this post was submitted on 08 Sep 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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Oh hey, also the same thing with environmental issues

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Starlink meets the definition of broadband

You still need a receive to access Starlink. Ideally, a large capacity receiver, so you can capitalize on economy of scale.

That means you need electricity, and ideally some kind of commercial grade router, and some amount of IT staff capable of configuring access.

The existence of satellites is not sufficient to provide global broadband on its face.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

You still need a receive to access Starlink.

You need some sort of device to access any internet service. Internet is not telepathically delivered.

Starlink has portable transceivers designed for RVs, and the service is available to latitudes below (and slightly above) 53° north. The receivers are not significantly different than cellular-based home internet modems.

Based on your comments, I don't think you actually understand what Starlink is.

It is truly amazing how a little "money" makes all of these poverty-related problems disappear.

Oh, I forgot: your argument that 42 million Americans don't have access to broadband does not imply that 42 million Americans lack access to the internet, Amazon, or other online retailers. Broadband != Internet. Broadband is defined as 25mbps download and 3mbps upload. Amazon is perfectly usable on a tiny fraction of that.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I'm not in the habit of defending @UnderpantsWeevil, but it's pretty clear that their point is that UBI cannot replace public infrastructure investment. You're not really arguing that it can and/or should, are you?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Dude told me to go out in the woods and buy electricity. That would be a relevant argument if people in the woods were poor. But the overwhelming majority of impoverished people live in urban environments, not the woods. Yeah, it's hard to get grid power run out to East Bumfuck Nowhere, but nobody living in East Bumfuck Nowhere wants to be connected to the grid. They all moved out there to dig a bomb shelter and wait for the apocalypse.

There is no shortage of electricity or Internet access in poor urban areas. The reason poor people might not have electricity or Internet access isn't because there is no Internet or electric infrastructure. The reason is because they can't fucking afford it.

I agree, public investment in infrastructure is important, but it is entirely irrelevant to the issue of poverty. The only point I would make about UBI and infrastructure is that if a large group of people have need for a "something", and they happen to have some money, someone is going to step in and try to exchange a "something" for their money.

The "public infrastructure" that most needs investment isn't all the shit that the people want. The most vital piece of "public infrastructure" is the people themselves. Give them the money and get out of their way.