this post was submitted on 23 Apr 2024
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Tankiejerk
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Dunking on Tankies from a leftist perspective.
A tankie is someone who defends/supports authoritarian or even totalitarian regimes who call themselves "socialist". The term originated from people supporting the 1956 invasion of Hungary by the Soviet Union. Nowadays they are just terminally online, denying genocides, and falling for totalitarian propaganda and calling such regimes "true democracies". remember to censor usernames when necessary.
Please be sure to obscure usernames on posts to prevent doxxing.
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What did you think after reading The Conquest of Bread?
I'm not sure I thought just 1 thing about it when I finished it. Can you be more specific in your question?
Go easy on me now, I haven't read it in probably 14 years. You would probably get more of asking me about "Red Victory!", and its portion on the early months of famine.
I don’t know of Red Victory. Just wondering if you identified with the anarchist aspects of the book? Or, would you recommend The Gulag Archipelago by Solzhenitsyn instead?
In general I find democratic socialism to work better than anarchism, and I think the majority of people will never accept anarchism of any form, though I think rural areas are much more capable of experimentation over cities.
But to get back to the original point, theory is where it stops for a lot of people. They have no true ability to practice leftism in any meaningful context, and I think they hold it against the rest of us who have found ways to accomplish that within the system.
Maybe lift your head from the book and take a look outside. Your accomplishments within the system are failing. Maybe try reading “Social Reform or Revolution? by Luxemburg. It’s not a long read.
So you decided to respond to me telling another person that reading the literature is not good enough by attempting to figure out if I have done the reading, and once you discovered I have, you decided to just repeat my own original point back to me as if it was your own idea.
I gotta say, the pedantry is expected from an anarchist. Good faith seems to be an allergen to your movement.
Sorry if my tone was abrasive and flippant. But this statement:
concerned me given the state of politics in America today, and the rising fascism around the world. I was only recommending a pamphlet that specifically addresses that topic. Another I might recommend is August Nimtz’s The Ballot, the Streets―or Both: From Marx and Engels to Lenin and the October Revolution, which also touches on the reformation of electoral politics.
Socialism has been gaining ground in the US, unlike communism or anarchism, so it is more understandable I feel more optimistic than you do.
I would say that if your concern is fascism, than working with liberals is the only move one can make at this moment, as unfortunate as that is.
Happy you’re optimistic. We need positivity moving forward. Working with willing Liberals is a must.
Getting them to see that they are probably in more danger than us leftists seems to move the needle a bit.
But sadly, most of the time it's frustration. But yes, positivity is the only option.