Why the heck are there tankies in c/Tankiejerk?
this post was submitted on 24 Apr 2025
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Dunking on Tankies from a leftist, anti-capitalist perspective.
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Because non-Tankies generally aren't ban-happy power trippers who can handle criticism, even done in bad faith, unlike the .ml admins lol
I meant more like: Why are there so many tankies in a comm meant exclusively to make fun of them? Like for example I'm a devout Muslim and I don't go pick fights in c/atheistmemes even if I probably won't get banned for it.
In their political system, it's strictly illegal criticize the government. To the point where you get sent to work camps if you do it publically. And this place makes fun of them without consequences, so they get all fired up and start typing as if they have any sort of authority.
Because the vast majority of tankies assume they'll be a high ranking member of the ruling party and get to push others around. While in reality they'd be in some siberian camp trying to dig through permafrost with their bare hands.
Oh, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ kinda like the right-wingers who come here to Lemmy, they probably see themselves as some sort of "missionary" trying to "rescue" people from the evils of America. They're not exactly the politest bunch (once they figure they can't bring you to "their side" at least)
They were lured in by the promise in the name
You really don't grasp this whole federate thing right?
You clearly don't grasp the whole "don't go where you're not welcome" thing, right?
Haha go back to stormfront and don't come here to this tankie project Lemmy , LoL
This meme format gets me every time
Hate to say that and sound like a tankie but the human rights framework does have a bias. The human rights court has the reputation to mainly work in Africa and overlook the violations done by the west. Which doesn't annulate human rights violations by authoritarian states of cause but it's good to be aware of this baggage
When most leftists say 'human rights' though, they mean the general concept, not international institutions.
True. At the minimum, it's a good way of agitation. Telling a stranger "housing is a human right" for example will pull more people into your movement than telling them "rights are a bourgeois concept and written law (as opposed to community mediation) will never be just but always reproduce existing hierarchies"
Absolutely true but the problem is that this just fundamentally isn’t a rebuttal to accusations of human rights abuses by countries tankies support. Those still happened and defending them is just as bad as nationalistic chuds who think the US or Israel did nothing wrong.
So at best it’s whataboutism, which might be at least slightly valid if leftists refused to criticize western powers. But, y’know, we are one of the main groups that does that…
I guess I wanted to dialectically both reject and embrace human rights and failed on the second part. One tankie argument I get is that it's more revolutionary to criticize your own government than others but I never got why not both. While rejecting Russia's war of aggression, I focus my activism on my government's climate politics and racist police and foreign policy well knowing that Russia and the US are both worse in these regards.
Ultimately, it's a common tactic of radical groups to say 'hey, don't criticise me, don't attack me, we're on the same side" right up until they are in a spot where they can attack you without consequence. That doesn't just apply to tankies, but also fascists, ultra-nationalists, etc.
It's much easier to understand the contradiction when you conclude that these ideologies will use anything and everything in their repertoire to get what they want. At the end of the day, they've concluded that their ideology will save humanity, and so no morals or ethics should stop them from bringing such a world about.
They'll appeal to your humanity, then refute your humanity existing when the time comes. They'll claim allyship, then later accuse you of being a counter-insurgent. They'll ask forgiveness and promise to change, then accuse you of un-forgiveable acts.
This pops up all the time with neo-Nazis when they get their addresses leaked or have their affiliations told to their bosses. You saw it too during the cybertruck vandalism wave, where these people constantly cry out for mercy, despite their ideologies holding no mercy for others.
true but sometimes the CIA also human rights :(