Well, a "dunk tank" is a thing that is still done at carnivals, fairs, and the like even today. It does have exceptionally disgusting racist origins even though most people don't know about that (this is itself a ridiculously common phenomenon in the US: seemingly benign things with racist origins). I think you're right that the name for it here was derived mostly from the fact that we're dunking on bad things, and "dunking" on something that way, as a term, has its origins in basketball. But the play-on-words with the carnival thing was intentional. Innocent of course, but still intentionally a reference to the carnival dunk tanks as a kind of pun playing with the newer slang from basketball dunking. So as a name for a comm, it's about both, if that makes sense. At least that's my understanding.

For sure. And I don't mean to paint all anarchists with the same brush, since there are genuine anarchists as well as people who use the label anarchist and who even believe themselves to be anarchists, but who I think we would all here would agree are just radlibs at best. But even drawing on my own experience as my leftism developed (which it still is), it wasn't like a conscious "I want to impress liberals" thought process, but more like wanting people to know that I was aware of the "evils of authoritarianism" and that being a leftist and anticapitalist didn't require a submission to "authoritarian" doctrine. I imagine I'm not the only one who felt that way, and even though I know better now, I can still see it sometimes in other people who call themselves anarchists, people who correctly recognize liberals as the common enemy of all leftists, but who still are careful to avoid being associated with "tankies."

I was a little reluctant to even use the software analogy because I tend to have the same reaction to it. But I think the problem there for me anyway is that the bazingabrain (lol at your username in this context) dipshits who loved using it so much not only made it cliche but failed to understand it was an analogy and took it as literally true, which is fucking absurd. In this case, I figured it was fitting enough that I could get away with using it.

You're right, there is definitely theory reasons too, but I think that's more general to states as a concept and doesn't do much to explain the specific grudge against the USSR or why there seems to be hatred for it that goes beyond states in general. There's historical reasons for that specific hate of course, which other comments covered better than I could, but I answered the way I did because of Frank's (OP's) edit about sources of information.

I think there's still another aspect for the specific anti-Soviet sentiment that has to do with many anarchists wanting to differentiate themselves from MLs or "tankies." Since we all agree we're on the left, there's a desire for a lot of anarchists to draw a clear distinction between themselves and those they perceive as adversaries or enemies, and strong disapproval with the USSR is a pretty obvious way to do that. I suspect part of that may in some cases come from a kind of "I'm one of the good ones" or "pick me" attitude, since they can say to liberals "yes, I am a radical leftist, but I'm not like those bad authoritarian tankies that we all know are the bad guys!" But the need to do even that I think has a lot to do with the general anti-communist milieu, that "malware" we're all indoctrinated with by default.

I think AssortedBiscuits answered your question in the first couple sentences of their comment:

Most Westerners already hate communists and carry the grudge against the USSR. Anarchists don't really deviate too much from some generic Westerner.

It's really not any deeper than that. There's no need or reason to single out anarchists from any other average westerner when analyzing the source of animosity for the USSR because the answer is going to be the same whether you're talking about chuds, liberals, or anarchists. Even the non-western anarchists who hold a grudge against the USSR, the answer is probably still the same just because of the prevalence of western cultural hegemony all over the world. In your edit, you specify:

I'm curious about what information sources - mentors, friends, books, TV, cultural osmosis, conveys that information to people. Where do individuals encounter this information and how does it become important to them.

But the answer to that is the same information sources you yourself were probably exposed to early on. It's all the same shit we're steeped in, the ubiquity of anti-communism throughout western culture. Animal Farm and 1984 were required reading for me in junior high and high school respectively. The class discussions around these books were centered around teaching us that the USSR was corrupt, oppressive, and that these communist ideals that may sound like good ideas will always and invariably lead to "authoritarianism" and "totalitarian dictatorships" like the Soviet Union. Everyone absorbs that shit young, even the people who might later go on to question the truth of what they were taught, like anarchists.

You say

Newly minted Anarchists have to learn to hate Lenin and Stalin and whoever else they have a grudge against.

But no they don't. Not as newly-minted anarchists anyway. That brainworm software was already installed long ago before they became anarchists. A major part of becoming a leftist is going through a process of uninstalling all that brainworm malware. Anarchists who still hate the Soviet Union are people who have been successful at uninstalling much of the brainworm malware, it's just that they haven't completed the process by uninstalling the anti-Soviet or anti-"tankie" worms... yet. And I say all this as someone who long considered themself an anarchist.

