this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2023

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MeanwhileOnGrad

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Meanwhile On Grad

Documenting hate speech, conspiracy theories, apologia/revisionism, and general tankie behaviour across the fediverse. Memes are welcome!

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A reminder that the creator of Lemmy, Dessaline, is an admin on Lemmygrad and outspoken Tankie (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by goat@sh.itjust.works to c/meanwhileongrad@sh.itjust.works

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[–] goat@sh.itjust.works 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Originally written by @EnglishMobster@lemmy.world

See their post announcing Lemmy: https://www.reddit.com/r/communism/comments/cqgztr/fuck_the_white_supremacist_reddit_admins_want_me/

https://web.archive.org/web/20230626055233/https://old.reddit.com/r/communism/comments/cqgztr/fuck_the_white_supremacist_reddit_admins_want_me/

Hey all, longtime Marxist-leninist, recorder of left audiobooks, and megathread shitposter here.

Posting this in light of a recent one week Reddit ban I earned for shitting on US police, as I'm sure many of us have gotten in recent weeks.

So I've spent the past few months working on a self hostable, federated, Reddit alternative called Lemmy, and it's pretty much ready to go. Unlike here we'd have ultimate control over all content, and would never have to self censor.

Obviously as communists, we agitate where the people are, so we should never abandon Reddit entirely, but it's been clear to all of us from day one, that communities like this stand on unsteady ground, and could be banned or quarantined at any moment by the white supremacist Reddit admins. This would be both a backup and a potentially better alternative. Moderation abilities are there, as well as a slur filter.

Raddle isn't an option obviously since it's run by this arch anti tankie scum, ziq.

I wanted to ask ppl here if they'd like me to host an instance, and mod all the current mods here.

The instance that post mentions at the end became Lemmygrad. Lemmy.ml and Lemmygrad are the same people, and the creators of Lemmy hosted Lemmygrad (and are thus admins there).

This was their first post announcing Lemmy as a real thing you could go use. (It's also why a good chunk of the Threadiverse is absolutely infested with tankies.)

[–] Epicurus0319@sopuli.xyz 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

So… basically, all this time I’ve been using what started out as an alt-left version of Truth Social?

While this does explain a LOT, I’m still gonna keep using Lemmy since a lot of good has definitely come out of it too (think the antique memes, c/nostupidquestions and the one-user art c/‘s), and unlike Reddit it’s open-source, so even the corrupt programmers lack complete control over it; every instance is merely a reflection of the person who made it. And at least .world has somewhat saner people, which is probably why its native user accounts outnumber ml ones nearly 4:1. What are they gonna do, double-block this community from ml?

[–] goat@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 year ago

Pretty much yeah.

Though mind you, about a year or so ago, the developers refused to act on the extremist content, not allowing any programmer to edit the slur or filter list. They eventually caved, though.

[–] r3df0x@7.62x54r.ru 7 points 1 year ago

Imagine going so far down the rabbit hole that you unironically believe that the Reddit admins are white supremacists.

They're absolutely corporate shills though and they'll do whatever they feel like in the name of keeping the money flowing.

[–] Urist@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Have they said or done anything to upset you? I mean, other than being affiliated with Lemmygrad? Looking through their recent comments they seem to be both kind and humble. If anything this comment in particular resonated well with me and might describe why they are affiliated with Lemmygrad.

[–] goat@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They deny the Holodomor and Uyghur genocide. As well as paint Stalin as a benevolent leader.

[+] Urist@lemmy.ml -9 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I am, admittedly, not very educated on the specifics of the Uyghur genocide, though I've tried to read the reports covered by the news. Ultimately I think there is much we don't know about the situation, which I think to some extent is a legitimate point of critique for the Chinese government. Holodomor on the other hand is something that is debated even in academic circles:

While scholars are in consensus that the cause of the famine was man-made, whether the Holodomor constitutes a genocide remains in dispute.

The quote is from Wikipedia, but also found in various formats in other sources. Now, the actual important point: Do you think their alledged stances on these questions make them evil? Because people are more complex than that, and I think the comment I linked above should tell you everything you need to know why they are also on Lemmygrad and also tell you that they are indeed not a bad person.

[–] goat@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ukraine and the other nations affected consider it a genocide.

I don't think the developers are evil. However, I do think denying recognition of genocides and atrocities by authoritarian states is evil.

[–] Urist@lemmy.ml -1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I contemplated linking the map myself, but decided against it: Politics being as important as evidence for the decisions regarding officially recognizing something or not. However, since you brought it up, there are only 26 countries calling it a genocide (not a lot). All of them part of the western bloc during the cold war, but not even including everyone inside it (look at the nordic countries for instance). I am avid supporter of truth and of course against genocide with every fibre of my body, but finding out exactly what happened is sometimes difficult. Arguably as important and more difficult is the why, and I think there seldom are clear cut answers, though the questions are worth exploring. It is not evil to be wrong about these things unless it is intentional, which I do not think is the case for normal people.

[–] goat@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So do you or do not believe the Holodomor is a genocide?

[–] Urist@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It is not a question of belief, it is a question about facts and proof of which I am not in a position to rule on. I think the ideological war and propaganda of the times destroyed and distorted proof to an extent that it is not clear what happened exactly and why. We know it was a humanitarian tradgedy and a lot of people died, which could and should have been prevented. I also think some of those that knew what happened said something else than what was true because it was to their benefit.

[–] goat@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's a pretty simple question. Was the Holodomor a government-military-led crisis?

