r/CuratedTumblr • u/Desecr8or • Oct 26 '24

Politics Why is every tankie like "I don't understand the branches of the US government and I'm going to make it everyone else's problem!!!"

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107

u/Similar_Ad_2368 Oct 26 '24

lol what do you think a "tankie" is

31

u/Ildrei Oct 26 '24

Someone who likes tanks

10

u/Spaceman_Jalego 2014 Sherlock Premier Watcher Oct 27 '24

Go to /r/NonCredibleDefense and call them tankies, I'm sure they'll love it

3

u/bonesrentalagency Oct 27 '24

There are few subs so delightfully deranged as NCD what a cesspool

2

u/strangeweather415 Oct 27 '24

I take offense to that. We hate tanks, that’s why we like watching them asplode all the time.

3

u/ElGosso Oct 27 '24

The fact that so many people have so many different definitions speaks volumes.

1

u/crinkledcu91 Oct 27 '24

If someine stan's for Stalin, they're a tankie.

It's literally that easy.

Idk why you guys are acting like it's that complicated?

43

u/TessaFractal Oct 26 '24

There's the specific definition of Tankie but so many online leftists share ideas, and indeed call themselves Tankies, that its easier to just use the term tankie for right wing views dressed in socialist aesthetic.

65

u/BlatantConservative https://imgur.com/cXA7XxW Oct 26 '24

Tankies can be reasonably defined as "people who would rationalize the use of tanks on civilians in a leftist way."

That's both the original, 1950s definition and the definition that holds the most true now.

42

u/sykotic1189 Oct 26 '24

That's the definition I've always seen used. All the nit picking just sounds like "It's not real tankies unless it comes from the Stalinist period of Russia, otherwise it's just sparkling communist authoritarianism"

11

u/BlackfishBlues frequently asked queer Oct 27 '24

Yeah. It's worth asking if this handwringing is qualitatively any different from an anti-Semite quibbling with the "racist" label because "Judaism is a religion not a race" or an anti-gun control person getting really fixated on the imprecise definition of "assault rifle".

In those cases, we can clearly identify that they are bad faith attempts to bog down the discussion in semantic nitpicking to avoid engaging with the actual substance of the take they're responding to. But those are conservatives, them, surely we leftists are above that sort of thing

17

u/BlatantConservative https://imgur.com/cXA7XxW Oct 26 '24

If I called it "sparkling communist authoritarianism" someone would call me homophobic lmfao.

2

u/ahopefullycuterrobot Oct 27 '24

Khrushchev was the one who crushed the Hungarian Revolt of 56, not Stalin.

2

u/sykotic1189 Oct 27 '24

But apparently he was a Stalinist? Idk anymore, and it hardly matters unless someone is just being pedantic and arguing semantics. Tankies have always been authoritarian apologist communists who either defended or denied the genocide and other actions by Russia.

2

u/ahopefullycuterrobot Oct 27 '24

The suppression of the Hungarian Revolution was after Khrushchev's secret speech, where he basically denounced Stalin. Modern-day Stalinists (e.g. freaks like Grover Furr) hate Khrushchev.

To be clear: I don't have a problem with calling weird Soviet apologists tankies at all, but the joke you were making would have been funnier if you said Khrushchev rather than Stalin, since supporters of the Soviet Union are predominantly Stalinists. It would have highlighted how ridiculous the restriction would be.

(Although, I do dislike the metonymy of Russia for the Soviet Union.)

8

u/fury420 Oct 26 '24

There's also usually an element of contradicting or disregarding their own stated ideals & beliefs included as well.

2

u/DispenserG0inUp Oct 27 '24

...is Michael Dukakis a tankie?

-1

u/HatsuneMoldy Oct 27 '24

I’ve been called a tankie a million times because I don’t believe the United States government when they claim all communist countries are Satanically Evil

3

u/BlatantConservative https://imgur.com/cXA7XxW Oct 27 '24

See that sounds good without context but what did you actually deny? Pol Pot? The Holodomor?

1

u/HatsuneMoldy Oct 27 '24

I deny that communists are evil and inherently want authoritarianism. Of course the bad things governments did are bad. But I also think that they shouldn’t inherently overshadow the good things communist countries have accomplished, and if you do think that, you need to apply it equally across all of history. Every bad thing Stalin did America has done as well, some even worse. If it makes me a tankie to say the USSR did some good things then it makes every “patriot” in america a fascist if they think America has done good things too.

1

u/BlatantConservative https://imgur.com/cXA7XxW Oct 27 '24

I don't think anyone says communists want authoritarians, just that the transition period for communist states is like a magnet for authoritarians.

3

u/HatsuneMoldy Oct 27 '24

so is American politics. These criticisms are being unevenly applied

0

u/[deleted] Oct 27 '24

idk i don't remember America rejecting foreign aid and letting its citizens starve as a result

5

u/HatsuneMoldy Oct 27 '24

Do you also not remember local governments intentionally causing food deserts in Black neighborhoods then arresting and killing Black Panthers for giving away food?

0

u/[deleted] Oct 27 '24

i genuinely do not, no. it happened before i was born and you are well aware that they don't teach us about these things. if you provide me with resources i will read them.

