this post was submitted on 13 Mar 2025
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Ye Power Trippin' Bastards

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This is a community in the spirit of "Am I The Asshole" where people can post their own bans from lemmy or reddit or whatever and get some feedback from others whether the ban was justified or not.

Sometimes one just wants to be able to challenge the arguments some mod made and this could be the place for that.


Posting Guidelines

All posts should follow this basic structure:

  1. Which mods/admins were being Power Tripping Bastards?
  2. What sanction did they impose (e.g. community ban, instance ban, removed comment)?
  3. Provide a screenshot of the relevant modlog entry (don’t de-obfuscate mod names).
  4. Provide a screenshot and explanation of the cause of the sanction (e.g. the post/comment that was removed, or got you banned).
  5. Explain why you think its unfair and how you would like the situation to be remedied.

Rules


Expect to receive feedback about your posts, they might even be negative.

Make sure you follow this instance's code of conduct. In other words we won't allow bellyaching about being sanctioned for hate speech or bigotry.

YTPB matrix channel: For real-time discussions about bastards or to appeal mod actions in YPTB itself.


Some acronyms you might see.


Relevant comms

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Hi all, thank you for reading my post. modlod link

In the 196 sub an OP was asking for advice on how to change their friends opinions which they disapprove of, because they were trying to warn them off of 'the tankie triad' and their friend didn't have any issues with what they were seeing and was in fact subscribed to a number of instance already.

Clocks got banned first after suggesting that the OP try to be a genuine friend and try to find some common cause in real life rather than alienating people over abstract geopolitical factionalism:

[> The original post feels like bait, but here is an authentic response.


Maybe genuinely be their friend instead of alienating them based on political flavoring. Perhaps you can be better working together to help others in your locality or communities than squandering over geopolitical matters. Swallow your frustrations, being annoyed is a part of being in a community. You can move on. ](https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/modlog?commentId=13347091)

I raised the issue that censoring earnest advice as 'tankie apologia' and preemtively writing off any common cause/ isolating people is no way to win people over either as friends or comrades.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if 'genuinely be their friend' is 'tankie apologia' to be censored, I'm not sure you're going to be very successful convincing anyone of anything in the real world.

I then got banned for this one, for continuing to find 'the tankie triad' extremely silly:

yeah that's the context, I was just laughing because:

  1. only Lemmy users with an axe to grind call them that
  2. it sounds really silly, like they're a nemesis to dr venture.
  3. I'm supposed to be the melodramatic one yet every day I get one-upped 😔

link

screenshot:

I'm not here to tell them how to run their comm, my position is that this is way more draconian than anything I've run into in any of 'the tankie triad'. The same groups of people loudly complaining about censorship on 'tankie' run instances don't seem to have a problem enforcing vague/arbitrary vibes based censorship in their spaces.

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[–] [email protected] 49 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

For anyone wondering why we have such strict rules regarding tankies in our community, it's because they have a tendency to try to worm their way into leftist spaces. Tankies constantly try to convince everyone that they are leftists and that being opposed to working with them is "leftist infighting", yet they will defend nation states which oppress unions, commit genocides, or do straight up imperialism. All the same things that capitalist nations do. They either embrace these things or deny they happened, or explain that they were somehow necessary. Some are earnest in how they try to convince others, and some know their stances are not popular and try to be subtle.

Tankies are not leftists, and disagreeing with them is not arbitrary. Based on this we have decided to not platform them on 196. This is mentioned in the sidebar and anyone who does not like this is free to go elsewhere. Additionally, we usually give a warning if the infringing comments are not too bad. Both instances posted about here were instances where they were warned yet continued with their behavior.

Edit: We also don't mind tankies being active on 196, we only mind them defending tankies or proselytizing.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Tankies are not leftists

based on my observations so far pretty much everyone getting called 'tankie' on lemmy is a leftist, and many of the people most vocally opposed to 'tankies' on lemmy act a lot like crypto fascists.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I for sure have seen liberals throwing that word around thinking commie and tankie are interchangeable. We however use the term correctly.

