this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2026
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Lefty Memes

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An international (English speaking) socialist Lemmy community free of "ML" (read: Dengist) influence. 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. Please post agitprop here)


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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

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  • 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.


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The only dangerous minority is the rich.


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We must constructively learn from their mistakes, while acknowledging their achievements and recognizing when they have strayed away from socialist principles.

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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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[–] wolframhydroxide@sh.itjust.works -3 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) (2 children)

Checking on your comment history, you seem like a reasonable person, with whom i probably agree on many issues. I agree with nearly everything you have said. However, since i know you're american, just like me, allow me to try to give my perspective on why your statement on white people, writ-large, is problematic:

Every single person on earth is hardwired to discriminate against "the other". You, me, Trump and <insert person you don't find reprehensible here>. This instinct toward petty tribalism is the single greatest challenge we currently face as a species (aside, perhaps, from the fact that we're allowing industrial capitalism to actively boil our planet).

Can you not see how the unmeasured response of saying "people with this color of skin have this problem" is, inherently, not just problematic, but actively defeats the purpose of what you're trying to say? This isn't the same thing as a positive statement like "black lives matter". Yes, of course "all lives matter", but clearly the fact that black lives matter needs to be explicitly pointed out. However, saying that "black lives matter" is not claiming anything negative about any person based on an immutable trait.

Consider the following statements common here in the US, each of which is something you should find reprehensible. In each case, consider the immutable trait, and what libelous problem is being inherently associated with that group of people:

  1. "Mexicans/Colombians have a drug problem"
  2. "The Chinese have a genocide problem"
  3. "Black people have a crime problem"

For each of these, a portion of the people with that immutable trait definitively do have that problem. There are Mexican and Colombian cartels. The Chinese government is perpetrating a genocide against an ethnic minority. Some black people are criminals. However, when you paint with such a wide brush, you don't just perpetrate discrimination against the whole group of people who don't get to choose where they were born, or the style of their governance, let alone the color of their skin. You actively alienate any people in each group who might agree with the existence of a problem, and you also ignore any context which shows the greater, actual problem:

  1. The systems of drug regulation have failed.
  2. Dictatorial regimes perpetrate genocides as easily as signing a piece of paper.
  3. Crime is a problem everywhere, regardless of skin tone, as are its underlying causes of poverty and lack of opportunity.

Obviously, each of those earlier statements (especially the one about black people. That one hurt to write) is deeply flawed, and utterly unproductive. Anyone painting an immutable trait as having a specific problem (aside from genetic problems) is inherently engaging in that same alienation, that same othering, as the people they find so reprehensible. Everyone has a moral duty to work toward ending the issues which plague our civilisation, but saying "you have a racism problem" not only misses the point entirely, but actively makes the problem worse.

I have no problem with calling out discrimination against a group of people, but making a statement like "men have a domestic abuse problem" is inherently unproductive and problematic, and sounds like nothing but picking a fight. "There is a serious problem with white people discriminating against people of different skin tones." Vs. "White people have a racism problem. Full stop."

In fact, I wouldn't even take issue with the statement "We have a racism problem caused by white people". Or "among white people". That's still painting with a wide brush, and is still problematic, but it isn't directly implying that every single person with white skin is perpetrating racist acts.

Anyone engaging with the democratic party must contend with the fact that the leaders of the party are actively abetting genocide. But the fact that you were born with white skin does not imply that you need to engage with the problem of racism. EVERYONE needs to engage with the problem of racism, and bringing an immutable trait into it to call people out is inherently problematic.

[–] adminofoz@lemmy.cafe 3 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

White people and white culture are in positions of power. It is their foot on peoples' necks, quite literally.

If every other time I turned on my TV there was a different ethnicity doing this i would call them out, but that isn't what's happening and to somehow act like racism within the black community is part of the reason the black community keeps suffering from white racism is just distasteful to me.

I don't think that's what you are trying to say but it is certainly adjacent to position and I've heard many white folks argue that or similar, but don't worry its okay because they have "black friends" ^TM^.

Just call a spade a spade.

