? Please check out our educational materials and wiki further down in this sidebar.
#Posting Guidelines
Please read our General Bans Policy
No:
- Racism
- Sexism
- Ableism
- Homophobia
- Transphobia
- Religious Bigotry
- Fascists
- Rape Apologia
- Reactionaries
- Police Apologia
- Lesser Evilism (Clinton, Macron, etc.)
- Supporting Neoliberalism (NATO, EU, etc.)
- Anti-Working Class Rhetoric
- Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric
- Colonial Apologia
- Western Imperialist Apologia
- Liberalism
Furthermore, do not make bad-faith attacks on other socialists, including:
- Gulag jokes
- Kronstadt jokes
- Icepick jokes
Keep meta posts constructive. Avoid shitposting. This is not a sub for sharing other user's post histories or for sharing screenshots of ridiculous things liberals say.
No linking to /c/Socialism in brigade subs or participating in subs that harass our users
/c/Socialism is a sub for socialists, and a certain level of knowledge about socialism is expected. If you are derailing discussions or promoting non-socialist positions, your comments may be removed, and you may receive a warning or a ban. If you are not a Socialist but are learning about it, be polite, or you will be banned for trolling. Low effort images: powerful expressions of socialism are always welcomed in r/socialism. Expressions may vary including pictures, cartoons, comics, illustrations, and even memes. However, those expressions which lack quality (does not clearly shows a socialistic construct), or has low-quality insights (possibly for karma and/or upvotes) may not be posted. Thus, those images that do not meet these quality standards will be removed.
founded 5 years ago
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
A lot of us are products of bourgoisie cultures and we will likely enjoy the art that such a society produces. Future generations will hopefully produce and enjoy arts not constrained by such backward sensibilities though that doesn't mean we shouldn't try now.
It is like the flip side of the coin of self-identification amongst westerners; it is not revolutionary to incorrectly pigeon-hole yourself to the proleteriat if you don't actually belong to that class, it is better to identify the class you belong to and then engage in class betrayal. Otherwise it is just another form of idealism.
To take examples of very popular western pop culture: LOTR and Harry Potter. It's OK to like them, it doesn't make you any less a social scientist; just be conscious of your own limitations which extends to the things you enjoy - accept that you and the art you enjoy is flawed, and use that knowledge to help engage in revolutionary pragmatism (I used the above two as examples because of how racist they both are, LOTR arguably much more than HP).
Addendum - it obviously matters what parts of the above series you like; this is an ML space so I figured I could be a bit less precise with the language here. Both series are deeply problematic to say the least.
Thank you for articulating this point, comrade. I am certainly a part of the labor aristocracy myself and that white fragility has been very tough to overcome because no sensible person wants to think of themselves as an oppressor.
But finally I realized that no sensible person should want to be oppressed either. So how about I just do my part to bring down systems of oppression and use the privileges I have in the process to do so.
If Engels can do it, us western white folks can too.
I think liberalism has diminished our dialectical thinking; if one is a westerner labour aristocrat (a definition? One cares about property value) and not at the receiving end of the settler-colonial dynamic, no matter the colour - though we can't ignore ethnicity, then at the very least we are a cog in the racist machine against the Global South which we only have a chance of mitigating through organisation.
It doesn't, however, excuse the racism. By being real of what our place in the world is we are going to have a better chance of tackling this beast (though as one can tell from my comment history I am not very optimistic about us westerners. Like this is an ML forum and I see blinders all the time. To the point whenever someone says "what can I do" I feel like saying move to China, though this is not the correct take from a global revolutionary standpoint).
A famous example of attempting to do it right is Che Guevara - a Chilean labour aristocrat physician who decided to tackle the beast.I'm not saying that we all have that level of charisma and skillset but you know aim for the stars and you may at least land on the moon. Or as Zhou Enlai said to Khrushchev: we are both traitors to our class.
Well Zhou meant that as an insult Khrushchev because Khrushchev was born a Russian peasant while Zhou was born into the Mandarin Chinese class which had considerably more social privilege than other Chinese ethnicities.
But I agree nonetheless! One cannot engage in material analysis and revolutionary politics without first coming to grips with material reality. What’s very important is that we remember the circumstances of our birth do not diminish our value as human beings (that notion is fundamentally idealistic and liberal). But it does change what our role is in revolutionary organization.
Haha yes I included it because of the insult :) (ie it is both aspirational and critical of us westerners in this context)