[–] Urist@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Simple questions do not always fit into the framework of complex problems though. Also, what do you mean by "government-military"? In Soviet, to my knowledge, there was no paramilitary forces, so I don't understand the term. To be clear here, I do not think there are any compelling reasons to not hold the regime accountable for the crisis and the handling of it.

[–] PugJesus@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Would someone who denied, say, the Holocaust not be a bad person because of their 'alleged stances'?

You want to go home, and rethink your life.

[–] Urist@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The Holocaust is almost unique in us having an abundance of documentation and evidence of what happened. We have multiple sources, including nazis themselves, giving accurate accounts on both what happened and why. You being willing to compare Holodomor to it is borderline nazi apologia and I would say

You want to go home, and rethink your life

In return if it was not for this being a cheap statement trying to assert dominance where there is none.

[–] PugJesus@kbin.social 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ah, of course, I keep forgetting Ukrainians aren't people to tankies.

[–] Urist@lemmy.ml -3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Uhm, I do not think you have a good understanding of what I am saying if you think I do not care deeply for the Ukrainian people both then and now. I understand that it is upsetting to debate something as horrible as what happened, but that is also why it is important to try to get the narrative right.

[–] goat@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What do you think the narrative is?

[–] Urist@lemmy.ml -3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think it is debatable to some degree and I am not an authority on the subject. I would rather listen to someone more knowledgeable than myself talk about it.

[–] goat@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 year ago

what is that degree?

[–] goat@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It is not nazi apologia.

[–] Urist@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Have you been to the remainders of any concentration camp? Because I have and the scale and deliberateness of the Holocaust is astonishing. I am not sure anything I see in life will ever compare and you should not talk as if there are.

[–] goat@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Your point?

[–] Urist@lemmy.ml -1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

My point being suggesting it is comparable makes it seem you are not treating the Holocaust with the respect it deserves.

[–] goat@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago

Well, I wasn't the one who compared it.

But regardless, genocide is bad, full-stop, end of discussion. Denying genocides happened is bad.

[–] Brocken40@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 year ago

At some point you gotta live with em, you can try to tell a tankie or a Trumper the truth and they'll nod along politly but still get drunk and spout nonsense. as long as they ain't starting a militia or beating they wife might as well let the old dog bark

[–] Windex007@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's irrelevant if they themselves are in their hearts are evil. People in powerful positions who leverage that power to diminish the historical importance or even existence of a genocide (or, for you, merely an intentional man-made famine directed specifically at a subset of a population deemed undesirable that resulted in millions of deaths) are acting as a force of evil.

Waving your hands and uttering the incantation of "we can't know if they are evil" doesn't disappear specific evil actions.

And, good actions don't "cancel our" the bad ones either. Volunteering at a soup kitchen doesn't give you a free pass to beat your wife.

Each action is evaluated within it's own context.

[–] Urist@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

I referred to evil as a question about what OP thought of the developer they seemed to have an issue with. I try myself to not see people as such, since I think most people are inherently good and those that are not to be in some way mentally ill, read psycopaths. You bring up a series of events and justifications for why they happened, though that is not something that is easy to say for sure. That does not mean anyone gets a free pass, that means we need to be vigilant when researching the past, when monitoring the present and planning for the future. In particular I would advocate strongly for the need for democratic control and transparancy through all parts of society: politics, business, law enforcement and etc..

[–] Saledovil@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Taken from Wikipedia:

In 1948, the United Nations Genocide Convention defined genocide as any of five "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group." These five acts were: killing members of the group, causing them serious bodily or mental harm, imposing living conditions intended to destroy the group, preventing births, and forcibly transferring children out of the group.

So, while there may be debate on whether the Holdomor technically meets the definition of a genocide, it still constitutes mass murder.

[–] Urist@lemmy.ml -4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

That is not necessarily true because it is not easy to establish intent. As far as I know there is not a clear idea on even the numbers, only estimates that have been quite far apart. I do not think there is adequate grounds to conclude that it was done with intent, nor to rule it out, hence why it is under debate.

[–] Saledovil@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Yeah, but man made famines still aren't okay, even if you don't intent to destroy a people.

[–] GerryMandering@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Would you consider the frequent man-made famines in ireland in the 19th century, including the very famous great famine, an example of 'genocide' or mass murder?

[–] goat@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 year ago

Yes, that is a genocide.

[–] MindSkipperBro12@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yes? Especially for the genocide part.

[–] Urist@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Of course not and I think the most valuable we can learn from history is how to prevent something of the kind from happening again.

[–] goat@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 year ago

That's why we should steer away from authoritarianism, which is what these communities want.

[–] can@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

What about Canadian genocide of the indigenous? Surely you count that?

[–] PM_ME_FEET_PICS@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago

Canada recognizes its multiple genocides against the First Nations. We have days dedicated to indigenous Canadians and activly trying to put indigenous voices first.

The same can't be said about China, Russia or the US.

[–] Urist@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes, that is a pretty easy one.

[–] can@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago

It is, but so are some others that people seem to miss.

[–] r3df0x@7.62x54r.ru 5 points 1 year ago

I'm aware that the developers of Lemmy have questionable political views. In the end they're doing everyone a valuable service and they're infinitely more socially acceptable then being on the other end of the spectrum. If that were the case, Lemmy would be completely taboo.

I am not intending to shill for people who unironically glorify Mao.

[–] fosforus@sopuli.xyz 1 points 9 months ago

Lemmy has been created by "a moderate lefist".