Would you call Malcom X a “tankie”? Were the Black Panthers reactionaries? Was Albert Einstein a fascist? Were the tens of millions of communists who died in the 20th century fighting for human liberation equivalent to Nazi’s?
This is an honest question. I would be fascinated to understand the thought process of anyone who answers yes, which presumably should be anyone who uses the term ‘tankie’.

[–] Rozauhtuno@lemmy.blahaj.zone 31 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

No, no, no and no.

Socialist != tankie.

And what do the USSR soldiers that fought 83 years ago have to do with the people spewing Kremlin propaganda today? Or Einstein for that matter?

You're responsible for your own actions, if you simp for a despot, you're a tankie. Hiding behind ideology doesn't make it okay.

[–] ikidd@lemmy.world 29 points 1 year ago

Oh, fuck that noise. Tankies are anyone that figure the Soviets were good for the Eastern Bloc countries, and that China can do no wrong as it oppresses a fifth of the world's population like they're expendable slaves. Usually they're out here telling us how Ukraine should just roll over to Putin and that there's nothing to see in Xinjiang.

I'm not going to stop using "tankie" to describe these fucks.

[–] jmcs@discuss.tchncs.de 13 points 1 year ago

The people in the US that were anti intervention in WW2 until Soviet Union got invaded, but then changed their stance were tankies (doubly so to the Union leaders that were fine with genocide in Poland but stopped striking the moment Stalin's criminal treaty backfired). The people that supported Soviet oppression in the Warsaw pact were tankies (that's what the terms comes from). The people supporting an Fascist land grab and genocide attempt, done under the same pretexts as Hitler had for Poland, right now, are tankies and truly worthy of their 1939 ideological ancestors.