MeanwhileOnGrad

"Oh, this is calamity! Calamity! Oh no, he's on the floor!"
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Meanwhile On Grad
Documenting hate speech, conspiracy theories, apologia/revisionism, and general tankie behaviour across the fediverse. Memes are welcome!
What is a Tankie?
Alternatively, a detailed blog post about Tankies.
(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.
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So instead of engaging with these ideas intellectually or producing counter claims, you automatically dismiss them as "Russian talking points".
Thanks for so beautifully illustrating my point.
They are russian talking points and have been since this shitshow started.
Their state-owned TV has been parroting these for years at this point, in between unsubtle threats about nuking shit and straight-up lies about more or less anything conceivable.
If you can't admit that or are ignorant enough to not realise it, you're not really bringing anything worthwhile to this discussion.
Let's be real -- Both sides deploy propaganda to suit their own ends. Dismissing any evidence I'm putting forth as "Russian talking points" is just as fruitless as Tankies dismissing you guys as "NATO shills".
It's odd to me that left-leaning people readily acknowledge that the US/CIA has meddled extensively in many parts of the world, and has either overthrown (or helped to overthrow) sovereign nations across pretty much every continent, but when it comes to Ukraine suddenly the idea becomes unconscionable.
It's a bit different when you live an hour from the Russian border and have friends and/or family directly involved in the war.
Unless that's your reality, too, and you actually understand Russian and their general attitude towards anything west of them, you maybe, just maybe, are missing a few things here.
As for the CIA or US fuckery in general I think we all know they're just about everywhere. Ironically, it's probably a bit different now since the US are losing their soft power quite quickly, either by design or sheer idiocy.
I freely admit I'm no expert on the region, and I'm not claiming to have the full picture of the situation on the ground there.
I'm just advocating that we do our best to avoid binary type thinking when it comes to geopolitics, particularly when it involves Russia and the US/EU bloc.
I've lost four friends to this war so far. Two were actively fighting in the volunteer forces and hence knew what they signed up for. The other two very much didn't.
While the third was a random drone into his apartment, what the russians did to the fourth one I can't consider human by any standards whatsoever.
I also indirectly lost my father to this shit. He married a Russian a few years before the war and suddenly started saying the very same things you were writing here. She's from northern Russia but still supports the war and Putin to this day.
There's more, a lot more, but I don't particularly feel like writing more since it gets very personal. Just wanted to give some perspective.
That's just awful, I'm genuinely saddened to hear that. Thank you for sharing.
You are already biasing the picture by just pre-assuming that the US and the EU are the same or rather the EU is just a puppet of the US. This makes it a bit odd though that the US is employing similar propaganda against the EU as Russia does and openly supporting the very same anti-EU political movements in the EU, that Russia supports.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandolini%27s_law
Sorry that you want fucking bizarre ideas like "Euromaidan was a far-right coup", "Russia was just really concerned about minorities!" and "Trump was never favorable to Russian interests!" taken seriously, bootlicker.
And funny how you ignore the actual points I brought up in refutation, but I guess the innate desire of all of Russia's enemies to submit to imperialism and genocide is an axiom of your worldview.
Funny how you call me a "bootlicker" and make loud pronouncements about my assumed worldview, when I expressly did not claim to support Russia nor the invasion of Ukraine.
Like I said, dare to question the orthodox, black-and-white view of this conflict and it quickly devolves into shouting and name-calling.
"I just spread blatantly untrue Russian talking points in support of their war aims, I'm not actually in support of them! 😭"
Boot leather taste good, buddy?
Still no response to the actual points I raised either, despite your whingeing about me bringing up that your sources were all common and blatant propaganda canards.
...
God forbid I hear your opinions on the very reasonable war aims of that Hitler fellow back in 1939. Wouldn't want to see things as just 'black or white' after all.
Maybe imperialism and fucking genocide is bad?
No, of course not. It's the Ukrainians who are wrong. And the West was clearly puppeteering them into defending themselves.
Sorry that you want to spread pro-genocide talking points and be treated with asspats instead of disdain. Maybe go find a circle of like-minded pro-genocide types, like a Zionist forum, for example.
Well we agree on this, at least.
To your points, as far as I could make them out:
"US interference in Euromaidan is a conspiracy theory" - Public actions and statements by U.S. officials during Maidan (Victoria Nuland meeting protesters, leaked Nuland–Pyatt call discussing preferred Ukrainian political figures) are evidence of U.S. diplomatic involvement and attempts to influence the post‑Maidan government. Also, the new goverment formed close ties with Western intelligence agencies, including creating CIA bases in Ukraine to coordinate activities against Russia and various training programs for Ukrainian commandos and other elite units.
"NATO is merely a "defensive alliance" and not a credible threat to Russia" - NATO forces have been used to further western imperialism (which you claim to be against, no?) in places like Libya and Afghanistan. Structurally, it ensures that European members stay subservient to Washington and broadly fall in line with US foreign policy. The addition of multiple countries like Poland, Finland, Hungary and the Baltic States were obviously seen by Russia as signs of encroachment beyond NATO's original mandate.
Clearly we don't, as you consider Ukraine's resistance to its territory being annexed and its people genocided to be the function of NATO puppeteering.
"It's debatable whether it was actually a CIA coup!" and "The literal US ambassador to Ukraine discussing the political situation with the assistant secretary of state" are fucking miles away from each other, but that kind of motte-and-bailey argument is the bread-and-butter of far-right bootlickers.
NATO is absolutely a credible threat to Russian imperialist ambitions.
Western Imperialism is when the UN approves a no-fly zone in an uprising against a brutal dictator, and the more the UN approves it, the more Imperialism it is.
You mean the only time in NATO's history when Article 5 was fucking invoked? Jesus Christ.
Fucking what.
Yes, how dare those countries desire a defensive alliance against the possibility of foreign intervention. Russia will have to invade multiple neighboring countries to show them how baseless their fears of invasion are!
It astounds me the level of bootlicking campists are willing to engage in.
It really is astonishing. Leather must taste great when it is non American I guess.