what happened here?
this post was submitted on 08 Feb 2025
73 points (91.0% liked)
History
23333 readers
31 users here now
Welcome to c/history! History is written by the posters.
c/history is a comm for discussion about history so feel free to talk and post about articles, books, videos, events or historical figures you find interesting
Please read the Hexbear Code of Conduct and remember...we're all comrades here.
Do not post reactionary or imperialist takes (criticism is fine, but don't pull nonsense from whatever chud author is out there).
When sharing historical facts, remember to provide credible souces or citations.
Historical Disinformation will be removed
founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
You know, for people who always want to demonize “tankies” you libs sure seem to love this guy a lot even though he is the definition of a tankie.
Not trying to demonize anybody here, not sure I even totally understand what a 'tankie' is aside from the generally accepted definition (low key a part of why I posted this here, its always best to learn from all perspectives)
The “tankies” were originally those who supported the soviets “sending in the tanks” to put down a Nazi coup attempt in Hungary. The tank man in your picture tried to single-handedly stop the tanks from leaving Tiennamen square while an anti-communist riot was being fomented there.
It has nothing to do with this photo or even China. It is a dated communist insult going back to the 50s when many communist parties were infighting or splitting over their differing opinions on the Soviet occupation of Budapest following the october 1956 revolt of nationalist and anti-communist forces. I believe it specifically arose from arguments within the CPGB. However the sense in which it is used by liberals against communists today has little to do with any of that, it's a word barely clinging to any semblance of meaning, much like how "woke" is used by reactionaries
Further reading. https://redsails.org/tankies/
Now u know
Interesting