this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2023
405 points (88.4% liked)
Lefty Memes
4290 readers
1066 users here now
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:
- Racism
- Sexism
- Queerphobia
- Ableism
- Classism
- Rape or assault
- Genocide/ethnic cleansing or (mass) deportations
- Fascism
- (National) chauvinism
- Orientalism
- Colonialism or Imperialism (and their neo- counterparts)
- Zionism
- Religious fundamentalism of any kind
(This is not a definitive list, the spirit of the other rules still counts! Eventual duplicates with other rules are for emphasis.)
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I did a track day with some hypercars once for a bachelor party and yeah they're amazing machines, was a great way to try them out. I don't think it was the Huracan but there was a Lamborghini, Ferrari, and a McLaren that we all got to take turns on.
There's always a commodified and manufactured "rich lifestyle" side with these luxury products, but I find the people genuinely in to the products aren't flaunting them as much because that's not why they enjoy them, and are actually more interested in sharing the product and experience with others. The ones I don't get are things that are almost entirely meant to be "rich person thing," especially where all the branding and marketing materials build that reputation into the product, like the only reason why you'd have it is to look like you're rich. It's more like "rich guy with cars and cool clothes" that is a super lame aspiration and basically makes you a boring person, like imitating what you are told is how a rich person lives and considering your likeness to that an achievement in itself. A lot of those guys are incredibly particular and narcissistic about how they look in front of other people, and get very upset and angry at others in their life when small things happen that they think make them look less perfect. A lot of times our economic system rewards this sort of behavior which is why a lot of rich guys are assholes.
Its like the difference between a Patek Philippe and a Hublot. The Patek is an incredible display of craftsmanship and stupendously expensive because it takes multiple highly skilled watchmakers like a year to make one. The Hublot is expensive because owning it is expensive and that makes it cool. There is no technological advantage it has on a watch that is half the price. No watch enthusiast would ever buy a Hublot.
Yeah like the skilled craftsman is not the problem in the world of luxury products. The idea that an individual could afford something like that while someone else starves is another matter, but I think we could still have these products and support the labor that goes in to them without the rich lifestyle buyer side of it. The public commissioning and ownership of luxury products is an interesting area of consideration.
I think in a communist society, it might make sense to reward special personal achievements and such with goods like that, like awarding every college graduate a certain thing (jewlery etc) depending on their field of study. It might also make sense to allow for an exchange of such goods through a special market
Yeah regulated markets are a tool. China's "keep the big free the small" approach has a lot of positives, the way bulk energy markets are designed and regulated is another model that's used in practice, Allende's Cybersyn is interesting as well. Even if a government was to commission a watch or something, the idea is that will increase in value, similar to art commissioning or even architects to design buildings, it's not really an "expense" in that the value isn't retained and likely increases. You'd want to make sure your craftspeople are constantly producing because that's added value in to the economy. The aesthetics of the products themselves might take on a whole other quality if the craftsperson isn't bound to certain client's preferences.