this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2025
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MeanwhileOnGrad
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"Oh, this is calamity! Calamity! Oh no, he's on the floor!"
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Meanwhile On Grad
Documenting hate speech, conspiracy theories, apologia/revisionism, and general tankie behaviour across the fediverse. Memes are welcome!
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I never heard of tankies until I got to lemmy.
The first thing that I ever saw from them was a meme about how Joseph Stalin had very little in the way of material things when he died, despite the position he held.
And I was like Bitch, I care about Stalin's earthly possessions in the exact same way that I care about Hitler's painting with watercolors skill set.
This got me thinking about my western canadian upbringing through the back half of the Cold War. A steady stream of western indictrination and perspective. I recall zero words spoken about Joseph Stalin's personal life or spending habits.
So who the fuck was that meme aimed at? Who is out there, just wanting to love Stalin, but can't on account of thinking he lived in opulence? Who is out there heaping scorn on Stalin for what he owned or didn't?
That's when I realized that tankies are just a combination of Flat Earthers/Sovereign Citizens. It’s all bullshit, and the point is to be exceedingly difficult to talk to.
Holy shit does this make a lot of sense.
This so explains why people who at first glance appear to be reasonable/somewhat aligned, start spouting off some vague nonsense about how you should have done the mandatory readings of this and that manifest to understand what you clearly are missing.
I've been racking my brain but it just being angsty alt people who thrive on being in that outcast group, so they can feel they've discovered some powerful secrets other people just don't get.
That said, this community has suspiciously strict rules too, so its kinda seeming like lemmy is only better than reddit in that it hasn't been around long enough to be enshittified and that there will probably always exist at least some sane instances.