These threads are odd to me, considering how many people call all communists tankies. The word seems to be used by anarchists, conservatives, communists, anti-communists, and more, and every person has a slightly different definition.

Half the people here could consider the other half to be the tankies everyone is mad at.

To be clear this isn't me saying "be nice to the tankies" this is me saying "the overuse of this word is confusing the shit out of me."

[–] vonbaronhans@midwest.social 22 points 1 year ago

Maybe it's just the circles I run in, but I understand "tankie" to mean leftists who think Soviet/Maoist/vanguard-party styles of Communist revolution/rule were good, actually, to the point of denying any bad things they did/do as "Western propaganda".

Given the red scare in the US, our ability as a whole to use any sort of leftist political labels accurately across the population is basically non-existent, so I do understand the frustration by both tankies and non-tankie leftists about how the term gets used lately, especially in produce circles on social media.

But again maybe that's just me. I don't know if I would consider myself a communist, but I do consider myself as a yet undetermined variety of socialist, if that helps at all.

[–] wewbull@iusearchlinux.fyi 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

...because none of those groups are Tankies and they are all unified against Tankies.

Tankies aren't socialists or communists (not that those two things are the same either). They are the purist ideologues of communism, where compromise is defeat. Rampant in telling you why you're wrong, and why only the purest form of communism will bring nirvana. All without understanding the consequences of what they propose.

Even the Communists don't want them on their side.

[–] Stoneykins@mander.xyz 14 points 1 year ago

I think you kinda missed my point. Sure, socialists and communists don't like tankies, but conservatives think the socialists and communists who don't like tankies are tankies. They aren't "unified against tankies", they don't agree who, what, and where "tankies" are.

[–] OurToothbrush@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Tankies aren’t socialists or communists (not that those two things are the same either). They are the purist ideologues of communism, where compromise is defeat.

They literally support a transitionary period and a capture of the bourgeois state for the interests of the proletariat instead of its immediate dissolution, compromise is the thing ultralefts criticize them for.

[–] CaptKoala@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Then there's folks like me who have no idea what the term means, you're not alone in your confusion.

Edit: thanks for all the replies folks! TIL

[–] photonic_sorcerer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 1 year ago

Tankies are 'communists' ala Mao and Stalin, i.e. okay with the violent opression of democratic movements and minorities.

[–] OurToothbrush@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

https://youtu.be/LcJ5NrJtQ8g?si=mOa-prQldsGdK7s4

[–] sapient_cogbag@infosec.pub 3 points 1 year ago

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tankie

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