Tankies are just MAGA pretending to be communist
this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2024
267 points (97.2% liked)
MeanwhileOnGrad
1391 readers
1 users here now
"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
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
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.
gish gallop all the way.
appreciate the feedback