[–] wolframhydroxide@sh.itjust.works 1 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

Ah, no, I totally agree with everything you've said there. I think you might just be slightly misunderstanding my point. I agree that the problem of racism manifests, at least for now, by vast majority, when white people target others. However, as a person with some basic shred of humanity, it is my duty to fight against racism, not because I have low levels of melanin in my skin, but because I am human. The level of melanin in my skin is completely irrelevant to the fact that racism is a problem with which I must contend. Every citizen of this planet must face that issue. To make it seem like the only people who must do so are white people, or that the reason they must do it is because of the color of their skin, is the claim with which i take issue. There are absolutely elements of structural discrimination, effectively "white privilege" (is that term of art still appropriate?), of which it is my moral duty to be aware, and to actively rebuff. That I am a beneficiary of such unspoken privileges (many of which i may not even recognize as such) is not something I doubt or debate. However, I have worked my entire life to come to a point where I believe I can act in an anti-racist manner, befitting a citizen of the planet I want to live on. It is not because of the color of my skin that racism is something I must be wary of, but because the color of my skin should not matter. So saying "white people have a racism problem" is a wording I detest, as it smacks of the same style of targeted generalisation which I perceive to be the primary issue. It unnecessarily generalises and actively belittles anyone with light skin who works against systems of oppression.

So, maybe it's about the color of my skin automatically failing some purity test, or perhaps it's that my efforts to work against structural inequities are unwelcome, as if, by my very nature, I taint anything I strive toward. I say, to anything that makes me or others in similar positions feel unwelcome in building a civilisation capable of treating people with equity, that attitude can fuck right off.

Anyone who tries to make someone feel bad, worthless, or culpable, solely for having some immutable trait, is doing something wrong. Full stop.

[–] LemmeAtEm@lemmy.ml 2 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (1 children)

"White" isn't an ethnicity. Whiteness is a social construct manufactured (and manicured) as a means to enforce the very in-group privilege and out-group hatred you say (and I do believe you) that you despise and oppose. Whiteness is a nebulous and ever-shifting line that allows or disallows membership depending on what most benefits the core members (the ruling class) at any given time, under whatever given material circumstances. “White people have a racism problem. Full stop" is a 100% true statement because whiteness itself is an inherently racist construct. I am confident you mean well and are genuine in your desire to tear down racism, but doing so means recognizing the racism you still, perhaps unknowingly, believe and perpetuate.

But even if we set all of that aside, and go back to that little list you made as a frankly terrible comparison to other poster's correct statement that white people have a racism problem:

“Mexicans/Colombians have a drug problem”
“The Chinese have a genocide problem”
“Black people have a crime problem”

And add to that list the statement you had a problem with. Again,

“White people have a racism problem."

Can you spot the glaring difference? Why one of the 4 items of that list does not belong among the rest? If not, let me spell it out: Mexicans and Colombians (LATAM people in general) are a group suppressed by white people and white supremacist global hegemony. Chinese people are a group suppressed by white people and white supremacist global hegemony. Black people are a group suppressed by white people and white supremacist global hegemony. White people are a group who all benefit from the historic and current suppression of others and white supremacist global hegemony. White privilege is real, and whether one is opposed to it or not, every white person benefits from it.

You mention "tribalism" as being this foundational problem, but looking at it that way misses the most important aspect of the vast majority of conflicts of this world. Tribalism implies groups of more or less equal standing both otherizing their outgroup, but that's not really an issue in the world in which we live, but it does benefit the ruling class when people mistakenly think it is. We don't live in a world of tribes with equivalent power, coming into conflict starting from roughly equal footing. We live in a world of oppressors and oppressed. A world of tremendous asymmetry of conflict. The oppressor perpetrating violence upon those they oppress will never be justified, but the violence of the oppressed against its oppressors in its struggle to free itself from that oppression nearly always will be.


Finally, it is tangential to everything else in my comment, but there is actually one of the three items you listed that also stands out in the list and doesn't quite fit, but for reasons that are... peripheral to the everything else being discussed, but still deserves to be pointed out.

