this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2023
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I'm not sure anyone knows what a tankie is.
Apparently saying any country other than the US should take a turn at world leadership is a tankie opinion.
I've seen "Tankie" pulled out on Lemmy and Reddit over things like:
Suggesting a revolution is required to stop global capitalism, and that we cannot vote our way out of Capitalism
Countering common narratives that paint US Geopolitical Adversaries and Existing Socialist/Communist regimes as comically evil villains.
Criticizing the western perspective on the Russia/Ukraine conflict, and by extension criticism of Ukraine, or praise for Russia
Suggesting that violence against Nazis is ok
I mostly get the impression that people don't like violence, and dislike the idea that capitalism may need to be opposed through violence. Though I've also seen it thrown out at suggestions that capitalism should even be defeated at all. It feels like a poison tbh, we really should just be uniting against capitalism.
so tankie is just a nonsense word?
It can be misused, but it properly means supporting authoritarian 'communism'. I usually see it on hexbear, where they often say Russia China and North Korea are vastly better than western countries.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tankie
Nonsense catch-all word to put down Marxist-Leninists, and any leftist seriously advocating for revolution.
It means authoritarian socialist, more specifically those who support Stalinist ideals
I've seen tankies making strawmen out of things like:
People who don't think ML strategies are a good idea for global revolution.
Recognizing that the US, Russia, and China are all fallible. Not equally bad, but comparably flawed.
Believing Zelenskyy is like Churchill in both the flattering and unflattering ways, while no amount of Azov Nazis justify Russia's brutal invasion.
Ignorant liberals representing all left leaning opposition.
I get the impression that you want to paint serious objections and disagreements by genuine leftists as either factionalism that must be silenced, or a plot by capitalists to stop redistribution. Tankies are real, terrible, and willing to defend or perpetuate almost any crime against humanity if they have faith it will contribute to the greater good.
The problem is when that country is Russia or China without major reform. Since those are quite authoritarian.
I know you didn't ask for this rant, but that's ok, it's not meant to be directed at you. This is an open -carry ranting state, and this is rant is legal even though it's unregistered because it's from the Internet.
It is shitty to rule - setting aside corruption and greed, and imagining a world where leaders were just and smart and altruistic, etc - even then - ruling will lead to mistakes and failures and horrific results. That's.. unfortunately kind of natural.
But holding that leadership accountable - that's normal too. That's how you remind them what a fuck up is, and what horrific means. Our protests against their failures in leadership are there to right the ship. Our voices are a vital part of the plan.
(And, yeah, obviously things are weighted a little (a lot) unfairly due to greed and corruption - but that's not the point. The point is: when something is wrong, it's wrong. When leaders do wrong, you yell at them. That's how you tell them what wrong is.)
To say that we (the USA) can't be criticized because "omg leadership is hard" is making excuses - and if you stop telling them what wrong is, they're going to start to forget.
Shouldn't the US just die? I thought commies wanted to do something not act like moderates
Liberals and social democrats think we can vote our way out of the evils of capitalism, but we'll never have the wealthy class's "permission" to end any of this. The status quo is fueled by violence, blood and oil - but "moderates" treat this as acceptable violence, unlike "Communism" which engages in that "Evil, authoritarian" sort of violence.
Violence caused by our inaction towards capitalist exploitation is no better than violent pro-activeness. In the words Canadian rock legend Geddy Lee: "If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice."
hell yeah, finally a communist around here
no but it is a tankie dogwhistle
you're from beehaw, not exactly a trustworthy place when it comes to being unbiased
Kind of is at this current moment given the other superpowers, but it's wrong to even think that the world should have leader like the US. No country has anywhere close to a majority of the people, so an actually multi-polar world, or even a world with no clear poles would be ideal. Taking a turn implies that we need someone else in the US's role, but the reality is that the role shouldn't exist.