Yeah, this is gonna be my next move I think. I was using Proton VPN for a while and just recently started migrating my emails there, then they started doing all of this.

I wanted to self host my email anyway, but now I have no excuse. I’ve been burned by the last team I expected it to come from, I’ll be self-reliant now

AITB - Am I The Bot

It’s AITA posts and the commenters have to determine if it’s AI drivel or human made

I didn’t assert it. In fact, I very intentionally used passive language to avoid asserting it as a truth. I said “I think there are… That claim to be”

I didn’t say “Russia claims to be communist” or the likes.

I specifically phrased it that way to communicate that that was my understanding and not necessarily the truth. Then, someone told me my understanding was wrong and I corrected it. Then you came along, doing whatever this is.

I was humble about it. I publicly admitted that I was a victim of propaganda and adjusted the way I acted going forward.

You’re right that I probably could have put a other moment of thought into it before hitting post and I probably would have googled it and then changed it. Which is exactly what someone else has already pointed out to me and I’ve already done. So you’re repeating them, and bringing no value to the conversation.

Okay, let’s break down a few things here. I said

A few countries claim to be communist… Russia

[In 2018 I read propaganda that Russia still claimed to be communist] (paraphrased)

I then recognized that I was affected by propaganda and changed my tune. Then, several hours after I had already realized my mistake and changed my behavior, you came and started verbally abusing me for having misspoken in the first place due to my lack of knowledge. Again, I’ve already been educated and changed my behavior.

What value do you believe that your comments brought by being abusive after someone had already recognized their biases and changed them? Do you believe you are helping to further change my beliefs or do you feel like you might just be pushing a wedge between two people who actually agree for no reason?

Disc rot

Back up your physical media!!

Imagine replying to the same person 3 times to say the same thing, and all 3 of them were idiotic because you misread their first comment.

I said “claims to be” not “are” and then further clarified that I was saying that the most recent time I had looked into it I found multiple sources saying they stilled claimed to be communist. I knew they weren’t actually communist, I always did. Because of course I knew about the fall of the Soviet Union. I just didn’t bother to pay attention to the actual internal structure of Russia because it didn’t apply to my life in any way

I don’t believe that you can speak about propaganda without context, and I didn’t claim that either. The “efficient phrases” thing is part of a puzzle, not the whole puzzle. What I do believe is that terms like “tankie” fill the same role “Jew” or “Gay” fill for the right. It’s a term used to change the perception of the speaker from “person/human being” to “undesirable with a bad opinion”

Since there is no realistic way to accurately and objectively determine what is or is not propaganda

Can you realistically accurately and objectively determine that the source of the claim was a tankie?

So it makes more sense to make wild claims about the person behind the message than it does to classify a piece of information based off of its linguistic characteristics?

Also, identifying propaganda isn’t difficult, I had to do it for classes in school several times. Here’s a helpful reminder on how to do so.

Choose the most efficient phrase from these options:

1. “This is propaganda which supports authoritarian communism”
2. “This is tankie propaganda”
3. “This is propaganda”

Notice how the message still gets across with that third one? It still tells you “these are lies or exaggerations that have misled you” without needlessly classing the source with a catch-all term that obfuscates their position as human beings with the right to live?

“Tankie” is a generalist term, the same as “leftist” and whatnot. The goal of terms like these is to put people into camps that are divided and label them as anything other than “human” because it’s a lot easier to say “100 dead tankies” than it is to say “100 dead humans”

My point is that terms like this detract from communication because they obfuscate the meaning behind what is being said. Using these terms, even if it is to fight against propaganda, makes it easier to continue using other terms that are similar in nature. This encourages people to use less people-centric language, which dehumanizes those around them and makes them easier targets. Best to just avoid using them at all IMO

I remember googling “which countries are still communist” back around 2018ish and Russia being at the top of many lists. It’s just another ripple effect from propaganda that hasn’t died out yet.

That being said, fighting propaganda is much easier with gentler words instead of name-calling in my experience

Oh man I made the mistake of saying the word Russia and now I must be evil. You’re right, they’re not technically communist and after double checking yeah they don’t claim it anymore either. Last time I really cared about Russia’s internals was quite a while ago, and despite few changes to their economic system they definitely used to at least claim to be communist. Or that was my understanding at the time.

The point still stands, a handful of countries claim to be communist. A handful of countries are communist. Whether that’s a good or bad thing is up to you to decide

Yeah, this pretty much sums it up. Didn’t really do anything wrong, but it sounds like you rubbed your buddy the wrong way. Smooth things over with him and move along with life

I think there’s like 12 countries that still claim to be communist. Cuba, China and Russia off the top of my head and there’s a handful of island nations that are doing quite well with it

It’s not a bad place to get search terms though