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!
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)
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.
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.
A crudely drawn pastel version of the "Is this a butterfly" meme
A character labeled CAPITALISM is pointing to a book labeled DYSTOPIAN SCIENCE-FICTION, while asking IS THIS A TUTORIAL?
From what I've heard, they either see themselves as the hero turning things around, or just outright seeing an inspiration in them.
“At long last, we have created the Torment Nexus from classic sci-fi novel Don't Create The Torment Nexus”
You don't understand american politics til you've read 'snow crash'.
I always wondered what dystopian novel gave them the idea to make genAI...
I still can't belive there is an actual surveillance company named plantir.
They have to know that they are the bad guys in the story after that right???
Yeah how else do you think they get off?
Literally one thing I expected from capitalism's abusive systems was the Tolkien estate saying "nah bruvs get a new name you suck" and they didn't even do that smh
They not only know, they're gloating over it and rubbing it in
I think that's related to conservatives having really poor critical analysis skills. Some of them probably unironicly think Sauron was the hero
How so? Just because they pretend to use unreliable elven magic?
A risk lay in the fact that users with sufficient power could choose what to show and what to conceal to other stones: in The Lord of the Rings, a palantír has fallen into the Enemy's hands, making the usefulness of all other existing stones questionable.
They aren't just "unreliable". They are consistently described as a tool that it is misguided to use or trust because of how suspectible it is to being manipulated and how readily it, in turn, poisons the user. If a user isn't wary, their world-view -- when informed through the palantír -- will be malformed through projected half-truths and misdirections.
Even if the "concept" of a palantír is neutral (saying nothing about a magical device that enables imperceptible surveillance), it is an astounding failure of literary analysis to not get why Tolkien included them as they are -- with their consistent, negative representation -- in his books.
But... But what if i really want one or think the idea is cool?
Magic is cool. But don't pick the one used primarily by evil if you don't want to be judged.
Like, you can thunk the rugged military aesthetic of WW2 is a vibe but if you only collect Nazi uniforms, you're gonna be that guy.
that guy
Okay, yes, and im totally not evil but what if i think that corrupting influence just soubds really cool and is something I'd want to control?
Along with all of middle earth?
You...
What's your stance on tiny tomatoes?
I mean tbf dystopian science fiction pretty much emerged as a critique of capitalism, so the only surprising thing here is how close they got it.
tfw dystopian science fiction is your favourite genre!
Hell yeah, 2025 has been fucking crazy for us. AI in the military, threat of nuclear annihilation, technomancers, billionaires have enslaved humanity, and huge corporations run the world!
It’s dystopian af!!!
Whoooooo!
Somebody's clearly been skipping neck day at the gym
Capitalist narrative is who deals best with dystopia is the hero vs. who brings changes to prevent it.