this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2025
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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, 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" 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 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 20 points 19 hours ago

Just to explain this meme to ppl not familiar. Ted Kaczynski [left] (aka the Unabomber) wasn't a leftist or an anarchist. The person on the right is Murray Bookchin, a pioneer in the environmental movement.

[Kaczynski] was extremely critical of anarchism and the left, and would certainly reject that label. He was a primitivist, which is more in line with radical conservative concepts than leftism. Primitivism bases its rhetoric on a romanticized past, much like moderate conservatism, but just goes much much farther back. Thus, his writing is more in line with "eco-fascism", the new right, etc than with anarchism. - source

Primitivism argues that civilization is at the root of societal and environmental problems, and that the best/only solution is to eschew technology and contemporary social relations, and to return to a more primitive existence, i.e., blow it all up and go back to the past.

Tldr: be like The Chad Bookchin, not like The Virgin Kaczynski

[–] LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net 7 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Too bad Bookchin was such a terrible writer. I think his ideas were an important contribution to leftist theory.

[–] compostgoblin@piefed.blahaj.zone 6 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

Yeah, my bookmark never got much more than 100 pages into Ecology of Freedom

[–] LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net 7 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

I was also defeated by this book lol.

I enjoyed listening to the summary by Champaign Anarchist on YouTube though. Not to say it's going to be the same as the original text but it's better than not reading it at all.

[–] Prunebutt@slrpnk.net 4 points 17 hours ago

Thanks for dropping that name. Didn't know about that channel yet.

[–] Prunebutt@slrpnk.net 3 points 19 hours ago

Ok, now I feel better that I didn't get far. It was like the fourth book I picked up on leftist theory and... I think I would fare better now.

[–] the_abecedarian@piefed.social 6 points 19 hours ago

EoF is dense and difficult, but there are plenty of books from social ecologists that make his ideas more accessible. check out: https://communalistlibrary.carrd.co/

[–] theuniqueone@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Bookchin was a scumbag though so fuck him and kaczynski isn't a good reflection of "primitivism" which nobody really calls themself anymore and which you massively misrepresent in your comment and this meme.

[–] fl1p@piefed.zip 3 points 7 hours ago

Why was Bookchin a scumbag? Please explain