I’ve run across these terms several times, but without enough context to figure out what they mean. Could someone help me out, please?
ETA All of you are amazing! A huge thank you to everyone who responded, and an extra thank you to those who have provided links or explanations to further and/or related information. I am learning so much by reading all of these comments!
Be warned this thread was completely invaded by neoliberals, you only received extremely biased views. For starters, the word “tankie” is something libtards came up with to insult those whose view differs too largely from theirs.
Also remember the United States commited genocide of their own indigenous people, they practice slavery in their prisons, they have dropped thousands of bombs in the arabs, there are several instances of structural racism in areas with heavy black population, the United States has also invaded multiple nations for questionable reasons.
Does this excuse some Communist atrocities? No, it doesn’t. Stalin went too far, we know, he implemented dubious policies, we know. But this is not such a simple situation. The top post of this thread says we “specifically defend those atrocities”, this couldn’t be farther from the truth.
We do not defend any genocides, including the ones that did not happen, we wouldn’t defend them if they did happen. We defend a much greater goal. If we ever defended any genocide it would the mass killing of billionaires and nazis.
Did you know that NATO’s first Chief of Staff was a nazi officer?
Thank you for responding. I have boiled down the aggregate of answers as basically a tankie supports authoritarianism, or use of violence to deal with opposition. If this take is incorrect, someone please correct where I have it wrong. Btw, I have deliberately ignored references to left/right as meaningless in my quest for information.
Macron is using violence to deal with the opposition is France, he would be a tankie by your current definition.
Netanyahu is a dictator, Biden would be a tankie by your definition, as he supports Netanyahu.
Tankie is pejorative for “far-left”, that’s it, it’s an insult.
You can’t do that, this is strictly about politics.