The term Tankie has a clear definition that Cowbee likes to ignore:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tankie Tankie is a pejorative label generally applied to authoritarian communists, especially those > who support or defend acts of repression by such regimes, their allies, or deny the > occurrence of the events thereof.

Join the lemmy.ml boycott today and help foster a better Lemmy-verse! No more posts, comments (except to counter their propaganda ofc!) or upvotes on any comms on the > Lemmy.ml instance! To make this easy you can do an instance block at Settings > Block Tab > Scroll to bottom > Input “lemmy.ml” and apply

And consider donating to individual instances instead.

Check the megathread for more!

  • Awoo [she/her]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    7 days ago

    Yeah that’s another good way to put it but I don’t think it’s a requirement. I’ve seen anarchists that don’t support any existing socialism get hit with it because they oppose liberals or liberal policy in some way. A lot of them really do just use it for anyone to their left. Like, “do you support hamas?” “yes” “you’re a tankie then” has been an interaction I have seen anarchists experience.

    • Cowbee [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      7 days ago

      Yep, that’s fair too! I tried to broaden it beyond dedicated socialists because even liberals that oppose imperialism get hit with the label, but it’s even more nebulous than that.