Happens about February-March of every election year (the, ahem, independent media goes out of its way to induce it). Get ready for the next lib wave, and a bunch of iterations of the following script, which they've been practicing since like 1999:

• 1. "Eh, I disagree with [Democrat candidate] on a lot of things, but to pretend he's not better than [Republican candidate] is just delusional."
• 2. "Yeah, I know [Democratic candidate] is a war criminal and complicit in a genocide, but have you considered that [Republican candidate] is a war criminal as well, plus he said rude things about [minority group]? In the interest of harm reduction for Americans only, I have a duty to vote Democrat."
• 3. "Your vote actually does matter."
• 4. "The only reason the Democrats aren't Wholesome Progressive Scandinavian Model Chungus is because they have to play politics with the Republicans. You have to recognize the reality of a two-party system."
• 5. "We can push the Democrats left."
• 6. "Such-and-such Democratic policy (usually the Affordable Care Act) was actually really progressive."
• 7. "My [minority group] partner, whom I've never mentioned up to this point and very possibly just made up, is voting Democrat." (This tactic also gets used by libs defending porn and/or prostitution, e.g. "my totally-real girlfriend loves it when I post videos of us having sex online").
• 8. "If even one less person dies because [Democratic candidate] is in office, it's my moral duty to vote for [Democratic candidate]. I am a mature, compassionate person who absolutely understands socialism."

This is a real article, lol

This is the city which the fascists have been using since 2014 as a base to shell civilian areas in the Donbass

And did ESWildcard get you into the DPRK

is this and this only: supporting the status quo, but disagreeing on minor points, so that while receiving the plaudits than go along with holding the majority opinion, they can feel (somewhere in their pathetic TV-poisoned minds) that they are "brave" and "intelligent." It is the ancient gambit used by every would-be intellectual who desires to to be popular as well: "Yes, I agree with you all, but not for precisely the same reasons. Would you perhaps like to hear what I think?" These words, when spoken aloud, are always in that back-of-the-throat drawl which, in American English, signifies considered thought and long acquaintance with books, and of course a string of letters at the end of one's name.

Thus we get the typical liberal position on anything. "I sympathize with the Palestinians, and the policies of the Israeli government are certainly to be criticized, but all civilized people should denounce Hamas because nothing justifies terrorism!" Or: "Yes, Ukraine has a problem with corruption, and there is a troubling right-wing element in their military, but we still need to side with them because Russia is much worse!" Always there is the ghost of an acknowledgement that the situation is complex -- a cheap rhetorical trick -- and then doubling down on the socially acceptable position. The ultimate in this stupid game is the invocation of an equally stupid phrase, "two things can be bad at once, mkay?" -- which always means in practice that the side America supports is actually the less bad of the two ostensible evils.

Hence we "tankies" are always accused, by liberals, of having for great revolutionaries of the past a wholly uncritical admiration. This is manifestly false, for nearly every discussion among Marxist-Leninists at some point devolves into a picking apart of historical minutiae, with the goal of finding what Mao or Stalin or Honnecker did right or wrong. We are one of the few political groups that does not spare our heroes. But when liberals ask us to approach Mao with "nuance," what they mean is: admit Mao was a bloodthirsty tyrant who ate babies for breakfast and never brushed his teeth, but he also ended footbinding. Hence the historical record is "complicated." We Marxists, of course, will not engage in such asinities, and we state openly that Mao's successes far outnumber and outweigh his mistakes. For liberals, who are at root historical nihilists, this is unacceptable, and why? Because we refuse to play the game, but also because them out in their silly attempts at pandering and social climbing.

The former most valuable corporation in the world sold to a Japanese company for basically chump change. (Hint to any lurking butthurt libs: don't, for the love of heaven, look up statistics on Chinese steel manufacturing).

Man, what a bad year for us. Look at all these setbacks the global communist movement faced and didn't overcome:

• The Chinese spy balloon incident. We hoped the presidency and the Pentagon would make utter fools of themselves by shooting down children's kites and talking about alien invaders. Didn't happen: Biden's measured and appropriate response won him the admiration of the entire world, and put to rest any lingering doubts about his fitness for office.

• US sanctions absolutely destroying China's semiconductor industry. We thought that one of the world's richest countries, with the biggest real economy and most advanced industrial base on earth, would find a way to make needed chips on their own. Nope: cheap commie manufacturing got exposed once again as unable to adapt to the computer age, and the Chinese had to come begging to Washington to get the sanctions lifted. Just like Reagan predicted.

• The US economy and the USD were both stronger than ever, with de-dollarization basically a nonstarter. (This after the US did NOT experience a recession in 2022, and after American economists absolutely did NOT redefine the very meaning of the word in order to hide how badly the economy was doing). We hoped Russia and China announce a raft of trade agreements, including trade in yuan; none of that came to fruition, and we might as well accept that Bretton Woods is going to be with us forever.

• Russian retreat from Bakhmut, a city which had not strategic value to begin with. Russia said it was the key to the Donbas, and as good Z bots we have to keep parroting that line, but we all know the city was only attacked to stroke Putin's ego. Avdiivka is NOT, I repeat NOT, in danger from Russian forces.

• But the biggest humiliation we faced: the Ukrainian counteroffensive, which people are STILL talking about, which ISN'T being quietly swept under the rug, and which all freedom-loving people (not Tankies) will CONTINUE to talk about until the end of time. We thought the Ukrainian army would stall at the skirmish line, unable to advance because of extensive mining and massive Russian firepower; instead, we had to gnash our teeth in rage as those rag-tag Ukrainian heroes, armed with advanced American and EU weaponry, broke through Russian lines and liberated Crimea. Guess those Patriot missiles really are invincible.

So there it is, a really crappy year for anti-imperialism. Let's hope 2024 can be better.