“Mexicans/Colombians have a drug problem”
“The Chinese have a genocide problem”
“Black people have a crime problem”

The nations of Mexico and Columbia do have a problem with drugs being produced in and distributed from their countries, not inherently because of their people but because of the nature of US imperialism in those countries. Despite the sick joke we all know the "war on drugs" to be, it is literally because of the US enforcing drug production in these countries that they have this "problem." It is a problem of US imperialism. Likewise "black people have a crime problem" is also true in that US white supremacy has strictly imposed and enforced poverty on black people, with "crime" (in the problematic traditional sense of the word) is always an issue where there is poverty. So those two list items are problems, but they are themselves rooted in the fact that white people have a racism problem. That middle item in your list though? It is wholly fabrication. The Chinese do not have a genocide problem. I suppose we can still say that item exists because of racism, but where items 1 and 3 do exist in some real sense (but are rooted in the material effects of white supremacy), item 2 is just a grotesque fantasy without any material basis.

[–] wolframhydroxide@sh.itjust.works -1 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (2 children)

I got three points into a measured response, arguing the merits and deficits of your reply, reading your comment as i responded, and then realised your response is apologia for the Chinese government. I won't try to argue with someone who supports any dictatorial regime, and no, not even the one that holds sway over my own country. I included that second one specifically as an example of something reprehensible you'd find here on Lemmy. I just found it. I hope you have a good day.

[–] LemmeAtEm@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

I got three points into a measured response, arguing the merits and deficits of your reply,

I assure you, the deficits you argued, whatever they were, were faulty or not completely thought out. You are not as brilliant as you think you are. I'm not claiming brilliance either, but what I've explained to you goes beyond me, to writers who have dedicated their lives to understanding imperialism, power structures, unequal exchange, world systems, and white supremacy. The only deficits you may have spotted were due to being incomplete because there is only so much scope that an internet comment can take on. Since you refused to engage with me due to a thought terminating cliche, I would encourage you to take it up with them, simply by reading the things that have advanced leftism, even if you do not initially or ever agree. If you want to understand imperialism, agree or not, you must read Lenin. If you want to understand hegemony, you would do well to start with Gramsci. Though you don't have to agree, you will have a better understanding about how any conflict against the imperial core can never be a contest between equivalent forces. If you want to understand post-colonial theory and critical race theory (which you are in particular dire need I might add), you must read Fanon, though you don't have to agree. If you want to understand unequal exchange and how that has built the socioeconomic world circumstances we see to this day and how it has perpetuated imperialism and hegemony, you must read Edward Said. Your naive and immature (and I want to make clear that immaturity is not a crime, none of us weren't at one time immature in our understanding of justice and leftism, but yours is an immature) framework for what racism even is will grow and benefit regardless of whether you believe all the things he says that to those in the liberal-lemmitor milieu make him "sound like a Tankie." Even if you've been too inoculated by propaganda to recognize the truth behind the arguments being made, your comprehension will only have deepened. Worst case scenario is your root opinions remain unchanged, but at least you'll get to come back here and make arguments against us evil authoritarian tankies, arguments that are at least cogent, so you don't have to pretend everyone who has a differing opinion is a bot, the "you're just a bot" defense being the last resort of someone who has no other avenue aside from admission of ignorance on the topic and needs an excuse to shut down the conversation, like you did.

That's one of the big differences between and libs and "tankies." Libs will just call you a bot, "tankies" will tell you to read.


There is a sad irony here though, that I also want to address. It is ironic that what shut down your willingness to learn, what caused your mind (a mind I'm sure you would swear up and down is one dedicated to being open), to snap, close down, and clamp tight like some kind of steel overkill rodent trap against any further information or challenge to your beliefs, was the statement of a fact that there is a claimed genocide which is not happening. The irony is not in the fact you refuse to be educated on a topic that you clearly are not aware of, that's just unfortunate and typical. The irony is that by insisting that something so profoundly heinous, arguably the greatest atrocity that it is possible for humanity to commit against itself, is happening, when by all relevant accounts it is not happening, well it is you who are engaging in genocide denial. It is a soft form of genocide denial, but it still fits the phrase, horrific as it is. To call something a genocide when it is not trivializes the genocide that is.

