I’ve literally seen and heard German tankies praise Trump for trying to force the Ukrainians to capitulate to Russia in Ukraine. They like that he’s undermining NATO and wants to appease Russia, think it’ll bring us Peace in Our Time. Literally marching with a communist flag, and saying Trump has the right idea. Horse shoe theory applies.
Like many they’ve fallen down the rabbit hole. Became justifiably critical of traditional western media reporting on Iraq, Israel, Vietnam, Argentina, Guatamala, etc. … Turned to supposedly more critical media, which unfortunately are often operated by Russia, Iran, China, etc. Became indoctrinated, before they realised said media are even more biased, just in another direction.
It can happen to anyone.
e: I see someone downvoted me withing 5 seconds of me writing this comment, probably without even finishing reading it, so apparently I hit a nerve.
They tend to hate Western democracy as a whole. If Trump brings about complete Russian domination in Europe and ends elections in the US for good, of course they’d cheer for their comrade.
That’s my theory anyway. I don’t see modern tankies caring about socialism, that’s more of a guise for their authoritarianism fetish. After all, one of their most celebrated countries, Russia, is not at all socialist either.
Mind that I’m talking about tankies specifically. Plenty of leftists out there who are sensible. Asking about the two wars was kind of a litmus test. To me, if you approve of one offensive war, but not the other, you have some heavy geopolitical bias. Tankies are happy when Ukrainians die, but against the war in Palestine. Fascists are happy when Palestinians die, but have differing opinions on Ukraine. If you just don’t like people dying and think neither Israel nor Russia is in the right, then you’re not a tankie. Oversimplified, but very quick way to gauge whether someone is opposing some geopolitical bloc, or injustice and violence.
I am. So many proclaimed “communists” don’t really care about the whole communist thing, they just want a dictator.
The “leftist” spaces on grad, .ml and Hexbear were SUPER pro Russia last time I cared to see what they were up to. Tell me, in what universe is Russia a communist or even socialist nation? And at the same time, socdems are seen as evil incarnate. China, too, allows for billionaires, but since there’s a strong one party rule and they’re not allies of the west, they’re A-OK too.
I already said I’m talking about tankies, not leftists, socialists or even communists. Tankies just use their so-called leftism as a disguise when really they just worship authoritarianism.
So the difference between a modern day tankie and a socialist is that the former would prefer everyone in the geopolitical west to die or suffer, whereas the latter would prefer socialism to spread to the west.
Idk what to tell you bud, boldly declaring that a political label specific to socialist infighting has nothing to do with socialism doesnt somehow make it true.
There isn’t anything there to be offended by, it’s just a lazy and ill-considered application of a political label
It honestly just seems like you dont really know what the politics are, you just know ‘tankie’ as a loosely pejorative term for someone you have strong disagreements with.
Read the room, kid. I’m an anarchist, but I dont run around pretending not to understand the ML perspective just because it’s easier than treating it as coherent.
Also just an FYI that the non-revisionist internationalist socialist position is one of not supporting either side in an inter-imperialist war (read: a conventional one between two capitalist governments, not an anti-colonial one e.g.) and if viable go for revolutionary defeatism in ones home country
What version of ‘tankie’ is the one that would praise the US for literally anything trump does?
Like if there’s one thing I thought I knew about tankies, it was that they fucking loathe the US and Trump
I’ve literally seen and heard German tankies praise Trump for trying to force the Ukrainians to capitulate to Russia in Ukraine. They like that he’s undermining NATO and wants to appease Russia, think it’ll bring us Peace in Our Time. Literally marching with a communist flag, and saying Trump has the right idea. Horse shoe theory applies.
Like many they’ve fallen down the rabbit hole. Became justifiably critical of traditional western media reporting on Iraq, Israel, Vietnam, Argentina, Guatamala, etc. … Turned to supposedly more critical media, which unfortunately are often operated by Russia, Iran, China, etc. Became indoctrinated, before they realised said media are even more biased, just in another direction.
It can happen to anyone.
e: I see someone downvoted me withing 5 seconds of me writing this comment, probably without even finishing reading it, so apparently I hit a nerve.
Lmao, thats actually amazing - which communist flag??
They tend to hate Western democracy as a whole. If Trump brings about complete Russian domination in Europe and ends elections in the US for good, of course they’d cheer for their comrade.
That’s my theory anyway. I don’t see modern tankies caring about socialism, that’s more of a guise for their authoritarianism fetish. After all, one of their most celebrated countries, Russia, is not at all socialist either.
Mind that I’m talking about tankies specifically. Plenty of leftists out there who are sensible. Asking about the two wars was kind of a litmus test. To me, if you approve of one offensive war, but not the other, you have some heavy geopolitical bias. Tankies are happy when Ukrainians die, but against the war in Palestine. Fascists are happy when Palestinians die, but have differing opinions on Ukraine. If you just don’t like people dying and think neither Israel nor Russia is in the right, then you’re not a tankie. Oversimplified, but very quick way to gauge whether someone is opposing some geopolitical bloc, or injustice and violence.
You’re not talking about tankies then.
I am. So many proclaimed “communists” don’t really care about the whole communist thing, they just want a dictator.
The “leftist” spaces on grad, .ml and Hexbear were SUPER pro Russia last time I cared to see what they were up to. Tell me, in what universe is Russia a communist or even socialist nation? And at the same time, socdems are seen as evil incarnate. China, too, allows for billionaires, but since there’s a strong one party rule and they’re not allies of the west, they’re A-OK too.
I already said I’m talking about tankies, not leftists, socialists or even communists. Tankies just use their so-called leftism as a disguise when really they just worship authoritarianism.
So the difference between a modern day tankie and a socialist is that the former would prefer everyone in the geopolitical west to die or suffer, whereas the latter would prefer socialism to spread to the west.
Idk what to tell you bud, boldly declaring that a political label specific to socialist infighting has nothing to do with socialism doesnt somehow make it true.
Do you see yourself as a tankie? Is that why you’re offended?
There isn’t anything there to be offended by, it’s just a lazy and ill-considered application of a political label
It honestly just seems like you dont really know what the politics are, you just know ‘tankie’ as a loosely pejorative term for someone you have strong disagreements with.
So do you see yourself as a tankie or not? Why do you refuse to answer the question?
Read the room, kid. I’m an anarchist, but I dont run around pretending not to understand the ML perspective just because it’s easier than treating it as coherent.
Every proper socialist hates bourgeois “democracies” lmao
But Russia (capitalist) and China (capitalist) are fine, right? Since they don’t have democracy at all.
Nobody said that, nice try fishing for strawmen though LMAO
No, that’s what tankies say all the time. If you’re not of that opinion, why the fuck are you defending them?
Also just an FYI that the non-revisionist internationalist socialist position is one of not supporting either side in an inter-imperialist war (read: a conventional one between two capitalist governments, not an anti-colonial one e.g.) and if viable go for revolutionary defeatism in ones home country
I thought tankies were marxist-leninist, which is both socialism and authoritarianism.
The socialism is optional now. Which is why they love Russia and China, two capitalist nations.