Tankies on Lemmy are 100% right wing trolls pretending to be leftists. They aren't even trying to hide it at this point.

Cosplay communists. They don't actually believe in communism, they just like the esthetic and being contrarian.

They’re either deliberately playing the role of an agent provocateur or they’re people who have unwittingly become broadcast nodes with the same effect.

That's... a tankie, at least functionally. If they're spouting the propaganda, I don't care where it came from or whether it's officially certified as doctrine.

and so on and so on (and yes that was a Žižek reference)

"And sho on" [sniff] "and sho forth."

Unironically Zizek is very fascinating though.

We've known that for close to a decade now. Let's not forget that a bunch of traitors spent July 4th in Moscow and that Paul Ryan said that trump and a few others in Congress were getting paid by russia

https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/emma-goldman-preparedness-the-road-to-universal-slaughter

"Forty years ago Germany proclaimed the slogan: “Germany above everything. Germany for the Germans, first, last and always. We want peace; therefore we must prepare for war. Only a well armed and thoroughly prepared nation can maintain peace, can command respect, can be sure of its national integrity.” And Germany continued to prepare, thereby forcing the other nations to do the same. The terrible European war is only the culminating fruition of the hydra-headed gospel, military preparedness. "

The only thing I remember is a bunch of restaurant owners changed french fries to freedom fries. I also was living in a fairly rural (redneck) area at the time. Depending on how long they stayed "Freedom Fries" really spoke volumes about the type, and quality, of the food that was served.

• Up for a short amount of time: Food is probably fine. Restaurant owner was bandwagoning and probably didn't want to alienate his clientele.

• Up for several months to a year: More likely to be greasy spoon type place. The food is probably okay with only a smallish (5-10%) chance of explosive diarrhea after eating there.

• Up for 1-2 years: Literally every menu item has gravy on it somehow. You could probably order a piece if dry white bread it would come pre-soaked in gravy. You have about a 50/50 chance of shitting your brains out after eating here

• Still "Freedom Frying" 2-3 years on: These places serve rat meat. It's the only explanation for how they are in business. Expect everything to have a weird taste like stale Marlboros. The people that own/work in the restaurant couldn't collectively come up with a full set of teeth combined. Food poisoning is part of the experience.

• "Fredum Frys" in 2024: This is front. You should not ever eat here. You will most likely get food poisoning from walking in the front door. Those french fries are actually surplus from the Iraq invasion. They make meth in the back and their cook has a loaded pistol sitting on the counter.

Story time: I went to an Iraq War protest back in the day. Some people wandered out of the protest zone and (to be completely fair, I didn't see what started the altercation) got their asses beat by the cops. One brave kid stood out from the crowd and said, "Come on, guys! We have to help them!" We all looked at each other and were like, "Uh... no." The brave lad then charged in and promptly got his ass beat by the cops. The war still happened.

No it's because we survived 2 VERY destructive world wars in our homes and don't have the stomach for massive military operations anymore.

Add to that the numerous laws and constitutional bans against building militaries too large (supported by America!). Austria constitutionally forced to remain neutral, Finland forced to remain neutral due to Russia, etc.

Do you really no tunderstand why Germany was discouraged and was resistant to building it's military after two fucking world wars it started?

Really?

It's not as simple as you make out. Europe also isn't one country and one law.

Someone in this thread said Americans are reticent to support Ukraine because of pointless wars in the Middle East. Well imagine how fucking reticent you'd be if a massive chunk of your population died fighting wars in your own homes and back yard?

Hindsight sure is sharp. We're a short sighted reactionary species.