Can someone ELI5 of what tankies are? It’s just something I haven’t run into in the USA (that I know of), and I’m baffled where and how they would fit into my understanding of the left and right on the USA political structure
As someone who’s wondered this myself but only now found the enthusiasm to look it up because I can’t be arsed to do anything for myself but this is what Wikipedia says:
“Tankie is a pejorative label generally applied to communists who express support for one-party communist states that are associated with Marxism–Leninism, whether contemporary or historical.”
Take it with a grain of salt tho people misuse labels like this all the time
I think that definition is pretty accurate about almost everybody I’ve seen being called a Tankie on lemmy.
The term was originated in the UK in the 60s by leftists who opposed the USSR’s tank-led occupations of Prague and Budapest. In that context “tankie” kinda makes sense.
I think this is actually pretty fair, but one thing I’ll add is that the implication of the word (being a reference to the use of tanks to put down revolts) is that tankies support the use of state violence against opposition
I have not found that to be true about many who are accused of being a tankie
I just have the people skills of a hand grenade that was recently divorced from its pin. I crave a tightly planned economy to provide highly deterministic relationships and rules, so I don’t have to schmooze and soft-sell my way to success. The spreadsheet says I’m a good worker!
In the US, tankies are usually the people who worship Soviet Russia and the USSR. In current politics, they often support Russia in the Ukraine conflict.
So here is what I find baffling - the people supporting Russia are the right wingers here, yet as far as I know they are not tankies… Nothing makes sense
Tankies defy logic and often their reactionary takes will land them on the same side of an issue with right-wingers. Usually using very different rhetoric, but in this one case… the right and the tankies sound pretty much the same.
Can someone ELI5 of what tankies are? It’s just something I haven’t run into in the USA (that I know of), and I’m baffled where and how they would fit into my understanding of the left and right on the USA political structure
As someone who’s wondered this myself but only now found the enthusiasm to look it up because I can’t be arsed to do anything for myself but this is what Wikipedia says:
“Tankie is a pejorative label generally applied to communists who express support for one-party communist states that are associated with Marxism–Leninism, whether contemporary or historical.”
Take it with a grain of salt tho people misuse labels like this all the time
I think that definition is pretty accurate about almost everybody I’ve seen being called a Tankie on lemmy.
The term was originated in the UK in the 60s by leftists who opposed the USSR’s tank-led occupations of Prague and Budapest. In that context “tankie” kinda makes sense.
I think this is actually pretty fair, but one thing I’ll add is that the implication of the word (being a reference to the use of tanks to put down revolts) is that tankies support the use of state violence against opposition
I have not found that to be true about many who are accused of being a tankie
And yet, they stan the CCP.
"Tankies are westerners that don’t think “China bad”
Excellent definition 👍
You slippin? The CCP and China aren’t the same.
Well fuck me, I thought the CPC was the single-party government of China, my bad.
Weird, does that mean being born in the U.S. automatically makes you a member of the U.S. govt?
Huh, when people criticize China, does that mean theyre not criticizing the government, but the people who are born there?
Remember that, like other forms of authoritarians, they are very comfortable lying.
It’s simply communists who want communism not to make everybody equal, but because they want their turn at the top of the social hierarchy.
Hey! I’m not interested in the social heirarchy.
I just have the people skills of a hand grenade that was recently divorced from its pin. I crave a tightly planned economy to provide highly deterministic relationships and rules, so I don’t have to schmooze and soft-sell my way to success. The spreadsheet says I’m a good worker!
In the US, tankies are usually the people who worship Soviet Russia and the USSR. In current politics, they often support Russia in the Ukraine conflict.
So here is what I find baffling - the people supporting Russia are the right wingers here, yet as far as I know they are not tankies… Nothing makes sense
Tankies defy logic and often their reactionary takes will land them on the same side of an issue with right-wingers. Usually using very different rhetoric, but in this one case… the right and the tankies sound pretty much the same.