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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 ?
Please see the sidebar for definitions.
"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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
Do the posts in this community feature tankies?
Hey look everyone, a bad-faith comment defending the bad-faith targets of this meme.
Neato!