Unfortunately, the only way to kick tankies out of 196 is to get 196 out of Lemmy. Because Lemmy is being developed by two tankies themselves, with a third one about to join. And because despite being defederated from hexbear and lemmygrad, lemmy.ml is still a free roam place for tankies from those two cesspool places. So, either defederate yourselves from lemmy.ml (nobody would do that), or fork lemmy into a new clean place (not impossible, but difficult to perform), or do as beehaw will do soon.
So, either defederate yourselves from lemmy.ml (nobody would do that)
I mean, if push comes to shove why not? It’s not the “main instance” anymore, it’s only got twice the users of Hexbear. Around a third of .world. I don’t think defederating would be that bad of an idea if they get too oppressive.
Choose an instance that defederated with hexbear and lemmygrad and you won't see many tankies. Even if they post on Lemmy.ml you won't see it because that is how federation works.
I didn't try on any lemmy instance, but while I was on Kbin, I've posted some comments on lemmy.ml (worldnews, if I remember correctly). Nothing out of the ordinary. One tankie called me a nazi (I had to change my profile photo becuase of that), and other tankie called me a loser, having myself ADHD and ASD.
But on Kbin I can block communities and even instances. On Lemmy I don't have that option yet. So, when I see some random post from lemmy.ml while browsing "all", I block that community and goodbye problems.
Beehaw is looking for a new place to be, mostly because of the lack of modding tools (I think there is a post on that instance). But if that migration allows them to avoid tankies and other kind of fascists, that's better. Can't blame them, I was harassed by tankies as well some weeks ago.