this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2024
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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.