My experience is that those that complain the loudest about this tend to be obvious tankies in their comment history. I've seen many be angry at how the word is used and then have posts on .ml where they proudly call themselves a tankie.

Most of the people we ban are worse than you, and call ukrainians vermins, some deny the tiananmen square massacre, or make bogus claims about how communist the CCP or russia today is. They are almost always from .ml.

.ml absolutely has a problem with tankies. That you continue to believe that most tankies are just leftists or that your stance on ukraine is not problematic makes it pretty clear who you are.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I'm 'problematic' because I have had family directly affected. As a result I am not going to be dogmatically committed to seeing a war prolonged when all that is being accomplished is normal people dying on both sides while war industries and profiteers make money hand over fist.

The only wars that don't end with diplomacy are the ones where we all end up dead.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

If Marxists are not leftist, I do not know who is.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

I described authoritarians. Socialists, communists, and anarchists are not tankies unless they defend authoritarian regimes.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 weeks ago

but diva didn't do that

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Well, they have dominated Marxist politics for quite a while, and I am not sure you can say they are not leftists because they are authoritarian, they have a lot more in common ideologically with other Marxists/socialists than the right, just because they prefer certain methods does not mean they are not leftists, and they do have traits that have always been associated with leftism, like opposition to tradition, monarchy, even capitalism, desire for revolution, etc.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 weeks ago (7 children)

If the “certain methods” they prefer are killing all other leftists when they get into power, then they don’t get to hang out in our spaces. Do you even understand how stupid that sounds?

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

It was mostly for your comment defending the other poster, and for the axe grinding comment. That combined with your stance that ukraine should not defend itself against russian aggression in your comment history made your comments read as you defending tankies.

You were also warned prior to the ban yet continued to make comments in the same vein as before.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

I'm opposed to all inter-capitalist wars. Sounds like the real issue is that I have a nuanced take on Ukraine in my post history more so than any of the things I said in the thread.

The advice on offer in that thread reeks of terminally online in a way that is extremely unlikely to accomplish anything productive in real life other than isolating yourself into increasingly small cliques.

Maybe you should add "no dissent allowed" to the rules so it's more clear that it's a cj comm

[–] [email protected] 28 points 3 weeks ago (20 children)

We already have a no authoritarian rule in the sidebar, so that won't be necessary

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I'm not here to tell them how to run their comm

And yet here you are. I took a brief look at their sidebar rules and it's pretty clear that you broke one or two of their rules. I don't think that's a power trip. That's moderation. The Tankie Triad are also very heavily moderated.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

I took a brief look at their sidebar rules and it’s pretty clear that you broke one or two of their rules.

Is not taking the 'the tankie triad' fearmongering seriously breaking the rules? I'm pretty clearly opposed to all inter-capitalist wars

the Tankie Triad are also very heavily moderated.

whataboutism, also it's not nearly to this degree

[–] [email protected] 21 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

also it's not nearly to this degree

Hilarious

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Not to brag, but I have it on good authority that I am extremely funny. 😏

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

You can take whatever you want seriously or not seriously. It might get deleted depending on where you post it.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

I think the mod is maybe too sensitive on this topic. I'd go with BPR since there seems to be more context missing.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

YDI.

Lemmy.blahaj.zone specifically is for trans folks. You're not going to make friends there defending authoritarianism, and it's part of their actual rules.

They also ban based on what your account does outside of their instance, and more than just this specific instance has you defending tankies (and it looks like, on cursory glance, you identify as one) so that would lead to a banning.

