2d ago

The Republicans Should've Faced Way More Criticism During The 2024 Presidential Campaign

577 comments

"Tankies" made no measurable difference in the 2024 election. There's next to none of them in the USA. Go ahead: ask real people in your offline life what a tankie is, and see if even one single person has even heard that word.
Unless, of course, you're just applying that word to anyone whos not a Republican that's criticizing the dems. Then I suppose you'll find "tankies" everywhere.
It feels like a word that's just being used to divide the left.
- It’s the lib version of “woke”; it’s not even used for its original meaning anymore
  “All the tankie college kids who love Hamas lost Kamala the election” ok Kristen I’m sure they’re tankies. Please just finish watching your DVR of the Today show
  
  Thank you for clarifying, because I was confused. Like... 'Are the Tankies in the room with us now, OP?'
  What you're saying sounds correct, because I don't know anyone to the left of Harris who didn't recognize that Trump was worse. While I think that I might have one friend who refused to vote for her in a swing state, I think that the BlueAnon folks really misunderstood the actual consequences of losing support on the left.
  It wasn't really, imo, that those folks wouldn't show up. The problem was that I think a lot of folks never realized how much young blue-haired leftists dragged Biden across the finish line in 2020 by knocking on doors and convincing their uncles to vote Dem. I said throughout the election that losing those people wasn't really a risk of losing their votes, it was a risk of losing the core enthusiasm and turnout organizing that Democrats had largely outsourced to Bernie Sanders' base. And I could be wrong, but all that I've seen seems to affirm that this is exactly what happened.
  If someone has evidence otherwise, though. please let me know.
  
  What you’re saying sounds correct, because I don’t know anyone to the left of Harris who didn’t recognize that Trump was worse. While I think that I might have one friend who refused to vote for her in a swing state, I think that the BlueAnon folks really misunderstood the actual consequences of losing support on the left.
  I do find it funny that .world and their ilk will swear up and down that Blue MAGA and BlueAnon aren't real things, but then will swear Tankies are a thing non-stop in American politics when none of them can agree on what they look like or do.
  You ask a Republican to define woke, you wont get an answer beyond "Anything I don't like to the left of me." You ask a Democrat on here to define Tankie, you won't get an answer beyond "Anything I don't like to the left of me."
  So long as the person doesn't defend authoritarianism and any hypocrisy of their preferred candidate, I'll consider them an ally to me.
- Tankies aren't left, the word means exactly what it has always meant: supporters of Russian and Chinese Dictatorships. People who would side with the Tanks in their respective massacres of civilians.
  I really wish we lived in a world where psyops and social media made no difference in elections.
  
  If it's "always meant supporting Russia" but the term was coined when Russia was run by the communist party and part of the USSR? Do you not think the communist that supported Russia "the Tankies" would be against the capitalist Oligarchy that Russia currently is?
  You're just using a term to mean what you want it to. Definitely not what it's "always meant".
  
  Lemmygrad, ML, and Hexbear Tankies support all three with no distinctions.
  Economically Russia has transformed structurally it has not. More specifically it has regressed due to Putin ignoring term limits and empowering a loyal Oligarchy. Putin has even said publicly that he wants to restore the former Russian Empire.
  
  Lemmygrad, ML, and Hexbear Tankies support all three with no distinctions.
  Hahahahaha. You haven't visited those instances one single time, I guarantee. I'm a Hexbear user, and it's patently obvious that you haven't even bothered to check. Hexbear users routinely criticise Putin for being the fascist scum he is. He's attacking the rights of women and minorities, defundign the welfare state, and enacting policy exclusively on behalf of oligarchs. What hexbear/ML/grad users don't do, is uncritically swallow russophobic state propaganda (e.g. claims of "evil Russian ghost fleet destroying internet cables with anchors, backed up by 0 evidence whatsoever), and they will not put the interests of the imperialist west above those of the imperialist Russia, as libs routinely do such as clapping in support of war budgets of the EU going to Rheinmetall.
  Economically Russia has transformed structurally it has not
  Literal braindead take. A capitalist oligarchy DID NOT EXIST in the USSR. Policies of universal free healthcare, universal free education to the highest level, universal good pensions, and fostering of unionisation, are all incompatible with a system that's ruled by an "oligarchic minority profiting from the rest". That's why those things were all dismantled as soon as capitalism was restored. Russia suddenly started engaging in unequal exchange by importing cheap labour and products from the global south (which would have been beneficial in all economic senses for the USSR but it didn't do because of its strong anti-imperialist stance)... There's a million things proving the structural change. But you're too russophobic and too bootlicker of the west to understand any of that or to do any reading on the topic.
  
  Right instead of a few high ranking families and one brutal dictator the USSR was run by...
  A few high ranking families and one brutal dictator...
  Fucking tankies bro stg
- There are definitely tactics being used to divide the left and the word tankie is not one of them. Purity politics is the death of left wing politics. The fact that people moved out of the way of blocking a legitimate facist government because Harris wasn't quiiite right is utter insanity
  
  Purity politics is the death of left wing politics.
  Having standards isn't "purity politics". Having no standards got us here.
  
  There are definitely tactics being used to divide the left and the word tankie is not one of them. Purity politics is the death of left wing politics.
  Why, then, are we running around calling people tankies when that is an ill-defined word that tends to change from person to person? I've seen it applied to everyone from left anarchists to starry-eyed idealists who call themselves communists, to actual Stalin-Did-Nothing-Wrong types (this last group deserves criticism, all twelve of them).
  The fact that people moved out of the way of blocking a legitimate facist government because Harris wasn’t quiiite right is utter insanity
  Focusing on an incredibly online, vocal minority is insanity, especially when your previous statement is about purity politics.
  Shouldn't you question why Harris and the democratic establishment couldn't beat actual fascism? Could it be that Trump used real issues in our political environment for his messaging? He lies constantly about why the cost of living is going up, why good jobs aren't here anymore, etc, but Harris ran on a platform of "Vote for me, nothing will fundamentally change" and voters didn't find that attractive for some reason.
  Even when voices within the party point out problems they are shouted down. Sure, Bernie is an independant, but he's been voting with the Dems the entire time, and they even pretended to let him run for nomination for president.
  The democratic party has been shifting right for decades, and the only messaging they have to offer is that approved by their donors. It's bullshit and it repels people.
  
  So you're just gonna sit there and act like propaganda influence on voters is not a thing
  "Oh why could harris not beat fascists why did trump win i guess she just suuucked" is the awareness level of a potato
  
  So you’re just gonna sit there and act like propaganda influence on voters is not a thing
  You chose to speak to me, someone who is talking about the word tankie and it's application here. If you'd like to talk about "propaganda influence" outside of the word tankie, I invite you to make your own top-level comment.
  If you're implying tankies themselves have amazing propaganda brainwash powers that caused Harris to lose the election, I invite you to touch grass.
  
  Are you of the opinion that the propaganda last election made Trump's victory inevitable? As in, there were no possible candidate or campaign that could have beaten him?
  
  That's a question that sets up its own answer as a foregone conclusion. Rephrase please.
  
  I'm just interrogating your statement. Yes, oppositional propaganda is a known phenomenon. It isn't new. If you are campaigning for election, your job is to overcome it somehow and win. Harris wasn't lacking funds and she had the (arguable) advantage of running from an incumbent administration, as well as the advantage of running against a clown like Trump.
  There were loud and numerous warnings to and criticisms of her campaign from the left. She ignored that. I can't prove that's definitely what cost her the election, but there is no question that she could have run a very different campaign. Blaming her loss on propaganda is weak and defeatist. Find ways to win, not excuses to lose.

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