this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2023
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Tankiejerk

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Dunking on Tankies from a leftist perspective.

A tankie is someone who defends/supports authoritarian or even totalitarian regimes who call themselves "socialist". The term originated from people supporting the 1956 invasion of Hungary by the Soviet Union. Nowadays they are just terminally online, denying genocides, and falling for totalitarian propaganda and calling such regimes "true democracies". remember to censor usernames when necessary.

Please be sure to obscure usernames on posts to prevent doxxing.

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[–] Fried_out_Kombi 45 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

From wikipedia:

The term "tankie" was originally used by dissident Marxist–Leninists to describe members of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) who followed the party line of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). Specifically, it was used to distinguish party members who spoke out in defense of the Soviet use of tanks to crush the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and the 1968 Prague Spring uprising, or who more broadly adhered to pro-Soviet positions.^[7][8]^

Basically it's because certain western communists defended the use of tanks by the Soviet Union to forcibly crush rebellions, hence the term "tankie". I think it's useful to have the term because they're a distinct phenomenon from regular fascists in that they at least pretend to be leftist and thus tend to use different talking points and arguments — even if it's to achieve the same fascist goals.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Red fash is a good alternative to tankie

[–] uis 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Don't say it in US. GOP is red, but wrong kind of red.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Ah didn't know they had already reserved that term