this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2024
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MeanwhileOnGrad

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Meanwhile On Grad


Documenting hate speech, conspiracy theories, apologia/revisionism, and general tankie behaviour across the fediverse. Memes are welcome!


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Tankies are just MAGA pretending to be communist

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[–] mecfs 74 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Oh god looking at this guys account has so many gems

[–] [email protected] 58 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Jesus Christ, you're not kidding. It's fascinating but I feel like looking at it may have damaged me in some way.

Stuff like this is going to happen. The more they keep inciting transphobic hatred, the more likely that a masculine woman is going to be assaulted. It’s not funny because the woman might not even be a TERF and could be completely innocent.

Abortion and euthanasia are going to lead to autistic people being murdered. Neo progressives already believe that disabled children should be aborted and atheists admit that “life begins some time after birth” meaning they openly support euthanasia up to age five in some cases. A lot of neo progressives think the most humane option for disabled children is abortion or euthanasia at a young age.

My sister supported abortion before she transitioned and she says that she was a creepy white knight when she supported it.

I support raising the minimum wage, but there should be an exemption for people living with middle class parents.

I think they are just trying to pursue viewpoint-inception in a way that deliberately will make everyone in the conversation mad at them, so they can get a high score. I cannot imagine any other explanation.

[–] Lemminary 34 points 2 months ago (1 children)

atheists admit that “life begins some time after birth” meaning they openly support euthanasia up to age five in some cases

Pfft. I support abortion up until 99 years of age. At 100 you get a gold star and the doctor says it's not advisable because it'll naturally happen "any moment now".

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

Imagine your mother killing you at 40 years old

[–] absquatulate 13 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Holy smokes! That account has to be a bot. Awful incoherent ramblings and correct grammar just don't mix.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 2 months ago

That's enough internet for today.

[–] mecfs 37 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Also I’ll add that this persons instance is literally a russian domain so I guess they are like a putin stooge or something

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 months ago (2 children)

most likely a troll.

i've never heard of a tankie denying climate change since they think it puts China in a good light (despite producing the most emissions out of any country)

[–] NOT_RICK 16 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Having a Russian domain is def an easy way to harvest the “zomg Russian shill” rage

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

i mean they exist. just not on lemmy.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago

I wouldn't be so sure they aren't on Lemmy.

There's whole instances that are big fans.

[–] Buddahriffic 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I guess there's the question of whether those on Russian division campaigns could be called "just trolls", but they aren't tankies. Tankies have an ideology while the Russian troll farms don't, other than inflaming anything they possibly can to increase division and get people angry at each other.

They simultaneously take extreme positions on any debate. Their goal isn't to convince anyone about their extreme position other than to make readers think they are genuine, so they opposition then thinks what they are up against is more extreme and dangerous, and thus they need to escalate their own position. They want people who care about women's rights to be at odds with people who care about men's rights (the obvious one) and also less obvious ones like gay rights, trans rights, racial rights, hell if they can get feminists fighting with vegans, that would be a big win.

The ultimate goal is to paralyze the culture by making it argue with extreme strawman versions of reasonable positions for every topic it can.

[–] mojofrododojo 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I guess there’s the question of whether those on Russian division campaigns could be called “just trolls”, but they aren’t tankies. Tankies have an ideology while the Russian troll farms don’t, other than inflaming anything they possibly can to increase division and get people angry at each other.

would love to know the discerning characteristics that differentiate these populations because holy fuck when I encounter this kind of stuff my brain starts to vomit and nuances kinda get lost

[–] Buddahriffic 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

There's no real specific things that you can use to identify the troll farms.

Tankies are pro-Russia and pro-China (and maybe others?) to the point where they believe the atrocities are justified. The part that is hard to tell about them is more whether they honestly believe that stuff as individuals and whether they are posting on their own free time or because they are hired to do so.

At a high level, they have two different functions (assuming state sponsored troll farms vs state sponsored tankies): tankies generate positive propaganda intended to convince others to support Russia or China. Troll farms generate polarizing propaganda for or against any topic (maybe even including the tankie topic).

Like consider the topic of feminism.

A tankie might approach it as "everyone has a place and is valued" when talking to feminists, or "everyone knows their place and does their duties" if talking to a conservative audience. The intent is to say the area they like is good.

A troll would talk to feminists about how evil men are and how they always cause problems, that they are all together against women. Or to conservatives about how women want to have their cake and eat it too, how feminism is about replacing the patriarchy with a matriarchy, or turning men into women. The intent is to rile up people who are already leaning that way while also making that group look scary to outsiders who see into the echo chamber.

Those are made up examples, I'm not sure I've ever seen tankies talking about feminism (though I'd be extremely surprised if I've never seen a troll farm conversation about feminism). And often, if the topic isn't directly related to China or Russia, they aren't really recognizable and tbh they might actually be troll farms just doing the same thing with the topic of China or Russia... The more I think about it, the more sense it makes because they are more polarizing than effective.

It's deliberately not easy to follow. That frustrated "it's too complicated, I give up on even trying to figure this out" is another one of the goals. It's all about getting people to disengage from each other and fight each other so that there aren't strong communities, which then compounds the problems even more.

[–] mojofrododojo 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

It’s deliberately not easy to follow.

gish gallop all the way.

appreciate the feedback

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

Red fox? This is defamation 🦊