Lefty Memes
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
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.
- 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
view the rest of the comments
Admitting Hamas is holding civilians hostage isn't the win you think it is.
What makes you think OP is pro-Hamas?
No one with half a brain is pro hamas. This conflict isn’t a binary.
It’s possible to think killing civilians is wrong, no matter who is doing it.
I am so tired of hearing anti-Semite during all of this. Being Jewish does not shield anyone from the consequences of their actions, or the actions of their government or people. It's not a get out of jail free card.
Does 'criticizing the UN and the West for doing nothing to enforce peace' include criticizing them for creating the conflict in the first place?
They're sure not trying to criticise them, are they?
No one is winning in this situation.
I'm kind of confused by this comment. I think Hamas has been pretty open about the fact that they have hostages and I haven't heard anyone attempt to argue that they didn't take hostages or don't still have some. There have been videos on many news sources either published by Hamas themselves featuring hostages angry at the government for dropping bombs where they are and I have seen videos published by mainstream news sources showing the release of some hostages by Hamas. I'm also confused about the framing of this being an attempt by OP to "win" something.
From my perspective, ending the carnage and lifting the illegal siege would be a win both for all the innocent Palestinian men, women, and children whose lives are in jeopardy and the innocent Israeli civilians whose lives are also on the line due to the IDF's wanton recklessness with innocent lives in general. I would also consider it a win if the Israeli people do what the majority of Israelis have been wanting to do and rid themselves of the menace that is Benjamin Netanyahu and his extremist right-wing Likud party so the people can get back to the work of ensuring equal rights of all people in the area regardless of race to lay the groundwork for a modern nation not constantly at war with itself. What are you trying to win?
I'm talking more about how they're quite openly using their own people as human shields, and don't seem to care particularly much if they get hurt.
This phrase is the most ridiculous "get out of jail free" card I have ever witnessed a genocidal regime attempt to deploy. It doesn't make sense at all. The IDF murdered 4000 children because they claim Hamas typically stands behind people, therefore bombing any civilian anywhere has some chance to also get someone from Hamas hiding behind them? Almost 11,000 Palestinians dead and many times more being sent on a death march because Hamas only exists standing behind all Palestinians who live in Gaza oooooooor the West Bank which is occupied by the IDF and ostensibly governed by the Palestinian Authority who oppose Hamas? Would you be ok with the police shooting through your family because the criminal they were after ran behind them to use as cover? Would you still be ok with it if they just had a suspicion that the criminal was hiding behind your family because that's what they generally do and won't even confirm if they actually were? If it's not ok to do that to your family but it is ok to do to an innocent Palestinian family, why is that?
You could just as easily have written a mini diatribe about how Hamas shouldn't be building bases under hospitals, but instead you go after Israel for trying to get at them.
Why is that?
Since you've avoided directly responding to me again, I'll assume that you've ceded your previous two arguments. Keep them coming. Israel isn't even trying to make sense, they are just relying on group identity and reactionary tendencies.
Because Benjamin Netanyahu went against the democratic will of the people of Gaza to install Hamas into leadership and prevent all future elections to severely impede the legal process of establishing a secular Palestinian state. Israel is and has been in control of this situation. Israel has the power to decide whether or not the occupied Palestinians will ever have rights in their own land, and Palestinians lack the power to decide anything for Israel or even for themselves. This is not an evenly matched "both sides" situation. Hamas is there to be Israel's excuse to ethnic cleanse the land they want to seize because they can successfully convince people that every man, woman, and child of Palestinian ethnicity is synonomous with Hamas and therefore is a valid target.
The IDF just claimed that a calendar with the days of the week written on it in arabic was a list of Hamas guards right on CNN when every arabic reader could see through the lie immediately. The IDF makes false claims all the time, so I won't believe their claim of the Hamas HQ as valid until they provide actual evidence. This being the case, if they know where the Hamas HQ is, why not send special forces to go execute a strike as a normal modern nation would do? Why instead kill civilians at such high rates it would make more sense if they were deliberately trying to avoid hitting Hamas as the IDF themselves admitted to at least a 70% civilian casualty rate with more realistic estimates by objective bodies being closer to 90% civilian casualties? Why are they bombing everything that could sustain life in Gaza if not to force the entire population out so they can seize the land as they've always been very open about wanting to do? Why install a bunch of crazies, refuse to negotiate with any Palestinians because of the Hamas they installed, and then harass and murder the civilian population in the Gaza strip for years so that they would be certainly eliminated in the long term unless they risk fighting back in the short term?