Back then I used to buy into red-fash tankie propaganda about everything from Assad to Venezuela. I was once misinformed by RT, Max Blumenthal, Dore, and other “left” outlets and “journalists” back before I joined Twitter. This was back then when I started to become a leftist /1

Because I was younger and more impressionable back then, I also believed in some Syria gas attack truther stuff, that Hugo Chavez of Venezuela did no wrong, that Russia was right to annex Crimea, and felt that Saddam, Qaddafi, and the Iranian regime were necessary evils /2

I didn’t know any better self-awareness back then as I was becoming a leftist and I struggled to figure out what to believe, hence me being impressionable to conspiracy and red-fash types. I thought I was doing the right thing by opposing US imperialism and I believed it all /3

It was only when some online friends at a leftist Discord server told me the truth I realized I’ve been duped the entire time. After doing some research they recommended me I started to realize the situations clearer, and I deeply regretted being so gullible in the first place /4

I couldn’t understand why I didn’t know better. I couldn’t understand how I could’ve let myself believed genocide/authoritarian apologia. It made me so mad that I believed some really awful shit and I’m glad now that I’ve renounced the red-fash tankie stuff I once believed /5

I’m still proudly anti-imperialist, yet opposing US imperialism is no excuse for defending horrible regimes and that there are victims of them that have their own voices and agency that deserved to be heard and supported. I’m still can’t believe I was once somewhat a tankie /6

Ever since the HK protests, I noticed how the treatment they got from red-fash propaganda and tankies and the CCP apologia was what they’ve given to Syria, Libya, Nicaragua, etc. I now understood what must’ve felt to have one’s lived experiences being attacked and denied /7

by comfortable “journalists” and bigoted authoritarian propaganda outlets. It made me realize how foolish I was that I once bought into the same kind of vile propaganda that was being used against these protests by these tankies and propagandists. It made me ashamed and made /8

me understand how serious tankies and red-fash are at hijacking and gaslighting the left into believing some of the most awful shit since they once fooled me into their propaganda. For me to have once believed in awful conspiracy theories made me concerned about the fact that /9

so many people that believe in them. And the worst part is is that there’s a lot of people that do

I’m just glad I got out of the cult thanks to people that I owe my political development too. Without them I would’ve continued believing in such awful bullshit and possibly /10

even spewed then on this site. I’m glad that’s all behind me

The fact that I got duped is one of the major reasons I despise tankies, as they gaslighted people like me to believe in some of the most awful authoritarian/genocidal apologia shit out there. This is why I do /11

what I can to fight against this BS. Not just because I once bought into it, but that it’s also now being used against HKers, Uyghurs, Tibetans, and Chinese dissidents. I will not let them win anymore people just like they once won over me /End

Addendum: Here’s an article about red-fash propaganda that shaped my political development to where I am today https://libcom.org/library/investigation-red-brown-alliances-third-positionism-russia-ukraine-syria-western-left