this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2023
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What's a tankie?
My personal definition would be "authoritarian communist (or """communist""") regime supporters/apologists". I think a good litmus test is, if the topic of the Tiananmen Square massacre comes up, and their first input is "Ok, but, how many zeroes did the number of dead civilians really have", they're probably too far gone to bother engaging much with
Too many anarchist/commune types consider the authoritarians to be their allies because they also hate the capitalists, right up until the point they're next on the list of undesirables destined for the wall
I feel like that definition would include a lot of anarchists I know tbh
I would hope there's not too many useful idiots who think left unity will get them anything but a free ride to a "re-education" camp
You talk about having reading comprehension like it's the ultimate skill in understanding yet you're talking about re-education camps as if they're an existing thing for that matter. You should get some media literacy skills before you go around acting smug about knowing how the world works
You realize that even in the wildest fantasies of Xi Jinping's biggest fans, every single Western capitalist country is generations away from revolution? We can do left unity because 0.000% of communism or anarchism have been built, and the early stages of building either involve the same goals: getting workers to stand in solidarity with each other instead of fighting over petty trivial nonsense like "tankies" online. There is literally 0 harm that so called "authoritarians" pose to other leftists, in fact the same leftists who clutch their pearls over "tankies" tend to be the ones defending imperialism and the imposition of western economic hegemony on the imperial periphery (as long as they get healthcare!). What is more authoritarian and useful-idiot-esque than that?
Idk I don't think that's a very useful or accurate way to look at things. I do a lot of organizing and mutual aid alongside leftists of all types, (as well as liberals).