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An international (English speaking) Lemmy community for learning and understanding socialist principles, theory, philosophy, and ideology in general. This is a place where people willing to learn meet knowledgeable socialists.

For discussions between socialists please visit c/Socialism.

Memes go in c/Lefty Memes

Please don’t forget to help keep this community clean by reporting rule violations, upvoting good contributions and downvoting those of low-quality!

Rules

1. For everyone:

1.0 Mutual respect and good faith discussion is enforced here

1.1 There are three allowed types of posts:

Questions about anarchism, communism or socialism, including all tendencies/currents/factions within these traditions, or specifically aimed at one or several currents
Meta Posts about this community. Anyone may start a meta post, meta posts about other communities will be deleted. Short questions (for example those about moderation policy) are better send directly to the mods
AMAs (“Ask Me Anything”) or AMAXs (“Ask Me About X”) with an expert or group of experts. These should be arranged with and are coordinated by the mods, so please send a message if you are interested in holding one. Announcements must wait for clearance first so they can be pinned.

Posts not falling within these categories will be actively deleted.

1.2 No Bigotry

The only dangerous minority is the rich.

1.3 No sectarianism / Socialist Unity is enforced here

Answers should not promote sectarian behaviours. Behaviour on the level of pointing out differences in schools of thought, however, is OK. Questions should not be aimed against other socialists. This is not a place for the Idealism vs. Materialism or rather Marxism vs. Anarchism debate(s), for that please visit c/AnarchismVsMarxism

1.4 Absolutely no questions or answers 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.)

2. For asking questions:

2.0 Only ask questions if you are genuinely interested in learning

Asking questions means you are ready to be taught something new or to accept that you might have been wrong about a few things.

2.1 Check for duplicate questions

Please search through the post history and (eventual) FAQ, to not ask a question that has already been answered. If you want a different perspective or something has changed significantly about the subject, feel free to ask again.

2.2 No questions aimed at “debating” or “lecturing” socialists.

This is not a place to bolster your ego, “debatebro” behaviour is explicitly not welcome.

2.3 There are no “stupid” questions as long as you adhere to the guidelines. Feel free to ask anything, even if it might appear trivial. Remember that everyone starts their learning journey in their own time and that no one is born an expert.

2.4 Please also avoid loaded questions like:

“[Person X]/[Group Y] was/were a criminal/terrorist (group) or tyrant who killed babies and bazillions of people. Why do you worship them?”

More welcome versions, free of baseless assumptions would be:

Why do socialists like [Person X]/[Group Y]?

What do socialists like about [Person X]/[Group Y]?

3. For answering questions:

3.0 No teaching by liberals, (right-wing) revisionists or reactionaries

That includes so called: Social Democracy, Democratic Socialism, Dengism, Market Socialism, Patriotic Socialism, National Bolshevism, Anarcho-Capitalism etc. . 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).

(if you are reading the rules to apply for modding this community, mention “Focal Fossa” when answering question 2)

3.1 Giving sources and follow-up resources is highly encouraged

Well-rounded responses should be backed by relevant and reliable sources. Primary sources are preferable, secondary sources are fine as well. Provide dates when relevant and apply theories accurately and with integrity.

You don’t have to provide sources with every answer, if someone request them in good faith, however, it’s expected that you provide them willingly and gladly. If you are not prepared to back up your statements when asked, please reconsider whether you should answer in the first place.

Please be aware that all posters who fail to support their posts when asked in good faith may have their posts removed.

3.2 Give in-depth answers

A good answer gives context to the discussed ideas/events so that people new to the topic can understand it. It’s usually longer than a few sentences and strikes a balance between context, explanations, sources, and quotations.

Being able to use a search engine does not make you an expert, please refrain from contributing if you can only provide a few articles you just found online.

If you:

have the expertise needed to answer the question
have done the research on the question
can cite your sources
can answer follow-up questions

Please consider answering and sharing your knowledge with others. If you do not meet these criteria, please seriously reflect on what you’re about to post.

3.3 Comments consisting only or largely of images, videos, or memes are not welcome Photos/pictures and documentaries are more than welcome if they support your answer.

Generic images, gifs or memes

3.4 Please also refrain from:

Hurrying with your answer, good responses take time and that’s OK
Giving partial answers / Using placeholders
Using personal anecdotes
Speculating in your answers
Demonizing or Idolizing/Glorifying previous and current socialist experiments or (leading) individuals

3.5 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” flavour.

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