MeanwhileOnGrad
"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?
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.
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 as opposed to arguing.
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.
view the rest of the comments
Thankfully they'll grow out of this extremism.
I just hope it's not a growing through pain experience.
A danger with a lot of these idealogical groups is the classic cult/abusive behavior of "love bombing", which can be especially effective with younger people trying to figure out themselves and where they "fit" in the world. Add all that to the lack of life experience causing that sort of behavior to not ring alarm bells and it's a potent recipe for learning things the hard way when it all comes crashing down.
Sidenote: Even if this was a kid publicly declaring healthy beliefs, I really don't get why the response isn't "Ok, cool. Moving on..."
This sort of "championing" of impressionable youths by strangers, in response to the youth simply saying they believe a certain thing, just gives me the skeevies. Doesn't feel genuine to me.
Nah, it's very cultist, ain't it
Probably not as 14-18 is when you are most susceptible to beliefs. The brain is developing still and as it locks in the stuff around it. It becomes your core belief system.
Your brain doesn't lock itself as you get older. how else would ya learn?
It kind of does through. The older you get the more ridged you become. You buckle down in your ways and become resistant to change.
I've yet to meet an older person who has not been able to change their opinion. In fact I reckon the belief that you can't change is a very, very dangerous one.
Broadly speaking, as you get older, you tend to become more rigid in your core beliefs. But not always. And not in everything. It doesn't mean you can't change, but people become less likely to change. As you get older, you have more inertia to overcome, and more years of sunk-costs.
Your core values are unlikely to change though. It isn't impossible but when you are a young adult everything is new and you are basically a sponge. What happens when you are young profoundly influences who you become.
my 14 year old self would view my current self with horror, recoil and run away without giving current self a chance to explain the lifetime of choices, learning, and impossible decisions that got me here. I guess what I'm trying to say is, like most 14 year olds I was an idiot (a special kind of idiot, but an idiot nonetheless). we are polar opposites.