MeanwhileOnGrad
"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.
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I always wonder how these people are able to twist their own thoughts like that. I am sure many truly believe in what they say, just like Putin actually thinks he is the next great person to make Russia great again etc.
I am very curious about it. With this particular user I think it's pretty obvious that they're just doing agitprop for Russia. Whether on behalf of Russia or just freelance isn't really obvious to me, but the key tell that I've noticed is that people who sincerely believe it will at least make some effort to engage and respond (or they'll just be hostile and then flee.)
The fact that this person doesn't even seem to give a shit and just blandly broadcasts "whatever if you disagree with me you're obviously just following Western propaganda, I bring a different perspective, that's all comrade, you should read it" without seeming to care if it is at all convincing or responsive, is usually a tell of someone who's just trying to spread a narrative and emphasizing volume over believability or effort level.
They just haven't actually confronted their own contradictions fully. When you do, you either break, or youre really an anarchist.
Most people aren't anarchists. But they will be happy with an anarchist world.
Conservative media in the United States has the answer: appeal to a person's base selfishness, repeatedly. You have to do this over the course of years, maybe even decades. But when you convince someone that they are exceptional, they see themselves as the exception. The rules don't apply to them anymore! This kind of thinking can cross all kinds of boundaries - class boundaries, race boundaries, religious boundaries, educational boundaries.
You can convince poor people to hate other poor people, minorities to hate other minorities, immigrants to hate other immigrants, workers to hate other workers. You just have to convince your marks that they are special, they deserve their share of the pie, it's just that everyone else is trying to steal that share of the pie. And that's not really hard to do, it's just time-consuming. But it does work.
I'm reminded of that meme where a businessman holding a plate of 500 cookies saying "careful, you only have 2 cookies, better not let that guy with 1 cookie take them from you!"