this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2023
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[–] tintory@lemm.ee 35 points 2 years ago (3 children)

China is very active player and driving up events, especially as they may be working with nazi wannabes in the German government

[–] alternative_factor@kbin.social 18 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Tankies: China is a world power!! It drives so many world events!!
Tankies: Nooo how dare China get in the press (good, bad, and neutral).

They feel like any China coverage is inherently imperialist, even when its "China breaks fusion record", that is meddling in China's internal affairs to them.

[–] GregorGizeh@lemmy.world 12 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (4 children)

Tankies are so fucking weird to me, and I would consider myself a progressive socialist as well.

How can they so unapologetically support Russia and China, when both nations are objectively not socialist in any sense of the word.

China does state capitalism, just because they have a one party state installed by the communist party doesn’t automatically mean they still are. All that is left is intense authoritarianism, with dystopian ambitions on global hegemony.

Russia is a failed state in the grasp of a kleptocratic oligarchy, with an extreme degree of corruption and disturbing moral decay in all levels of society. The only thing communist about it today is the old soviet ordnance they make their conscripts die in at the ukranian front.

Modern China and Russia are antithetical to actual leftist ideals, and any tankie supporting them just screams misinformed idiot or foreign propaganda shill and should be dismissed by default.

[–] YaaAsantewaa@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 2 years ago

Because they had grievances about the west, which we all have if we're being honest, but were successfully coerced from people into this completely bizarre state of mind into thinking that China and Russia are some sort of garden paradise utopian societies of peace, love and sunshine, not the reality of both countries being insanely unhinged places.

In both China and Russia, there is no rule of law, no respect for basic human rights or respect for anyone's culture or ethnic background, complete control of the press, anti-LGBTQ+ hate that is literally put out from the government, anti.......

Well lets just put it this way, Chinese Nationalists and Russian Nationalists make the KuKluxKlan look like Bernie Sanders voters in comparison, that's how insane these people are and the respective governments do everything they can to keep that silent and breaking out into the international community.

I know people from China who barely escaped that country and there's just endless horror stories that you can find all over youtube

[–] freagle@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

This is just ignorance. You can easily answer the questions you have by reading, watching videos, or listening to podcasts. You could even learn by just talking to people. It's not like they hide it. It's not like they don't literally study history, draw from a wide range of analyses, cite relevant texts, formulate arguments, and constantly communicate about them. That fact that it's weird to you that they hold positions that you don't understand says way more about your ignorance than it does about their positions.

[–] NotSpez@lemm.ee -1 points 2 years ago
[–] AmberPrince@kbin.social 11 points 2 years ago (2 children)

For real. The tankie problem here is crazy. I can say something like China is trying to deny freedom of navigation of international waters on the South China Sea and somehow it becomes "BuT aMeRiCa". I don't get it.

[–] reddwarf@feddit.nl 8 points 2 years ago (4 children)

I’ve been seeing this a lot from instances like hexbear and lemmygrad and my take is either cult members, paid trolls, brainwashed persons prone to pavlovian responses, or all of the above.

I just wish that as a user I could block instances.

[–] Menachem@midwest.social 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

It's definitely all of the above.

Hexbear is particularly vexing to me. According to the fediverse observer they're less than a month old and yet have already become one of the most active instances.

[–] honeynut@lemm.ee 8 points 2 years ago (1 children)

hexbear has existed and been building their userbase for 3 years, but during that time their codebase diverged greatly from mainline lemmy to include in-house tweaks and features which made it not possible to federate, and it's only within the past month that they got everything compatible

[–] ImmortanStalin@lemmygrad.ml 2 points 2 years ago

Here he goes again!

[–] Maestro@kbin.social 4 points 2 years ago

On kbin you can block domains. It's the next best thing.

[–] zephyreks@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

This isn't unique to the far-left, though. It's a problem throughout the entire political spectrum.

It's rather dangerous to be creating echo chambers in a democracy, though. Democracy lives off of discourse between opposing views.

[–] AmberPrince@kbin.social 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Democracy lives off of discourse between opposing views.

The inference here is that both views are of equivalent merit which is very much not true. This idea is called The Paradox of Tolerance. If a society is tolerant without limit, its ability to be tolerant is eventually ceased or destroyed by the intolerant.

[–] zephyreks@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Except... That's not what democracy relies on. Democracy relies on discourse of views, even if they are unpopular. Tolerating only the prevailing opinion isn't a democracy, it's an autocracy.

[–] Gsus4@feddit.nl 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I mean, in practice, there are always limits to the discussion. Something like a constitution, a set of shared base beliefs that allow people to have the same base language to engage in a productive discussion, otherwise it turns into a mob discussing whether the vaccines work or not and no conclusion is reached. In a controlled environment or in a parliament, it's possible to have these wide-view from-first-principles discussions of society. Not in mainstream media and certainly not online, as you've probably seen in any unmoderated forum.

