this post was submitted on 17 May 2024
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Lefty Memes

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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, 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)


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 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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[–] [email protected] 47 points 6 months ago (3 children)

gonna teach them by playing monopoly properly

[–] [email protected] 40 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

You can teach them properly about capitalism by making them follow the rules to the letter and following slightly relaxed rules for yourself, such as starting with extra cash and the ability to take out interest-free loans on you properties while still collecting rent, and reducing the costs for you to buy houses and hotels because you can leverage market forces in you favor.

New chance cards only you could get would include:

You busted a union, collect $100

Shorted stocks and left everyone else holding the bag, collect $25 from each player

Caught Insider trading, pay $1 or go to jail until your next turn

[–] [email protected] 31 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

The original game that Monopoly is based on (The Landlord's Game) was a tool for teaching how bad landlords and owning land privately and permanently is. Monopoly is still a great tool to show how an early advantage leads to an ever-growing monopoly that will inevitably crush all the other players with no modifications necessary.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

If you want to simulate Capitalism with the Monopoly game, you need to start with:

  • All the land is already owned and randomly developed.
  • Not everybody starts with the same conditions: you have 3 classes of player, "high" getting a large amount of money and a share of the land already occupied, the "medium" getting a small amount of money and no land, the "low" starting with no money and no land. You can randomize who gets which class.

That only one of those who starts as a "high" class player has any chance to win and the game is no fun for the rest is part of the lesson.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago (1 children)

It's the only way to play if you don't want the game to last for three days.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago

It's not the only way to play. The original version -- "The Landlord's Game" -- had an entire second "Prosperity" ruleset that Parker Brothers didn't want you to know about.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

That wold be cruel.