this post was submitted on 08 Oct 2024
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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.


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

The first three paragraphs seemed fine but holy shit has this guy been radicalised. I honestly feel bad for these people who think they’re standing against facism when they’re just a different type of a facist

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

The political spectrum is a torus

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago

Yeah, it's a shame to see that they connected all the dots but came to the wrong conclusions.

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

One of the same, dude

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yes radicals are bad. Big shock

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

I grew up in a generation when 'radical' meant 'cool', so forgive me if I'm confused by that generality

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

You need to take the same advice as is in this image. Don't forget to touch grass.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Grass is always worth touching!

prefer clover tho

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

There's the problem with being a reactionary. Grass is normal and good. Open fields of grass are native and healthy to much of the world. Maintaining a lawn of non-native grass is what should be discouraged. Please learn what the real issues are, beyond the surface level.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

we are all reactionaries on this blessed day

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

if you are old enough, if it's legal where you are, and you enjoy it*, touching it with your lungs really helps put some perspective on things sometimes.

*boilerplate legal CYA statements always hold up in court right?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

All fascist regimes are known for targeting children with indoctrination. It why child soldiers are so effective they dont question orders.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

I'm an anarchist, tankies don't like me because I like my freedom of speech and right to bear arms, not a kid tho

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Ah yes, let's turn our children into terrorists. (At least that's what it sounds like to me)

Seriously though the teen years are when you are most malleable. You can teach someone to not feel sympathy for groups of people and to be ok doing terrible things.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

this kid is eventually going to look back on this era of their life and shiver from embarrassment. I've been there

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

Was it alt-right or communism for you?

I started as alt-right, realised I actually like queerness. Then I went communist, realised murder is childish and how much I was being played and then decided to do my own thing.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (3 children)

well. to my everlasting shame it was the very website this post features. I got hooked in when it was still part of reddit. I was an angry young adult coming out of a terrible home situation and their collective "righteous fury" was appealing. after the move to a separate website, it just got worse and worse. hexbear, formally known as chapochat, had destructive drama outburtsts every single week right from the start.

I think it started with thousands of active users and rapidly dwindled down to only a few hundred because of how hostile and rigid it was. I was one of the few who stuck around because my warped sense of the world didn't reveal how bad it was yet. I thought about quitting during many of these ridiculous "struggle sessions" as they called them. but something kept me hooked.

when the current ukraine-russia war started, the cracks were widening. a subsection of hexbear started to dominate. they were more openly bloodthirsty. they stopped pretending to care about the common people, which is what I cared about, and were cheering on the killing of civilians and conscripted soldiers. they posted videos of ukrainians getting shot and blown up accompanied with the site's absurd emojis and weird in joke phrases. they were also just extremely hostile to anyone who wasn't lockstep with their view. they would use vicious insults and accusations against naysayers and the mods would almost always rule on their side.

I rarely ever participated in the arguments up to that point because I didn't see a reason to, but I got in fights with people about this. they were treating war like a football game and it really rubbed me the wrong way. but then that subsection of the site started to contain themselves mostly to the "news megathread" which I could easily ignore.

I became less and less interested in hexbear as time went on. I think other people were noticing these disturbing trends too because the number of active users dwindled down to around 150-200. the remaining users were the worst of the worst. so fucking mean and nasty, in that abusive family type of way. they proclaim themselves to be friendly, proclaim hexbear to be a welcoming and caring community, tightly knit, when behind the curtain they are horrible to each other. of course I had only ever known that type of life so I didn't see it for what it was and continued to use the site.

I finally had a breakthrough internally and got the courage to go to therapy and try to reckon with the damage my upbringing did to me. and once that started to work, hexbear's rose tint rapidly faded.

now I look back on my several years as a hexbear user with so much embarrassment. I can't believe how much hatred was in my heart. I try to forgive myself and remember that I was young and broken and taken advantage of by malicious people online but I was old enough to know better. once in a while I'll check hexbear out just to remind myself of how much I've grown and improved. I see people in there who claim to be in their 30s and 40s and i feel disgust at how they are manipulating young adults and even kids as we see here. I feel sad for them too. I don't think anyone that old would be part of such a group if they didn't have a seriously damaged worldview.

wow. sorry to dump on you. just seeing someone so young get roped into hexbear brought up a lot of feelings.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago

Thank you for sharing, that’s a meaningful experience that might help people in a similar situation.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

my experiences aren't nearly as intricate as yours. For me, it was gamergate. My little self enjoyed videogames, and hearing that someone wanted to take that away got me mad and put me into the pipeline. I snapped out of it when the alt-right started praising Trump, at which point I remember asking if everyone was actually serious.

