this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2023
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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.

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Image Transcription:

An 8-panel Phoebe Teaching Joey meme.

The first panel is Phoebe from Friends saying "Russia".

The second panel is Joey from the same show replying with "Russia".

The third panel is Phoebe saying "has invaded".

The fourth panel is Joey repeating back "has invaded".

The fifth panel is Phoebe saying "Ukraine".

The sixth panel is Joey repeating back "Ukraine".

The seventh panel is Phoebe saying the completed phrase "Russia has invaded Ukraine".

The final panel shows Joey proudly proclaiming "NATO just started a proxy war".

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[–] [email protected] 117 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Victim blaming at it's finest! Ukraine gets invaded, it must be their fault!

[–] [email protected] 71 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Maybe Ukraine shouldn't have been dressed so provocatively.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago

Westerners don't get it. They didn't see citizens in Crimea and Donbas walking around in their "fuck me, Putin" shorts and their "imperialism now" borscht stained t-shirts.

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[–] [email protected] 54 points 1 year ago (14 children)

They're nazis because the NATO helped them not be colonized and drained of resources by Russia. Not wanting to have your hospitals and schools bombed, makes you a nazi obviously.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I think the Russian conception of Nazi is literally someone who threatens Russia. The rest of the world focuses on the totalitarian ideologies and anti semitism, Russia largely focuses on just that they were against Russia.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think the Russian conception of Nazi is literally someone who threatens Russia.

Yep. Just like the US definition of socialist/communist/terrorist

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Don't be silly, Wagner's people were in Ukraine way before the Russian "special military operation" started... there were actual (Russian) nazis in Ukraine... and look, a year and a half later, Russia finally managed to kill their leaders!

(I'd say /s, but fuck if it ain't the truth...)

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It’s abusive behavior at its finest. “My wife MADE me punch her in the face 10 times! Poor me”

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[–] [email protected] 78 points 1 year ago (27 children)

This is a NATO proxy war in that NATO, an organization created to provide European countries protection from Russia's territorial ambitions, is providing assistance to a European country to help protect them from Russia's territorial ambitions.

I can't get over the circular logic of thinking Russia is justified in its invasion of another country by the fact that the other country wanted to be better prepared to defend against Russia invading it.

"I need to beat up my neighbor for trying to take a self defense class, because if he takes the class I won't be able to beat him up."

Dude, it only comes up if you're trying to beat up your neighbor. just don't do that.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago

And, that's after they gave up their baseball bats for the explicit insurance that they wouldn't be beat up or threatened to be beat up. Kinda makes it seem dumb in hindsight, but you know what they say.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This is a NATO proxy war in that NATO, an organization created to provide European countries protection from Russia's territorial ambitions, is providing assistance to a European country to help protect them from Russia's territorial ambitions.

Perfectly stated. Definitely sums up NATO's involvement.

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[–] [email protected] 70 points 1 year ago (32 children)

I exclude Tankies from the far left. Because at its heart, the left is anti-authoritarian. Tankies lost the plot somewhere and decided that full authoritarianism was the way to go, regardless of the human suffering that lead to.

An authoritarian regime that claims to be communist is no closer to the communist ideal of a stateless utopia than a fully capitalistic state. If the capitalistic state is democratic with popular socialist programs, then it's actually closer to the communist ideal than an authoritarian state that merely claims communism. I'm using European democracies as my gold standard.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The problem with tankies is that they have latched on to the Stalinist notion of the necessity for dictatorship to achieve the unification of the proletariat and the dismantling of the Plutarchy. The other problem is most of them are Soviboos obsessed with Russia and the USSR in general.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 year ago (4 children)

It would be fine if they were consistent. Wrong, but fine.

What grinds my gears is the full on simp-itry of Putin and Xi in particular. None are communist in any way. Both full on capitalists. I would argue USSR was never communist but even so the cut off date was 1991 everything after has absolutely no left wing whatsoever.

Tankies are just atheist MAGAs with a different God Emperor they worship.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Tankies are just anti America edge lords. I'm surprised they haven't started claiming Iran is somehow a communist country.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm with you on this one. I kinda always thought Marx's and Engel's point was:

Capitalism is the stepping stone from feudalism to something far better.

