this post was submitted on 06 Nov 2024
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MeanwhileOnGrad
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Meanwhile On Grad
Documenting hate speech, conspiracy theories, apologia/revisionism, and general tankie behaviour across the fediverse. Memes are welcome!
What is a Tankie?
Alternatively, a detailed blog post about Tankies.
(caution of biased source)
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Not sure yet what this "tankie" thing is about... It seems to be an american thing, and as far as I understand it is used to disqualify anyone not aligned with social democrat point of view (ie western world is the good ones, despite what the 70 last years show us, capitalism is the least worst system, and societal liberalism is a huge enough concession to leftism). Or am I wrong ?
Tankie is a derogatory term for Marxist Leninists, people that call themselves communist but actually are in favour of dictatorships and oligarchies. The name come from the fact that they supported the tanks that were killing peaceful protesters in the Tianamen Square massacre in China. And asking a genuine question is fine, shouldn't judge people for that.
The "tank" in tankie came from the support of the Soviet intervention in the Hungarian 1956 revolution, which itself had a lot of leftist elements, such as wanting to make those state owned "worker cooperatives" into real ones like they were before the 1950's, not just state enterprises with a state-elected "factory principal" (CEO).
"Tankie" refers to the kinds of people who like Soviet and Chinese style oligarchies because they paint themselves red. Often, these people are in opposition to all Western countries, and social democrats in particular, whom they think of as 'social fascists' and, in many cases, oppose social democrats more than actual right-wing opposition.
I would define them as people who reject facts and instead focus on idealizing anything "anti west"
Please see the sidebar for definitions.
Tankies were originally members of the Communist Party of Great Britain who were in favour of Soviet tanks mowing down first Hungarian and secondly Czechoslovakian ( as they were then ) protesters. These days it’s used as a pejorative towards anyone who has a good thing to say about communism / socialism etc.
It generally a tankie is someone who rejects facts in favor of beliefs. That is often communism related but I have also seen liberal people who also tend to fall into that category.
It’s almost like there are people blinded by messianic fervour on both (all) parts of the political spectrum. Who’d’ve thunk it? Humans be deeply flawed creatures - but I love them all. (Apart from actual arm band wearing Nazis.)
lol no it's not. You can be a communist and not be a tankie. Tankies are hardly communists themselves.
Tankies are authoritarians and defend authoritarianism. Do not use apologia.
I don't think communism works without authoritarianism. Communism leads to mass starvation and totalitarianism in the end.
I think a lot of people would define tankie as someone who is communist or far left. The the key characteristic of a tankie is rejecting factual information in favor of beliefs
You genuinely have never heard it used in a pejorative way against any red? I never said all commies were tankies. I explained the words etymology and then its subsequent broad (mis)application in current online parlance. Hope you’re not reading theory with those comprehension skills, comrade.
I'm not the one lacking in reading comprehension.
Do you not believe that the tankies featured in this community are indeed tankies?
What I’m saying is that whilst actual Tankies did, and still do, exist you do not have to be one to be called one. It’s now become a catch-all slur applied well outside of its original target.
Get out of here tankie
Just kidding
That’s really tickled me…
Nice to see humour still exists out there. I can’t believe how all these (apparently) politically literate people (I think predominantly they’re Yanks) throw around these words: fascist, Tankies, liberal, libertarian, conservative etc with little precision. It’s a pity as all it does is stifle interactions - and no one will find common ground. Good way to keep the serfs under the cosh if they’re all bickering amongst themselves.
Do the posts in this community feature tankies?