this post was submitted on 17 Feb 2026
1000 points (99.1% liked)
Political Memes
11103 readers
1742 users here now
Welcome to politcal memes!
These are our rules:
1) Be civil
Jokes are okay, but don’t intentionally harass or disturb any member of our community. Sexism, racism and bigotry are not allowed. Good faith argumentation only. No posts discouraging people to vote or shaming people for voting.
2) No misinformation
Don’t post any intentional misinformation. When asked by mods, provide sources for any claims you make.
3) Posts should be memes
Random pictures do not qualify as memes. Relevance to politics is required.
4) No bots, spam or self-promotion
Follow instance rules, ask for your bot to be allowed on this community.
5) No AI generated content.
Content posted must not be created by AI with the intent to mimic the style of existing images
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Just a reminder to the Mamdani stans in Lemmy, at some point he will (or already has) done things you will disagree with, because you have to make compromises in politics, and I fear the left doesn't understand that basic fact of the job and are always too ready to completely cut ties with anyone who doesn't check all the boxes at all times. The left's motto is "I want it perfect or nothing at all!" and this is great if you're an artist, not so great if you're trying to push a largely liberal population to better outcomes.
Whatever missteps you think you will think you're seeing are going to get amplified by the worst voices on the left too, with a lot of "Wow I thought I liked this guy, but this is uncool" sentiments. Just be ready for it, don't let yourself be influenced by mobs of people you think are your peers.
edit: yah, lot of people don't understand the actual job of politics and think they do from watching TV and movies. I worry deeply for our future.
This just reads like a bad faith interpretation of anyone on the left who might have ideological differences between themselves and Mamdani. That doesn’t mean they aren’t pragmatic. For example, if you believe that our current government cannot be reformed then compromise with the right wing is often the least pragmatic way to bring about change. Pretending that this means you’re making perfect the enemy of the good either means you’re being disingenuous or you just don’t understand the perspective you’re critiquing.
Your comment reads as a bad faith interpretation of their post.
It doesn't matter if it is or not. That's how it reads.
(stop guessing at the motivations of a poster and deal with their points pragmatically, otherwise it's all just a fantasy... you have no insight into them (or anyone else)... you are not the "faith decider")
If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and oh look it replies like a duck too, forgive me for thinking it’s a duck. Maybe take your own advice and engage with my points instead of getting so needlessly defensive.
I don't think you actually don't understand what kind of attacks or pushbacks I'm talking about, which makes me question the whole reply.
Well your argument sounds like ones I’ve heard 1000x over defending elected officials like AOC whenever they do something like vote to fund Israel’s iron dome or forcibly stop a railway strike. The problem is, trading favors and votes is the kind of game that only works when you have a network of wealthy benefactors. If you think that these types of compromises are necessary, it likely means that you have some degree of blind faith in the American political system.
I am not rejecting my rare-as-fuck, popular pro-social candidate who actually works towards better outcomes over isolated actions that I don't fully agree with, we have to get out of this black-and-white mentality or we will never have someone "good enough" and that's what I am rejecting, this fucking binary attitude that both the right and left have embraced with all their heart, what's most infuriating is this attitude is artificially implanted and people like you think having a 2-dimensional perspective of politics is equivalent to having "principles."
This isn't "principles" it's performative.
You’re arguing against a caricature of the left wing critiques levied at politicians like AOC or Mamdani. You’re ignoring how those actions, which are frankly not isolated, are indicative of a very different perspective and theory of change than many on the left have. Pretending that any other theory of change is actually just black and white moralism is an incredibly bad faith way to argue. Honestly, it’s just a ridiculous perspective to have when you would be hard pressed to find similar critiques levied at electeds like say Rashida Talib.
Sure, because the critiques I see leveled at good, progressive politicians ARE in fact caricatures of actual political criticism, they're often narrow-minded and out-of-touch with the moral complexity of actual political work.
My problem isn't with the impotent criticism itself, it's the millions of people who browse lemmy and twitter and reddit and other online spaces where deeply online, impressional young self-described leftists hang out and get all their values from the majority, and if they see an attack on a leftist or progressive leader that seems effectual and aligned with progressive values, they will latch on immediately and not change their mind, because people just work that way.
I don't care what your actual criticisms are, I just want people to be aware that not all criticism is going to be good faith, and not all criticism is going to be smart. The left gets caught up in groupthink as easily as the right but hate to admit it. We're all just people, but the left is particularly good at shooting themselves in the dick because they want their representative to be perfect.
Can you elaborate?
I am sure you understand what I mean when I say Mamdani is going to face a lot of reactionary flack from the left as he does unpopular things as part of his job as mayor, and I think people who aren't expecting this don't really know how cities or politics work.
Mamdani WILL make deals and do things that you will have "ideological differences" with, and it's on us to decide if the criticism he will face is ideological in nature or the expected efforts of the few who will do everything they can to blow up the worst interpretations of the business of city management in order to make people like you and me bicker and fight about if Mandani should still be supported.