this post was submitted on 10 Jul 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

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,

as well as 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.

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

(This is not a definitive list, the spirit of the other rules still counts! Eventual duplicates with other rules are for emphasis.)

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago (4 children)

From the German constitution:

Anyone who abuses the freedom of expression, in particular the freedom of the press (Article 5 para. 1), the freedom of teaching (Article 5 para. 3), the freedom of assembly (Article 8), the freedom of association (Article 9), the secrecy of letters, mail and telecommunications (Article 10), the property (Article 14) or the right of asylum (Article 16a) to fight against the free democratic basic order, forfeits these fundamental rights. The forfeiture and its extent are pronounced by the Federal Constitutional Court.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Exactly. I don't get why this simple concept is so hard to understand. I've had many people claim Germany doesn't have freedom of speech since you are not allowed to salute Hitler. By invading other's rights, you give up yours. It's not hard to comprehend.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It's all well and good until you end up like the US or the DPRK. Any clown fiesta can be touted as "democracy" as long as the people doing it don't have any meaningful resistance to doing so. Objective truth is a myth in the real world.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Any system can be undermined with enough criminal energy.

People often argue against certain laws that they can be abused if judges collude with the executive.
But if the separation of power between executive, legislative and judiciary and the related mutual controls break down then the actual laws don't matter anymore anyway.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

There also is this section:

Parties that, according to their goals or the behavior of their supporters, aim to impair or eliminate the free democratic basic order or to endanger the existence of the Federal Republic of Germany are unconstitutional.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

God bless Germany

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

to fight against the free democratic basic order,

Wold be nice if "liberal democracy" consisted of anything that can be called democratic with a straight face - perhaps then Germany wouldn't be one of Israel's most vitriolic genocide enablers.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

What exactly are you referring to?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

You did know there's a western-backed genocide being perpetrated in Palestine right now, right?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I’m asking what the war in Gaza has to do with the democratic order in Germany

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

You mean... apart from the fact that Germany is funding, supporting and enabling Israel's genocide?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

But what does this have to do with democracy? If the elected parties fund a war, morally correct or not, it is still democracy as they were chosen. There are multiple German parties who oppose Israel, but they weren’t elected

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

But what does this have to do with democracy?

I hate to be the one to break it to you - "liberal democracy" is about as "democratic" as the Soviet Union was "socialist." Liberalism, capitalism and imperialism is violently incompatible with any society that can be described as democratic with a straight face - and always has been.

If the elected parties fund a war, morally correct or not, it is still democracy as they were chosen.

Did Germans collectively agree to this genocide that is being funded in their name? Do they even really know what is being done in their name?

No?

Then there's absolutely nothing democratic about it, is it?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Not all Germans have the same opinion, but a complete consensus isn’t needed, as long as there is a majority. And in Germany this majority is not that of a referendum but the elected parties, as it is unrealistic to have a referendum for every single decision and most countries have not learned how to handle referendums, but one can still make their own party, in fact that just recently happened, the party (BSW) was founded, got 6 percent in the election (which in Germany can actually get you in the government) and AFAIK they oppose non humanitarian aid completely. I don’t think there’s any country where the population knows exactly what the government is doing, so it’s unrealistic to ask that everyone knows what is happening (although this is a problem). There have been multiple demonstrations against Israel’s actions and I personally know people who oppose these actions, about as much how support them but the big majority of people I know don’t care that much. Also the second biggest party (which never was part of a government) thinks that (and it’s one of their main points) that the Islam is the biggest threat to the existence of Germany so you could probably find a lot of people who think that Palestine should be blown up.

Also one question, are you actually from Germany or have you just read these things? Because the politics, mentality and economics are a lot different to for example the USA so maybe something’s appear differently than they would look to a German.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

as it is unrealistic to have a referendum for every single decision

Oh, there was no decision here... Germany has been supporting Israel's ongoing genocide for a very, very long time now. Enabling Israel's white supremacist genocide is no less a matter of policy in Germany than it is in the US - and none of you will ever get to vote on it, just like USians don't get to vote on it in any way, shape or form.

Let us be very clear... knowingly enabling genocide is no different than perpetrating genocide oneself - and Germany endorsing Israel in their genocidal project makes it blatantly clear that Germany is as fundamentally white supremacist and imperialist today as Germany was when it perpetrated it's first genocide in Namibia. It doesn't matter that the people signing the papers are wearing overpriced designer-label suits instead of grey uniforms, and it doesn't matter that the politicians are flashing liberal pretend-smiles for the cameras instead of throwing fascist tantrums from a podium. It's all the exact same white supremacism still at work.

There have been multiple demonstrations against Israel’s actions

Yeah... I saw. And the fascist goon squads were there, too - to perform their true function and ensure that actual democracy doesn't threaten the precious status quo while it's hard at work enabling genocide.

lot of people who think that Palestine should be blown up.

Isn't it an amazing coincidence that the biggest parties in every (so-called) "liberal democracy" are almost always regurgitating the exact same narratives that rich people themselves want regurgitated?

It's almost like... actual democracy isn't compatible with a society where a small, rich elite gets to dictate what everybody believes, eh?

Also one question, are you actually from Germany

No. I'm from South Africa... if you must know.