Sometimes when I see big threads of ostensibly left wing people railing against tankies, I have a brief moment where I ask myself "did I get sucked into an online cult? Are we (tankies) the baddies?" Then I see takes like this:
Tankies think only one thing can be bad at the same time
https://lemmy.ml/post/22637211/15051668
All the non voters say it’s not their fault, because Kamala is more to blame. They think blame is a limited resource. They think you can only blame either the DNC OR the voters, not both.
It’s the same as with China. They think if America is bad, then China has to be good. If there’s evidence of China being bad, the counterevidence is that America is worse.
Tankies think only one thing can be bad at a time. It’s the same with genocide, too. We can’t care about Ukraine and trans people and West Bank, because WhAt AbOuT gAzA.
The tankie mind only has room for one single bad thing in each subject. Only one bad genocide. Only one bad empire. Only one bad politician. They can’t conceive of two things being bad at the same time. It does not compute. When they say they understand two things being bad, they’re lying. They can only understand it in short term memory. They can’t internalise it and apply it to long term memory. Fifteen seconds after they admit two things can be bad, they forget it. It’s like clockwork. “America and China are both bad… 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15… China can’t be bad because America is bad! I’m not to blame for Trump’s win because Kamala ran a weak campaign! Gaza is the only genocide that matters!”
and this
Hong Kong is a CCP colony
https://lemmy.ml/post/22637211/15051225
without overseas military bases
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong_Garrison
And if you’re gonna say Hong Kong doesn’t count because it’s already been assimilated into the empire, that’s not great evidence against it being an empire.
I have a brief moment where I ask myself "did I get sucked into an online cult? Are we (tankies) the baddies?"
I relate to this and I think this is a healthy impulse to consider. There are high-control aspects to this community, but this is true for so many commonplace activities and communities which are more socially acceptable as well. Society in general has an interest in not teaching people to recognize power dynamics as they are and to recognize high-control organizations. Because to gain the knowledge to consent to a power dynamic is to gain the conscious ability to withdraw that consent.
Personally, I take regular breaks from here as I deem it healthy and while I’m here, I’m more than happy to concede control to admins, mods, and some more active users. They work together to create an environment I enjoy. I’d liken it to the sort of control a good coach has over their team much sooner than I’d liken it to a cult. Maybe there are people for whom the control is felt more strongly, but I’d imagine that’s more related to an inability to log off or ideological differences than it is to individual injustice.
Sometimes when I see big threads of ostensibly left wing people railing against tankies, I have a brief moment where I ask myself "did I get sucked into an online cult? Are we (tankies) the baddies?" Then I see takes like this:
Tankies think only one thing can be bad at the same time
https://lemmy.ml/post/22637211/15051668
and this
Hong Kong is a CCP colony
https://lemmy.ml/post/22637211/15051225
and I realize I'm not that bad after all.
Meanwhile any criticism of Kamala Harris got answered with "but Trump worse tho"
"We have to ignore the swastika tattoos because Russians bad"
Many such cases.
I relate to this and I think this is a healthy impulse to consider. There are high-control aspects to this community, but this is true for so many commonplace activities and communities which are more socially acceptable as well. Society in general has an interest in not teaching people to recognize power dynamics as they are and to recognize high-control organizations. Because to gain the knowledge to consent to a power dynamic is to gain the conscious ability to withdraw that consent.
Personally, I take regular breaks from here as I deem it healthy and while I’m here, I’m more than happy to concede control to admins, mods, and some more active users. They work together to create an environment I enjoy. I’d liken it to the sort of control a good coach has over their team much sooner than I’d liken it to a cult. Maybe there are people for whom the control is felt more strongly, but I’d imagine that’s more related to an inability to log off or ideological differences than it is to individual injustice.
Those moments come fewer and further between the longer you stare at the crimes these people desperately want to forget committing