"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?
(caution of biased source)
Basic Rules:
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.
Revisionism — 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 — 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.
Yeah, they don't seem to understand what informant means.
My understanding of this is that he was a real alt-right Nazi who lead a legitimately fascist organization. He wasn't an FBI agent who started an organization to catch alt-right folks. He was a Nazi who was happy to snitch to save his own ass.
I think the implication isn't that the FBI started the Proud Boys, it's that they had enough informants in place to arrest the seditionists before the insurrection happened. Like the last paragraph in the screenshot says- they're accusing the FBI of allowing the insurrection to happen because they were too busy using the Proud Boys as a honeypot to bother shutting it down. Obviously the Proud Boys are still a problem, but it may recontextualize things to have the extra info about the FBi's extensive foreknowledge of the attacks.
Proud Boys leaders breaking and giving up information to lessen their own jail time, ie becoming an informant, doesn't mean they're an FBI plant as claimed by the morons there.
They really are just the left version of Qanon, huh?
An informant in this context is someone who was providing the information to the FBI during the conspiracy, not as part of a plea agreement.
Like the last paragraph in the screenshot says- they're accusing the FBI of allowing the insurrection to happen because they were too busy using the Proud Boys as a honeypot to bother shutting it down. Obviously the Proud Boys are still a problem, but it may recontextualize things to have the extra info about the FBi's extensive foreknowledge of the attacks.
FYI: “Horseshoe Theory” is a construct used by the right to defang the left.
So is lumping Tankies in with the left.
Tankies are authoritarians who pretend to be leftist. They are often anti-progress, as much so as right-wingers (because they secretly are, they just root for a different authoritarian)
Authoritarianism is basically apolitical. I've read it boiled down to state/regime monopoly over industry, how you get there, left or right, is almost just a detail once you're there.
The origins of the terms left and right were explicitly authoritarian vs democratic.
The split dates to the summer of 1789, when members of the French National Assembly met to begin drafting a constitution. The delegates were deeply divided over the issue of how much authority King Louis XVI should have, and as the debate raged, the two main factions each staked out territory in the assembly hall. The anti-royalist revolutionaries seated themselves to the presiding officer’s left, while the more conservative, aristocratic supporters of the monarchy gathered to the right.
The right has spent the centuries since trying to pretend that the left can also be authoritarian and still be the left.
Hell, the economic left, communism, was only relegated to the left, because it was a democratization of the economy. The goal of every man being truly equal. You labor, but you also partially own the factories you labor in.
Lenin took this dream, and betrayed it. He turned communism from a force of equalization into a new feudalism. You labor for the good of the state and own little to nothing of it. Stalin then stepped in as a new despotic king.
This makes the communism of Lenin and Stalin a very right-wing thing. Both of them actually snuffed out true communist movements, first Lenin in Ukraine, and then Stalin in Hungary, Which is how the term Tankie was born, the Tankies supported the soviets sending in tanks to put down the communist uprising in Hungary. The people just wanted to be able to vote, which is key to actual communism.
Then you had Mao. He was not as petty and cruel as Stalin, but made up for it with gross incompetence. His brain-dead orders caused millions to starve, all while he never had an empty stomach. Because while all animals are equal, some animals are more equal than others.
Mao also put down actual communist movements as a threat to his power.
Basically, why we can't have nice things.
I liked the theory that @PugJesus@kbin.social posted when I mentioned horseshoe theory:
This is awesome and hilarious.
Black duck, red duck, quack quack quack
My eyes hurt from reading that hot mess.