this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2025
74 points (100.0% liked)
MeanwhileOnGrad
1987 readers
6 users here now
"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, rather than engaging in argument.
Brigading — If you're here because this community was linked in another thread, please refrain from voting, commenting or manipulating the post in any way. All votes are public, and if you are found to be brigading, you will be permanently banned.
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.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
But NATO bombs on...
Just kidding. NATO could literally be run by South Park Satan; it's still no excuse.
Whenever NATO has military bases somewhere in the world, at least it's done officially and in the open. Russia tends to do things covertly using fake online personas and government-issued fake IDs (see the Skripal poisoning or other GRU activities). In other cases, it's done in obvious ways but with a degree of deniability, like when the men without insignia occupied Crimea, when they shot down the MH17 plane, or when Wagner tortures people in Syria or Africa. This degree of deniability allows to operate outside any legal framework, while the Russian propaganda networks like RT and the likes of tankies who buy into it get to dismiss anything they do.
I mean, NATO economies and secret agents (and, these days, corporations) do plenty of influence campaigns too, but I get the sentiment.
It's the mind boggling lack of self awareness that drops my jaw more than any actual politics. Justification doesn't even matter.
Like all that finger wagging about a century of 'imperialist wars' in one breath, then defending the Ukraine war the next... Even if the invasion is totally justified, which it's not, do tankies not see the history!? And how hilarious it is to obsess over western exceptionalism then insist 'this war is different! It's totally going okay!' like apologists straight from the Vietnam era?
Meanwhile, Russian Telegram channels with millions of users are sad about not killing more Ukrainians.
The ISW has some great observations about such Telegram channels in their reports. It seems like the Kremlin balances them on a knife's edge: they "allow" the independent Telegram war influencers to exist. But if any get too critical of Putin's government, they get reigned in. Too militant at the other extreme, which is a thing, believe it or not, and they get reigned in too.
It all paints the picture of Putin balancing not only internal anti-war dissent, but also voices and actors even more militant than him.
There are a lot of parallels with Trump's government too, such as how influencers will criticize Putin's subordinates, but almost never attack Putin directly, even when something is obviously his fault.
...Anyway, where I'm going with this is:
This is no accident, and the Kremlin is not unaware.