Left-wing extremists have been showing “substantial activity on Lemmygrad.ml” with an accompanying increase in toxicity, a new joint study published by Binghamton University and Cyprus University of Technology on Arxiv says.
The researchers also identified posts that support authoritarian regimes, endorse the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and feature anti-Zionist and antisemitic content.
“Overall, our findings contribute to a more nuanced understanding of political extremism within decentralized social networks and emphasize the necessity of analyzing both ends of the political spectrum in research,” the researchers conclude.
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Users on Lemmygrad.ml frequently discuss […] China and North Korea, with many posts expressing support for them.
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Discussions [on Lemmygrad.ml] on the Israel-Palestine conflict primarily criticize Israel. While many posts condemn antisemitism, [the authors] also encounter numerous posts that extend beyond criticizing Israel, displaying anti-Zionism and even antisemitism.
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[The study] results show that users of Lemmygrad.ml frequently share posts that support authoritarian regimes, as seen in their support for China, North Korea, and Russia. Moreover, their support can extend beyond backing these authoritarian regimes, even cheering on their violent actions, as evidenced by their posts on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Additionally, we observe anti-Zionist and antisemitic behaviors, which show similarities to right-wing extremism.
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Our analysis suggests a concerning endorsement of authoritarian actions and extremist rhetoric on Lemmygrad.ml, further indicating that left-wing extremist communities on decentralized platforms should receive more attention from the academic community.
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“Left-wing extremism” is a disingenuous way to describe what happens on .ml. It would be more accurately described as “anti-western propaganda.”
Just “anti-west”. Full stop.
It’s unbelievably easy to blend into a tankie crowd, there is absolutely no nuance required. I’d even go so far as to say that a nuanced take of any kind actually makes you stick out.
West = Every single thing Bad. China = every single thing Perfect.
Master that formula and you’re golden.
I want to specify for everyone, Lemmy.ml and lemmygrad.ml are more pro-Russian and hexbear is more pro-China. All anti-western, but Russia and China aren’t on the same side either. The instances tend to be friendly though, but that’s where they biases tied to lie. Obviously there are exceptions though.
Its not lemmy.ml Its lemmygrad.ml
That’s an important detail.
lemmy.ml users will threaten to kill you for not having the exact same views as they do. they rly have some completely unhinged psychopaths over there.
It is like that, but from my experience lemmygrad is much much worse than .ml
threaten to kill you for not having the exact same views as they do
looking forward to that laundry list of examples to go with this extreme
I literally had a .ml user threaten me to “put a bullet through my head” just for being on the instance i currently am, calling me a Zionist and a genocide supporter. Without any fucking context. Another one told many people in a post about Gaza to “go kys”. Also many comments about ALL german people being Nazis.
Of course all of these comments were removed for promoting violence / racism.
These human shitstains reside on your instance.
Definetely not all but a very radicalised minority.
So one person said a general statement and you jumped to the conclusion that we’re all bloodthirsty. Then you watched the genocide continuously comitted by multiple people from another centralized location and don’t come to the same conclusion. Weird.
Read my comments again. Where did i say all of you? I explicitely said it’s a minority. I didn’t watch SHIT, i’m siding with CIVILIANS. How the fuck can you be so radicalized? You feel the need to label me as your enemy without knowing literally anything, proving my point perfectly.
Also you don’t seem to have a problem with .ml users being racist af about german people or telling people to literally end their lives. How very very weird of you, Bud.
I don’t need to be a fucking tankie to recognize the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians.
The problem with the term Zionism is that it is extremely broad. It technically “just” describes believing that there should be some type of culturally Jewish dominated country. That can mean ethno state but it can also just mean religious holidays are bank hollidays, the same way Christmas is a holiday in many majority Christian countries.
Anti-Zionist as a term is therefore practically useless without a more detailed definition describing what kind of Zionism one means.
I assume their problem is mostly with the “Israelis are colonisers and therefore don’t have any right to live anywhere near the region” line of argument. But then again they are from the UK, a country that criminalised Palastine Action, so who knows…
TLDR: you can be a Zionist and still be opposed to the current actions of the Israeli military.
