In the recent Lemmy developer update, there’s a reference to one Lemmy developer, SleeplessOne1917.
I found some horrifying comments from this user.
https://lemmygrad.ml/comment/2649200 - “There is no such thing as an Israeli civilian. All settlers are valid targets.”
https://lemmygrad.ml/comment/2649472 - “15 year olds are military age. That makes them valid targets for killing.”
https://lemmygrad.ml/comment/2649732 - “… There is no such thing as a zionoid civilian. Everything that moves and isn’t Palestinian is a valid target. …”
Webarchive: https://web.archive.org/web/20231009171047/https://lemmy.ml/u/[email protected]
Edit: New comment from the user “Cry more. Israelis need to be eliminated. Death to Israel, and death to Amerikkka!”
https://web.archive.org/web/20231009171510/https://lemmygrad.ml/comment/2592588
https://web.archive.org/web/20231009171739/https://lemmygrad.ml/post/750810
https://web.archive.org/web/20231009171907/https://lemmy.ml/comment/4569805
https://web.archive.org/web/20231009172817/https://lemmy.ml/comment/4413706
No. It is horseshoe theory.
Left or right, the extremists are generally extremely prone to manipulation
If it was horseshoe theory they meant to discuss there would have been no need for them to say “This is classic far left”. They would have said “This is classic extremism”.
I’m not sure how valid horseshoe theory is in the first place.
In terms of the written definition (and I am not even sure where that would come from considering it is a spectrum affected by a shifting overton window…), sure. But considering how much of online discourse is impacted by tankie influencers… meh
Its similar to (US) republicans where they have more or less become synonymous with the qanon crowd. That is not to say that they are all part of the qop, but they sure let them do the speaking for them.
Personally? I try to make it a point to use pejoratives like “tankies”. In part because I know people are stupid and will view even that as me saying “all leftists” (which is funny since, while I tend to identify more as a “liberal”, I am very much on that spectrum). But language evolves and a lot of the figureheads for (at least American, although I have seen some dumbfuck Europeans) Leftist movements tend to be blatant tankies and they don’t get the pushback because “they are increasing awareness”
👍
This started as an edit to my comment but became more a comment of it’s own:
Edit: I think you may be edited your comment? The bit you added sounds like a reasonable assessment, that anyone more extreme in their beliefs is more prone to manipulation, likely due to the fact their desire for change may override “common sense” as we might call it.
yeah I was talking about leftist extremists. not sure how the term “far leftist” was interpreted as all leftist