Comment threads, on the default lemmy-ui.

it's so fucking true
Anytime they pull you into an argument, suddenly 5 more show up to try and overwhelm you. There's no way it isn't a deliberate tactic.
- I had three at once ask me why no one was defending me. I just said i didn't need anyone to brigade for me. They didn't seem to like that answer lol
- That is a tactic they learned from real life tanks. Argue with one tank, more tanks show up.
  
  Tanks are pack hunters, after all.
- The three notifications in my inbox before this one were .mls misreading my comment.
- I think they can’t stand talking to each other unless it’s circle-jerking over how much "theory" they've read. So, they love getting a chance to scream at an outsider.
  
  talk to each other
  "These tankies are caught up in an echo chamber, they never expose themselves to outside ideas or engage with criticism!"
  talk to other people
  "These tankies can't stand talking to each other and just want to scream at outsiders!"
  Can't win.
  
  The arrogance of these people passing around their homework as gospel.
- Plot twist. All 5 are the same guy using multiple alt accounts.
- That was Hexbear's modus operandi when they federated with other instances to "dunk" on people. Seeing as many HB users have .ml accounts to bypass defederation, it's no surprise they keep up that behaviour on .ml. I've seen numerous threads where the vote count suddenly plummets right when a bunch of tankies show up at once to yell at whoever they consider a shitlib. Which is everyone who isn't authoritarian.
- The answer is not to get dragged into convesrations with idiots. We used to call it "not feeding the trolls" and it's something of a lost art.
- Lol, you've got some serious main character syndrome
  
  Why is it that when I say something controversial in a normal conversation, that doesn't happen? It only happens when I say something mean or, god forbid, factual, in a conversation with an .ml user.
- I didn't say conspiracy

It will actually look more like this:
Removed by moderator
- Nailed it.
- Thank god for the modlog.
  
  They purge the modlog too.
- 10/10.
  Completely accurate, no notes
- exactly what happened last time lol and now I can't load comments on one of their communities I don't remember which
- Removed by moderator
  
  User was banned for this post. Reason: Encouraging voilence, jaywalking, and lewd behavior
  
  You can't fool me!

If you make them look bad they delete the thread. It's happened to me twice. I consider it a win, but it is sad that others won't see how wacky they are.
- They even downvote you if you agree with them.
  
  serious question, is there any chance a large portion of these users are acting in bad faith and don't actually believe these things because the now threads i see, the more that seems to be the case
  
  Can confirm. I get downvoted a lot over here.
- This was literally my onboarding experience with a .ml account. I dunked on some power users out of the gate (by pointing out they clearly had not read the essay they linked) and was put on a short leash from then on. To the point where I'd catch new bans for posting anything even remotely political.
- Oh man there should be a thing where people start taking screenshots periodically in case of thread deletion so they can be displayed in a hall of shame or something
  
  !meanwhileongrad@sh.itjust.works

Ok, what’s a tankie?
- Originally, it meant people who supported the soviet union's use of tanks to crush uprisings.
  Now its used to describe people who support Authoritatian Communist regimes, like the ussr, north korea or china.
  On lemmy.ml and lemmygrad.ml there is a high amount of them.
  
  Somehow they even support modern russia which is as far from communism as it's possible to be without being US
  
  Originally, it meant people who supported the soviet union's use of tanks to crush uprisings.
  And with the recent JFK declassified documents:
  ...it turns out the soviets were right to crush the Hungarian color revolution lmao
  
  The authoritarian part waxes and wanes, there's a few anarchists in their ranks who have no real solution after "tear it all apart".
  What then, boys?
  
  Thanks for taking the time to explain. Much appreciated.
- It's an updated version of "commie", means the same thing, but for people who don't want to sound like cold war boomers.
  
  Hey now commies are proudly to the left of them
- Anyone to the left of morning Joe?
- Half a century ago it meant people who supported the soviet union using tanks to put down a cia backed coup in Hungary.
  Modern times in the west it means anyone left of AOC.
  
  Or, hear me out, it actually means people who support authoritarian communism. Especially focussed on Stalin and Mao.
  
  I would never call a leftist a "tankie" because they are a leftist. People who do that are idiots. The important part of the word is the support of authoritarian regimes.
  Which is pretty weird nowadays because neither Russia, China nor North Korea are even communist/leftist anymore.
  
  Modern times in the west it means anyone left of AOC.
  That would be a large swathe of Europe, so... no.
  
  More like anyone left of Regan or when something I disagree with
  
  Naaah. It still means the same thing.

Criticizing Marxists on a community that is federated with the largest Marxist-aligned instances will indeed result in a struggle session.
- Not criticising marxists, just tankies.
  
  As we already discussed, if the vast majority of Marxists fit the definition of "tankie" you gave, then it's just a pejorative for Marxists. The Black Panther Party supported and was influenced by the DPRK, if you count that as "glorifying," in your own words, then the Black Panthers were tankies. If you don't, and believe them to have been sufficiently nuanced, then "tankies" practically do not exist on Lemmy.
  
