this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2023
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Yup. I’m a leftist, so naturally hold some of the more “extreme” left views. But holy shit tankies will say anything to avoid admitting that communism has been abused throughout history. Lots of “Maybe those genocides and famines weren’t so bad” apologetics.
I put it this way:
I want to maximize the level of equality in our societies. I want a floor of poverty below which a citizen cannot fall and a ceiling of wealth beyond which a person cannot rise. I do not think the tested and failed ideas of a 19th century philosopher are worth putting more time and human misery into.
We can do better, we SHOULD have learned something in the last 100ish years.
My favorite take is "Stalin was right wing".
Like how delusional can you get?
"The Khmer Rouge wasn't communist" is another good one.
I mean it wasn't, but tankies sure think it was
Actually, the irony is that a lot of tankies also say that the KM wasn't Marxist, but that Stalinist Russia and Maoist China were.
Quite why, I couldn't tell you.
It’s the human rights abuse and genocide that really light their fire.
They just also happen to be interested in leftist political ideas.
That one is especially funny, but it does expose how meaningless the term is now. Everyone on the left uses "right-wing" as shorthand for "bad," and ditto for the right and left-wing.