this post was submitted on 13 Mar 2026
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Cowbee I like the chart, but respectfully a lot of the rhetoric on ML instances reads closer to trolling than engaging to build a “sympathetic base” , just my 2 cents not worth much more than that ;-)
Lemmy.ml isn't an org, I'm not trying to suggest that it is. Leftists make memes and shitposts here, but when it comes to actual action, organizing in real life is always recommended.
Yes. Agree. And I would suggest it is counterproductive to the point of being counter-revolutionary.
A simulacrum mocking the landscape it seeks to map
I don't agree with the idea that shitposting is counter-revolutionary. Seems a bit much.
No worries. But making a movement into a farce of itself and encouraging infighting is right out of the 1970s cointel playbook.
Even better if you can do the above to the point that the original ideology is no longer decently reflected in the current discourse
(Note this is consistent with most online leftists spaces, so not throwing specific shade on ML, and gets into a whole greater problem with the role social tech platforms play in shaping discourse)
I dunno, I just don't see the same problems you do.
Fair.
Every time I see Cowbee in a thread like this, it's like I walked into a restaurant to see someone trying to explain to somebody else why their friend who just spat in their food is actually a cool dude doing great solidarity because the owners of the restaurant treat their employees poorly.
ML in my experience has very little to do with engaging with leftists and more to do with bashing the "decadent West." Anytime I see memes.ml pop up in my feed, it's a 50/50 shot between me finding something funny or something that makes me debate blocking the instance as much as I can at an account level.
Lol you have not seen a single person say this, you're just reaching into a grab bag of dialogue tropes you've heard in old movies or maybe a Red Alert game. Fucking nobody says "the decadent west" outside of Bond movies from 50 years ago. Quit lying.
I didn't mean that as a literal quote but as sarcastic air quotes to evoke the exact imagery that you came up with. Although, I have actually seen a Hexbear or (what's the other one, Beehaw?) user use that phrase. Of course, they also said that only capitalist pigs die in China, so it's hard to tell if they were serious or if it was full commitment to the bit. That part of Lemmy is fairly indistinguishable from a leftist version of 4chan.
Like I said in another comment, ML has an issue common to many leftist communities in that old saying of "nobody hates leftists more than other leftists." And that can manifest as behaving like more moderate leftists (not liberals - actual leftists) may as well be centrists or conservatives, or treating Europe as being just as bad as Trump's regime. Purity tests and trolling rather than the mutual cooperation that Cowbee posted.
I see hate from liberals for leftists pointing out the truth, which is somehow intolerable to liberals who claim to be leftists.
I think what you're describing is the difference between leftists shitposting online and actual real-life practice.
Meme communities will be like that, right?
Why not block this community and engage with other communities in the instance?
I guess? I don't think I've ever really stayed in a memes community where that's the case, though on Reddit I was largely in places like egg_irl and traaa, where everything was focused around a shared experience of a minority group.
Besides, it's not just the memes community, the memes is just where it appears the most blatantly and loudly. As the person above me said, it's an instance wide thing. ML is nowhere near as bad as Hexbear (or I have yet to see any targeted harassment campaigns against an instance for failing a purity vibe check come from ML, at least) but, as they say, "nobody hates leftists more than other leftists." Leftist spaces tend to have a bit of an undercurrent of only being welcoming to the "right kind of leftist." I used "decadent West" up there very purposefully. There's a bit of a vibe to ML that's less "uniting various leftist groups" and more "preaching The Good Word to those poor ignorants" proselytizing.