Yes I’ve seen it used that way commonly. I’m seeing it used that way commonly right now. The “joke” originates from a picture of Xi Jinping and Barack Obama in which the Asian man is compared to a yellow bear, and the black man is compared to an African cat named “Tigger”. If you saw people calling Obama “Tigger” (or “a tigger”, so be a bit less subtle about it) as an epithet, I seriously doubt you’d be willing to accept claims of ignorance, or that “catch a tiger by the toe, if he hollers let him go” is just a harmless phrase that people say because it “upsets” him in a totally race neutral way.

I’m glad you mentioned the Trump hands thing too, because while there’s not an analogous racial component, you make the joke for the same reason: it’s not to “upset Trump”, who absolutely doesn’t know you exist and is totally unaffected by anything you personally say or do. You do it to identify yourself to other American liberals as a consumer of John Oliver or Stephen Colbert’s TV shows. I think it’s petty and stupid to substitute fandom for politics, but at the end of the day, correcting you on that isn’t terribly important to me. Trump is a white American whose deliberate actions have made life materially worse for most people I personally know, and who has no shortage of public statements that are repugnant on their face. The entire US political and economic system exists to protect him and people like him.

Why do I give a shit what petty superficial shit you say about Xi then? I promise it’s not for his benefit. I don’t know the guy, and crucially, I don’t think you do either. I believe that you hate him, but I don’t believe it’s for anything specific that he personally said or did. I’m no expert, but by all accounts he seems to be a pretty boring guy that says pretty normal generic shit about development, stability, and cooperation. I’m willing to bet you don’t speak Chinese, or have some terribly deep personal connection to China, so I’m also willing to bet he only exists for you as a vague symbol of “badness” constructed through your consumption of English language capitalist media. Media produced by Euro-American companies with a direct financial stake in manufacturing consent for a war against China. I think if Xi were replaced tomorrow with a literal mannequin, you’d still believe you had good reasons for hating that mannequin. The reason I wasted my time typing all this isn’t because I believe Xi needs to be protected from you (maliciously or not) making racist jokes on the internet. It’s because I would really prefer it if English speaking people that probably believe themselves to be kind and good and caring didn’t invest their time and effort and energy into dehumanizing and othering one of the most populous nations on earth toward the end of justifying a nuclear war that will probably end human life on earth. There are simply less destructive ways to get your lulz online.

When have racist depictions of Eastern Europeans as monkeys been a thing?

LoL that’s such a stretch.
Plus everyone knows Tiggers are marvelous chaps, and loaded with vim and vigor. Tiggers are wonderful things, and so, hardly an insult.

I’m still a proud leftist, but geez nothing has made me question that stance more than seeing how fervently the tankies deny genocides and defend aggressive warmongering—as long as the country perpetrating it is one that calls itself “communist”, or is a successor to one that used to call itself communist.

If that were true then we’d all be falling over ourselves to defend Pol Pot instead of calling him a shit and a CIA puppet and not wanting anything to do with him.

You see that’s kind of where the problem is. You can say there’s a genocide and I can say “where” and that gives me the vibe of a genocide denier. I’ve looked for evidence, I’ve asked for evidence, but the best I’ve ever gotten is a satellite image of some prison in China, some (AI padded) mugshots with no context, and some thorough browbeating by very serious liberals.

Let me put this another way. I’m of Jewish descent. My great aunt was in a camp. I’m not trying to “deny” any genocides, but what should my standard of evidence be? Particularly when there is a clear incentive for western media to create false narratives about their enemies, and have done so before?

If you have something to present that I haven’t seen, I and the other “tankies” are wide open to engage with it.

how fervently the tankies deny genocides

wait did they deny the real ones or the made up ones?

Horseshoe theory only makes sense if you don’t think about it for even one second.

So, not surprised it makes total sense to you

Ok, the Khmer Rouge of Cambodia committed genocide when they were nominally communist at the time. Is that good enough for you? It’s the most noteworthy example I can think of. Actually maybe the Shining Path too, in Peru. I never liked them or their methods.

The supposed genocide in Xinjiang is not at all the same thing. There’s no open warfare, rebellion, nothing to suggest what western nations are claiming is happening. The only evidence I’ve seen is that prisons exist in Xinjiang, and their prisons are much like prisons anywhere else on the world. All other evidence I’ve seen comes from one specific person, the deluded mind of Adrian Zenz. A man who cannot speak Chinese, has never lived in China, and he’s one guy.

Hm, so you’re saying that every political faction “denies genocide and defends aggressive warmongering”? Could it perhaps be that every faction gets accused at one point or another of genocide and aggressive warmongering, and it’s your responsibility as a political person to use your brain to figure out who is lying?

boohoo wittle baby got mad people are on their left.

getting your sources from a “very left wing NGO” how about actual socialists if you’re a ‘socialist.’ I get that you’re Swedish Swiss, we have more people in prison doing forced labor in America than in these ‘genocide camps’ so it’s really hard to take people seriously when they act like ‘genocide’ in China should somehow be at the forefront of what leftists in the west concern themselves with.

no worries, thanks for being receptive

You hadn’t thought of it because it’s completely made up. Xi started getting compared to Winnie the Pooh by Chinese citizens after a picture came out showing Xi and former US President Obama together in a similar pose to Pooh and Tigger. Used originally for rather light-hearted ribbing of Xi, the Chinese government decided to crack down on it hard, which has had a massive Streisand Effect with the comparison between Xi and Pooh becoming popular in the West because Xi has shown how sensitive he is to it.

There’s no racial component to it at all. It’s all about being critical of the absurd censorship of the current PRC’s government.

Yeah, the comments of yours in the modlog are rude but the mod is definitely reaching and banning you for dissent

Not anything that they said, but go off.

You know, China can have problems without being comically evil, right?

I have friends who immigrated from China or live here part time, it is just a normal country. Maybe free-er and more democratic in some ways than here, and worse in some other aspects.

Your racism is showing.

✅ casual homophobia

✅ owns a gender-affirming vehicle

✅ accusing other people of being like Trump

✅ ‘canadian’

to be frank I don’t really trust your ability to assess the truth of anything

The moment liberals face any push back on their accusations, out come the homophobic insults.

Can you find any reports of an increase in terrorism in the area? Groups being discriminated against so heavily will always resort to violent self defense.

Can you find any reports of mass refugees? Groups being targeted by genocide always try to flee to other places where they won’t be targeted.