this post was submitted on 19 Dec 2025
559 points (98.9% liked)
Lefty Memes
6363 readers
253 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, discussion and agitprop/stuff that's better fit for a poster than a meme 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. Please post agitprop here)
0.5 [Provisional Rule] Use alt text or image descriptions to allow greater accessibility
(Please take a look at our wiki page for the guidelines on how to actually write alternative text!)
We require alternative text (from now referred to as "alt text") to be added to all posts/comments containing media, such as images, animated GIFs, videos, audio files, and custom emojis.
EDIT: For files you share in the comments, a simple summary should be enough if theyβre too complex.
We are committed to social equity and to reducing barriers of entry, including (digital) communication and culture. It takes each of us only a few moments to make a whole world of content (more) accessible to a bunch of folks.
When alt text is absent, a reminder will be issued. If you don't add the missing alt text within 48 hours, the post will be removed. No hard feelings.
0.5.1 Style tip about abbreviations and short forms
When writing stuff like "lol" and "iirc", it's a good idea to try and replace those with their all caps counterpart
- ofc => OFC
- af = AF
- ok => OK
- lol => LOL
- bc => BC
- bs => BS
- iirc => IIRC
- cia => CIA
- nato => Nato (you don't spell it when talking, right?)
- usa => USA
- prc => PRC
- etc.
Why? Because otherwise (AFAIK), screen readers will try to read them out as actually words instead of spelling them
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 irrationally 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.
- 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
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Is this sarcasm?
It's not a question of belief. It's a question of understanding facts. Just like "believing" in climate change or vaccines or science in general.
The claim is as follows
Do we have hard data showing that if more people went vegan, it'd significantly affect climate change? Because if not... Then yes, I'd say it is a question of belief.
If what we have is data on the impact of the meat industry, data on the impact of things like water use and gases produced by animals on the climate, data on how the climate behaves and changes in general, and data on how other things affect the environment, you have to trust and believe that not only every part of it is right, but that it was also all put together and compared correctly.
And it's difficult to know who to believe, when there seems to be so much conflicting information these days.
I'll also say honestly that I don't know if being vegan has a significant impact. What I've heard and read a lot of is that there's a lot of blaming of individuals while supposedly big corporations are the ones causing the most pollution... Which simultaneously ignores the question of how much of that pollution is driven directly by people buying products that are polluting to produce.
The whole thing feels hopeless, and one feeling I do get about that is that doing anything as an individual seems pointless, since countless more people... They don't just not care, they'll actively do things they know are polluting, either because they're a bit cheaper, or downright as a statement of objection to caring about global warming.
Regarding individual action, being vegan is likely the most effective thing one can do to reduce ones own emissions (except if you're a frequent flyer, then stop flying). Yes, that's under the assumption that individual action induces change. But that would also be arguing against switching to bikes, using public transport, and less flying.
You're completely right that we need systemic change. And to get there, protesting, direct action, civil disobedience are likely the best we can do and far more effective than individual changes. But these actions also only become effective once there is an actual systemic shift.
I will note, in reply, one major point - there's plenty of other arguments for going vegan, biking, using public transport. I think veganism is more ethical, and I have the impression it's healthier as well - and both apply to biking and public transport in their own ways, health is kinda obvious, but ensuring widespread accessibility for people without cars seems like an ethical positive, and if respected for city planning it'd also make more pleasant cities to live in.
What I'm getting at is... Well, I'm not sure how to express it, but I guess to not forget the bigger picture? I feel like the previous commenter talking about not believing going vegan will have an impact was getting kinda dogpiled on (not really the right word, but maybe close enough), for what seemed like a reasonable statement, because they were speaking in opposition to something they might very well still consider a good thing.
I doubt it. first of all, consumption hardly causes any emissions at all. those happen at the production level.
No, the most effective is not having kids.
Assumption is that animal industry will reduce if more people become vegan, and that has a big impact.
But I unfortunately agree, that the industry will likely not change until maybe at least 50% of population are strict vegans, or maybe even then, they will just try to make the rest of population consume more meat to never reduce the production.
here's a fact: meat production only goes up.
Yes it does. But that's not due to vegans, is it?
being vegan hasn't stopped it