Based just on what's in this post and not knowing much history about it, I'm where you are right now too. If their concern is "tankie" includes unobjectionable stuff, we can at least give them the opportunity to give us some examples to make their point. If they can come up with stuff that we agree often gets the "tankie" label applied to it but is actually consistent with this instance's core principles, then we should hear them out. But if they are like "well, CCP is actually based," then no thanks.
Just go to hexbear.net for 5 minutes and you will see that it is full of people going "CCP/Russia/North Korea is based"
Nobody there says modern Russia is "based"
WRT the DPRK I highly recommend educating yourself on the Korean war starting with the podcast Blowback.
I'm an Eastern European leftie whose peasant ancestors (not all of them, obviously) suffered through famine, unspeakable state-sanctioned violence and extended prison terms during Stalinism and through decades of opression afterwards. The intergenerational trauma is something we're all still struggling with. I cannot bear to hear the "Well, you need to break some eggs in order to make omelette"-type of negationist twaddle and I'm reminded daily of how the authoritarian postwar regimes have made it damn near impossible to resurrect the Left in the region. Don't just fuck tankies, feed them rancid cum only.
Based just on what's in this post and not knowing much history about it, I'm where you are right now too. If their concern is "tankie" includes unobjectionable stuff, we can at least give them the opportunity to give us some examples to make their point. If they can come up with stuff that we agree often gets the "tankie" label applied to it but is actually consistent with this instance's core principles, then we should hear them out. But if they are like "well, CCP is actually based," then no thanks.
Just go to hexbear.net for 5 minutes and you will see that it is full of people going "CCP/Russia/North Korea is based"
Nobody there says modern Russia is "based"
WRT the DPRK I highly recommend educating yourself on the Korean war starting with the podcast Blowback.
I'm an Eastern European leftie whose peasant ancestors (not all of them, obviously) suffered through famine, unspeakable state-sanctioned violence and extended prison terms during Stalinism and through decades of opression afterwards. The intergenerational trauma is something we're all still struggling with. I cannot bear to hear the "Well, you need to break some eggs in order to make omelette"-type of negationist twaddle and I'm reminded daily of how the authoritarian postwar regimes have made it damn near impossible to resurrect the Left in the region. Don't just fuck tankies, feed them rancid cum only.