The mods at memes@lemmy.ml didn't appreciate this post being popular and deleted it.
this post was submitted on 13 Oct 2023
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I wonder... Maybe it's just the mods. I had no idea what a tankie was, and the definition I was getting was ridiculous - so I went over to lemmygrad
They didn't defend Mao or China (which is by any definition, capitalist). They just attacked America, which is whataboutism, but not the same as defending authoritarian countries... They did make a lot of nonsensical posts about dielectric dichotomies, but again, that's an ideology without a firm core, very different from supporting genocidal regimes like Russia or China (which are again, forms of tightly controlled capitalism -ussr included)
Although I was attacked for my spelling and criticized for using the term tankie, no one actually said anything supporting authoritarian regimes. Every snipe I made at China or Russia got zero reaction
But I didn't get any attention from the mods, maybe there's another story there
The problem with the definition isnt that its inaccurate per se irs more so that tankies have kinda realized on some level that they get derided for it so they cover it in like 5 layers of obfuscation. Combine that with folks doing it ironically and ya get a 4chan situation where ya cant tell whos serious and whos not.
Also doesnt help that some of them are legit just anti-american and just dont think about anything outside of North America. Theyre a diverse group and the term Tankie was xreated long enough ago that its sorta becomes inaccurate with the edge cases.
Nah, I spent some time over there getting to the root of what they believe. There's multiple shades of what they do believe, none of them were the unironic "Stalin did nothing wrong" types.
Let me tell you what clued me into the fact there was something fishy - the devs of Lemmy, the decentralized, impossible to control or monetize social network software, support highly centralized, authoritarian regimes that were always run through a form of state owned capitalism? That's a pretty big ideological mismatch.
The term is being used as an umbrella to dismiss all communists. Over at lemmygrad, the majority is primarily Marxist-Leninist... But it's even more fair to say they're just anti capitalism and have been sold on the idea that that's the only other option on the table
The problem is by labeling someone a tankie, you prevent them from engaging in the conversation they sorely need to develop a better understanding of political and economic systems. And they do need it... Their ideology ends at "the workers unite and take back control", and movements that end up in control with no game plan are how you end up with terrible ideas, like the Soviet model
IMO, there's a big gap between Marxist-Leninist and being a shill for authoritarian regimes... You say they're hiding their denial of genocide because they've smartened up. I say who cares what's in their hearts, if they're not denying genocides then don't give them the same label as those who are