It's worth more than one visit, just due to its huge diversity. Food is amazing, and it's very lively. But you have to get used to it, and go with the flow. If you can't live without all the first world luxuries and/or don't feel comfortable stepping outside your bubble, don't go, it's not the place for you.
Would I live there? No.
And I'm deeply saddened by the political direction it's heading in. But don't form opinions about countries you've never been to.
I'm in the US and "lefty" might mean something different for me than it does for you. Where I live and the sites I go on - have leftys on there but no, they never use the term tankie.
As I mentioned, it's used in discussion circles with leftists beyond center left (i.e. someone who's more left than Bernie Sanders): Anarchists, Marxists, Maoists, etc. Lemmy might be the only site you go to that has a sizable proportion of these.
On Reddit, if you go to places like r/anarchism, r/socialism, r/stupidpol, you get to see it being used.
Annoying is an opinion yes, but I'm saying its annoying because of how often it is brought up.
It's brought up a lot here because there are a lot of them on lemmy. You'd never hear people around your neighborhood complain about something that doesn't happen in your neighborhood.
Maybe you are not seeing as many because your instance might block them. But I see them all the time is news articles about Ukraine or North Korea.
I see that there's a discussion thread that goes on about this, not gonna get involved on that.
I self-host my own instace, save articles I want to read from my laptop, and then they sync with the app on my phone. I read them offline when I have some time to kill
Have a look at comments in any news article regarding Ukraine. They will simp for Russia just because they are not US allies.
A tankie is commonly used to refer to someone who blindly defends the actions of the USSR, China, North Korea, etc. Going as far as denying human rights abuses and genocide.
You can't have a discussion about anything without some tankie blaming it on Ukrainians / the west / capitalism, etc.
"Oh you stubbed your toe on the table? See, tables are oppressive furniture of the bourgeoisie. The Chinese government wanted to make all tables toe-stubbing resistent, but that would affect IKEA's bottom line and the pharmaceutical industry's profits. I have a source from tankiepeoplesmagazine to back this up."
Because one can be pinned down to government involvement, while the other can't.
It's the classic CCP defense: "We're not an authoritarian country, you're just racist!".
EDIT: not saying that it was or wasn't a lab leak, but as soon as the government shoots down the possibility with "you're racist", I immediately get suspicious. The same way that I get suspicious when Israel shoots down criticism with "you're just anti-Semitic". It's basically gaslighting with identity politics.
Russia is not even pretending to be communist anymore. It's a full blown corrupt capitalist oligarchy. But just because it's not an US ally, they will defend it.
I’m black fyi so no, I’m not going anywhere, you however will be leaving with your nazi trash
What does that have to do with anything?
You accused the website of being Nazi, when it has a left-leaning bias. How does being black make any difference regarding an uninformed opinion like that?
Hexbear? I wasn't expecting that.
Apologies to hexbear users that I may have called Chinese bots. You were just useful idiots after all.