MeanwhileOnGrad
"Oh, this is calamity! Calamity! Oh no, he's on the floor!"
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Meanwhile On Grad
Documenting hate speech, conspiracy theories, apologia/revisionism, and general tankie behaviour across the fediverse. Memes are welcome!
What is a Tankie?
Alternatively, a detailed blog post about Tankies.
(caution of biased source)
Basic Rules:
Sh.itjust.works Instance rules apply! If you are from other instances, please be mindful of the rules. — Basically, don't be a dick.
Hate-Speech — You should be familiar with this one already; practically all instances have the same rules on hate speech.
Apologia — (Using the Modern terminology for Apologia) No Defending, Denying, Justifying, Bolstering, or Differentiating authoritarian acts or endeavours, whether be a Pro-CCP viewpoint, Stalinism, Islamic Terrorism or any variation of Tankie Ideology.
Revisionism — No downplaying or denying atrocities past and present. Calling Tankies shills, foreign/federal agents, or bots also falls under this rule. Extremists exist. They are real. Do not call them shills or fake users as it handwaves their extremism.
Tankies can explain their views but may be criticised or attacked for them. Any slight infraction on the rules above will immediately earn a warning and possibly a ban.
Off-topic Discussion — Do not discuss unrelated topics to the point of derailing the thread. Stay focused on the direct content of the post as opposed to arguing.
You'll be warned if you're violating the instance and community rules. Continuing poor behaviour after being warned will result in a ban or removal of your comments. Bans typically only last 24 hours, but each subsequent infraction will double the amount. Depending on the content, the ban time may be increased. You may request an unban at any time.
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Honestly, this whole "what team are you really on?" discourse is kinda annoying.
Like, can anyone properly define left, center, and right?
Sure, but you'd have to accept that it's all relative. A left-wing position in Saudi Arabia is not necessarily a left-wing position in the USA.
Left/Right originated as change vs. conservatism, but with the rise of the revolutionary right-wing (fascists) and ideological reactionaries, it has morphed to generally mean Anti-Hierarchy vs. Hierarchy.
Most prominent in this is in economics - those who are ideologically left support systems which, in theory, do not lend hierarchical power to any given individual or class. Those who are ideologically right support systems which unambiguously do. As such, ideologies which aim to reduce economic hierarchy - from Social Democracy seeking to lessen the coercive aspects of capitalist wealth, to Marxist-Leninists asserting that state socialism totally is above board and not a vanguardist power play, to full-on-ancoms seeking a society from each according to their ability, to each according to their need - are left. Ideologies which seek to preserve or increase economic hierarchy - neolibs at its most mild, ancaps, fascists, and corporatocrats at its most severe - are right.
It's just f'ed up that economically left and economically right nation-states are in joint agreement of wanting all of us in the LGBT+ community to die.
I agree that its realitive, but tbh it kinda seems like you took "Left is inherently good, right is inherently bad" and then defined around it. Communism (or more specifically, Stalin) is slavery to the state, and thats definitely a heirarchy and definitely left wing.
I mentioned that Marxist-Leninists ('Communists' in common parlance) are ideologically left, even though in practice their system is dogshit.
There is no state in communism.
Except every time we tried communism, there was a state. And don't "Not trye communism" me, its communism as practiced.
Sooooo you're both right. According to MLs, there must be a "transitional socialist state" to guide society to communism, which is supposed to be a stateless society with a gift economy instead of market economy.
Of course in practice they never get past the transitional phase. Anarchists often criticize these countries as being "state capitalist", in the sense that the state takes the place of the previous capitalist class, and continues the business of exploitation as usual.
Many ancient (pre-roman) societies could be described as communist (primitive communism). Some communes are also obviously pretty close (but must survive within capitalist societies, so it complicates things).