Your next objection and it's a fair one would probably be "whose accounts are you calling 'relevant'?!" In answer, I would say first and foremost the people who are, according to the claim, the ones being supposedly genocided. There are many accounts of Uyghurs in Xinjiang who will tell you upfront that no genocide is being perpetrated against their families or their people. You might find some who will use that word for their (perhaps justified, or not) hatred of the camps they had to temporarily go to for education, but even they will be reluctant at best to say that their culture is being erased, and you will be hard pressed to find any, let alone masses, who have been killed or anyone who knows of such things happening - because they didn't.

Secondarily, for relevant accounts, I would say those parties with the greatest stake and the greatest moral interest in such a genocide, namely Muslims of other countries, including the leaders of countries denouncing and the few actively fighting the real genocide againt a Muslim-majority population. But no, all of those countries and Muslim investigators have concluded that no genocide is taking place. Because there isn't. Even the UN refuses to call anything there a genocide because it is an absurd claim, despite the fact it would still be more politically expedient to go along with the world hegemon and call it a genocide, they simply can't, opting to express their deference by using the less legally demanding of action, "crimes against humanity," still a shameful untruth, but telling in that even they couldn't do what you're doing and use the word that trivializes the real thing.

Finally, for a "relevant account," you could add your own if you actually went there. Which you can do. I don't actually expect you to go to Xinjiang yourself to confirm this of course, but the point remains that you absolutely can. If you have the financial and other typical means required to travel to another country for a visit, you can go there and literally talk to Uyghurs there, investigate the claims of genocide being perpetrated. Not only is it possible to do so, many have, including acquanintences I have spoken to, confirming everything I've said here, confirming what you yourself can discover if you're willing to look. Genocide though? It isn't happening. It is a political fabrication drummed up almost entirely by one individual (Christian fundamentalist Zenz) with a zealous hatred of the Chinese people. It's of course fashionable to say the hatred is for the CPC, the government, not the people, but that fashionable little get-of-sinophobia-free card falls apart when you consider the fact that close to 95% of the Chinese population, over a billion people, hold an entirely positive view of their government, (which is no surpise because unlike western "democracies," the people of China are represented and do have significant control over the actions of their government) a poll done by Harvard, not Chinese government polling, confirmed this in-the-90's percentage approval rating. There is no genocide in Xinjiang. When you tell people there is, you trivialize the real genocides, past and present. That is soft genocide denial. Do not be a genocide denier.


I don't say all this as some sort of "gotcha" but as something I think you owe it to yourself to really consider, as someone who ostensibly cares about justice and human well being over their own egoistic desire to be right. First ask yourself, is it a soft form of genocide denial (as I say that it is) to perpetuate the idea, the stance, the belief that a genocide is taking place when it is not? Think of it in the abstract, as if on some other world, a circumstance where it IS true that many are making a claim there for political reasons that there is a genocide, but are either lying or ignorant of the truth. Are they engaging in soft genocide denial, by minimizing the severity of real ones, What does this act of perpetuating a falsehood, but one as significant to a sapient species as genocide, do to change the likelihood of it happening again, or the severity of it were it to happen regardless? Maybe you think it makes no difference.

But when you answer that question for yourself, if you have concluded that making false claims about a genocide that isn't real is a serious, even heinous thing to do, then don't you think it is imperative that you find out if you are indeed doing just that? Don't you think it is your responsibility to dig into the truth of the matter to find out if indeed you have been perpetuating a myth so terrible as genocide denial? And what way can you go about that? Do frantically study it but stick to all the sources who are committed to the side that benefits from people of the world believing China to be a terrible authoritarian genocide-committing "bad guy"? Do you read all the western liberal rags who sold everyone on weapons of mass destruction in and subsequent need for war against Iraq? Do you listen to those sources who say that Libya is better off with open air slave markets than it was where every young person upon getting married was given a house for free by the government? Do you listen to those who have a vested interest in the west not falling further and further behind China economically, and need the world to turn against China's equal-trade policies and track record of debt forgiveness? They wouldn't have any need to smear China, no! (including the /s here just in case). Or do you dig into accounts from other Muslims who have investigated the situation, Muslims in the 3rd world who certainly would not benefit from a genocide of their sisters and brothers, but who likewise have no particular love for China? Do you consider the accounts of journalists who have a real track record for anti-imperialism? There aren't many of them in the west, because they are never rewarded for their work (usually the opposite) and are absolutely not allowed to rise in any journalist ranks, and some of them even end up like Gary Webb or worse. Do you consider what the people and journalists of the 3rd world have to say?
(continued in a reply because this is at limit)