Don't worry though, there are a lot of folks banned from there who are sour about it who'll be along shortly to say PTB.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Lemmy.blahaj.zone specifically is for trans folks.

yes I know, I'm trans.

it looks like, on cursory glance, you identify as one

I'm an anarchist, I organize with anarchists, have done so for years. This level of dogmatism as 'anti-authoritarianism' I have only run into in a handful of online spaces.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

YDI you went to a thread with a specific anti-tankie topic in a comm that is explicitly no tankies

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

The definition of 'tankie' is pretty clearly arbitrary and vibes based. I'm an anarchist, I've organized with anarchists for years. Sorry if I don't pass some terminally online litmus test.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tankie

generally applied to authoritarian communists, especially those who support acts of repression by such regimes, their allies, or deny the occurrence of the events thereo

https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/tankie

(politics, slang, derogatory, by extension) A supporter of policies and actions by the Soviet Union, China, Cuba or other authoritarian socialist (chiefly Marxist-Leninist) governments.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

I support the positive changes for society that happen regardless of the government, however ultimately all of them are still going to be representing a hierarchy to be dismantled at the end of the day.

I have a long litany of criticism for all of the countries listed, but this is is not an appropriate place to get into that. Generally any nuance gets lost from the conversation as soon as some online demagogue declares that it's either total ideological conformity or you're a tankie.

Not to get condescending, I try to avoid being dogmatic myself, but it's a comfortable impulse. Actual human interaction requires curiosity, tolerance and not treating broad groups of people like a monolith. Like you can discard legitimate advice because you don't like the messengers, but in the end it's you who is worse off for it.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I do not think I have seen you once criticize China or Russia, because if you had you would be more in line with me than you think.

Every government has done things worthy of praise and condemnation. To me an anarchist, at the very least, would be shitting on all the governments from the US to the CCP to the DPRK and everywhere in between

But I don't see that from you or any other known tankie who also claims to be an anarchist. You have a pretty clear pattern of criticizing the West and then covering for what should be criticized of the CCP/Russia/NK etc.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Maybe this comes because I prefer local political organizing, but I live in the US right now, my current government is the one I have the biggest issues with, and thus I voice them online because it's relevant to me. The current government in Russia sucks ass, what do you want me to say? if I was living there I'd probably be getting persecuted for being trans. It actually sucks because even apart from this war it makes it almost impossible for me to visit family.

I actually have some optimism for china it's true, but like many places there's issues, I'm not in favor of territorial land grabs in general, no matter the US provocation. They can also be very conservative but it's also hard for me to judge honestly from the other side of the planet and not speaking the language. I have seen enough trans people in china talking about their experience to say that it's possible to live a life there as a trans person- it just takes having a supportive family. Unless you want to end up homeless that's also generally the case in the US. I don't like seeing forced labor, but the american alternative next door was two decades of occupying afghanistan. I disapprove of prisons that turn prisoners into slave labor, but if the alternative is decades of widespread counter-insurgency and indiscriminate bombings I think I'm also capable of pointing to the lesser evil.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (11 children)

You've said more than every tankie I've ever seen, I don't even think you're that much of a tankie. You've always been the "odd one out" tankie whenever I've seen you around.

Do you honestly not see what the folks you defend say? Just saying "Russia sucks" earnestly like that, is probably the first time I've seen that. The closest I've ever seen out of a tankie was similar to "even if they are that bad, it's totally worth it because the West is sooo much worse..."

This has got to be the first politically related comment from you I've ever upvoted. Ya know Diva I've never tagged you as a tankie or defender like the others, I could never find a proper tag for your profile, your comments are always...odd with what I've come to expect from tankies and their defenders.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

I truly do hope you are an anarchist. However most anarchists tend to be in favor of shooting the people trying to kill you and annex you into their dictatorship. Perhaps there is something about your stance I don't understand.

In either case, I stand by that Clocks was making light of the oppression of dictatorships, and that suggesting that tankies and leftists only minorly disagree is tankie apologia. Defending that and then telling someone that the tankie problem on the tankie instances is overblown does make you look like a tankie to me. Also remember that you were banned for your last comments after you were warned, not for your first comment making fun of the term tankie triad.

If this is wrong I apologize, but I don't really see any other way to read you based on your behavior so far.

Edit: I do sympathize with your anti profiteering stance and that you want to reduce the death count, but I can't really see russia not killing people after annexing ukraine.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

I truly do hope you are an anarchist.

