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.
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.
"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.
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.
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.
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.
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
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the admins of this instance if you have any questions or concerns.
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.
A Reddit link was detected in your comment. Here are links to the same location on Teddit and Libreddit, which are Reddit frontends that protect your privacy.