this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2023
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As someone who's wondered this myself but only now found the enthusiasm to look it up because I can't be arsed to do anything for myself but this is what Wikipedia says:
"Tankie is a pejorative label generally applied to communists who express support for one-party communist states that are associated with Marxism–Leninism, whether contemporary or historical."
Take it with a grain of salt tho people misuse labels like this all the time
I think that definition is pretty accurate about almost everybody I've seen being called a Tankie on lemmy.
The term was originated in the UK in the 60s by leftists who opposed the USSR's tank-led occupations of Prague and Budapest. In that context "tankie" kinda makes sense.
I think this is actually pretty fair, but one thing I'll add is that the implication of the word (being a reference to the use of tanks to put down revolts) is that tankies support the use of state violence against opposition
I have not found that to be true about many who are accused of being a tankie
And yet, they stan the CCP.
"Tankies are westerners that don't think "China bad"
Excellent definition 👍
You slippin? The CCP and China aren't the same.
Well fuck me, I thought the CPC was the single-party government of China, my bad.
Weird, does that mean being born in the U.S. automatically makes you a member of the U.S. govt?
Huh, when people criticize China, does that mean theyre not criticizing the government, but the people who are born there?
Remember that, like other forms of authoritarians, they are very comfortable lying.