You can do it, comrade. Try to keep yourself occupied and engaged with things, just preferably not things you're only used to doing while smoking tho. I'm sure you know all that already, but those kind of small reminders were helpful for me.

You got this.

I mean he's old enough that statistically he really should have, he's over 100 now so it's a bit shocking when you remember that he hasn't. I always remember he's alive just because of those factoids though. He's been alive for 40% of the entire history of this despicable settler colonial fash country.

I honestly would have thought it was a bit making fun of dipshit libs if they hadn't gone mask off in other comments and proving once again the validity of the "scratched liberal" saying.

That's kinda funny because yours is a username I have recognized for a long time as one that writes impressively well and is always on point, a name that when I see it I think "yep, this will be a good comment."

This "frothing mess of a comment"? LOL, it was clear, coherent, consistent, well written, and it took you to task on how slimey and ignorant not to mention hypocritical you are, so you call it a "frothing mess." I wonder who is really and here.

But no surprise the only thing you're "getting out of it" isn't something she even implied.

How tf did the dems fuck up so bad?

×gesturing broadly in all directions×

• Gaza if anything has an ever slightly better chance than if the current regime that is currently funding its genocide had won.

• Yeah, Ukraine is fucked, but it was anway and would be no matter who won. Also, this is a good thing.

• No more than they already were.

• No more than they already were.

• No more than they already were.

• The Biden/Harris regime loved doing brinkmanship to bring us closer to WW3 and did so far more than Trump did during his previous presidency. We'll see though.

• The Biden/Harris regime did more deportation than Trump, they built his wall, and they were promising to do even more to ruin lives and families if elected again. It was a competition with Trump on who could be worse and more evil.

• It does suck that Elon Musk is probably happy, I agree.

That is so fucking grim. The rot of American cultural hegemony has already so thoroughly infected so much of the globe. To know that it's not just getting worse but accelerating, killing even faster any actual culture the world over, it really drives me into a doomer emotional state.

When I go there, it still says

"502 Bad Gateway. The backend of this service is currently down, but it will probably be up again soon."

But yeah, hopefully it will be soon, so I'll keep checking. We need more invidious instances, especially now when almost all the youtube frontends got wiped out.

deleted by creator

Yellowstone take my energy ༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ

I wanted to say this one was me, but I'm not that cool.

Maybe this one?

I just wanted to broaden the horizon and yap about an interest

It was an excellent comment, I learned from it and have an even deeper appreciation for GPS now.

I agree that GPS has had a significant even profound effect on us as a global society and as individuals, I just think that it's far from the only technology that has. But fair enough on it being one of the better examples.

Alright this just struck me as so on so many levels. Like, not just the randomness of GPS being the specific thing that is the singular modern miracle, not just that new-fangled technology existing that people who are now dead didn't get to experience is the reason why it's sad they're dead, but even why it is noteworthy that Helen Mirren has these thoughts, and why was she saying this of Kurt Cobain of all people?

I figured there had to be more context, and there is, but nowhere near enough to adequately answer my questions. Apparently though, this isn't a one-off. She is known for talking about Kurt Cobain and how modern technology relates to his death.

Of course, the comment came amid a broader point she was making about aging. “If you’re lucky, you get to be older,” she continued. “And then there you are. Oh my God, I’m 79! I never thought I’d be 79. And then you say, OK, well this is it. This is what 79 is. And it’s kind of OK. It’s not brilliant, but it was not that brilliant to be 25 either.”

Mirren has referenced Cobain numerous times in the past when discussing the nature of aging. In 2014, she told Oprah Winfrey, “Look at Kurt Cobain — he hardly even saw a computer! The digital stuff that’s going on is so exciting. I’m just so curious about what happens next.”

A year later, she told Cosmopolitan, “I was thinking about Kurt Cobain the other day and he died without knowing the internet, and I’m totally blown away by that.” And, in 2016, she said to the Daily Mail, “If I’d died at 27, the age that Kurt Cobain [of rock band Nirvana] died in 1994, I’d never have even known there was an internet! Incredible things are happening all the time and I can’t wait to see what comes next.”

I suppose it's mildly (very mildly) interesting to know that some celebrity I have a vague notion of (Mirren) is an unlikely fan of another celebrity who I was once a huge fan of. And I guess everyone has their own unique ways of contemplating their mortality.