Tankie is a pejorative label generally applied to authoritarian communists, especially those who support acts of repression by such regimes or their allies.

From Wikipedia.

The comment I am responding to never denied that there is an influx of tankies here. Instead you said I shouldn't be surprised to find leftists here, inferring that leftists are tankies. Being authoritarian and manipulating information to manipulate people is not a leftist value.

You can disagree with me all you want. I'll respect that. I would appreciate if you had better respect than to treat me like I am insane and my statements make no sense just because you disagree.

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 7 points 5 days ago

It's more that anyone that uses the word "tankie" as an unironic pejorative is extremely likely to have never read Marxist theory and are just trying to attack Marxists that go against the standard western narrative. You just pulling the Wikipedia article when both of us are obviously familiar with the term is just condescending.

Nobody is intentionally "authoritarian." The people trying to separate "authoritarian" Communists from "true" Communists are the same people that say there has never been "true" attempts at building Communism. Moreover, the separation point between "authoritarian" and "democratic" is never outlined, it's purely vibes-based and meaningless. Marx and Engels were often called "authoritarian" as well, to the point that Engels wrote On Authority to debunk the entire vibes-based notion of it.

I am not treating you like you are "insane," but that you are out of your depth when it comes to Leftist theory if you're going to be throwing the term "tankie" around like it has actual meaning.