"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?
(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 it 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.
Off-topic Discussion — Do not discuss unrelated topics to the point of derailing the thread. Stay focused on the direct content of the post, rather than engaging in arguments that lack mutual agreement.
Brigading/Trolling — If you're here because this community was linked in another thread, please refrain from maliciously voting, commenting, or manipulating the post in any way. This includes alt accounts. All votes are public, and if you are found to be brigading, you will be banned. Good-faith and honest communication is an exception.
Tankies can explain their views, but may be criticised or challenged for them. Any minor infraction of the rules may result in a warning and possibly a temporary ban.
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 last only 24 hours, but each subsequent infraction doubles the duration. Depending on the content, the ban time may be increased. You may request an unban at any time.
Basically, there was a discussion about how instances have rules and Feddit also needs to abide by local (Austrian) law to not get in legal trouble.
And I get called a Zionazi for saying that you cant just up and call for the massacre of civilians, regardless of which side you are on.
It's also ironic for Dessalines to mock me for sticking to rules and laws to protect our instance.
To further clarify my points earlier about bad faith usage of accusations of antisemitism. I believe that calling people who are not antisemitic i.e. Greta Thunberg, does harm indirectly towards Jewish population because it bleaches the meaning of the word by applying it to cases where a person is not being antisemitic. It also reduces it to a political insult or attack on someone's person when used in that context.
This is very bad because antisemitism is a real problem these days that many people actually face. And sometimes they face violence because of it. But misuse of the term without merit as an insult or to shut people down can cause people to not recognize it as easily, or lose respect for it. If the meaning of a word erodes or becomes charged people may not take it seriously, and that's a problem. It's especially a problem considering how serious antisemitism is.
I'm not even the only one who thinks this either, I brought sources (I know no one will read these but they're here if you're actually smart):
I drafted the definition of antisemitism. Rightwing Jews are weaponizing it
[Video] He Wrote a Definition of Antisemitism; Now He Says It’s Being Weaponized
From Ambiguity to Accountability: The Case for a Legal Definition of Antisemitism in Academiaof Antisemitism in Academia
How a Leading Definition of Antisemitism Has Been Weaponized Against Israel’s Critics
These cover how current definitions of antisemitism are weaponized as a political tool, they don't cover so much bleaching of words. That study hasn't been done on antisemitism but it has been done on other words. And antisemitism is a word, so these apply to it:
Diachronic Word Embeddings Reveal Statistical Laws of Semantic Change
Words are Malleable: Computing Semantic Shifts in Political and Media Discourse
Slangvolution: A Causal Analysis of Semantic Change and Frequency Dynamics in Slang
The Politics of Language: Politicized Semantic Change, Pejoration and the Case of “Woke”
Words change, and how we use them shapes how. Using words that have important deep meaning and power to hurt others without merit will change those words, it changes how they are seen, and it changes how people will react to them. And no word is immune to this. Actually words that carry extreme charge are even more victim to this.