this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2025
        
      
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I'm just saying that Calling Putin defenders tankies is a bastardization of the word. It refers specifically to people who defend authoritarian communist regimes.
Yes I also realize that Stalin wasn't a communist, he was an authoritarian Mafia style ruler, much more similar to a fascist. He even had a boy crush on Hitler. The communists pretty much died out when the stalists took power from the toslkiest factions. Spain is a good example of this, and even Russia, the stalinists had support from things like mafias and organized crime which were being funded by intelligence agencies around the world. The toslkiest were actually much more communists. Like Democrats and socialists and that sort of thing. They were a grassroots movement, the stalinists movement was a well funded international campaign to destroy communism in all the countries where the people rebeled against corporate rule.
I didn't read your dissertation because I don't care to debate this much. I'd probably agree with most of it anyways. My usage of the term is from that they claim to be communist, and they defend/promote the authoritarian Russian government. They're tankies.
Doesn't matter if they're real tankies or cosplay tankies or fake Russian bots emulating tankies; they're tankies. Putin's claimed and actual policies are wholly irrelevant. This is the colloquial usage, regardless of whether or not you think it accurate to your definition.