• Excrubulent@slrpnk.net
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      1 year ago

      Do you really not know or are you pretending not to know because you want to be able to claim it’s a meaningless term?

      Also there’s already an explanation in this thread.

        • MiddleWeigh@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Don’t worry. I asked what a tankie was on my first day on lemmy. I learned, sure enough, I learned.

        • Excrubulent@slrpnk.net
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          1 year ago

          Okay, sorry, it’s just often tankies will say “what is a tankie?” because of the reasons I mentioned. Case in point, look at the person saying “what the fuck is a tankie” then immediately mocking the person who answered them.

          I’m sorry for my snark, I slept poorly and should probably not be interacting with people rn.

          Edit: oh, looks like that thread was nuked so I was wrong about the question already being answered lol. I owe you even more apologies ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

          Basically a tankie is someone that wants to be a socialist or a communist but thinks that means supporting the USSR or Maoist China, which are self-admittedly state capitalist.

          The term originally comes from people who supported the USSR rolling tanks into Hungary to crush their rebellion. Lately such people have supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on the basis that anything anti-US interests is somehow socialist, despite modern Russia just being a nakedly hypercapitalist/fascist dystopia, and also despite the expansionist invasion just being like super obviously evil.

          • Legendsofanus@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            That’s super informative, so most people are just ignoringly saying that communism pertains to USSR or Maoist China when they were actually capitalist states? Is this a recent development?

            I don’t know anything tbh but Karl Marx seemed pretty commie so idk what happened to change it.

            • astral_avocado@programming.dev
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              1 year ago

              Yes. It seems to be a propaganda echo chamber they’ve placed themselves in where they wholesale distrust any western/European media and 100% trust all Chinese/Russian state media. They full on defend Russia and China as a core part of their political ideology.

      • SasquatchBanana@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Tankies are not lefists. Don’t let them fool you. They are statists who are nationalistic and will support fascistic ideology. The only thing they believe is America Bad and therefore anything that hates America is good. Brain dead

        • figaro@lemdro.id
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          1 year ago

          Yeah it’s pretty dead brained. Obviously America has problems and I’ll be the first one to point out it’s flaws. I do my best to learn about them and be aware of them.

          That doesn’t mean that China gets to genocide anyone they don’t like.

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Tankies are not lefists.

          The only folks I ever see accused of being tankies are to the left of the folks claiming they are tankies. Sometimes that means you’re talking to Michael Moore. Sometimes that means you’re talking to Pete Buttigieg. Sometimes that means you’re talking to Mitt Romney. But its always a guy to your left.

          The only thing they believe is America Bad

          The dirty little secret about American politics is that everyone thinks America Bad. Texas conservatives hate California. New York liberals hate Florida. Half of Michigan hates the other half. When the US gets hit by a hurricane, its either because the state at ground zero is too Christian or too Libertarian or too Gay, take your pick.

          If hating America is all it takes to be a Tankie…

          • SasquatchBanana@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            It’s also the fascism they support. They are all okay with “communist” China and Russia and I have met too many tankies who unironically support North Korea. Such a joke.

            Tankies just use leftist populism as a facade, like how the Nazis did, but deep down their values don’t align with actual communists and anarchists.