#i dont have any reason to believe they are a tankie

[noneedtofearorhope]

i find it funny how leninists will be alllll about ‘the masses’ and ‘the people’ and how they are the true leaders and we must trust them etc etc etc, but then you also hear shit like ‘oh, don’t say anything negative about any Actually Existing Socialist™ countries, that will just manufacture consent for US imperialism’, implying that these same masses are too stupid to be able to have a position outside of the dichotomy of ‘AES countries good, leave them alone’ and ‘AES countries bad, send in the tanks’

which ya know, may explain why so many leninists are tankies, because they probably exist solely within such dichotomies.

[eroticcannibal]

Now if you do socialism without being a genocidal nu atheist about it, let's think about what is more likely to happen if you meet everyone's needs and remove oppression than "everyone will magically give up their religion and culture and the survivors will assimilate into the hivemind"

Now of course there will be more open atheists, because religious oppression is absolutely a factor in people not being openly atheist. But there will also be a lot more people converting to other religions, especially minority religions in the area. Since, yknow, religious oppression is also a factor in people not converting and exploring their faith.

Obviously if oppression somehow magically ceases to exist, then those specific parts of religions would vanish and the religions would not cease to exist but become more progressive. If peoples needs are met, religious leaders lose some coercive power. But also on a smaller level, individuals can still chose to.... be oppressive on a smaller scale, and gain coercive power in other ways (eg blackmail) so you're still gonna get the cultier types and there's still gonna be those holding on to oppressive ideas and enforcing them within communities even if these ideas do not have wider societal support (and this is not exclusive to religion, we've all met tankies, you know if we woke up tomorrow and oppression had vanished, they would have made up a new kind by midday)

Honestly with less fear and oppression comes more freedom of thought and I would expect an increase of philosophical debate even within religions and specific sects that discourage that, which would probably lead to an overall increase in variety. A religious cambrian explosion. At least one will replace Jesus with RaptorJesus and be completely serious about it.

Humans won't stop being human, of course, while polls show scientists are less inclined towards religiosity, many many religious scientists consider their faith to be an essential part of their work, and vice versa. And most people aren't and will never be scientists. People like comfort and community and guidance and tradition and connection. People like answers when their arent any. People want meaning where it might not exist. People are afraid of death on an instinctual level, for obvious reasons. People just believe things. People WANT to believe things. People experience things and make sense of them as best they can. And you can stamp your feet about it being "illogical" all you want, but humans are evolved to be illogical and will continue to chose that, and they also deserve to be happy. And they will chose that even if they want for nothing. (Just like some people cling to illogical views like "I can make the whole world think like I do and get rid of religion because I dont like it)

(And thats if all that even is illogical. But quite often when you look into it, it IS logical, even if you don't agree. But edgy Internet bros never know what "logic" actually means lmao)

And of course everyone who has ever been afraid to practice their faith and engage with their culture will be able to embrace those without fear. I think that will pretty obviously result in an increase of ppl practicing their religion.

[sieglinde-freud]

36 for the ask game!

36. Share a funny FE-related story, either ingame or not!

allow me to regale you the tale of my most valuable unit ive ever had in any playthrough ever (okay. second most valuable. no one beats odin dark conquest), the most specialest boy youve ever seen!!!

dancer ferdie.

so basically i really wanted the piss color home screen in three houses and for those who dont know, basically you get a “badge of honor” unique home screen in three houses (the same exact screen recolored yellow) on maddening without new game+. i believe you can do this on casual? but im a little tryhard loser, so i picked maddening classic, picked the black eagles (crimson flower doesnt have hunting by daybreak OR a map that forces you to deploy potentially benched in house characters, so that was my pick) and started the run. only to be met with one small problem:

i am a fucking idiot.

three houses maddening isnt that hard once you know what youre doing, but the funny thing about three houses maddening is that it dropped like. six (????) months after three houses dropped just like. out of nowhere. for no reason. and i cannot turn down a challenge so i jumped into it immediately and got my ass kicked. immediately.

