I ask purely out of laziness for something I'm sure I could find in a basic search far shorter than this post, but, what exactly is a tankie? I see it used here as a (I assume) derogatory term but the definition is never obvious based on context clues... I assume something, something pro-CCP / Tianemen massacre?
Tankie is or isn't derogatory depending on who's saying it and what context. They call themselves tankies, but when I use it it's always a slur.
Tankies are authoritarian facists who have a thin veil of liberalism (they'll consider this a slur, and that's fine) wrapped around them. They genuinely believe Stalin, Putin, and China can do no wrong. They deny the concentration camps in China and think Ukraine are the bad guys.
They claim to be communist, but are one hundred percent authoritarian in their beliefs.
Wikipedia has a good definition:
Tankie is a pejorative label generally applied to communists who express support for one-party communist regimes that are associated with Marxism–Leninism, whether contemporary or historical.
History:
The term "tankie" was originally used by dissident Marxist–Leninists to describe members of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) who followed the party line of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). Specifically, it was used to distinguish party members who spoke out in defense of the Soviet use of tanks to crush the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and the 1968 Prague Spring uprising, or who more broadly adhered to pro-Soviet positions.
I ask purely out of laziness for something I'm sure I could find in a basic search far shorter than this post, but, what exactly is a tankie? I see it used here as a (I assume) derogatory term but the definition is never obvious based on context clues... I assume something, something pro-CCP / Tianemen massacre?
Tankie is or isn't derogatory depending on who's saying it and what context. They call themselves tankies, but when I use it it's always a slur.
Tankies are authoritarian facists who have a thin veil of liberalism (they'll consider this a slur, and that's fine) wrapped around them. They genuinely believe Stalin, Putin, and China can do no wrong. They deny the concentration camps in China and think Ukraine are the bad guys.
They claim to be communist, but are one hundred percent authoritarian in their beliefs.
Wikipedia has a good definition:
History: