Tankie is a pejorative label generally applied to authoritarian communists, especially those who support or defend acts of repression by such regimes, their allies, or deny the occurrence of the events thereof. More specifically, the term has been applied to those who express support for one-party Marxist–Leninist socialist republics, whether contemporary or historical. It is commonly used by anti-authoritarian leftists, anarchists, libertarian socialists, left communists, social democrats, democratic socialists, and reformists to criticise Leninism, although the term has seen increasing use by liberal and right‐wing factions as well.[5][4]
The term came into use for communists who supported the Soviet Union sending in tanks to crush the Hungarian Revolution in 1956, with the commentary being that tankies supported Soviet imperialism over local revolution.
So supporting Palestine over Israel doesn’t make someone a tankie, but supporting Russia over Ukraine does.
By skimming the front page I don’t see many tankie-traits. Loads of communism and socialism, sure, but not much tankie stuff. But I’m sure there’s a lot of them in the comments with “interesting” takes on the cultural revolution and the holodomor.
In practice, liberals and anarchists call anyone who defines themselves as a communist a tankie. Liberals will frequently use it for anyone who claims to be any sort of socialist.
Maybe sometimes. I don’t think this is generally true. Though I’ve also met tankies who think you’re not a real communist unless you’re a tankie. Are you one of those people?
To me you’re not a tankie unless you consistently apologize for, minimize, or dismiss oppression under so-called socialist countries. There are a decent number of communists who don’t do this but they’re not the majority from what I’ve seen.
I don’t know why you’re getting downvoted for this. I’ve SEEN real tankies, doing odd things like cheering for BRICS to rise up or Russia to defeat NATO in Ukraine because late stage capitalist oligarchy counts as communism if it’s Russian or something, I don’t know?
But the VAST majority of the time I see it used is by neoliberals as an excuse to dismiss literally anyone anywhere on the actual political left out of hand.
I still have no idea what a Tankie is. As far as I can tell it only exists here on Lemmy and I might be one.
It’s just a variety of fascist, pretending to belong with ideologies and principles that are not compatible
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tankie
Tankie is a pejorative label generally applied to authoritarian communists, especially those who support or defend acts of repression by such regimes, their allies, or deny the occurrence of the events thereof. More specifically, the term has been applied to those who express support for one-party Marxist–Leninist socialist republics, whether contemporary or historical. It is commonly used by anti-authoritarian leftists, anarchists, libertarian socialists, left communists, social democrats, democratic socialists, and reformists to criticise Leninism, although the term has seen increasing use by liberal and right‐wing factions as well.[5][4]
The term came into use for communists who supported the Soviet Union sending in tanks to crush the Hungarian Revolution in 1956, with the commentary being that tankies supported Soviet imperialism over local revolution.
So supporting Palestine over Israel doesn’t make someone a tankie, but supporting Russia over Ukraine does.
Not a Tankie! 🥳
As an example, I recently had someone unironically claim that china has more free speech than france, from a server hosted in france 🤦
If you want to see some non-lemmy tankies, check out https://raddle.me/.
By skimming the front page I don’t see many tankie-traits. Loads of communism and socialism, sure, but not much tankie stuff. But I’m sure there’s a lot of them in the comments with “interesting” takes on the cultural revolution and the holodomor.
In practice, liberals and anarchists call anyone who defines themselves as a communist a tankie. Liberals will frequently use it for anyone who claims to be any sort of socialist.
Maybe sometimes. I don’t think this is generally true. Though I’ve also met tankies who think you’re not a real communist unless you’re a tankie. Are you one of those people?
To me you’re not a tankie unless you consistently apologize for, minimize, or dismiss oppression under so-called socialist countries. There are a decent number of communists who don’t do this but they’re not the majority from what I’ve seen.
I don’t know why you’re getting downvoted for this. I’ve SEEN real tankies, doing odd things like cheering for BRICS to rise up or Russia to defeat NATO in Ukraine because late stage capitalist oligarchy counts as communism if it’s Russian or something, I don’t know?
But the VAST majority of the time I see it used is by neoliberals as an excuse to dismiss literally anyone anywhere on the actual political left out of hand.
neoliberals would not call you a “tankie”, since “communist” is already a deogratory/perjorative term for them.
You’re right. It seems to be mostly anarchists and such. There might have been more tankies back in the day, or maybe I just misremembered.