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Don't take it too seriosly
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this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2023
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Tankies in the comments preparing to take it VERY seriously
I don't think they care, Russia is no longer communist.
To explain what I mean. I noticed that while term "tankies" is accepted as a term to refer to communists (particularly communists that would defend use of tanks on civilians), today's tankies are also defending Russia which isn't communist anymore (it's more fascist than anything). Even those on lemmygrad. It feels like it never was about communism, but it always was about totalitarianism and Soviets.
I struggle to understand lemmygrad. They advertise the instance as Marxist, but like you said they are reflexively pro-Russia and call you a western pig if you try to point out that Russia is also capitalist and not even remotely Marxist
Agreed. I found many users there unable to distinguish between capitalism itself as a system, authoritarian and corpocratic political systems, and individuals who live within those systems.
I think it's mostly kids from the US who realise their government is lying to them and has been for a long while, so they just flip the binary switch and see everything the exact opposite way.
Honestly I would like to see an example of that, because my experience there so far is so completely removed from this that I don’t understand where do people get these takes from
They literally have a tank in their banner.
A minute of searching lead me here. Just read the comments.
Edit: or this. Literally defending Stalin.
They are so caught up with hating the west that they don't see that both Russia and the US is expantionist, imperialist, capitalist pseudo-democracies. I can see how western mainstream media is filled with propaganda to win the support of their imperialist ways, but I can't for the life of me see why Russian media wouldn't also be that.
Sure, the war in Ukraine could be about protecting Donbas from the eveils of capitalism, but how is bringing them under Russian influence going to do that?
I'm somewhat convinced it's mostly Russian propaganda produced by Russian state-funded troll farms, which are very real
I'm very convinced of that.
There are plenty of evil things US has done, but in this particular case this is morally the right thing to do.
In 1994 after Soviet Union fell United States, United Kingdom and Russia promised Ukraine that they will respect their borders and won't use military or economical means to impose on Ukrainian borders.
This was broken by Russia several times, it was largely ignored by the west though, until 2022 when Russia decided to go for the entire country.
Before the invasion happened US did something it never did before. After few months alarming that this is what Russia was doing it ultimately specified the date of planned attack once again urging putin to reconsider. Biden gave putin an exit. He could call Biden senile and said that was just a training. Of course that wouldn't fool people who understand geopolitics but it would work for general public inside and outside of Russia.
Why West cares about Ukraine? Because a nearby war is not good for business and affects neighbors economically as well. Second thing is that Ukraine was a first major step. When many ignored Foundations of Geopolitics, this move solidified that putin truly was following that idea and won't stop on Ukraine.
Tankies is used as shorthand for Marxist Leninists. As far as I know nothing about that ideology supports the use of tanks on civilians. Am I missing something here?
I thought that tankies were just communists who think that Stalin and/or Mao did nothing wrong.
Most Mao and Stalin fans have a more nuanced take on it, if they’ve actually read anything by them. The theory they espouse demands that you look at things so not totalities and take into account several different things when thinking critically of political figures in history. It’s like… one of the major points of dialectics in Marxist theory.
But people see someone defending certain aspects of a person like Stalin and Mao and immediately think “OH THIS PERSON THINKS THEY DID NOTHING WRONG” which is something I’ve only seen in memes, and those memes are mostly making fun of people who think in absolutes like that.
Most Mao and Stalin fans have a more nuanced take on it, if they’ve actually read anything by them. The theory they espouse demands that you look at things so not totalities and take into account several different things when thinking critically of political figures in history. It’s like… one of the major points of dialectics in Marxist theory.
But people see someone defending certain aspects of a person like Stalin and Mao and immediately think “OH THIS PERSON THINKS THEY DID NOTHING WRONG” which is something I’ve only seen in memes, and those memes are mostly making fun of people who think in absolutes like that.
"Tankies" as a term has been creeping from a description of people who think Stalin and Mao should be in charge again toward a description of anyone who believes even a hint of socialism should exist in society. It's basically a right-wing dismissal at this point
If someone uses the word tankie it’s a pretty good sign that they don’t actually understand history or political theory and don’t know what they’re talking about beyond current events and maybe a podcast or two.
Or they are an anarchist and are fully aware of anarchists getting backstabbed by tankies in the past.
🏴 ✊
Yeah it's pretty much taken over by western liberals as a catchall for "more left than me"
Few would argue they were ever communist