this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2026
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Lemmy.ml users in particular will defend fucking ANYTHING done in opposition to The West. Like they love to support Russia against Ukraine.
I stopped replying to one of them when they denied the holodomor or the chinese famine.
Its quite disheartening that we can't even agree on a common reality.
I've been called all sorts of names just for asking for real evidence instead of flimsy suggestive bullshit. It took SO much pressing to get anything at all on the Ukrainian Nazi line they love so much, and I got SO much hostility for it.
Eh, I've seen enough to agree that some elements within Ukraine and the Ukrainian military are using Nazi-associated symbols. But then again, so are some of the people invading Ukraine. And I don't really begrudge Ukraine for thinking that repelling an ongoing invasion and occupation is a more urgent problem than a few Nazi nutjobs on their own side. (Honestly, you'd be hard-pressed to find any military anywhere that doesn't have Nazi nutjobs in it. Military service is very attractive to that type of person.)
Yeah, that was kinda my takeaway when I finally got decent info. The Nazi groups seem to be getting big enough to be legitimately problematic, but like you said, I can't entirely blame Ukraine for focusing on bigger problems for now, especially when those factions are willing to help defend the country. It's kind of a cursed bargain, but it's not like they have better options right now.
Ah so about the 'hOlOdOmOr'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kaaYvauNho&pp=ygUVaG9sb2RvbW9yIGJhZGVtcGFuYWRh, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L3d0GJlzgc&pp=ygUVaG9sb2RvbW9yIGJhZGVtcGFuYWRh , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vu5-tqHHtaM&pp=ygUjVGhlIHNvdmlldCBmYW1pbmUgbWFyeGlzbSBleHBsYWluZWQ%3D
Also any time you say NK is a dictatorship they come out of the basement to say how awesome it is.
I'm not entering this argument, but I can see how "my enemy's enemy is my friend" may be a thought process there.
Yeah, in a vacuum, sounds like a solid idea. Russia isn't that friend, though.
That is the thought process being mocked, yes
I think the argument is:
It's super weird when Liberals forget about Iraq, Afghanistan, Indigenous Genocides, Racial Profiling and the war on terror, Gitmo, Palestine, and Slavery all at once.
"Oh but in the past China and Russia had famines".
They don't realize they're effected by 100 years of conservative messaging.
I think this explanation makes the meme even more confusing 😭
The Confederacy was fighting against the United States. Under tankie logic, that must mean that they're virtuous and attempting to build communism. In reality, they were fighting to preserve chattel slavery.
Okay but Lenin considered the US Civil to be good actually
https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1918/aug/20.htm
Yes. But these topics about tankies are about reinforcing 'us/them' rationalizations for those who already have their prejudice. The comments here certainly do.
By providing a critical thinking from Lenin, you instead become the tankie, and therefore become incapable of critical thinking, per the meme. Therefore anything Lenin might've said or written can just be dismissed.
And so the tankie can be mocked as a confederate chud nonetheless.
I had to read this a few times because I am high and thought you were being serious 😭
I don't want to people to think I'm knowledgeable or well read or anything I just googled it because I wasn't sure what the meme was trying to say.
And? You seem to be under the delusion that tankies have actually read anything by their heroes.
I think you're mistaking the lunatic left for the lunatic right. The left usually did their homework at least. Better than the right who refuse to acknowledge what they call "Capitalism" has nothing to do with the foundational principles of the theory.
If you aren’t American: Depicted are American civil war reenactors with the flag of the Confederacy which seceded from the Union of the United States in the 19th century due to built up tensions regarding slavery. The Confederacy were ultimately fighting to keep slavery as a government institution.
The target of the joke are tankies (described briskly above), which we will see on Lemmy, often see any action taken against the US or the EU (the West) as praiseworthy, blatantly disregarding or downplaying equivalent or worse actions from non-western nations.
The subversion of expectation here is that a tankie would see the pro-slavery Confederacy as praiseworthy because they’re fighting the US government, despite the Confederacy’s blatantly immoral cause.
Caveat - I say this with bias as someone explicitly against authoritarian bootlickers, like tankies.
Thank you for your efforts, I really do appreciate it. It makes discussion a lot more accessable to people who do not know the details of US history. I am not american myself but unfortunately I have family who live in Kennesaw. I hope that's self explanatory 🥲
I guess the joke doesn't make sense because Lenin thought it was based that the civil war happened because slavery is wack.
You need to tell that to the tankies. We already know it here. They are the ones having problems understanding that.
Sorry tell the tankies what?
Tankies: "Any enemy of the US is my ally".
It is a zero sum game for them. They are incapable of thinking that while the US sucks, their enemies can also suck.
Who is "them" exactly here? Are you listening to teenagers on TikTok and extrapolating a whole ideology here? Tankies aren't anti-American by definition. Someone is feeding you some pretty twisted propaganda.
I mean I kinda get it. The biggest obstacle to World Peace today is the US. So you could make the argument that anything that opposes US Hegemony gets us closer to world peace. Idk that I would go so far as to "support Russia" but I understand the logic.
Please don't defend them. These kinds of arguments lack any kind of deeper thought or nuance. It's literally just trolling and straw-men. Do not feed the trolls.
I mean that's what Zionists say about Pro Palestine group. That's what Americans said about resistance groups in the middle east. That's what Americans said about the Natives.
I just disagree with this entire philosophy. You should be able understand an argument you disagree with.
I didn't say don't understand them, I'm saying they're literally not thinking that deeply about it. They want to get a rise out of you and someone showed them they can do that by opening with a straw-man like this. By deliberately misrepresenting what "Tankie" means they can completely disarm it and force you to defend a position they chose, which they know is indefensible. It's pure rhetorical strategy, they don't actually know or care what a Tankie thinks. They're trying to make the word mean something it never has and never should mean. Is it possible someone on their side has done some work to rationalize their twisted interpretation. That rationalization is usually paper thin and almost no one on their side knows or cares about it besides its usefulness as a tactical fallback. They don't believe any of this, its a rhetorical game and the point is their nihilistic disregard for consequences.
That sounds like a description of every troll. Tbh I keep hearing tankie thrown around, but I've never had the conversations people who complain about it have.
Tankie is a general term for someone who thinks there is a clear justification to use force or the threat of force to impose a socialist system on a state. The term originates with people who supported the USSR "Sending in the tanks" to annex other countries and crush dissent from people in their sphere. They are what people mean when they "If you go far enough left, you get your guns back." These days they tend to be a tiny minority within the rather small minority of actual leftists. They do exist, and some of them are pretty out there, but not the way the .ml crowd tends to characterize them. They're terrified of them, because in their heads the most terrifying thing in the world is a leftist that is willing to fight back, and they don't recognize anything that doesn't kill someone as "fighting."
Wait so .ml isn't a community of tankies? I've been on here for 6 months and I just assumed that .ml was tankie central based on how people talk.
No. Or at least that isn't what the term was coined as. They discover a new word and then reinterpret it as kind of a weird cosplay thing.
Wait so are you mad at tankies or .ml? Or both?
I learned a long time ago there's no point in being mad at people on the internet. If I'm going to have a beer with someone, I'd probably choose the tankies. They're way less likely to call for the genocide of my family, my nation and torture and murder of people who think like me, but hey, do your thing.
And sealioning, can't forget that.
Blocking them and moving on is usually the best option. They'll ruin your day given the chance.
Oh and if they violate the rules of where they're posting, report them before blocking.