this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2024
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I still don't get what tankie means...
Edit: None of those comments helped. Especially the guy who unironically used the word "centrist".
“Leftists” who support authoritarianism and hierarchies.
Its named after the Soviets sending tanks in to suppress people uprising in Hungary.
The historic use of the word was to distinguish leftists who supported the Soviet Unions use of tanks to suppress a revolt in Budapest in 1956 from communists.
EDIT: Now it more generally refers to anyone who believes in Actually Existing Socialism, or AES, and by extension denies the categorization of State Capitalism, the predominant mode of production in the world today where governments employ the majority of workers.
Isn't it generally just all sort of authoritarian socialists or communists
I'm a communist, but not a tankie because I use the dictionary definition of communism rather than pretending autocratic state capitalism is somehow communism.
Edit: Tankies getting triggered by the dictionary - you funny fascistic fucks, you.
Well yes but actually no
That's how I've seen it used
That's how it should be used but it's thrown around for basically anything. I got called a tankie for talking shit about the American military, never mentioned anything else. A few months ago, it really felt like Red Scare 2.0 on here.
I think it's often now used for those socialists/communists who support China and especially Russia
That's what I'm saying, it isn't. It's used willy nilly in debates, regardless of the other users political allegiance. OP of this post got called a tankie two days ago lol.
What it means and what it's actually being used for are two different things.
I think we've had different experiences on how we've seen it used. Almost always I've seen it it has been used by a leftist towards some other leftist (well socialist, communist) who was supporting China, Russia, Iran, maybe Houthis nowadays and so on.
Top left of political compass.
Per Urban dictionary. Centrists use it to slur socialists/communists.
No.
I’m as far left as they come, I hate tankies, authoritarian loving pieces of shit.
That's because tankies are far-right - red fascists.
Tankies don’t realize you can’t change the system.
Huh? Tankies realize you CAN change the system, if you're cool with genociding your own people..."undesirables"
Auths are all for getting rid of the undesirables until the state runs out and they're next on the list
Tankies are explicitly trying to change the capitalist system. They think that the use of force is justified in furthering that goal, in contrast to communists who attempt to change the system through other means.
Not all socialists/communists are tankies, they're the more extremist branch.
So extreme they horseshoed right around to dascism, don't believe in worker enfranchisement and are indifferent about abolition of the commodity form...