[Meta] Announcement regarding sectarian behaviour and a new additions to the mod team :)

Please refrain from sectarian drama and agitating against/mocking other socialists, even if you don’t always agree with them.

(Mocking succdems and reactionaries is fine, for further info please consult rule 3.)

From now on, Rule 1 will be better enforced against posts and comments including e.g. jabs at other socialists or needless incivility against them (dunk on the libs all you want, although constructive interaction and agitprop is also encouraged).
Silly pokes at each and constructive discussion/criticism are of course still allowed (with the latter being encouraged), just please abstain from more serious stuff against other socialists.

We also have new additions to the mod team!

Please welcome @[email protected], @[email protected] and @[email protected] as new moderators for this comm ^w^

We as a collective will try to look after better enforcement of the rules in terms of both posts and comments. However, we still encourage you to report things that break them.

Your @[email protected], @[email protected], @[email protected], @[email protected] and @[email protected]

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. 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” (read: Dengists) (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.

Absolutely no posts or comments meant to relativize(/apologize for), advocate, promote or defend:

Racism

Sexism

Queerphobia

Ableism

Classism

Sexual assault

Genocide/ethnic cleansing or (mass) deportations

Fascism

(National) chauvinism

Orientalism

Colonialism or Imperialism (and their neo- counterparts)

Zionism

Religious fundamentalism of any kind