Leftism

Tankies are absolutely real. I've met folks IRL who are pro-USSR-under-Stalin as a model for society. The excuse used is that capitalist countries have a very real history of violently suppressing any leftist government attempt. This, of course, ignores that such governments commit the exact same abuses and reinforce the very cycles of violence that they rebel against in the first place.

That instance, in particular, is not a bunch of RWNJs cosplaying though. That's an extraordinary claim requiring extraordinary evidence and I think it is . With the size of the userbase, there would absolutely be at least someone caught bragging about it over the years. No. They're just run by people who either don't care about the toxic, divisive behavior, or actively encourage it (see: existence of the "dunktank" comm).

As for being disingenuous, absolutely. Those in power there are definitely authoritarian first and Leftist second, if ever and they condone users creating conflict with fellow leftists to feed their dopamine-rush cravings. Dissent or providing historical information that comes anywhere close to implying that the USSR, China, or Russia are not free of any blame are met with bans - as bad as r/con on that now (I caught a ban for stating that historical evidence does not support the claim that Finland is being critical of Israel due to anti-semitism and that Stalin's invasion of the sovereign nation that had historically been oppressed by Russia was both unnecessary and could have been predicted to push the Finns to seek help from the Nazis to maintain their independence - and things about the Winter War and Continuation War not being black-and-white, or that Stalin was happy to divide up the world between himself and Hitler until Operation Barbarosa did not go over well either). They were on much better behavior when first federating but I don't but their Leftist-unity or use of Dialectics anymore (it is impossible to exercise Dialectic reasoning when embracing willful ignorance and suppressing anything that could be antithetical to one's thesis).

All that said, there are some good folks there that I'm sad to no longer be in communication with. People that, more often than not, I disagreed with but were great to converse with to explore the "why" of such disagreements and they did so with nothing but good faith. It is genuinely disappointing that there toxicity is allowed.