You'll forgive me if I don't get into specifics, I would rather not have to deal with IRL harassment. I've been at antiwar organizing since Iraq. It comes from an anarchist position, any war be it colonization or inter-capitalist conflict more broadly is always going to benefit capitalists first while killing countless workers in the process with nothing to show in the end but heightened exploitation and division. War should be opposed regardless of the narrative because it's a tremendous waste of human life and resources, not to mention a distraction from addressing global issues like climate change and pandemics. War is always the hallmark of a political-diplomatic failure. I've worked with a lot of different people over the years, you're never going to agree with everyone 100% because that's just being human but you can still be friends and share common cause as long as there's mutual respect and understanding.

most anarchists tend to be in favor of shooting the people trying to kill you and annex you into their dictatorship

I don't have any issue with that, if people want to fight they should fight. However that's not all that's been happening, they have been drafting/kidnapping people to the front for some time. Ukrainians are not a monolith and there's plenty who would rather not die defending lines on a map. I don't think any anarchist should approve of a state under martial law pressing people into service. I understand that it's a necessary evil in many situations, after all many anarchist revolutions have also used conscription. Don't kid yourself that it's 'anti-authoritarian' to be drafting people to your cause though.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

PTB this mod has not even read their own sidebar!

Assume the best, but don’t tolerate sealioning/just asking questions/concern trolling.

Don’t rush mod actions. If a case doesn’t need to be handled right away, consider taking a short break before getting to it. This is to say, cool down and make room for feedback

Send users concise DMs about verdicts about them, such as bans etc, except in cases where it is clear we don’t want them at all, such as obvious transphobes. No need to notify someone they haven’t been banned of course.

Explain to a user why their behavior is problematic and how it is distressing others rather than engage with whatever they are saying. Ask them to avoid this in the future and send them packing if they do not comply.

First warn users, then temp ban them, then finally perma ban them when they break the rules or act inappropriately. Skip steps if necessary.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

The rules are pretty loose, I did get one DM, though this bit at the end opens up a lot of room for arbitrary/vibes based enforcement:

Skip steps if necessary.

I guess 'it was necessary'

[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

The DM I sent

The guidelines are specifically called guidelines, not rules. I'm unsure what important steps you feel I skipped. We did not rush mod actions, f.ex. We had a chat about what to do in our mod chat.

We sent a warning, but chose not to tell you about the ban, as we figured you were out for drama.

We explained how you broke the rules and what not to do.

We warned you first, then banned you. We always permaban tankies due to our no tolerance policy.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

we figured you were out for drama.

from the rules:

Assume the best, but don’t tolerate sealioning/just asking questions/concern trolling.

🤔 don't think I was doing any of those

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I think I've made it clear that I read you as a tankie?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Yeah, that was clear, hence my position on arbitrary/vibes based enforcement. you followed your rules, they lend themself towards that

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

It's right there in the sidebar:

Proselytization, support, or defense of authoritarianism is not welcome. This includes but is not limited to: imperialism, nationalism, genocide denial, ethnic or racial supremacy, fascism, Nazism, Marxism-Leninism, Maoism, etc.

Tankies are defined as authoritarian "communists"

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Vibes based, I spoke up for Clocks who had offered earnest and positive advice for interacting with people you disagree in real life, without alienating them. If you treat all real life interpersonal interactions like an online purity test I can see why you spend so much time here worried about 'tankies'

tbh you lot are exhibiting behavior I normally see reserved for cults.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

"Vibes based" hilarious considering I've been collecting actual hard documentation of what y'all say and do, and it's right in line with the definition of a tankie

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

I replied in the other post, but I did indeed follow the guidelines (I should know, I wrote them!)

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 weeks ago

A lot of communities outside the “tankie triad” kind of autoremove anything that looks slightly suspicious coming from a “tankie triad” instance. I understand your POV but I don’t think it really reflects poorly on the moderators. BPR.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 weeks ago

YDI. Leftist unity is bullshit tankies spout when they plan on murdering leftists as soon as we help them get into power. I wouldn’t expect any less from a .ML user though.

The absolute gall of you to come here, on an actually leftist instance, to complain we aren’t being nice enough to tankies.

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