There are actually plenty of tankies on Reddit, but with Reddit you have to pretty much seek it out because of the massive user base

Legend goes that dessalines actually started Lemmy because their Reddit main got perm banned because he went a lil too tankie

Same here, never heard of them before Lemmy. I was shocked by their illogical statements and behavior. I couldn't believe anyone could hold such inconsistent beliefs and not just melt their brain, by so many mental gymnastics and plot holes. I still can't. It just makes way more sense that they are all done kind of weird Russian ai experiment.

I too, have never heard of tankies before joining lemmy.

Imagine my surprise, when i, a guy from a post-soviet country, where the fans of soviets are endangered species, see them all fanboying over dictators of the past century over here lol

Here's my 2¢ on how that kinda post might've been effective propaganda on me if I just saw it in the background long enough.

I grew up in America in a conservative area and everyone saw wealth as success and legitness. I now find myself beliving that if you live in excessive luxury that you are part of the problem. I can see how learning Stalin didn't have much when he died would appeal to a certain leftist in me and changes the emperor tone I originally picture him with.

I have other issues with Stalin, but maybe if I'd've lived on .ml long enough those kinda posts could've slowly changed what comes to mind when I think of him.

I envy you. I live in Hungary, and for a long while the only leftists I knew about were tankies. They're just as annoying offline as online.

My first interactions on lemmy here were with a large pod of tankies on memes of all places.

It was not clear to me they were anything but super politically correct Americans so I argued with them for like a hundred different replies before one of them told me, then they kept brigading me and following me on to other posts and such.

Then my phone started acting wonky and I got afraid I was getting hacked by them so I made a new account, I do not know if they can find you from Lemmy but I still have both.

Kind of likewise; coming from Reddit the political weirdos were American conservative types, "Jesus needs more guns to shoot the gays and the poor and the blacks" sort of folks. The idea of fervent fucking Soviets on the English speaking internet was new and instantly boring.

It’s all bullshit, and the point is to be exceedingly difficult to talk to.

Holy shit does this make a lot of sense.

This so explains why people who at first glance appear to be reasonable/somewhat aligned, start spouting off some vague nonsense about how you should have done the mandatory readings of this and that manifest to understand what you clearly are missing.

I've been racking my brain but it just being angsty alt people who thrive on being in that outcast group, so they can feel they've discovered some powerful secrets other people just don't get.

That said, this community has suspiciously strict rules too, so its kinda seeming like lemmy is only better than reddit in that it hasn't been around long enough to be enshittified and that there will probably always exist at least some sane instances.