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.
JungleJim@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
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.
Puzzle_Sluts_4Ever@lemmy.world 1 year ago
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”
djquadratic@kbin.social 1 year ago
👍