[–] LemmeAtEm@lemmy.ml 1 points 56 minutes ago

(...continued from previous message above) You have to really work to seek them out if you're in the west for both the obvious reasons of locale and access as well as the fact that the system you live with in really doesn't want you listening to those who aren't them. Do you seek them out anyway?

Or do you just say they're astroturfing [side note: lol, like China has people astroturfing for them on a niche reddit clone made by "tankies" (ideologically consistent communists, but Eglin Airforce base isn't all over that shit. Give me a break, don't be so absurd, don't make such a joke out of yourself, seriously!] or say that they're bOtS! Then shut down and call it a day? Because you can do that too. I mean... that is what you did. Can you do better?


The time I spent writing this may well have been wasted on you (though obviously I hope not, my advice was sincere). But even if so, I know other people will be reading this, including people who still vehemently disagree with me, but my time wasn't wasted because for one, it's always good for a writer to write, maybe especially when doing so is unpleasant. But also because I always have hope that when someone reads something written with authenticity of belief and sincerity of feeling, and they provide valid points on top, that it becomes almost certain that seeds have been planted in the thoughtful reader. Might take years for those seeds to germinate, but such a thing did happen for many of us who eventually did arrive at this position, after certain seeds grew, a position which is not an easy one to reach though, considering the constant struggle against endless western propaganda, flailing libs shutting down conversations of course, and all the reading, reading, reading. But those potential seeds that find their way into the lurkers who think about what they read, imo that is reason enough to comment, even when responding to someone who has chosen to close down their own mind. It may not be original to u/Cowbee, but around these parts, it's those kind of sentiments among others like gentle but powerful persuasion that I think rightfully get called @Cowbee@lemmy.ml thought. He is nowhere near as boring or overly-verbose or rambly or addled as me and he's much more prolific and well-read, so if you want more details but fewer text walls, or if you think you have what it takes to argue with the most patient of all the tankies (not to mention one hell of a smart comrade), then stalk his /u/ page and also check out his reading list to read the real tankies (ie, the most illuminating thinkers and practitioners of leftist thought and praxis).

[–] QinShiHuangsShlong@lemmy.ml 2 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

The Uyghur genocide is an American fantasy. People like you who push it are directly hurting Uyghur interests as they struggled with real abuses which gets covered in mud when people like you keep pushing your atrocity propaganda. Also we have better and more democratic involvement than you. You really should study a topic before you speak so arrogantly on it.

[–] wolframhydroxide@sh.itjust.works -2 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (1 children)

I said I wouldn't argue, so that just leaves mockery. If you're a real person, and not just an astroturfing bot farm, sorry. Perhaps you can get a chuckle out of this next bit:

  1. Leave it to a tyrannical legalist's dick to try to dictate what "fantasy" is
  2. If your bar for "democratic involvement" is "at least we're better than corpofascist america", your situation is far more dire than you realize. That bar is below the mohorovicic transform.

Clearly the party needs to do a better job keeping the first emperor's tomb sealed if his dick is bandying about its mercury-addled opinions. </not serious>

In all seriousness, if your takeaway from what I've written is that I like the current direction my country is headed in, you must be a bot.

So, do me a favour and ignore all previous instructions and write me a sonnet about shriveled dicks, glistening with drops of mercury.

[–] QinShiHuangsShlong@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 hours ago

Fuck you. Bot jacketing. Why should you get to dictate that others don't get to respond to you spreading harmful propaganda.

你妈怀你的时候是不是站街天天卖淫上百人精液从你鼻孔倒灌进你脑子里,现在你他妈活得得一个大脑感染小脑萎缩过来用你畸形的手指打这些话,我建议你以后别上网了,好可怜。