Personally I find their constant bad faith arguments tiring so I usually don't engage. Many campists have the right critique of the existing systems but are useless at knowing what to do to change it. Their best takes are usually to emulate socialist movements of the early 20th century like a cargo cult and hope if they do the same motions, it will magically lead to the same socialism (with them on the vanguard ofc). So ultimately worthless praxis built on stale rhetoric. It's telling that even the most "left unity" oriented campists manage to thoroughly alienating most of those they believe they should be united with.

I have noticed how they often use identical tactics to the Alt-Right movement in the USA, as described masterfully in Innuendo Studios' The Alt Right Playbook. As such, I've started thinking of tankies as a kind of Alt-Left, where facts matter little to none and instead feelings are supreme - though exclusively theirs, while yours count for little (although ironically not none, bc cruelty is the point).

And since algorithms that foster "engagement" tend to make this argumentation style more prevalent, it is becoming more prominent all over the world.

Sadly, it's fairly prominent in Lemmy as well, though tbf, we who came here from Reddit joined their space, not the other way around. This is why supporting independent development of software such as PieFed and Mbin is so crucial, bc otherwise authoritarianism seeps into everything. E.g. Lemmy has a modlog but no modmail, no notification sent to inform the recipient of a moderation action, no ability to enquire or dispute it even if you somehow find out about it - bc the modlog simply says it was done by a "mod" - and therefore Lemmy is actually somehow more authoritian than Reddit itself was!?!?!?!? (Caveat: admins have near total freedom, at the cost of potentially great efforts required to modify the codebase, and mods have elevated privileges as well, but for the end user... it is much the same, at least with regard to a specific community - they can take what it offers, or else leave).

What makes the Threadiverse fantastic and worth visiting is its userbase. Highly ironically then, what makes the Threadiverse toxic AF is its userbase. 🙃 (So many people over on r/RedditAlternatives saying how they could not tolerate it...) Thus, blocking it is then, with people who use such bad faith arguments chief among my own prioritization for such. (Btw it's not really possible to fully block all users from a specific instance on Lemmy - that feature would have far better been named as a "community mute" imho - unless you use the Sync or Connect app, switch to PieFed, or delve into making Ublock filters or creating your own instance to defederate them, none of them particularly easy to do, for a mainstream non-technical normie, who might otherwise be a fantastic content creator if the Threadiverse hadn't decided to run them off with its high level of toxicity.)

Of all the ideologies in the world, they chose communism. Why? Probably because they hurt. Because they saw the ugliness of capitalism and wanted something better. Because, at some point, they were moved by the idea that we could live without exploitation. [...] The pain turned inward, and now they lash out at anyone who doesn’t match their script. That’s not an excuse. But it is something to hold with empathy.

I wish I could easily subscribe to your call for empathy. The reason why I can't is because I have seen so many tankies deny the pain of others. It's not just the historical revisionism and the denial of Stalinist atrocities, but denying that people in the here and now are suffering like they do. Often this was tied to them insisting that they had every right to abuse others, because they themselves were suffering from capitalism. They completely failed to acknowledge that everyone around them was suffering under the very same conditions.

And there is the crux of the issue: One unspoken, implicit tenet of their beliefs is the denying others the same humanity they claim to uphold and represent. They demand to be accepted and their behavior to be tolerated, but will not grant the same basic rights to others.
The same notion allows them to deny the humanity of victims of Stalinist and Maoist terror.

And that's why I have a hard time to show them empathy, because I know they will not show the same empathy towards me.

those miserable fucks are mocking this thread https://hexbear.net/post/4671954?sort=Top

keep an eye out for brigaders (I see at almost a dozen sketchy comments here already) and report anyone you even get a whiff of being tankie alt. Even mild tankie apologetics or sympathy shouldn't be tolerated or else they start thinking this is a safe space for them.

I've had similar experiences - endless tiring bad faith discussions. I sincerely believe market socialism is a realistic step we can take to improve human condition, but they seem convinced against it and hell bent on 'revolution'. It's clearly a cult with group think, they've arrived at their conclusions by reading theory, not from personal experience, self awareness, empathy & logic.

Sometimes it's hard to believe these people are real. It almost makes more sense they exist to make the left appear completely toxic to everyone, including left leaning people.

I hope that's the case anyway and all the above is just a lot of over analysing, cos man, they suck.

self-identified Marxist-Leninists, the kind often referred to as “tankies.”

Tankie is a term that NAFO bodysnatcher nazi US empire lovers use to criticize those who oppose US empire's geopolitical extortion. Naziism is simply superior to Russia's self defense needs, or China's humanist abundance strategy. There is no need to support Marxism to be called a tankie. US puppet democracy simply must be considered supreme, and no matter how distant the human rights abuses (that far pale in comparison to even current US evil) of those resisting US evil, you are a tankie for not favouring US naziism and genocide.

tankie is simply a brainwashing insult meant to uphold the illusory "good vs evil historical narrative the audience learned in grade school from pledge of allegiance"

Identity Leftist

It is common in anarchist circles for feminist/queer supremacists, identity pride, to view anarchism as a platform to launch a new fascist order where their identity values rule supreme. The evil of religion/church is identity pride that replaces "thou shalt not kill" principles. Where Marxism is labour identity supremacism, that too becomes a basis for fascism.

Regardless of Citizen's united, money has always been speech. So, corporatist/oligarchist/capitalist supremacy can spend on divisivness to grant them supremacism. Zionism has always been the Empire's friend, but it was ultimate alliance point for oligarchy in last election.

Freedom dividends/UBI is far more important than democracy. It permits fair/fairer markets, where labour is not priced based on the desperation level of labour, and returns on capital reflects the opportunity for competition. UBI is less about wealth redistribution as it is power redistribution. Less of a master, is far more achievable than a vacuum opportunity for new masters.

I checked, guys. OP doesn't have .ml next to his name.

Sadly, this means we can't just call him out and we have to actually read the post this time.

I have never seen any discussion like you are describing. However I see a post complaining of tankies every day.