I haven't been able to take the word "tankie" seriously in most cases since I asked that to someone on Reddit and they linked a meme praising anarchist Catalonia
Memes
Rules:
- Be civil and nice.
- Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.
Yeah, it's kind of lost all meaning. I've seen Marxists call Liberals tankies, and I've seen Liberals calls Marxists tankies. I've seen right wingers call Leftists tankies, and I've seen Leftists call Centerists tankies. I know where the word came from, and who the first tankies were but I rarely know what a person's intent is with that word anymore. Maybe it's just young people slang now and I'm just too old to get it.
Because I used to be with it, but then they changed what it was. Now what I'm with isn't it anymore and what's it seems weird and scary. And it'll happen to you!
Aside from conservatives, does anyone think the world is controlled by marxists, tankie or otherwise?
The meme is about lemmy.world and American liberals are center-right conservatives so....
The closest is the PRC, though all Marxists understand that the US is the current hegemon.
Basically my thoughts are, if you give slight pushback to American talking points you get called a tankie. It's kind of annoying.
That's not really a thing neoliberals say...
They definitely complain about the tankies being a big part of the culture of Lemmy, and housing some of the biggest communities, but the statement in the comic isn't even remotely a thing neolibs or the .world demographic says
So this comic kinda just feels like a strange, confusing straw man...
The only times I hear of tankies is from how annoying they are in online forums, their only power being in their subreddits and lemmy instances. The only references to Marxists are from idiots repeating MAGA talking points.
the liberals got the world they fought so hard for when USSR was dissolved, against the will of the people, and they havent stopped crying about it since
in order to combat leftist propaganda lemmy.flatearth is now forcing disinformation onto its communities. The red scare runs deep.
Well that's a strawman if I've ever seen one
THIS is why people have a problem with "tankies."
Budapest, 1956.
They have a problem with stopping a fascist counter-revolution that did anti-jewish pogroms and elevated the landlord class in Hungary?
Marxist Leninists are defined primarily by two principles:
- Anti Imperialism / Internationalism
- Defense and Construction of Socialism
It means that the Soviet Union was chiefly responsible for ending the Holocaust and supporting liberation struggles around the world. It means Cuba was able to transform itself from a strip-farmed slave and prostitution hell into a Democratic republic governed meaningfully by the Cuban people with dignity and education for all. All across east Asia it's secured home rule and governments who meaningfully care and are comprised by regular working and peasant peoples. Marxism Leninism is the historical force which has been shown to be most able to grapple with the complex realities of our world dominated by white supremacy and capitalism, and fought back.
It's the reason that the supposed atrocities commuted by socialist countries are minor compared to the grand historic crimes of empires like France, Britain, the US, Germany, Japan, etc. Mistakes are made and have been made by socialist countries, sure, of course; but they were the first nations to attempt to meaningfully house people for the sake of housing. They were the first projects to successfully overthrow colonialism, and to raise literacy rates to an absurd degree even higher than in the United States today. These socialist projects need to defend themselves because very few other historical forces have shown anywhere near the potential to make a better world.
So call it whatever you like, it'll never erase the monumental good it's done for the world.
THIS is why people have a problem with Anti-Communists
Statistics from 80 days into a ~460 day genocide, Gaza, 2025