my main problem is that i didnt have a reliable damage soaker/tank. edelgard is tanky, but she can only take so much and her stats havent had time to snowball yet. plus, early game has poison strike three range archers, so even if she had the stats, they’d wittle her down. maddening ai is not the same as normal/hard, and at the time i didnt know how to control it, so someone had to go eat all of those hits to bait them over! but adrestia, kingdom of mages, has the durability of a piece of straw. so, we need to avoid taking damage. but we also need to bait out the ai somehow. soooo… how?

i was looking through a couple of classes that might be able to help me out and i notice that ferdinand’s personal skill gives him a certain amount of avoid at full hp. and theres a certain skill line that gives another set number of avoid if you hold a certain weapon. the lighest physical weapon (barring gauntlets) are swords, which he has a natural affinity for. but how do you get sword avoid? literally the only way is through dancer. for some fucking reason. so, i did what had to be done, expecting this to blow up in my face, but as you can tell from the fact that i am making this post, the opposite happened. because actually, as it turns out, having a refresh unit in one of fire emblem’s most difficult game modes that cannot get hit is actually very, very useful.

for the entire game after he went into dancer i chucked him on the front lines right next to edelgard, and he was pretty much a one man army. not nearly as strong physically as edelgard, but much faster and with much more utility. and, hes still ferdinand, so on the off chance he got hit by like a stray 12%, he’d easily eat that hit with his hp stat, only to be physic’d up right back to full. unkillable dancer. baited enemies like it was no ones business AND buffed my entire team just by virtue of being there. i could send my frail ass little mages into a crowd nuke someone, have ferdie dance to let them retreat to safety. edelgard and giant galeforce axe could act TWICE without worrying about dancer positioning. it was just. god. carried my whole game. and he looked GOOD while doing it. he truly is ferdinand von aegir. also took out the final map in two turns no casualties. he did that for me by the way (edelgard galeforce axe)

[snekdood]

ok, well, i've given everyone on here with any issues with me a chance to share their issues for years now at this point, and so far i've seen maybe 2 or 3 people and they usually block me before i can even send a response bc they're utter cowards. i am often left like this

waiting for the "Valid Criticisms" to pour in, and theres never any, ever. they hide and cower and talk shit behind my back bc they know if they ever said any of their Very Real Concerns to my face that i'd actually counter them with the reality of my thoughts/feelings/actions/etc. and they dont want that. better to spread rumors than to confront the person you're spreading rumors about and get embarrassed bc you were wrong and built up all this energy around hating me for literally no fucking reason.

so now, the time is up, i've given you your chance. ive given you the chance to tell me why i need to change and how i need to change etc. but none of you actually like coming up with solutions to problems, you just like labeling things bad or good and then call it a day at the factory. as if thats your only obligation to humanity. lmao.

so im no longer taking requests, im no longer taking criticisms from random people on here seriously, because its all just highschool bullshit of spreading rumors for shits and giggles and not actually bc any of you have any real convictions nor do any of you actually give a deep fuck about any of "your" politics at all.

so if after this point, you try and say some shit to me? i'm going to ignore you. you had your chance. you never took advantage of it. not even to tell me how lame i am or whatever either- thats how much of cowardly ass bitches all of you are. i hope you take your political purism and shove it up your ass.

im no longer playing this game where i pretend i dont know anything and need to be taught by yall bc thats the role you want to fulfill so so badly in spite of being shit-horrible at it. im no longer letting other people tell me im this or that when i know who tf i am and wtf im about. im no longer humoring you and letting you think you're the smartest person in the room bc i feign being a dumbass to test if you can even actually teach anyone or not, and clearly as we've learned, you can't. you just guilt trip people to believing what you do and threaten them when they dont- yeah i dont think you'd be a teacher that sticks around very long if this were a school. you dont know shit, all of your politics are based on what you think is intuitively correct and not based on fact, its all based on vibes, and im tired of humoring larping-ass, wannabe, shut in, leftists. i dont need you to teach me anything, i've been knew for a long as time and istg every time someone thinks they're actually teaching me some shit its shit i've learned years ago and understand better than them anyways.

