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What does tankie really mean at this point? (hexbear.net)

submitted 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I keep seeing "fuck tankies" everywhere, and seem to see people getting called "tankie" for any number of things--I used to feel like I knew what it meant (the formal definition, which I thought was the only application) but that's clearly not the case anymore. Saw someone get called one because they... Liked the idea of universal basic income and wanted walkable cities? And now the same sentiment is on a large number of Lemmy communities, lol.

I feel like I've been living under a rock.

Edit: Wow, I guess it's just as meaningless of a term now as it seemed. At least it's a nice, bright flag for ghouls not worth engaging with meaningfully, lol. I saw "fuck tankies" on a genderqueer community and got pretty confused on how the two ideas correlated in the slightest, so I guess that was the tipping point on me finally asking about it.

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 8 months ago (1 children)

it's a term used only to signify ingroup versus outgroup in the context of right wing debate nerd circles.

it's the political equivalent of 'slut' or 'hipster' in the way those terms functionally mean 'person who is having more sex than me' and 'person who is cooler than me'

[–] [email protected] 35 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

Basically it's what liberals call anyone to their left

[–] [email protected] 22 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Tag yourself, I'm the guy with the mini guillotine!

[–] [email protected] 18 points 8 months ago

im thick horse daddy with the mao poster

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago

Banjo dude.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 8 months ago (3 children)

I've yet to see a conservative call anyone a tankie. They're content to just say communist as a pejorative.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 8 months ago

Maybe not online MAGA types but I've seen "regular" conservatives in real life use it to refer to communists

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago

Same.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

iirc Boris Johnson called Corbyn a Tankie back in like 2017 or so and it sees occasional use by other british conservatives

Edit: found an article about it https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/oct/05/boris-johnson-jeremy-corbyn-labour-left-tankies-trots-conservative-conference