this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2025
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MeanwhileOnGrad

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"Oh, this is calamity! Calamity! Oh no, he's on the floor!"

Welcome to MoG!


Meanwhile On Grad


Documenting hate speech, conspiracy theories, apologia/revisionism, and general tankie behaviour across the fediverse. Memes are welcome!


What is a Tankie?


Alternatively, a detailed blog post about Tankies.

(caution of biased source)


Basic Rules:

Sh.itjust.works Instance rules apply! If you are from other instances, please be mindful of the rules. β€” Basically, don't be a dick.

Hate-Speech β€” You should be familiar with this one already; practically all instances have the same rules on hate speech.

Apologia β€” (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.

Revisionism β€” No downplaying or denying atrocities past and present. Calling Tankies shills, foreign/federal agents, or bots also falls under this rule. Extremists exist. They are real. Do not call them shills or fake users as it handwaves their extremism.

Tankies can explain their views but may be criticised or attacked for them. Any slight infraction on the rules above will immediately earn a warning and possibly a ban.

Off-topic Discussion β€” Do not discuss unrelated topics to the point of derailing the thread. Stay focused on the direct content of the post as opposed to arguing.

You'll be warned if you're violating the instance and community rules. Continuing poor behaviour after being warned will result in a ban or removal of your comments. Bans typically only last 24 hours, but each subsequent infraction will double the amount. Depending on the content, the ban time may be increased. You may request an unban at any time.


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".ml has a bunch of huge comms" is nothing but a myth anyways

https://lemmyverse.net/communities?order=active_month

By MAUs, only a single .ml comm is in the top 25, doesn't even crack the top 10 and it's a meme comm

Join the boycott of the tankie instance Lemmy.ml today! So we can show instance admins of the wider Lemmy-verse that .ml does NOT reign supreme and it's NOT worth it to "look the other way" on the .ml admins documented behavior because of their supposed "biggest comms"

Congrats to !linux_gaming@lemmy.world πŸ‘

top 39 comments
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[–] Irelephant@lemm.ee 5 points 1 day ago

I really hope we coordinate any more moves to non-world comms as well.

[–] Draconic_NEO@sh.itjust.works 15 points 1 day ago (3 children)

That's awersome, now we just need to get people to move on from the linux community on lemmy.ml, there are some good ones like !linux@programming.dev, !linux@sh.itjust.works, and even !linux@lemmy.world but these still have less users than the linux community on lemmy.ml unfortunately.

[–] Irelephant@lemm.ee 5 points 1 day ago

We should move everyone to the PD comm. Moving everyone to .world will result in some headaches.

[–] fxomt@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

PD is perfect for this IMO. Love that instance.

I think !privacy@lemmy.dbzer0.com is doing very well (federated with hexbear, but they behave more), its possible to move off ML, it just takes effort :) hopefully it will overtake !privacy@lemmy.ml in the future.

Hopefully it does, it would be nice to have a privacy community that isn't stationed on ml or world. The other runner being the one on Lemmy.world.

[–] cm0002@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Yea .ml Linux subscriber count is unrealistic at 52k (for now), but it looks like on MAUs !linux@programming.dev seems like the best bet to take the crown

[–] LeninsOvaries@lemmy.cafe 13 points 2 days ago (1 children)

memes@lemmy.ml is the best community because our glorious leaders ban anyone who espouses liberal capitalist views like freedom and equality.

[–] Snowpix@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Freedom and equality? Those are dangerous topics, comrade. May I instead interest you in our Dear Leader's boot leather in these trying times?

[–] ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 day ago (2 children)

"look the other way"

...my dude, same team, but ffs they are not "looking the other way," this is how they want it, they fully support this, this is why they made lemmy, they got censored on reddit and came here so they can ~~be the censors themselves~~ have freedom of speech. Dessalines and Nutomic designed .ml like this and it will 100% never change, I'm just glad they were dumb enough to make it decentralized so they can't control more than their bubble as much as they want to.

[–] cm0002@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Sorry, slight misunderstanding, I was referencing other instance admins looking the other way and not wanting to defederate from .ml. But yea the admins of .ml are absolutely hard core Tankies and use their influence as main Lemmy devs to push that agenda

Sorry lol, my mistake!

