this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2023
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The Democratic People's Republic of Tankiejerk

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Dunking on Tankies from a leftist, anti-capitalist perspective.

Rules:

  1. No bigotry of any kind.
  2. No tankies or right-wingers. Liberals are allowed so long as they are aware of this
  3. No genocide denial

We allow posts about tankie behavior even off fedi, shitposts, and rational, leftist discussion.

Curious about non-tankie leftism? If you've got a little patience for 19th century academic style, let a little Marx and Kropotkin be your primer!

Marx's Communist Manifesto, short and accessible! Highly recommended if you haven't read it

Kropotkin's Conquest Of Bread

Selected works of Marx

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My new favorite hobby is calling tankies bad-faith imperialist shills and implying they're not communist enough (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 years ago by Fried_out_Kombi@lemmy.world to c/tankiejerk@lemmy.world
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[–] Fried_out_Kombi@lemmy.world 42 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years 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.

[–] PeleSpirit@lemmy.world 16 points 2 years ago

I didn't realize it was such an old term and it could actually be looked up. The first I've heard of it was when I came to Lemmy. Thanks for clarifying.

[–] hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Red fash is a good alternative to tankie

[–] uis@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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

[–] hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 years ago

Ah didn't know they had already reserved that term