  What's a tankie, and what's wrong with the .ml instance? I just joined it because I read that it was hosted by the people who created Lemmy, so I figured it'd be the best and/or least likely to go down
  
  Given that "tankie" means anyone to the left of Elizabeth Warren, Marxists are a subset of tankies.
  
  Don't bother with him, I've tagged him as "bad actor" because he might seem reasonable at first glance but if you start pushing him on topics you know better than him it quickly becomes clear he's arguing in bad faith.

Nice rainbow

- Virtually every ban and removed comment found in the mod log from an .ml community gets a dedicated thread these days.
  It has everything to do with how demanding to see the manager/admin/dev doesn't auto-bypass moderation policies. Works on centralized social media where the owners and their employees get flummoxed over potential ad revenue.
- Yeah, I think people constantly making those posts are a bit annoying, like they're just trying to stir shit up, but a lot of users on grad, hex and ml will very agressively defend themselves under these threads, hence the meme.
  edit: yet again downvoted by .ml for agreeing with them.
  
  ...what makes the downvotes come from .ml?

Maybe they were all commenting on your spelling of "criticising"
- meh, its one of 10-15 words I use often, but can't spell properly for shit.
  
  If only there was some kind of spelling check.

It's really cool zooming in and out of the rainbow on your phone. You can't tell the zoom is also happening. In the vertical direction, only horizontal, so it's an odd effect I haven't seen before.

Are anti-genocide "tankies" really the biggest threat to democracy right now?
Fascists and Nazis are in the white house destroying the US. They are also on the verge of taking over and destroying Europe.
Everyone to the left of fascism needs to unite together to stop the neo-Nazis before it is too late. If the Nazis are allowed to start ww3 then nukes will end us all.
- Yeah right now, I don't care about tankies all that much. Are they annoying at times? Fuck yes. Are they a threat to my life? Fuck no.
  I don't mind moderating content online, but its fucking weird people are more pressed about Tankies online, spending more time about them than Trump. At least memes can maybe sway someone about the terminally online, it doesn't stop Trump when someone shares a meme.
- I guess so, but they seem a bit more focused on liberals than conservatives.

Sorry but this is incorrect. They get deleted before they could ever get that many comments!
Haha .ml sucks.

Is it pride month already?

That would be the preferable result rather than just getting banned or the comment/post deleted.
- I think OP is upset that .ml accounts aren't being banned or deleted.
  But it's all bait, regardless. Most liberals only know the word "Tankie" to mean "People who down voted me on Reddit and don't want to glass Beijing".
  You'd be hard pressed to get anyone's actual politics on the Hungarian Revolt of 1956 that goes farther than "Soviet Tanks Are Bad".
  
  Nah, it's people who defend Russia mostly.

Locking as people have reached the point where they're just insulting each other/telling each other to kill themselves.

~~Thunder (indirectly) mentioned!!~~ wrong
~~Wait, is it Jerboa?~~ wrong

What should I say to get the stripes?
- Buddy you want some stripes?
  
  L
- Tankies don't actually care about theory.
- Agreeing with them seems to make them misread your comment on purpose, and interpret a wildly different message from it. Try that.
- So you were deliberately and openly trolling.

Hey 👋🌈

Trinitron

It's a coward who needs an echo chamber to find support for their perspectives.
- Is this why .world preemptively defederated from hexbear?
- It's generally the reverse. In a Western-dominated space, Communism goes against that grain. It's impossible for a Communist in the west to actually insulate themselves from the dominant narratives online. On the flip side, it's extremely easy to never hear from Communists, as they only tend to occupy their own spaces, all you need to do is defederate or ban. That's why Lemmy.world has more of a claim to being an echo chamber than Lemmy.ml, Lemmy.world never even gives Hexbear or Grad users a chance to comment to begin with.

Are you joking? Say anything critical of their beloved authoritarianism, and you get nuked. There’s little chance for anyone to respond.
And note how it’s always the admins that do all the work because the mods are flaccid and powerless to moderate their own communities. It kind of makes you wonder if this is by design so as to emulate the colossal shitshow that their entire ideology is based off of.
- If you're quick enough, you can see everyone argue. Then they look at the crossposts, and brigade those as well.
- Hilariously ironic coming from a .worlder. You're seriously projecting.

- There's always the Reddit imperialist bootlickers information bubble.
- Have you considered just going back to reddit? Seems like you'd be happier there
- lemmy.ca , sh.itjust.works , sopuli.xyz and lemmy.cafe are all very nice instances. iirc, they all block hex.
  
  Does it even exist anymore?
- I got immediately banned from .ml for using the word tankie, but then I got banned from Europe feddit for reporting someone who called me dum
  Looks like they're both better off for it.
- Beehaw.org