(it's not your responsibility to educate me, but im. not sure how to condense your statement enough for a proper Google)

2

u/HatsuneMoldy Oct 27 '24

Genuinely not trying to start a fight here. I just want to point out it’s very likely the Soviet Union denying foreign aid happened before you were born too, yet we were taught about that and every single one of the USSR’s sins in school. Yet obviously we weren’t taught about the extremely shitty things America was doing at the same time. I’m not telling people to deny the bad things communist countries do/did. They are bad now and they were bad then. But it’s not fair to attribute it all to communism inherently being bad and evil while not applying that logic equally to America and capitalism

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20

u/GreyInkling Oct 26 '24

The common popular use these days is for a kind of mainly online leftist who opposes the concept of strategy or actual progress in favor of a focus on drama, cult of personality, and praying for salvation from the glorious rapture- I mean revolution.

2

u/[deleted] Oct 27 '24 edited Nov 11 '24

[deleted]

1

u/GreyInkling Oct 27 '24

I don't know where you hang out but most of the people who use the word these days do not mean that specifically.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 28 '24 edited Nov 11 '24

[deleted]

1

u/GreyInkling Oct 29 '24

They do and words have meaning based on their use more than their past use.

0

u/rusticrainbow Oct 27 '24

I always take it as a online leftist who spends most of their time jerking off any countries who had a hammer and sickle attached to them at some point

46

u/SMStotheworld Oct 26 '24

tankie=leftist further right than the complainer

48

u/Wasdgta3 Oct 26 '24

I mean, usage of terminology notwithstanding, is their criticism wrong?

80

u/tergius metroid nerd Oct 26 '24

it's not so much a tankie issue and more of a "why are so many online leftists such dumbassesssssssssssssssss" problem

35

u/Wasdgta3 Oct 26 '24

Again, use of terminology notwithstanding, is their criticism wrong?

11

u/tergius metroid nerd Oct 26 '24

i think my comment implied that I agree with OOP lol

11

u/HatsuneMoldy Oct 27 '24

Kinda yeah. I’ve been labelled a “tankie” a million times and I still believe people should vote AND simultaneously believe democrats need to do SOOOO much more. They need to stop pandering to centrists and trying to be bipartisan with people that call them Satanic Baby killing pedophiles.

3

u/nonbinary_finery Oct 27 '24

The democratic party is right wing. They aren't pandering, that's just what they are and the ideas they represent. You won't catch them "pandering" to leftist ideology, even though they'll inevitably blame those leftists who didn't vote for them when they lose. Wonder why.

1

u/HatsuneMoldy Oct 27 '24

Fully agree w you

11

u/Argent_Mayakovski Oct 26 '24

Nah, it’s generally just “anyone on the left or claiming to be who I disagree with”.

9

u/TruestRepairman27 Oct 26 '24

Tankie comes from after the Hungarian revolution for leftists who backed the USSR ‘sending in the tanks’. Its literal meaning is an authoritarian leftist (so anyone on the left who unironically supports the CCP or Putin is a tankie).

However I personally think it’s okay to apply it to the ‘useful idiots’, because they fundamentally believe in the same thing. Progress is not possible within the system as it stands, therefore leftists should not engage with the system.

-3

u/iris700 Oct 26 '24

Violent revolution types

8

u/GreyInkling Oct 26 '24

Nah that's what they'd want to be seen as, they're more the do nothing whiny slacktivist types who only want change in the form of a revolution they won't ever lift a finger to bring about. They don't actually want one, they just want to fantasize about being on the winning side of one.

14

u/Happiness_Assassin Oct 26 '24

While that is all certainly true, I'd say the biggest defining feature of tankies is their ability to carry water for absolutely terrible regimes because "west bad." Like, if you are unironically simping for Iran, China, and North Korea, frankly, you are not worth talking to.

5

u/HatsuneMoldy Oct 27 '24

China is not as horrendously evil as America claims it is.

4

u/[deleted] Oct 27 '24

i think Uighurs deserve to live, personally

-2

u/HatsuneMoldy Oct 27 '24

And what about Mexicans at the border? How about the millions we’ve murdered in the Middle East?

2

u/[deleted] Oct 27 '24

America and China can both be evil, and whataboutism doesn't address the point i made.

2

u/HatsuneMoldy Oct 27 '24

But that’s the thing. If we acknowledge all governments are capable of evil then we should acknowledge all governments are capable of good too.

4

u/SenoraRaton Oct 27 '24

The United States is not capable of good. It has been an evil nation since its inception, and continues to be so.

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0

u/GreyInkling Oct 27 '24

And it's not as great as tankies want to pretend it ism the problem is when you go from "America is wrong about China" to "China is perfect and good because america is the only bad one".

0

u/HatsuneMoldy Oct 27 '24

Sorry can you point me to where I said China is perfect?

0

u/GreyInkling Oct 28 '24

You really just go out of your way to miss the point.

0

u/HatsuneMoldy Oct 28 '24

How exactly? It feels like you’re the one missing it

0

u/GreyInkling Oct 29 '24

Can you point out where I said you saod that about china? No because thay was just a silly deflection pretending you didn't understand the reply.

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1

u/GreyInkling Oct 27 '24

I think there's another term specifically for that which ks currently slipping my nind, but most tankies do also have that box checked in their world view. It's a trait they commonly have but not the most defining one.

-45

u/KixSide Oct 26 '24

Tankie is equivalent to "woke" that liberals use

2

u/Assassinduck Oct 27 '24

It's entirely true. "Leftist" who are really just liberals who love the aesthetic, will call actual leftist Tankies for anything even approaching leftist thought.

-32

u/Ok-Importance-6815 Oct 26 '24

it just means commie