• adroit balloon@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      you don’t have to look far (even around here) to find people calling themselves communists while rabidly defending Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, for example, making some pretty ridiculous claims and praising Putin with a litany of logical fallacies. call them out, and suffer mass reporting, dogpiling, cross-community harassment, and bans. I believe they’re called “tankies”— self-proclaimed communists who are anything but.

      the lemmygrad instance is almost nothing but this.

      edit: I suspect that, in theory, they may like the idea of communism (they certainly like to espouse communist rhetoric), but they rush to defend authoritarian ideologues which doesn’t make sense-- especially when they pick sides with capitalist autocrats and dictators who are also war criminals.

      • boredtortoise@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Yeah, they’re the antithesis of communism or leftism but some definitely are fooled by them

        • Duamerthrax@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          I know someone like that. He’s an outspoken communist and sees anything anti west as inherently good. It’s a very black and white world view.

          He also thinks winning an argument just means outlasting the other person and shouting. I once observed him argue tabletop game mechanics or a half an hour before we realized he doesn’t think removing cards from a deck changes the probability of getting one of the remaining cards. He can’t hold down a job and ironically, he’s in digital marketing.

          • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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            1 year ago

            Pointing out the role of the West in provoking Russia is not the same as saying Russia’s aggressive reaction is good or justified.

            • adroit balloon@lemmy.ml
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              1 year ago

              oh, so now it’s The West™®©’s fault that Russia illegally invaded another country?

              lmao

              • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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                1 year ago

                Cause and effect have nothing to do with “fault” - the Wests support for Euromaidan lead to the annexation of Crimea which lead to the conflict in the Donbas which lead to the invasion. Things happen for reasons, Russia didn’t just randomly go crazy.

                Stop moralizing and start looking at events materially.

                • adroit balloon@lemmy.ml
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                  1 year ago

                  Cause and effect have nothing to do with “fault”

                  dude, you JUST said THIS in a previous comment, lmao:

                  Pointing out the role of the West in provoking Russia…

                  so which is it?

                  Stop moralizing and start looking at events materially.

                  oh, so when you can’t answer to your own hypocrisy, you move the goalposts? you’re doing exactly what I said above:

                  rabidly defending Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, for example, making some pretty ridiculous claims and praising Putin with a litany of logical fallacies

                  confused? looks like I was precisely correct.

                  • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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                    1 year ago

                    Okay, the fact that Russia was provoked doesn’t mean they aren’t also at fault and it doesn’t mean the invasion was justified. All I’m saying is the West shares responsibility for using Ukraine as a proxy for its conflict with Russia. That’s why fault is irrelevant - both sides share responsibility and the war will only end if both sides negotiate.

                    You refuse to accept that the West played any role at all! As far as you’re concerned, Russians are orcs and we should fight this war to the last Ukrainian.

    • vegai@suppo.fiOP
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      1 year ago

      Possibly… but that theory is supported by lots of people who claim to be left wing who loudly support Russia’s aggressions.

      Some of them are on the comments of this thread.