so with all that said, go fuck yourselves, grow a pair, and stop being a blood thirsty tankie larping pos, for humanities sake. you're not the main character, you're not the superhero of reality. otherwise you woulda said something to me if you actually had an issue. hope you get well soon bitches xoxoxo <3

[alexanderpusheen]

what frustrates me the most abt this china narrative is that the US created al qaeda and ISIS, those groups are recruiting and causing terrorism in xinjiang, china has been trying to handle the situation with re-education programs often suggested by westerners, and its still being treated as this major human rights violation. there are actually dozens of countries with several robust anti radicalization programs that are just as strict, like singapore, colombia, yemen, bangladesh, saudi arabia, and indonesia. this paper ive linked to was even funded by the DHS so like...why has detaining someone and basically reverse brainwashing them out of being a terrorist been so acceptable for so long but now its an issue? 

if you take issue with chinas program, you have to prove its somehow exceptional to these other programs. since we really dont have any way of knowing what is truth or reality thanks to the enormous disinformation campaign going on, you fucking cant. we dont even know what the programs entail because even googling it gets you exclusively hyperbolic concentration camp accusations. 

what i will say is that relations between the han majority and the uyghur minority have been strained since at least the 80s. link is the notoriously conservative and pro US intervention human rights watch, so dont say im using pro commie sources or anything. every time i do any bit of research on this i seem to find an attempt from major news outlets in the early to mid 2000s or late 20-teens to prove this all started or became dramatically worse now, but things have always been tense. and its not really a surprise that things really got bad after the collapse of the soviet union, an event that was geographically close to china and the xinjiang region and also just like, a fucking major global event in general.

what i find to be very odd is just how dramatically the narrative has changed. the diplomat, one of my favorite periodicals, went from taking very nuanced and balanced positions on xinjiang that i almost completely agreed with to being just as aggressive as outlets like the BBC and CNN in the span of five years. they have eleven pages worth of articles on xinjiang, mostly covering the terrorism and beijings response (which i agree is too harsh) and xinjiang muslims’ relationships to the greater muslim world. 

an example is how this article talks about the conflict at the time which warns of escalating violence as a result of han chauvinism and beijing being unable to deal with the extremism holistically. it points out how there were uyghurs captured among taliban ranks in afghanistan and how many might have even been working with ISIL.

The threat will not be an existential one to the Chinese state, as most Uighurs would prefer a peaceful accommodation. But even if only 1 percent of Uighurs hold extreme views, there are 10 million in Xinjiang and even for a state security apparatus as formidable as China’s, 100,000 or more angry people present a tough challenge.

i think its totally right that china does not allow people in that area to have cars, woodcutting tools, and amonium nitrate (which is used in bombs) is very strictly regulated. i completely agree that this is not how you combat terrorism. most people do not want war and broadly punishing these people is itself a human rights violation that went unnoticed until now.

however, in that same year, the diplomat also published this article about the infamous turkestan islamic party. members of TIP are like, literal jihadists lmfao.

TIP fighters call on the world’s Muslims to join the jihad against Western countries in internet videos. Perhaps most worringly for China, the TIP believes that Muslims may fight locally using various means instead of coming to Syria and Iraq to conduct a “holy war” against the “infidel” Western regimes.  

yeah i definitely want to hear more about what these guys have to say. the article is really good because i think it highly illustrates just how dangerous these people are. theyve killed hundreds of people across china and want to establish a fascist religious state in xinjiang. while the article speaks for itself, i believe the last paragraph really highlights why china is being singled out whereas countries like france and canada are considered allies to muslims for whatever reason:

