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My new favorite hobby is calling tankies bad-faith imperialist shills and implying they're not communist enough
(lemmy.world)
this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2023
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Tankiejerk
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Dunking on Tankies from a leftist perspective.
A tankie is someone who defends/supports authoritarian or even totalitarian regimes who call themselves "socialist". The term originated from people supporting the 1956 invasion of Hungary by the Soviet Union. Nowadays they are just terminally online, denying genocides, and falling for totalitarian propaganda and calling such regimes "true democracies". remember to censor usernames when necessary.
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They're now trying to say liberals are actually conservatives to confuse all of the liberals. It's a valid technique that could work if they keep trying to do it.
The term tankie is confusing to me as well though. Did this start because of North Korea, Russia, China parades or Tienanmen Square or something? It seems easier to just call them fascists.
From wikipedia:
Basically it's because certain western communists defended the use of tanks by the Soviet Union to forcibly crush rebellions, hence the term "tankie". I think it's useful to have the term because they're a distinct phenomenon from regular fascists in that they at least pretend to be leftist and thus tend to use different talking points and arguments — even if it's to achieve the same fascist goals.
I didn't realize it was such an old term and it could actually be looked up. The first I've heard of it was when I came to Lemmy. Thanks for clarifying.
Red fash is a good alternative to tankie
Don't say it in US. GOP is red, but wrong kind of red.
Ah didn't know they had already reserved that term
Well, American liberals are pretty much capitalists that just want to spend more. Progressives might be more the distinction you had in mind
Agreed, as an American liberal with one crucial distinction, we want to spend more to return more. 15% of my pay goes to health insurance. I'd like to spend more on the government level to return more on a societal level
It's a particular flavor of fascism, and a direct reference to Tienanmen Square.
while tankies ARE fascists the word "tankie" actually comes from the 1956 Hungarian revolution, when the Soviets sent in tanks to crush a democratic socialist revolution. The tankie part comes from the people who were overjoyed and happy when the tanks rolled in. (IFAIK mainly used for Western communists)
The term comes from support of Russia using tanks not support of China's use.