What Zionism as an ideology means has been changing over the course of history. However the goal of a Jewish national state has been achieved in 1948. Everything beyond that had just been expanionism. And 1948 already came with a devastating ethnic cleansing and land annexation.
The study is disingenious in trying to legitimize Zionism, by presenting Anti-Zionism as an extremist idea, rather than acknowledging what it opposes today.
It really isn’t that simple though, specifically because there is a cohort of anti Zionists who do want to dissolve the state of Israel. The entire issue is very specifically that the term is overloaded in both directions.
Certainly not. But Russia’s genocide in Ukraine? China’s genocide in Tibet and Xinjiang? Does one have to be a tankie to deny them?
I think those denials might be defining traits of a tankie, so…yes?
If those are the defining traits then why are they called Tankies and not something related to that?
The term tankies originally comes fro Qm the tianamean square massacre, in which the Chinese government ordered tanks to run over studenta who were protesting. People who denied that this ever happened were called tankies. Nowadays its more of a broad term who deny, that authoritarian regimes like China, North Korea or Russia di anything bad.
It’s older.
The term “tankie” was originally used by dissident Marxist–Leninists to describe members of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) who followed the party line of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). Specifically, it was used to distinguish party members who spoke out in defence of the Soviet use of tanks to suppress the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and the 1968 Prague Spring
Yeah youre right. I got the info mixed in my head (but to be fair, my version isn’t that far off).
Seems like Trump declassified docs about it, and it has nothing to do with TS. https://www.joewrote.com/p/jfk-files-reveal-the-cia-role-in
Interesting. May look into it later. The thing I described was the stuff I heard.
OK, this doesn’t say anything about the term tankie except the author’s supposition, which doesn’t align to the common understanding, so I don’t think it’s accurate. This is about the CIA using a “Nazi turned communist turned anti-communist” to fight the USSR. It’s just modern tankies using anti-western propoganda to say “actually, it’s the Fascists who are tankies!”
Look, the CIA is bad, and the US has done a lot of bad things. This argument is bullshit though. If you read the article you can see that. It has nothing to do with the word tankie except that the author brings up that the USSR sent tanks (as part of the army) in their direction. This isn’t the origin of the word tanky almost certainly, and isn’t used in any of the stuff referenced. You should read more critically.
I haven’t seen anything with commies calling others tankies. Is tankie a term for a group of people or a slur to you?
Also seems like you didnt know that the term tankie comes from the said hungarian uprising mentioned here.
Pretty fucked up to put being against Israel’s crimes in the same breath as cheering authoritarian violence from Russia, China and North Korea. Somehow it’s both bad to cheer for authoritarian violence and to be against authoritarian violence.
more nuanced understanding of political extremism
proceeds to conflate anti-Zionist with antisemetic
…I’m beginning to think I know who funded this research…
obtains popcorn
I am observing the discourse here on Lemmy for a while and my honest opinion is: It’s not only Lemmygrad and other special platforms, its the network as a whole - it is turning into an extreme-left cesspool akin to what is X and Truth Social for the right.
So apparently it’s extremism to be against fascism. That’s interesting.
You can not be against fascism and endorse the russian genocide on the ukrainian people.
Sure no argument. You also can’t be against Fascism and be a Zionist though. Zionism is fascism.
You assuming that i’m a zionist without knowing anything about me makes it kinda obvious that you are radicalized, bud.
Is everyone you don’t agree with a Zionist? Where do you get this from?
Fuck Netanjahu. Fuck Putin. Fuck Trump. Fuck everything and everyone that won’t bring peace to Palestine.
I wasn’t calling you a Zionist at all. I was using second person plural just like you were in your comment to me. Or at least I assumed you were. Now I’m starting to question that a bit…
As for where I got the Zionist thing from? The title. You read that far right? The title of this post? Where they conflate being anti-zionist with anti-Semitic?
Good. Might’ve been a misunderstanding on my side. My apologies.
