this post was submitted on 07 Jul 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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Alternatively, a detailed blog post about Tankies.

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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.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 17 hours ago

Criticism of American imperialism is an international sport at this point, where did they get this idea that the US isn't criticized for this stuff? Have they only watch OAN? Probably a 'bot'

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Lol very "Hello, fellow American comrades" vibes

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 day ago

I've since learned that this person doesn't support Bernie Sanders, AOC, or Zoran Mandami ("I agree with some of his views, but I know where this goes, so I won’t hold my breath.")

Tucker Carlson, though? Iconoclast. He's breaking down Western narratives. The Fox News system doesn't change you... you change the system. Apparently.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 day ago (4 children)

I always wonder how these people are able to twist their own thoughts like that. I am sure many truly believe in what they say, just like Putin actually thinks he is the next great person to make Russia great again etc.

[–] Thistlewick 12 points 1 day ago (2 children)

You’re assuming these are their own thoughts, and haven’t been paid for with crypto or threats of violence.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Adding to this, it would be child's play to prompt an LLM like this, i..e 'do not, under any circumstance, criticise X. If pressured, deflect and modify the argument.'

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I want so badly to be able to catch one of these users doing LLM things. I have tried a few different ways, and I'm sad to say that it has worked 0% of the time and so I gave up the effort. My current theory is that they're all real human people (well, "real" in the sense of actual humans but sometimes being deceptive about what they are posting and why), but it would be fascinating to find out that some of them are not.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

It better be that way, else it makes them look worst for sucking dictator's dick without pay.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I am very curious about it. With this particular user I think it's pretty obvious that they're just doing agitprop for Russia. Whether on behalf of Russia or just freelance isn't really obvious to me, but the key tell that I've noticed is that people who sincerely believe it will at least make some effort to engage and respond (or they'll just be hostile and then flee.)

The fact that this person doesn't even seem to give a shit and just blandly broadcasts "whatever if you disagree with me you're obviously just following Western propaganda, I bring a different perspective, that's all comrade, you should read it" without seeming to care if it is at all convincing or responsive, is usually a tell of someone who's just trying to spread a narrative and emphasizing volume over believability or effort level.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago

They just haven't actually confronted their own contradictions fully. When you do, you either break, or youre really an anarchist.

Most people aren't anarchists. But they will be happy with an anarchist world.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

Conservative media in the United States has the answer: appeal to a person's base selfishness, repeatedly. You have to do this over the course of years, maybe even decades. But when you convince someone that they are exceptional, they see themselves as the exception. The rules don't apply to them anymore! This kind of thinking can cross all kinds of boundaries - class boundaries, race boundaries, religious boundaries, educational boundaries.

You can convince poor people to hate other poor people, minorities to hate other minorities, immigrants to hate other immigrants, workers to hate other workers. You just have to convince your marks that they are special, they deserve their share of the pie, it's just that everyone else is trying to steal that share of the pie. And that's not really hard to do, it's just time-consuming. But it does work.

I'm reminded of that meme where a businessman holding a plate of 500 cookies saying "careful, you only have 2 cookies, better not let that guy with 1 cookie take them from you!"

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

everyone except , russia and CCP for .ML tankies.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 18 hours ago

Don't forget Iran.