• Justice@lemmygrad.ml
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    11 months ago

    Anti-communism has always been a reaction to communism (leftist movements broadly).

    Anyone who unironically uses the word tankie… ever… is immediately written off in my book. They’re terminally online and have never read anything, never thought about anything seriously, they’re useful idiots for fascists at best and, a lot of times, just fascists.

    I feel like they think I’m being hyperbolic or forcing a false dichotomy, but, no, if you self-label as anti-communist that’s basically the same as modern day “all lives matter” people which was a right wing, reactionary, movement against the movement for justice for black people in the US. There is a movement which is objectively on the side of people, justice, etc. and there is a reaction to that movement. Just how it goes. If you identify on the reactionary side… well, there you go. Not sure why this is so complicated for the “bBUT TANKIES” dipshits.

    • taiphlosion@lemmygrad.ml
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      11 months ago

      Meh, I’ve embraced the term tankie I don’t think it’s that bad. Only terminally online people really care about a meaningless term.

      • Justice@lemmygrad.ml
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        11 months ago

        If they use it to mean “person who doesn’t get bogged down in stupid details over the USSR (or China) just for the sake of hating a communist country” then fine. I don’t care. It just gets old seeing it used as “person left of me, which means they’re bad” by the most historically illiterate motherfuckers on the planet. The kind of fuckers who say they want socialism and then cry every time someone protests in a street. Do you see what I mean? It’s not the word, I don’t care in the end. I get like a death threat per day from random Nazis who (ironically) call me antisemitic for criticizing Israel. I’ll take tankie over that, given the choice. But it’s worth acknowledging the people calling me or us or whoever “tankie” are absolutely just the dumbest fuckers online. That’s all.

        • PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml
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          11 months ago

          But it’s worth acknowledging the people calling me or us or whoever “tankie” are absolutely just the dumbest fuckers online. That’s all.

          Lmao you said that and one appeared soon after.

          • DamarcusArt@lemmygrad.ml
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            11 months ago

            This one seems a little less dumb than most. I think they’re close to connecting the dots. They seem to realise that something is deeply wrong with their worldview and it is making them very angry so they’re lashing out at what they perceive to be the cause (“Tankies” ruining socialism). I don’t think I was too clear with them, certainly not patient enough, but I do hope they listen anyway.

            • PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml
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              11 months ago

              Well indeed we can hope, though i wouldn’t hope too much, i seen that pattern ending with doubledown enough times to debate pervert warning switching on

              • DamarcusArt@lemmygrad.ml
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                11 months ago

                Yeah, I don’t think they will come away from this with anything other than “redfash tankies hate the truth! I owned them so hard!” But I think this will be another straw on the camel’s back, not the one that breaks it, but will add to the load of doubts their have about their worldview.

          • Justice@lemmygrad.ml
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            11 months ago

            If I put the cheese out too obviously the mouse will know what I am doing

            But if I eat some cheese in the corner and, “oppsie” drop a small piece in a sticky trap area… I might just awaken to an angry mouse chirping at me.

      • kot [they/them]@hexbear.net
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        11 months ago

        “Tankie” is used by liberals and left anti-communists to defame & differentiate themselves from principled communists, and really from anyone who defends AES states. That use is cringe and outs the person saying it as an absolute tool who shouldn’t be taken seriously.

        I have no problem calling myself a tankie though. Sending tanks to kill fascists is good. Every tankie should be awarded their own tank.

      • casskaydee [she/her]@hexbear.net
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        11 months ago

        Same. I think we need to expropriate the term from the lib/fash.

        …socialist revolution is neither easy (as the Trotskyists and ultraleftists would have it) nor impossible (as the liberals and conservatives would have it), but hard. It will require dedication and sacrifice and it won’t be won in a day. Tankies are those people who think the millions of communists who fought and died for socialism in the twentieth century weren’t evil, dupes, or wasting their time, but people to whom we owe a great deal and who can still teach us a lot.

        Or, to put it another way: socialism has powerful enemies. Those enemies don’t care how you feel about Marx or Makhno or Deleuze or communism in the abstract, they care about your feelings towards FARC, the Naxals, Cuba, North Korea, etc. They care about your position with respect to states and contenders-for-statehood, and how likely you are to try and emulate them. They are not worried about the molecular and the rhizomatic because they know that those things can be brought back into line by the application of force. It’s their monopoly on force that they are primarily concerned to protect. When you desert real socialism in favor of ideal socialism, the kind that never took up arms against anybody, you’re doing them a favor.

    • Something Burger 🍔
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      11 months ago

      They’re terminally online and have never read anything, never thought about anything seriously, they’re useful idiots for fascists at best and, a lot of times, just fascists.

      Most self aware tankie.

      , if you self-label as anti-communist

      Anti-tankie ≠ anti-communist

      Tankies aren’t communists, that’s why I’m against them.

      EDIT: I didn’t realise this was a Lemmygrad community. No wonder y’all fascists are calling me a liberal despite me being a communist, I was confused for a second.

      • Justice@lemmygrad.ml
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        11 months ago

        Bro, wtf is a tankie if not a communist? You’re just out here making up bullshit. I want a definition!

