this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2023
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MeanwhileOnGrad

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"Oh, this is calamity! Calamity! Oh no, he's on the floor!"

Welcome to MoG!


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.


founded 1 year ago
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Edit: https://hexbear.net/post/687917

https://hexbear.net/post/688124

Damn... M-muh feewings... 💔😭

I made it folks!

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[–] goat 31 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Communists defending Russia is one of the strangest things Tankies do. Why defend Russia of all countries?

[–] Socsa 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Because they are campists. I'm still convinced it's like 75% edgy teenagers, 10% state sponsored information warfare, and 15% right wingers trying to see how stupid they can make "leftists" look before getting called out.

[–] goat 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

bruh there ain't no paid shills on lemmy. there is little monetary or propagandist value in small websites. Really wish people (from both tankies and here) would stop saying this stupid shit

[–] Gullible 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There are factually propagandists seeding atrocious ideas in nearly all communities, especially during and after breakaways like 4 months ago. Given the use of AI and scripting, and not to mention the nearly complete absence of countermeasures for either one on a relatively naive space like lemmy, a handful of people are definitely fomenting divisiveness. Subtle white supremacists, surreptitious state actors, website advertisers etc..

Tl;dr: I’ve personally found a few sprinkled about.

[–] goat 1 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Can you link any of these?

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

For Hexbear at least, I can see two of the reasons: 1) they support the idea of a polarized world where other powers are able to compete on equal terms with America. 2) They must present a united front to those outside, the "enemy", because doing otherwise would provide them ammunition and weaken their own team. For having lurked long enough on their turf, I've seen more nuanced takes on Russia and China that recognize their wrongdoings. Even by the same users who'll be total shills in a World News comment section.

It's a sport game in short...

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Other than the possibility they're shills, it seems to be "we oppose the EU, NATO and the US, therefore China and Russia are fantastic". Which makes no sense, obviously, because making sense would be to oppose China and Russia for the same reasons they don't like the US and the EU.

[–] goat 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

bruh there ain’t no paid shills on lemmy. there is little monetary or propagandist value in small websites. Really wish people (from both tankies and here) would stop saying this stupid shit

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Oh, and I'll add, I was told that on reddit in 2010... when there were people who only responded to threads about glysophate/RoundUp all day. Mention RoundUp, they'd appear. Around 2012, if you mentioned Israel, 2-3 people would come and argue with you about it. Around 2015-6, there was obvious astroturf about 'Walk Away' from the Democratic Party, anti Hillary Clinton, pro 'Q', and pro-Trump total crap. At all times: "bruh there ain’t no paid shills on reddit. Really wish people would stop saying this stupid shit".

So back in reality, people are paid by governments to spread any sort of discord in the US. They don't care what site it's on. I wouldn't be surprised if someone wanted to discredit and manipulate the real left on sites like Hexbear.

[–] goat 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Reddit is huge, even in 2010-2012. Lemmy is tiny in comparison and has no monetary value.

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

Monetary value isn't relevant, only manipulating people. Hexbear is the largest community of people of that political persuasion.

In 2015-2017 they targeted gamers in online games.

[–] goat 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

they're not tho. Reddit's communism subs are still larger.

When you say that these fringe communities have government shills, you just look like a nutter, equally of a nutter as to when they think this community has government shills.

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

As noted, that’s exactly what people said about every community ever. “Shills? Manipulation? Nobody would do that!” except that various world governments funded divisions to do exactly that, it turns out.

[–] goat 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Can you list any website or community that has less than 10k active posters that has shills?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (7 children)

Why would I be able to do that? As I mentioned about the roundup thing, that doesn’t matter. They just search for anything relevant.

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[–] Atomic 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Because they've idolized Russia for so long that to now admitt that they're doing bad things is seen as a personal loss.

And some just genuinly believe the propaganda being fed to them. It's very difficult to admit you were fooled and led to believe things that wasn't true. It's far easier to double down and confine yourself to an echo chamber where they can all agree that it's somehow because NATO or US sponsored the Ukrainian uprising and rigged the Ukrainian election.

So when you think about it, they're the good guys trying to restore order to Ukraine.

So... if someone is on the fringe. Don't insult them. Dont belittle them. Welcome them, and congratulate their strength to say "I was wrong" without making them feel bad for doing it. Not directing that to you, just a statement in general.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (3 children)

So they'll take the word of Russia, a country who's Government lies so much I'm surprised they haven't been caught lying over the colour of their skies, over Ukraine who Russia invaded and stole land from underhandedly?

Sounds about right for Tankies..

Also, are they seriously suggesting Ukraine is the one using human wave tactics? Russia has thrown so many bodies at Ukraine that they're struggling to find more bodies to throw into the grinder.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Also, are they seriously suggesting Ukraine is the one using human wave tactics? Russia has thrown so many bodies at Ukraine that they’re struggling to find more bodies to throw into the grinder.

so many bodies the Ukrainians created the term 'ditch meat' to describe all the abandoned, rotting russians.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

They lie so much they’re now starting to believe themselves

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

No, it's for sure the country with I believe just under 1/3 of the population which is throwing as many bodies as they can at the front. Definitely. It only makes logical sense.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

I love how they almost always close with something about NATO. They aren't even fighting NATO. They invaded a country and they're fighting the people who live there. If they were fighting NATO this would of been over laughably fast. They can't even fight NATO donated gear 2-3 generations old used by soldiers hastily trained to use it.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago

Pure denial, Jesus Christ.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

Obviously the only two options in this war are that children die (because of NATO) or they get kidnapped to Russia. No other options, none.

[–] nanoUFO 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't get it why is 6chan in the title.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (29 children)

It's an affectionate nickname for Hexbear. You might know that they behave like a bunch of 4channers, throwing and smearing their poop around; and Hexagon=>6 sides (must spell it out clearly, else the smart kids won't understand)... both combined make 6chan.

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

can anyone explain why I keep seeing their garbage after attempting to block everything hexbear related? I don't even mind the occasional tankie that much, but this lot is fucking bonkers.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Change your instance, i'm on lemmy.world which has defederated hexbear and I see no tankie posts.

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[–] yata 3 points 1 year ago

Lemmy and federation is very buggy. I'm from an instance which hexbear defederated from, but I sometimes still see posts from hexbear when browsing all+new. It seems like it doesn't always get around to checking defederation when fetching new threads.

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