[–] Emmie@lemm.ee 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Theoretically they can’t but I think them being main developers may have some unforeseen ramifications in the future. Not sure how exactly but if there is a way they will find it to further their agenda.
I don’t know if the code is good right now but if it is shit for example no one else will want to fork and maintain it. If only they know how entirety of it works due to spaghetti and quirks then it would be possible to smuggle in some rewards for average commie user behaviour (brigading, yelling) or other subtly malicious functionality.

Also, tankies aren’t equal to nazis in the eyes of the most netizens. Nazis will be swiftly banned and eradicated by decisive defederation but tankies are treated slightly differently. You could easily harness that with the very design of a social media platform. Lemmy actually allows just enough dissenting voices and brigading (more than Reddit) for them to still echo through the instances.

Tankies existing there and thriving as neighbours will be always affecting everyone on Lemmy. It is designed that way that if you really want to be annoying and spread your agenda and brigade then no amount of blocks and bans and defederations can really stop you and certainly it is much easier than on Reddit. Even the default sorting by hot and lack of hiding downvoted comments supports this.

Meanwhile nazis at the same time would be swiftly silenced. the Lemmy demographics just treat tankies more naively. enough for them to blend in with the normal left and try to move main instances Overton window day by day.

It’s a fundamental flaw of this platform (their creators) that will always hold it back. The question isn’t just "Can they sneak in malicious code?" but also "Does the platform’s structure inherently reward certain behaviors?" The answer to the latter seems to be yes.

[–] Irelephant@lemm.ee 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Forks for idealogical reasons never work, take redot as an example. When a developers beliefs begin to affect the code itself, then a fork is warranted. For now, lemmy is safe.

[–] Samskara@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Kbin and Piefed are good alternatives to Lemmy already and are on the same federated network.

[–] Irelephant@lemm.ee 3 points 1 day ago

I agree, but lemmy as a project is still fine, for now.
I am excited for piefed though, there is a lot it does right. I'm sure sublinks will be ready any day now.

[–] ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] Emmie@lemm.ee 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I edited it sorry, always write comments heavily editing lol adhd

"Still true" lol.

[–] BoulevardBlvd@lemmy.blahaj.zone 22 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Hey, new here. What's going on?

[–] NakariLexfortaine@lemm.ee 41 points 2 days ago (2 children)

First off, going to apologize because I'm trying to explain things with the most minimal bias I can muster.

To explain as easily as I can, there's a wide variety of attitudes on Lemmy. .ml is notorious for being pro-Russia and China, banning anyone who speaks out against them. They've also been held as the largest, most active instance, so they've heavily gotten away with how users are treated for voicing differing opinions. You can also find mass downvotes against people who speak out against .ml, even outside of the instance, with members flooding in to defend them.

They're part of what people on here call the "Tankie Triad", using communist rhetoric as their defense for what many outside of the group think is absolutely abhorrent behavior.

There's a lot more complexity going on, especially with the main Lemmy devs openly holding the same viewpoints, but that's a very surface level overlook.

[–] LeninsOvaries@lemmy.cafe 14 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I assure you, it's not just our rhetoric that's communist. We Marxist-Leninists believe in the purest version of communism: a centralised state with defined social classes and government backed currency. Just like Marx advocated! Our Dear Leader Stalin enforced his dream of a state where the workers reign supreme, by using tanks to suppress workers' uprisings. All hail Stalin!

[–] monarch@lemm.ee 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Truly only someone who has read theory would understand this. Oh great theory reader what wisdom do you have.

[–] LeninsOvaries@lemmy.cafe 5 points 1 day ago

Linux isn't real. It's a CIA psyop designed to fool us into thinking decentralized organising can accomplish things of value. Linux was actually created by the centralised authority of the state.

[–] Irelephant@lemm.ee 2 points 1 day ago

.world is the biggest instance. ml isn't even third. https://lemmyverse.net/?order=active_day

[–] cm0002@lemmy.world 21 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Welcome! So Tankies are what are known as authoritarian "communists". They often praise authoritarian regimes so long as they're against the West and claim to be communistic or similar. Such as China and Russia and also deny any wrong doings of them. Like, they'll deny the events of tiananmen square, that people in China are heavily censored, that Russia was wholly justified in invading Ukraine or even that NK isn't run by a Dictatorship.

They also often claim that they're "the only true leftists", even among actual communists/socialists that don't praise authoritarian regimes that only vaugly claim to be communistic lol

.ml is one of the original Lemmy instances by the Lemmy devs who are hardcore tankies and they'll enforce (though they'll never admit it) their ideology throughout the instance by removing content that is against Russia/China/NK and claim it's "bigotry" or something. They're part of the Tankie Triad, the other 2 instances are Hexbear and Lemmygrad.