I didn't have too long of a communist stint. I was repeatedly told that the revolution will happen any time soon, and... It never did. I then questioned why we're praising hyper-capitalist China and was basically told to trust the plan lol.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I have zero interest in reading what these people think about me.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago

You're an absolute chad dude

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago

For me, growing up in a hyper-conservative household, religion, and state certainly flavored my initial political leanings. I certainly spread my share of cringe.

Pretty much as soon as I was able to think independently, it became obvious how bigoted those ideologies are.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Many are supporting the duopoly's funding of genocide of the Palestinian people due to Zionism's hold on our government and politicians, per AIPAC.

As we learn and grow, exposing ourselves to diverse ideas that we do not agree with, our world view changes as well, unless we construct our own echo chambers by self-censoring ourselves.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

not everything is related to another conflict in the middle east dude, it wasn't even mentioned here. lol

also careful. "Zionism’s hold on our government and politicians, per AIPAC." is the same as alt-rights "Jews control the government" -- Not allowed per instance rules

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I disagree; foreign policy has a lot to do with our country and what happens in other countries as well. 

Zionism =/= Judaism

Many that are for censorship try to make it seem like it is, so continued support of genocide can continue, but we must not fall for their talking points. to make it seem like it is, so continued support of genocide can continue, but we must not fall for their talking points.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Do you support a two-state solution? If the answer is yes, then congratulations, you are inherently a zionist. If your answer is no, then I hope you're not advocating for violence, as that is disallowed.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Even Israel is against a two-state solution and a one-state solution.

Israel's goal has always been to remove all natives from Palestinian land.

This conflict has been ongoing for many decades, while continuing to escalate, ceasefire, and negotiations should be the goal, but it seems WWIII might be closer to happening than negotiations happening again.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I won't argue about which side wants what; it's a pointless discussion that won't get anywhere.

I can only warn you not to say anything related to alt-right hate speech, such as claiming that Jews control foreign governments. It's not allowed.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I can only warn you not to say anything related to alt-right hate speech, such as claiming that Jews control foreign governments. It’s not allowed.

I did not bring that up; you did. 

Here ya go, an infograph: https://lemmy.world/post/19431152

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Alright, I've warned you twice to stay on topic, and you're still ranting about this. Your propaganda post is also unsourced and comes from an extremist account that engages in doxxing.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

So you just go around randomly bring this up? It might be better to find a different hobby.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (2 children)

This is literally all that Jimmy does. Linkerbaan as well. Bitching and arguing with people about the war in Gaza is their entire personality and life. Must be a very miserable life.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago

And they develop Lemmy...

Yeah I can't say they are all that agreeable but I have respect for the development aspect

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago

Yeah. I find most people who are obsessed over the conflict as just bored people

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago

Its funny how the self proclaimed communists are far right

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago

I think there is a big difference between critically thinking and propaganda. When you are young you are susceptible to all sorts of ideas.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Thankfully they'll grow out of this extremism.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Probably not as 14-18 is when you are most susceptible to beliefs. The brain is developing still and as it locks in the stuff around it. It becomes your core belief system.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Your brain doesn't lock itself as you get older. How else do you learn?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It kind of does through. The older you get the more ridged you become. You buckle down in your ways and become resistant to change.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I've yet to meet an older person who has not been able to change their opinion. In fact I reckon the belief that you can't change is a very, very dangerous one.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago

Broadly speaking, as you get older, you tend to become more rigid in your core beliefs. But not always. And not in everything. It doesn't mean you can't change, but people become less likely to change. As you get older, you have more inertia to overcome, and more years of sunk-costs.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago

Your core values are unlikely to change though. It isn't impossible but when you are a young adult everything is new and you are basically a sponge. What happens when you are young profoundly influences who you become.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago

my 14 year old self would view my current self with horror, recoil and run away without giving current self a chance to explain the lifetime of choices, learning, and impossible decisions that got me here. I guess what I'm trying to say is, like most 14 year olds I was an idiot (a special kind of idiot, but an idiot nonetheless). we are polar opposites.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I just hope it's not a growing through pain experience.

A danger with a lot of these idealogical groups is the classic cult/abusive behavior of "love bombing", which can be especially effective with younger people trying to figure out themselves and where they "fit" in the world. Add all that to the lack of life experience causing that sort of behavior to not ring alarm bells and it's a potent recipe for learning things the hard way when it all comes crashing down.


Sidenote: Even if this was a kid publicly declaring healthy beliefs, I really don't get why the response isn't "Ok, cool. Moving on..."

This sort of "championing" of impressionable youths by strangers, in response to the youth simply saying they believe a certain thing, just gives me the skeevies. Doesn't feel genuine to me.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago

Nah, it's very cultist, ain't it