They’ve gotten very strange in the past year or so. I’ve seen multiple dbzer0 users, including two admins, do complete 180s on tankie bullshit, and it’s rather bizarre.

My best guess is that tankies offer them a sense of community, which is how many terminally online folk get drawn into it. People who have a deep desire for community will overlook moral issues if invited to be a part of that community, and even adopt, consciously or unconsciously, those positions in order to better ‘fit in’ with the community.

In a time when the real world is more recognizably hostile than ever, or at least for as long as most of us here have been alive (insofar as we are both aware of it and noting that it is backsliding rather than improving), online communities probably seem quite tempting to hew closer to.

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[–] spectre@hexbear.net 21 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I notice liberals offer a lot of upfront resistance to heterodox viewpoints, but they like being smug and correct so they'll take the opportunity to stew on it and come around (at least in part), but it takes like actual weeks. I also know this because it's how I sometimes interact with my own liberal tendencies.

[–] Cowbee@hexbear.net 16 points 3 months ago

Makes sense! I do get people thanking me over dms from time to time.