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 defence of the Soviet use of tanks to suppress the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and the 1968 Prague Spring, or who more broadly adhered to pro-Soviet positions.

I've never understood why there is any confusion over the word "tankie." It applies to the pro-cop left. If a leftist believes that it's necessary for cops to beat minorities and dissidents into submission for their society to function, they're tankies. If they approach leftism in a way that does not involve state violence against civilians to enforce those ideas, they're not tankies. To me there isn't a lot of gray area.

[–] audrbox@beehaw.org -3 points 9 months ago

I've always thought of them as the communists who think communists are somehow uniquely immune to the "power corrupts" doctrine

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[–] twice_hatch@midwest.social 0 points 9 months ago

"Liberal" is just

[–] Plaidboy@sh.itjust.works -1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The conversation around "tankies" reminds me heavily of "neolibs" - loosely defined in the minds of the folks discussing them. Basically a catch-all term for your own idea of what a liberal outgroup should be.

[–] ltxrtquq@lemmy.ml -3 points 9 months ago (3 children)

[Referring to the Tiananmen Square Massacre] We (at least many of us) have read the sources that have been linked. What is described there, particularly the accounts of people who were there, is what we assert is what happened. In the few instances where there may be contradictory first hand accounts (and mostly, the accounts are not contradictory but rather corroborate each other) there may be some ambiguity. But even taking that into account, it is ridiculous and downright ahistorical to say “Chinese authorities massacred people.”

This is from a conversation with the kind of people I would consider "tankies". It's from a community I think has since been deleted, but the general vibe of the comments in the post was that the Tiananmen Square massacre isn't a real thing and any civilian deaths were actually justified.

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[–] SkyezOpen@lemmy.world -3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Do people genuinely take badempanada seriously?

[–] Carl@lemm.ee 4 points 9 months ago

He starts a lot of shit, but dammit if he isn't right most of the time.

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