However, as experience has shown, China takes a passive position in the struggle against global Islamic jihad in Syria and Iraq. Beijing has not sent its troops to the Middle East to fight ISIS and has instead confined itself to diplomatic support for Russia and the United States. The Chinese government uses the attacks of Islamic jihadists to persuade Western countries to support Beijing’s position on Xinjiang and turn a blind eye when the freedom and rights of Uyghurs are harshly suppressed by Chinese security forces. Therefore, China is not perceived by the West as a reliable partner in the fight against terrorism. [emphasis mine]

im just a little surprised to see that a lot of these violent attacks from extremists throughout the years have targeted not just han chinese but also other uyghurs. in the west people do not typically sympathize with terrorists as freedom fighters, even on the left, because we know that no matter how angry or how seemingly justified the violence might seem, terrorism is unacceptable and it grossly misrepresents islam. it is a fascist act because those terrorists often follow an extremely right wing version of islam. also, we know that those who carry out terrorist attacks even outside of the west are middle class and professionals in some way, not poor and marginalized people. the level of nuance afforded to terrorists outside of xinjiang is pretty staggering. 

yet in china, there seems to be this excitement than they are killing chinese people, even if some of those chinese are other uyghers or otherwise muslims. those who carry out attacks in xinjiang dont get any nuance or analysis because theyre justified.

ive referenced the diplomat earlier but this article from 2013 says it perfectly: Call Tiananmen Attack What It Was: Terrorism. except terrorism is bad. and the west wants you to support the uyghurs. and make no mistake, they do not want you to support the millions of uyghurs who want to live peacefully, free of any repression, american or chinese. they want you to support the jihadists randomly blowing up chinese and tourists alike because you are meant to sympathize with their plight.

terrorism isnt something to be romantacized or cheered on. it is something someone or someones do when they feel they have no other option. people do not want to kill even those they feel they have every right to because thats a line you cant uncross. murder changes you, justified or not. see the last chapter of wretched of the earth for this.

terrorism is great, however, for destabilizing a region or a country, and xinjiang is resource-rich. establishing a US-friendly regime, no matter how good they are on human rights, is the goal. the US does not care about muslims. they do not care about human rights. china, also, does not really seem to care about muslims or human rights either. but we’ve seen this since vietnam, and the US has learned since vietnam. the vietnamese were sympathetic. they were minding their business. 

after vietnam, merely being communist isnt enough to warrant invasion. theyre killing their own people. nevermind that bolsonaro kills his own people and no one wants to invade (yet--biden has mention sanctions wrt us which is scary but again, thats got everything to do with making sure latin america is loyal to the west, not HR offenses). korea, although it was before vietnam, was less publicized and learning from vietnam gave the US a valuable lesson: always blame the victim. and thus, the US blames the victims of its violence. even if its ‘justified’, even if its ‘true,’ as was the case with saddam hussein, invading and occupying was the nightmare no one but the imperialists anticipated. because they dont broadcast what occupying forces do to the occupied. i am old enough to remember abu ghraib. have it seared in my memory forever. you perhaps are also old enough to remember, but also think millions of abu ghraibs and guantanamo bays are always worth it, always justified. 

i know people arent going to read this and remind me really rudely that they didnt read it but i want to really emphasize how one of imperialism and colonialisms features is ethnic and racial separatism. how the rwandan genocide couldnt have happened without previous belgian and french rule. how yugoslavia wouldve remained a single country had it not been for NATO. i think its easy to diminish the role of the colonizer in all of this, but it is actually one of its goals: divide and conquer. exacerbate the existing conflicts to the point of genocide. 

and if the west succeeds in balkanizing china, you will get more racism rather than less. you will see more violence against muslim minorities rather than less. they will feel less empowered rather than more. china has to learn that they are also to blame in a way that will be catastrophic for over a billion people. han chauvinism and outright racism must be addressed beyond window dressing.

wrapping up, china is in the wrong here. what theyre doing is racist and humiliating a population that has to be empowered. and the one child rule, even for the han majority, is imo fucking evil lol like sorry tankie tumblr im tankie too but i cannot for the life of me accept that as a good thing.... but i also dont buy the accusations of genocide, because even tho a lot of these articles are kind of glossing over it, china is trying to handle the terrorism in the region. imo theyre feeding into it by getting more han in the area, but also having more han but forcing them to take worse jobs would be a show of good will. idk, this situation is extremely complex and frankly, most uyghers do not want secession. 

