this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2023
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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (4 children)

A tankie is someone who blindly supports authoritarian regimes simply because they’re anti-west

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

This basically shows that what you care about is whether someone is anti-west or not. You are a western nationalist. Not a socialist, and certainly not an internationalist.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm anti-west. I don't care at all if someone is anti-west, and in fact encourage it. But just because a regime is anti-west, that does not mean they're in the right or should be blindly supported.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You say you're anti west but every time the west says something about a bad guy you believe them

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

loving the absolute ratios these state dept shills are getting

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (2 children)

How do you differentiate yourself from them as a socialist? What is your theory of power and how it relates to authority, revolutions, and the working class that causes you to make this separation between supporting non-western communist countries and not?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I never said that I don't support communist countries. What I do not support are abuses of power by authoritarian leaders, even if they claim to be abusing their power in order to bring about a communist state.

Tankies accept most/all atrocities committed by so-called communist leaders with a "the ends justify the means" attitude that I do not share.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What atrocities in particular do tankies accept

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

you know what, fair, sorry brutalist comrades

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I'm more of a fan of Socialist Classicism myself

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

To be fair killing nazis is pretty cool. We made some movies about it.

It is neat you are a fan of doing things where the ends do not justify the means. How do bathing moral decay like that feel?

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I'm sorry, maybe I'm misunderstanding here. I think the delineation between authoritarian regimes and non-authoritarian governments is pretty clear - are you implying that all socialist and communist influenced governments are necessarily authoritarian?

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (23 children)

No, I'm suggesting that authoritarian is a meaningless term unless defined specifically and was asking what theories of power and authority they had for making the delineation they are.

The derogatory term authoritarian is always leveled at socialist or communist countries, and never capitalist ones even though capitalist countries restrict rights for the majority of their populations by the very nature of the inherent power structure in capitalism. Even though communist countries usually enjoy far more decentralised authority, better voting rights, and higher political involvement in the populace, they are labeled as "authoritarian," the implication being that they need "freedom" aka capitalism

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

What? The term authoritarian is thrown at non-communist/capitalist nations all the time. Syria, Nazi Germany, Libya, Franco's Spain, Modern Russia, and a million other instances. Authoritarian is a clearly defined term and is in no way exclusively applied to communist nations in almost any circles. It also happens to have been applied to most "communist" countries because most of them have been authoritarian

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (12 children)

Notice you didn't name the United States which is just as authoritarian as modern Russia by any definition we choose (voting rights? participation in political process? allowed dissent? access to clean water? basic access to healthcare? food desserts? policies meant to keep people in poverty?). That's my point. It's an ethereal term unless properly defined.

We'll have to set Libya aside since after given "freedom," there are now literal slave traders everywhere.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (14 children)

It's not clearly defined at all; try to give a definition of authoritarianism that applies to all of the countries frequently described as authoritarian, but not to any of the ones that aren't, and you'll see how vague a term it is.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (12 children)

Can you give an example of a 'non-authoritarian government'?

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (8 children)

I think the delineation between authoritarian regimes and non-authoritarian governments is pretty clear

Why are you unable to explain it then?

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I believe they are suggesting that, if "authoritarian" means anything, that every large state that has ever existed was "authoritarian," though some diffuse the authority through things like enclosure of the commons combined with strict property laws or other, older methods like religious law.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

And by blind. You mean checking the numbers on us propaganda and realize it is lies written in blood?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

See that’s the thing: the fact that the west lies doesn’t mean that the east tells the truth. You are heavily skeptical of what the west has to say (good) but mostly uncritical of what any communist government has to say (bad).

Capitalist countries have done horrible things, but so have self-proclaimed communist countries

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (10 children)

I have entire history books about how the west lies.

There is not a similar body of data about the loss of the east. Is it perfect? No. Do we have any reason to belive they are as bad or bad in the same kind of way as the people who oppose them? No.

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