Maybe it helps if you make explicit that this is not a tankie space, they are not welcome, even if you understandably don’t want a rule specific to tankies. Every leftist subreddit has been taken over by tankie mods and I don’t want that to happen here

Noone fights against leftists more than other leftists, not even fascists.

Tankies are absolutely real. I’ve met folks IRL who are pro-USSR-under-Stalin as a model for society. The excuse used is that capitalist countries have a very real history of violently suppressing any leftist government attempt. This, of course, ignores that such governments commit the exact same abuses and reinforce the very cycles of violence that they rebel against in the first place.

That instance, in particular, is not a bunch of RWNJs cosplaying though. That’s an extraordinary claim requiring extraordinary evidence and I think it is . With the size of the userbase, there would absolutely be at least someone caught bragging about it over the years. No. They’re just run by people who either don’t care about the toxic, divisive behavior, or actively encourage it (see: existence of the “dunktank” comm).

As for being disingenuous, absolutely. Those in power there are definitely authoritarian first and Leftist second, if ever and they condone users creating conflict with fellow leftists to feed their dopamine-rush cravings. Dissent or providing historical information that comes anywhere close to implying that the USSR, China, or Russia are not free of any blame are met with bans - as bad as r/con on that now (I caught a ban for stating that historical evidence does not support the claim that Finland is being critical of Israel due to anti-semitism and that Stalin’s invasion of the sovereign nation that had historically been oppressed by Russia was both unnecessary and could have been predicted to push the Finns to seek help from the Nazis to maintain their independence - and things about the Winter War and Continuation War not being black-and-white, or that Stalin was happy to divide up the world between himself and Hitler until Operation Barbarosa did not go over well either). They were on much better behavior when first federating but I don’t but their Leftist-unity or use of Dialectics anymore (it is impossible to exercise Dialectic reasoning when embracing willful ignorance and suppressing anything that could be antithetical to one’s thesis).

All that said, there are some good folks there that I’m sad to no longer be in communication with. People that, more often than not, I disagreed with but were great to converse with to explore the “why” of such disagreements and they did so with nothing but good faith. It is genuinely disappointing that there toxicity is allowed.

I live in a pretty big city that’s pretty liberal, and have never once met anyone who thinks like the typical poster on that instance. We did have someone who was spraypainting Stalinist statements in red across random buildings awhile back, but it turned out to be a woman who had encountered some mental health challenges.

That instance is crazy as fuck…they’ll drop pro-Putin propaganda and then claim to not like him, and they’ll completely ignore how utterly capitalist China has become while singing Xi’s praises, all while screaming “death to America” and saying Iran is a better model for society than any European country.

I just got banned from that place. I got into an argument about how even though Biden is a scumbag genocider, I think it’s morally correct to vote for him over the alternative. I got called a fascist, told I support genocide, told that if they knew me they would beat me and told that when the revolution comes I would be killed, and then they posted a emoji of a place were Nazis were slaughtered. When I tried being open and saying I was not in a headspace to change my mind right now, but that we are still comrades, I was then attacked even harder.

They told me that i should consider why my fellow leftists were being so mean as a sign that I should change. I asked why they were being so mean, it’s just a small argument about voting. They said I was Nazi scum who deserves to die and if I was really a comrade I would change my mind immediately.

I genuinely tried to talk to them still through all that. Albeit I was emotional. All I wanted was to end the conversation with a sort of show of solidarity despite our disagreements. I was then inundated with more threats and insults to my character.

Honestly I’m new to lemmy and it looked to be a safe space for leftists like me. I know I shouldn’t let it effect me, it’s the Internet after all, people are dicks. But I just had so much more… Expectations of that place. I really thought it’d be different. Instead I was torn apart and banned. Now I’m emotionally compromised for the day and couldn’t sleep. Unfortunate.

Private drama?

What’s the point of that?