this post was submitted on 29 Nov 2025
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Asklemmy
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Each instance has its own vibe. You joined .ml, just a fair warning that a few instances and a chunk of Lemmy users have defederated/blocked it, so you may miss out on some content. Otherwise, pretty chill for the most part.
I'm like OP from a few months ago. I joined ML because it was easy and sorta anonymous. What's the story on ML? Who defederated? What am I missing?
It's the devs' test instance.
The devs are Marxist-Leninists. They're the admins of the instance. Therefore the instance has nuanced-to-positive views on Actually Existing Socialist (AES) states, and allows for criticism of Democrats from the left.
It's been defederated by instances whose admins aren't wiling to critically examine their lifetime of capitalist programming and are accustomed to Reddit's universal condemnation of AES states.
For anyone reading this who might be scratching their head as to what "tankie" means, you can find descrriptions of its history a number of places, but for all intents and purposes here on the fediverse, it simply refers to the people who have the most education in history and socioeconomics. Since reality is in direct contradiction with most of the prevailing narratives pushed by the powerful beneficiaries of the dominant systems (the most obvious of these systems being capitalism), there will always be a contingent of true believers in the dominant narrative who are shocked to find that there are others who openly reject those narratives. The former will clutch their pearls, aghast that the propaganda they've believed all their lives is being questioned by these... these... muckrakers! And so a pejorative is used (hence the word "tankies") to otherize and sequester the individuals best able to challenge those narratives, individuals whose presence tends to trigger the uncomfortable feeling of cognitive dissonance in those who aren't yet ready or able to put their beliefs to honest questioning.
In short, if you have no problem with seeing and reading perspectives that might make you question your own perspective, then you should have no problem with the "tankies." And as for those who would actively defederate from those vile tankie instances so as to avoid having to confront even the possibility that their own beliefs are riddled throughout with deep misconceptions, well that should tell you something about the priorities of those tankie-fearing communities.
Thank you friend. That is the most succinct explaination of 'tankies' I ever read.
Well, to be fair, you should add that this definition matches also crazies on hexbear or ml who will defend EVERYTHING done by AES or Russia or China, because since Europe and USA are bad, then surely not those are always good.
(Population of crazies is significantly smaller than 100%, but they tend to be remembered by the people throwing "tankies" at them).
No major instances block Lemmy.ml, by the way. Some users take issue with the pro-communist stance of Lemmy.ml, but that's nothing new for communists to deal with.
What is it that you think would motivate a lower-class Westerner to sympathize with the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China?
Having nothing better to do?
Are people who claim to be leftists but turn out to be full blown NeoMcCarthyists tankies?
So you're not a tankie because you don't call yourself a communist?
Which major instances defed .ml?
Using this tool https://federation-checker.vercel.app/
I don't recognise any of the instances that are blocking .ml
No major instances have blocked Lemmy.ml as far as I know, and users blocking Lemmy.ml doesn't prevent us from seeing their content.
50501.chat blocked lemmy.ml, but who cares
Holy shit! That’s why a lot of my old communities haven’t been subscribed to yet.
From a really sad lemm.ee refugee. I miss that instance.
Any suggestions of chill instances just for tech, games and comics?
Nah, Lemmy.ml isn't really blocked much. No major instances block it as far as I know. Lemmy.ml is just fine as an instance for tech, games, and comics, just post here!
discuss.tchncs.de is tech-focused :) It seems like there are no communities for games and comics yet though.
Aren't we all migrated to .zip?
Hey, do you have a channel or blog on theology? Your username sounds familiar to me.
No i don't, sorry
Yes we are!
https://youtu.be/PNVEQgXsBgs
Where’s that damn memo?
You can replace .ml with any Lemmy instance. The most Lemmy thing remains all the instance tribalism.
Yes, but a new user needs to know the instance they join has pros and cons. Like another user stated, they joined .ml after lemm.ee closed and didn't know why several communities they had subscribed to weren't showing up.
Let's be real for a second, lemmygrad, .ml and. hexbear are well known for blocking and being blocked on Lemmy. Users should know Lemmy isnt like reddit where each user can potentially see 100% of content, it's dependent on your instance.
Lemmygrad an Hexbear sure. Nobody will recommend those as servers to start off.
.ml however is a pretty general server which is federated very broadly. It's not a bad place to start off.