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this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2025
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It is an oxymoron because tankies aren't authoritarian. Tankies believe in collectivisation of the means of production, democracy in the government and in the workplace, maximal freedom speech and of arts, and welfare for everyone.
What tankies don't believe in, is in wannabe-good leftism that lets itself be trampled by fascism, e.g. Allende in Chile or the Spanish Second Republic. Tankies believe in actually-existing socialism, which manages to fight imperialism, e.g. defeat of Tsarism in the Russian Empire and the liberation of Europe from Nazism, or the liberation of Cuban slaves from western oligarchs, despite some caveats and shortcomings that are overstated and heavily propagandized by State Department propaganda that libs swallow whole.
Lol... And all of this is cleverly defined by the easy-to-remember term "tankie". Because when you think of tanks, you think of collectivism, freedom of speech, and everything else you said. Give me a fucking break.
What separates tankies from other leftist ideologies is the authoritarian part. Tankies are authoritarian leftists.
The term "tankie" comes from the people who supported Soviet invasion (using, among other, tanks) of the Hungarian Revolution. Idk if you heard about it, but two weeks ago, the JFK papers released that the leader of the Hungarian revolution was on a CIA payroll... hence proving that tankies were right AGAIN, this time at the event that literally gives them name.
So, when I think "Soviet tanks", I think of the defeat of Nazism in Europe, and I think of the struggle against American Imperialism. "B... Bu... But fighting against imperialism with tanks is authoritarian!!!!!". Again. There's a reason why the USSR survived the literal Nazi invasion, and Allende couldn't survive a coup attempt. Stop buying into State Department propaganda and you'll be a much better leftist. Stop punching left and start punching right.
Then we need a new word for the pseudoleftists who support authoritarian regimes in Russia and China who are infesting Lemmy.
No lefties in Lemmy support the modern Russian Federation in Lemmy. I beg you to go on .ML or Lemmygrad if you think so, and ask honestly for a full perspective on Russia, its form of government, who it serves, and its role in geopolitics.
I'm a Hexbear user, and users will simultaneously recognise that the Russian Federation is a force for evil towards its citizens (oppression of women and minorities, degrading of the welfare state, imposition of militarism) while simultaneously being anti-imperialist in other regions of the world (look up the news of Niger plans for abandoning its former colonial currency through Russia-supported AES), even if only by opposing the western-imperialist structures. The Ukraine topic is complicated and if you're willing to discuss it in honesty, I'm open to doing so, but spoiler: Russia fucking sucks and so does the EU/US, Ukraine is fucked either way by sheer misfortune of being in a buffer zone between imperialist powers.
As for China, I'm sorry but it's not more authoritarian than the EU or the USA. In the US, 1 in 4 black men above the age of 30 have been through the prison system, which if happened in any other nation, we'd call genocide. In the EU, democracy consists for the past 20 years in getting to choose which is the colour and acronym of the party that will impose neoliberal welfare degradation, budget cuts, and diminishing of labour rights. In China, the past year GDP grew 5% and real purchase power grew by above 5% (unthinkable in the west), with the biggest growth being in rural areas. A new integral law of protection of private citizen data against facial recognition was just passed. And if you ask in China vs EU/USA on the level of satisfaction with government and policy (I've had several Chinese coworkers who can corroborate this), the satisfaction is immensely greater in China. It's just that repression through the workplace and by private companies isn't regarded as authoritarian in the west, when in reality it's much more pervasive than any other form of authoritarianism.