        I’ve been led to believe “tankie” was referring to fans of the USSR, which, I suppose if you wanna be annoying, one could argue “weren’t communists.” But you didn’t do that. You didn’t say “Stalin betrayed Marxist Leninism” or whatever. I could assume that’s what you meant, but I’d rather read it from you.

        It’s starting to feel like, to me, that tankie just means “someone more left than me, and that makes me angry!” Because I can say who isn’t calling people tankies. That would be Marxists of whatever variety. I can also say who does seem to be using that word all the time… socdems, liberals, sometimes outright fascists. It definitely seems to be the bludgeon of liberals who fancy themselves to be socialists though. I’m going to include most leftist anarchists under the umbrella of liberal because that’s just how I roll. Like a big ol’ tank.

        • Something Burger 🍔
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          11 months ago

          I’m going to include most leftist anarchists under the umbrella of liberal

          Most politically literate tankie.

          Tankies aren’t communists. They simp for capitalist dictatorships.

          to me, that tankie just means “someone more left than me, and that makes me angry!”

          Funny, because that’s how I feel about “liberal” whenever a tankie (i.e. a fascist) calls me one despite me being a communist.

          • Justice@lemmygrad.ml
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            11 months ago

            You still haven’t given an example of wtf you’re talking about.

            Who the fuck are these mysterious (assumedly) pro-Stalin, pro-USSR, etc. “tankies” who ALSO are pro-USA/pro-capitalism?

            Just give a name! Find a person in history or today and type their name into your text box and hit send. Is this asking a lot?

            • Something Burger 🍔
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              11 months ago

              Supporting capitalism is not equivalent to supporting the US. China and Russia are capitalist countries, and plenty of tankies will defend them tooth and nail, for example here or on Hexbear. They even claim Russia is defending Ukraine against US imperialism.

              Just go to any community on Hexbear, type a comment saying Russia is not communist, and enjoy your ban.

      • taiphlosion@lemmygrad.ml
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        11 months ago

        Lmao this is exactly how libs argue, a bunch of quotes with snappy responses but nothing of substance to make a valid argument.

        • Something Burger 🍔
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          11 months ago

          Why would I waste time making complex responses to someone who thinks communists are liberals if they don’t praise capitalist dictatorships? Tankies completely lack political culture, like all right wingers. It’s a miracle they can read at all.

          • DamarcusArt@lemmygrad.ml
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            11 months ago

            We know you aren’t “wasting time” because you don’t have any arguments, just thought terminating cliches. I’m really hoping you’re just an edgy 14 year old and not a grown adult, because this is just sad.

            • Something Burger 🍔
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              11 months ago

              Bruh, people here are calling communists and anarchists “liberals”. How do I even argue with dumb shit like this? Fascists can’t be reasoned with, whether they like the 3rd Reich or the DPRK.

              • DamarcusArt@lemmygrad.ml
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                11 months ago

                They’re not calling communists and anarchists liberals, they’re calling liberals liberals. Fascism doesn’t mean “people I don’t agree with” words actually mean things. You’d know this, if you weren’t a liberal, even if you don’t think you are one. Conservatives are liberals too, as liberalism is the dominant political idea in the west.

                • Something Burger 🍔
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                  11 months ago

                  Fascism doesn’t mean “people I don’t agree with” words actually mean things

                  Liberal doesn’t mean “someone who believes in the abolition of private property”, words actually mean things.

    • Parenti Bot@lemmygrad.mlB
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      11 months ago
      The quote

      In the United States, for over a hundred years, the ruling interests tirelessly propagated anticommunism among the populace, until it became more like a religious orthodoxy than a political analysis. During the Cold War, the anticommunist ideological framework could transform any data about existing communist societies into hostile evidence. If the Soviets refused to negotiate a point, they were intransigent and belligerent; if they appeared willing to make concessions, this was but a skillful ploy to put us off our guard. By opposing arms limitations, they would have demonstrated their aggressive intent; but when in fact they supported most armament treaties, it was because they were mendacious and manipulative. If the churches in the USSR were empty, this demonstrated that religion was suppressed; but if the churches were full, this meant the people were rejecting the regime’s atheistic ideology. If the workers went on strike (as happened on infrequent occasions), this was evidence of their alienation from the collectivist system; if they didn’t go on strike, this was because they were intimidated and lacked freedom. A scarcity of consumer goods demonstrated the failure of the economic system; an improvement in consumer supplies meant only that the leaders were attempting to placate a restive population and so maintain a firmer hold over them. If communists in the United States played an important role struggling for the rights of workers, the poor, African-Americans, women, and others, this was only their guileful way of gathering support among disfranchised groups and gaining power for themselves. How one gained power by fighting for the rights of powerless groups was never explained. What we are dealing with is a nonfalsifiable orthodoxy, so assiduously marketed by the ruling interests that it affected people across the entire political spectrum.

      – Michael Parenti, Blackshirts And Reds

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    • Cysioland@lemmygrad.ml
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      11 months ago

      That’s my sentiment. Tons of liberals acting like they’re not really sure what they believe in and they subconsciously assume they’re completely wrong.

  • Mzuark@lemmygrad.ml
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    11 months ago

    Anti-Communists only ever rear their heads about the West when a leftist wants to improve society somewhat.