[–] reddwarf@feddit.nl -3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I would not call them far left tbh. There’s something else about them that irks me. It honestly feels more North Korean to me and that ain’t left by any stretch of the imagination. It seems to be more authoritarian minded.

[–] AmberPrince@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Agreed. Tankies are right-wing authoritarians in that communism is supposed to be stateless. They bitch about US imperialism but are always very quiet about China's actions in Africa. It's frustrating because like I get it. America has some pretty deep problems but to think that somehow it is worse than China is mindlessly reactionary.

[–] Gsus4@feddit.nl -2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

It would be funny if behind their firewall and the mandarin that I don't understand much of there were a loud 25% of chinese nationalist weirdos who are as shitty as the 25% of american MAGAs. I mean, look at https://nitter.nl/TGTM_Official looks like 4chan.

[–] ImmortanStalin@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 2 years ago

I'm just waiting on the digital Ruble so my deposits come in a little sooner.

[–] freagle@lemmygrad.ml 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

LOL, I just don't even know what to say here. You do realize that when the Europeans subjugated China it was, in part, through naval superiority? Specifically, China did not have a blue ocean navy. China didn't emerge from that subjugation until 1949, and then didn't actually manage to do much more than stabilize it's society in the subsequent years. FFS, Hong Kong was only returned to China from British domination and occupation in the late 1990s.

China's navy was developed under these conditions, after WW2, after the US nuked 2 civilian cities in the Pacific, after the US became the world super power, after the end of the USSR. China is the one who has been denied freedom of navigation in the South China Sea. When China pushes against the psychotic imperialist West and it's proxies, that is not China denying freedom of navigation anymore than slaves revolting against their owners is the slaves denying their owners peace and prosperity.

The entire concept of freedom of navigation is a relational one. Raising points about China while ignoring the relationship with the world super power who, under Obama, decided to move 60% of its military assets to the Pacific Theater, is just anemic thinking.

[–] Zoboomafoo@yiffit.net -2 points 2 years ago
[–] AmberPrince@kbin.social -4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Hey look. A tankie that has no idea what the fuck they are talking about. I am shocked. Territorial waters are defined as 12 nautical miles typically from the shore. These are defined by the United Nations that China is a part of and agreed to. There is a reason why China is literally building fake islands to increase it's territorial water claim there.

[–] freagle@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Territorial waters are defined as 12 nautical miles typically from the shore

BY WHOM IS IT DEFINED? You don't need to answer the question here. We all know the answer. It's the "rules-based international order", you know, the one invented by white genociders that dominated and subjugated 80% of the world population. But do go on about how the definition of territorial waters is perfectly compatible with the US encircling China with nuclear capabilities, occupying much of the region, colonizing and subjugating various indigenous peoples on various islands so they can test weapons and prepare for war. It's CHINA that's being a problem.

There is a reason why China is literally building fake islands to increase it’s territorial water claim there.

Awww, what's the matter? Are you upset when the fake rules that whitey made to dominate the globe are sometimes used by non-whites to game the system in small ways that show everyone just how vacuous and bankrupt the West really is?

How about you focus on things like why China is even the UN at all, how the US refused to let the PRC into the UN and instead decided that the KMT should be at the UN despite the KMT prosecuting the White Terror and mass murdering people by the thousands for so much as suggesting that maybe they should end the civil war officially and integrate with China now that the PLA had demonstrated they had the overwhelming majority of popular support.

[–] zephyreks@lemmy.ca 10 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

Nazi wannabes with 13% of the vote...

I mean, it's not like China is only working with AfB. They recently invited School to Beijing.

[–] GarbageShoot@hexbear.net 25 points 2 years ago

AfD holds multiple municipal seats and Hitler never won an election (he got about 36.7% in 1932). The Nazis took over because liberals (specifically Hindenburg and co) appointed Hitler and then Hitler was able to take over when Hindenburg died in part thanks to paramilitary support. Just worth noting for gauging AfD's distance from potential takeover.

I highly doubt that the PRC wants them in charge or wants to help them get there, though.

[–] yetAnotherUser@feddit.de 5 points 2 years ago

Nazis, not Nazi wannabees, with current polls having them at 20% nationwide and up to 33% in some states. You know, the ”we should found an SA [the paramilitary Nazi organisation] and clean up"-party. The party whose youth organization is officialy declared right-wing extremist.

[–] tuga@hexbear.net 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

They'll work with whoever the fuck krauts pick to lead them, simple as.

From where China is standing, they have no reason to see the AfD as any worse than, say, the "we want to nuke europe into the stone age" Greens