this post was submitted on 28 Jun 2023
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Yeah I'm out of the loop too. Though AFAIK lemmy.ml has always been awfully run instance full of tankies.
The fuck is a tankie?
From usingenglish.com. Originally a western communist who supported Stalin's authoritarianism, usually backed by tanks, the modern tankie supports pretty much any authoritarian government or dictatorship that opposes the West.
I don’t think there is a clear and consistent answer to this question. Like asking a conservative what “woke” means, it is used to refer disparagingly to a wide variety of people that a given person doesn’t like.
Every person that I've seen describe it says some variation of "they're fake marxists that support anything that opposes the west, include fascist and violent regimes." Conservatives use "woke" to refer to anything that opposes christofascist white supremacy, from gay pride parades to a black person appearing in a movie.
There are liberals who use "tankie" to refer to anyone left of socialdemocracy, but not a single time have I seen the term being used that way to define another user on any lemmy instance yet.
I'm pretty far left myself in my way of thinking, and I don't support some people that I would agree adhere to the description of tankie. There's a clear definition, even if it is used in a derogatory way. It's someone who thinks that left ideas should be spread in an authoritarian way. Which, in my opinion, is pretty much the definition of fascism. Power for power's sake, domination just to say they won. Authoritarian imposition of ideology is antithetical to socialism.
The Marxist-Leninist explanation of the term: https://youtu.be/LcJ5NrJtQ8g?t=24
In case you're interested in hearing both sides 😉