i also take extreme issue with people saying that adrian zenz is somehow reliable. not only is he a nazi crackpot, hes also literally the only source for almost all of what we know about this in the west. that is not how you do journalism. i dont understand how people are saying ‘yeah hes an extremely fascist grifter but also i believe him because hes anti communist and also anti china’. thats also not really the point? the point is that hes also the ONLY SOURCE on almost all of this, which is alarming. 

i also find it very startling that in order to keep interest in the story, every few weeks the US has to remind people that the chinese are also doing what the US is doing to women in its own camps. forget that the US is separating minors from parents (since 2008). forget that the US is sterilizing women en masse (since 2017). forget that the US is raping women at the border (since there was a border). forget the US even has camps because now they arent even called that anymore. this is not that ‘you can be angry at two things at once’ but a clearly cynical attempt to get its citizens to forget that the US is detaining, deporting, sterilizing, and raping, and gassing non US nationals. 

they are not ‘your own people.’ they are me. the other. i am an immigrant to the US, currently in my country of birth, so i am the other to you, the american. the chinese are doing the evil crime of killing their own. but the americans could never kill their own because they dont consider black americans to be their own. latin american nationals are not their own. bombing millions globally is not their own. thats always justifiable. there is clearly an element of racism in how these crimes are perceived as more or less evil.

the way immigrants and black americans are brutalized in the US is almost naturalized. like its the way things are supposed to be. you can live with that. its upsetting that you have to hear about antiblackness and the like but you know thats just how life is. you dont necessarily call for the US to be sanctioned or bombed by other countries because you believe in the inherent goodness of white america. but countries like china and iran and north korea deserve to be starved and killed for their crimes. and you can never say ‘maybe bombing and starving a country isnt the answer’ because it means you agree with it. you can never say ‘this is clearly propaganda to make me hate another race so much’ because it means youre a genocide denier. im sorry, but again, i remember iraq in 2003, i remember libya in 2011. i dont buy it.

finally, theres been a lot of attacks on asian people in the US lately and if you cannot see the violent way the US talks about china the country and how that influences people to harm asians within the US then idk what else to tell you. people will really believe this shit and say the chinese are all blood thirsty islamaphobes and thus need to be harmed. ‘im not like that! i defend my asian friends from racism!’ thats nice and all but idk how spreading some sinophobic propaganda designed by the US to make you support some kind of violence against one billion chinese people isnt inherently racist. also its unhelpful because sanctions dont really solve problems. but ive spoken too much.

[gnomedotedu]

westerners who watched chernobyl hbo and now have opinions

please think 8 times before expressing any of them, especially if you're planning to go on anon to some poor ukrainian's askbox and accuse them of being a tankie for caring about their homecountry or what the fuck ever. a few reasons for that are:

- rude

- dont

- please?

i understand that western culture (for the sake of this we'll assume it exists as a complex but stable set of ideas from like the xviii century) values personal beliefs and encourages people to make them be heard. great! let's stay in this box of thought! then if you are so woke, if you understand the concept of pride, empowerment, representation and the role a person's Words play into that — choose yours very carefully.

respect the creators' effort in making the series as credible as possible. do your research as thoroughly as they did. respect their willingness to humanize soviet people for the audience that is probably still affected by red scare. don't try to assume anything. if we are still the Other, don't try to measure us by your standarts, we probably won't fit. if you are on board with the show's crew and you actually want to learn more about ussr and the history of its countries — read some critical theory for god's sake, read up diaries of people who lived there, watch actual soviet cinema, whatever suits your interests best. just don't assume you know us better than we do ourselves - a very western sentiment if i do say so myself. we don't ask you to change your whole belief system, just stay true to it. i don't even think we ask much more than for you to accept that we exist - our parents and grandparents exist - as humans. and we deserve to be seen as humans. we haven't been for quite some time, i believe.

tldr: we know you have a lot of thoughts. we do too. let us speak, we've been waiting in line for our turn for too long, even for soviet standarts.