But those 2 are so in your face about it that most instances, including yours, defederate from them (When an instances admin decides to refuse to accept another instances content/posts/voting/users) But .ml opts to do it subtlety through moderator action and because they have a number of official support comms, other Instances are hesitant to defederate from them

You're on !meanwhileongrad@sh.itjust.works a comm mostly for the collection and documentation of their words and actions

[–] Apytele@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 days ago

Aaaaaay from SH! Can attest that the mods here are super reasonable; they hit a really good balance of viewpoints while still banning bigots and incivility.

[–] Apytele@sh.itjust.works 13 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

The only thing this makes me sad about is that the ml one was using the supertux icon I made to put on my KDE dock in highschool because the original was too low res (I didn't consider a new OS "broken in" until I'd beaten the whole thing). Other than that though I'm hyped for you! And you shouldn't swap at least for now; better to differentiate.

[–] RandomVideos@programming.dev 10 points 2 days ago (3 children)

I know that its much better than lemmy.ml, but why is everyone making communities on lemmy.world?

[–] Irelephant@lemm.ee 4 points 1 day ago

When the initial surge of users came, they went to .world because it was the only instance that kept up with the demand. I encourage people making comms to make them on other instances.

[–] cm0002@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago

Probably because you need an account on the instance you want to make a comm for, though you should make an account on the target instance just for that and then add your main account as a mod to the new comm, many don't

[–] Crashumbc@lemmy.world -4 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Because centralization actually works.

[–] cm0002@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Wow, talk about a tankie grade shit take, S tier, good job!

[–] Crashumbc@lemmy.world 0 points 2 days ago

Oops sorry, I didn't know

Are you someone who migrated from reddit because of something the company with the power they got from the social media being centralized did?

[–] petrescatraian@libranet.de 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

@cm0002 My Friendica node did the heavy lifting for a while, blocking both .ml, lemmygrad as well if I'm not mistaken - although sadly .world and even lemmy.ca too - back in the day. The issue? Lemmy was just sending way too many activities (upvotes - generated as likes, downvotes, comments etc.) and was generaly overwhelming the server.

They have since reverted the block, but I got a hefty selection of communities spread across multiple servers. I followed [!linuxgaming@level-up.zone](/c/linuxgaming@level-up.zone), as well as [!linux4noobs@programming.dev](/c/linux4noobs@programming.dev) for example - as they are on more dedicated servers, rather than general purpose ones. Sadly, the former did not take off the way I expected it to 😁

[–] cm0002@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

They have since reverted the block, but I got a hefty selection of communities spread across multiple servers. I followed [!linuxgaming@level-up.zone](/c/linuxgaming@level-up.zone), as well as [!linux4noobs@programming.dev](/c/linux4noobs@programming.dev) for example - as they are on more dedicated servers, rather than general purpose ones. Sadly, the former did not take off the way I expected it to 😁

Yea that's how it should be realistically, and there is ongoing work to try to distribute .world and other very large instances content more evenly.

Lemmy.ml just gets more attention and actual calls for boycotting/defederation and such because of their... despicable... actions

Also, when did friendica start federating with the Lemmy-verse I could have sworn it wasn't active lolol

[–] petrescatraian@libranet.de 2 points 2 days ago

Friendica has federated with Lemmy since... the very first time Lemmy enabled AP federation I guess? lol, idk. I just got very happy that I can also replace Reddit with Friendica, not just Facebook. Sadly, I figured out the hard way about .ml and the only alternative to .ml was beehaw, lol.

Back then .world didn't even exist, lol.

Anyway, yes, hello from Friendica. It's not so active indeed, because there are not so many people, but as it got some attention from Ruud (the admin of both lemmy.world and mastodon.world) there's been an uptick as of late.

Sadly, the situation of Friendica as an alternative to Facebook is really disproportionate, imo, as this is a hobby project made by some enthusiasts that aren't even organized as a juridical entity (unlike Mastodon for example) vs. a multibillion-dollar company that owns the biggest social network on the planet.

Lemmy is also in a somewhat similar situation, but Reddit is not that big, though.

Being the oldest still actively developed Fediverse project does give it an advantage, though.

[–] jabathekek@sopuli.xyz 6 points 2 days ago
[–] index@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago

lemmy.world moderation is just as much shit