Weird meme this one. I'm 100% against tankies, or at least the type of communist here who seems hellbent on defending regimes like the Chinese communist party or (especially weird) Putin's Russia. There's plenty of stuff wrong about western nations, but that is no excuse for defending dictators and authoritarian regimes. And I'm definitely not the angry pepe in the image, because by all classifications I would be part of the "woke left".

[–] iridaniotter@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 1 year ago

The point is the word "tankie" is quickly becoming as vague and useless as "woke". Mearsheimer and Chomsky get called tankie nowadays for crying out loud. In three years when the USA Gulf of Tonkins itself in the Taiwan Strait, people are going to call you a tankie for dodging the draft!

[–] Crackhappy@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I think communism is a fantastic idea but don't think it's truly workable in practice, regrettably. True democratic socialism seems more realistic, but also has problems. But being a communist and then just defending all communists regardless of what they're doing is problematic.

[–] BelieveRevolt@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Wait until you find out capitalism doesn't work in practice

[–] Gerryflap@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Yeah exactly. I don't mind people who read about communism and think it's a good idea. I used to think communism was better than capitalism when I was younger as well, although I was not at all as well read up on it as some people here. But a subset of them (who I refer to as tankies) appear to support all kinds of horrible regimes because they used to be "communist" like China or sometimes even Russia.

[–] BelieveRevolt@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

”Defending Putin's Russia” is a strawman. I've never seen a single person you libs call ”tankies” defend Putin on here.

[–] userIdnotfound@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 year ago

If you are critical of western nations then you should stop uncritically swallowing their propaganda about their geopolitical enemies

[–] Awoo@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

What's your opinion of Nelson Mandela? The man wrote a book(although a revision of another book) called "How to be a good communist" and the very first line of that book is:

A Communist is a member of the Communist Party who understands and accepts the theory and practice of Marxism-Leninism as explained by Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin , and who subjects himself to the discipline of the Party. (See notes 1, 2, 3 & 4)

[–] Gerryflap@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

I never said I was 100% against the idea of communism, nor against people who think it's a good idea. I'm simply against the subset of commies that seems to blindly defend horrible regimes like the Chinese communist party. And sadly the latter seems well represented here, which is the group I'd refer to as tankies.