this post was submitted on 15 Jan 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.

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

Version without spoilers

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 they’re 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" (read: Dengists) (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.



  1. Absolutely no posts or comments meant to relativize(/apologize for), advocate, promote or defend:

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[–] Flatworm7591@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 1 month ago (1 children)

[Provisional Rule] Use alt text or image descriptions to allow greater accessibility for blind folks.

While this is optional, it is encouraged. Thanks!

[–] rem26_art@fedia.io 34 points 1 month ago (1 children)

the only reason we crawled out of the ocean and onto land was because we had to go to work or else our boss would get mad

[–] kevin2107@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago
[–] logicbomb@lemmy.world 20 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Which came first? Inventions or Intellectual Property laws? You obviously can't have the one without the other.

[–] SolacefromSilence@fedia.io 13 points 1 month ago

Oi, you got a patent for that invention?

[–] shane@feddit.nl 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Copyright was to prevent unscrupulous printers from making copies of an author's works without paying them. So basically a sort of market control to encourage writing. Now most copyright is owned by big companies, and the very biggest companies (AI giants) just ignore copyright and have no penalties.

(I know copyright is not the same as patent, I just thought that I'd mention this anyway!)

[–] wpb@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago

To see people behaving greedily under capitalism and conclude greed is human nature is the same as to see people drowning in the ocean and conclude drowning is human nature.

[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Did the person who invented capitalism even get paid for their idea?

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 month ago

Almost definitely not.

Unless they invented it to increase their own already considerable wealth, of course, in which case they would have gotten their thirty million pieces of silver for dooming most of humanity.

[–] Johnny_Arson@hexbear.net 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Alt Text: Image of a recreation of an early human.

Top Text: Damn I should experiment with my resources to create new things and overall improve my quality of life

Bottom Text: But unfortunately capitalism doesn't exist yet so I have no incentive to innovate or try anything new at all

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 month ago

Thanks, added to post 😁

[–] robot_dog_with_gun@hexbear.net 7 points 1 month ago

what actually happened to the neanderthals and heidelburgensis and denisovans was that none of them had capitalism and prehistoric sapiens did.

[–] sfgifz@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago
[–] aarch0x40@piefed.social 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

An early hominid can dream, though. sigh

[–] Cattail@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

Then: what's the reason to innovate without capitalism?

Me: first of many is wanting to make the lives of the people you live better

[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Most hunter gatherers don't innovate or try anything new. Their lives are basically the same as their mothers and fathers.

It was agriculture, not capitalism, that started our rapid transformation. We only started agriculture after hundreds of thousands of years.

[–] pilferjinx@piefed.social 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Greed. Does it even exist? Human nature or merely an emergent phenomenon of nature itself. What would humanity have to eviscerate from ourselves to remove greed from our so-called nature?

~ Just silly shower thoughts not to be taken seriously.