I fucking hate these shitheads, I was arguing with one earlier and no matter how many facts I gave him with proper sources he just refused to actually show any kind of respect
this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2023
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I still don't quite understand who tankies are tbh, other than that they support/follow communism
Typically the word refers to communists that are pro-authoritarian, pro-military force, and some amount of bizarrely nationalist.
The word is also, confusingly, used to describe all communists (by people that don't like communists) and several other subcategories. Really, you can't ever guess how someone means it when you see them say it. Some people self-describe as tankie, either because they fully agree with the term, or because people call them that anyways.
On lemmy, 90% of the time, "tankie" just literally means "someone from lemmygrad or hexbear", which is kinda fairly earned, because that is where all the pro-authoritarian, pro-military force, bizarrely nationalist communists hang out, but to be clear, not all of the people in those communities are like that.
Also they hate being defined this way. They will ramble for hours about how "anti-authoritarian" isn't real or is counter productive, and more like that. While spamming weird left unity emojis every time someone mentions anarchism...
Which is hilariously ironic given the term was created by communists
so it isn't necessarily bad when someone is just communist right? but obviously the problems start when they're pro authoritarian and shit
If you want my opinion, the biggest keystone flaw in their thinking is being so ready to support/defend any nation that is or has ever described itself as communist. There is a lot of toxicity from nationalism that leads to things like pro-authoritarianism and advocating military force, and you can see it from nationalists whether they are communist or not.
Eta: But no, I don't think this kinda stuff is inherent to communism. I think it is common in people who crave the validity of state-backed communism more than they are willing to scrutinize the history and peoples involved with the states they are supporting
I see, I think I understand a little better now
You might find this helpful
https://medium.com/international-workers-press/misconceptions-about-communism-2e366f1ef51f
They really don't tbh, they like having the image of communism, but they support totalirian, brutal regimes like Ruzzia, China and North Korea. While all three like acting and saying they are communist, they aren't.
Russia hasn't been pretending to be communist/socialist since 1991.
China isn't communist either.
But who will tell that to tankies?
Whaaaaat????? A nation with a stock market (=> workers don't own the means of production) AND with billionaires isn't communist?
Next you're telling me North Korea isn't a democratic republic.
Isn't it a 1 party "democracy", where the party in control is the Chinese Communist Party?
Isn't it easier for me to just Google this rather than ask strangers on Lemmy?
right, its just a little hard for me to distinguish
Do yourself a favor and actually visit the scary tankie websites and see for yourself. Any information you'll get from either sides will be biased, especially in this com.