I don't think they had in mind that the next step after capitalism would be going back to despotism. Like you said, these people lost the plot.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

George Orwell's Animal Farm captures it perfectly. Everything is going (mostly) great until the Pigs take over and become despots.

"All Animals Are Equal but Some Animals Are More Equal Than Others"

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The pigs telegraph every move before they actually change the rules. When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time is a core lesson of the book.

Also if you see the writing in the wall get out early like snowball or you'll end up at the glue factory.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Abandoning worker enfranchisement in favour of authoritarian autocracy is neither communist nor left wing - they're just red-coded fascists.

Imagine the level of brain rot required to praise Stalin as a champion of the people.

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[–] [email protected] 59 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Another BRICs war.

Another CSTO war.

NATO is not the aggressor. Ukraine is not the aggressor.

And Russia isn’t a victim.

Fuck Russia. Fuck the stooges that defend Russia.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

BRICS is going to be hilarious as BRCS after India leaves to make sure they get western military help against China. They can't even get rule number 1 of being a major alliance member down. (Don't attack your "ally")

[–] [email protected] 43 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Hmmm. I'm amazed that Lemmygrad and Hexbear users haven't descended en masse to "dunk" on this.

Yeah, the US has done awful shit. I get it. It's not the greatest country. We've invaded other countries and killed innocent people - Afghanistan, Iraq, Vietnam (which was really just an extension of the French-Indochina war), and many others. We're still fighting--and possibly losing--battles against racism, religious extremism, and homophobia in our own borders. We have blood on our hands for sure. But our guilt in other matters does not make Russia innocent in this matter. Nor, for that matter, does the existence of neo-Nazis in Ukraine--including the Ukrainian parliament--mean that the country deserved to be invaded, and innocent civilians killed.

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[–] [email protected] 42 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Just because it's a NATO proxy war, doesn't mean NATO started it. Not saying they did this, but even if they were initially in wrong and bribed and coerced Russians into starting the war, Russia could have pulled out at any time, and no one is making Russia commit war crimes.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Good point, but they legitimately think NATO did some psychic 5D chess to force a war.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

NATO: "We let countries decide for themselves whether they want to join a defence alliance or not."

Russia: "We will not let countries decide for themselves whether they want to leave our circle of influence or not."

Yeah, next level tactics by NATO.

Edit: counties

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I’m extremely confused how people who are “I’m so leftist bro!” say you see, this fascist dictatorship HAD to invade a sovereign nation and abuse and murder tens of thousands of people, shoot missiles at apartment buildings and kidnap thousands of children because you see, our own countries and NATO are mean to them, due to the fact that we exist.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I honestly think most of the people that simultaneously take both of these positions are working for the Kremlin. There are probably a lot more bad actors who are being paid to muddy the waters than any of us would guess.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (4 children)

the amazing and disturbing thing is all of the republicans in the US who say everything the kremlin does and exhibit the exact same types of behavior.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yeah, imagine to my surprise when after being a leftist for years finally take a look at the communist communities on Reddit and then here and they literally say THE EXACT SAME SHIT as the conservative groups about the war in Ukraine, all the way down to Zelensky and his cabinet being Nazis. Noped the fuck out of those communities real fast.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The political spectrum isn't really a line. Please don't imply leftists and tankies are on the same team

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (16 children)

You can ignore everything I'm about to write. I'm just thinking through this in written form.

Here goes: it's a bit confusing for me. Tankies call themselves leftists. In fact, they call us "pro-capitalists" because we don't believe in authoritarianism.

And it feels weird to me to be in one of two groups both saying, "you're not REAL anti-capitalists" at each other.

So here goes:

  • the Nazis weren't nationalist socialists
  • the USSR wasn't a republic controlled by worker Soviets
    • In fact, the use of tanks on Hungarian worker Soviets was what gave tankies their name. They were actually anti Soviet.
  • the Democratic Republic of North Korea isn't democratic
  • the People's Republic of China does not belong to its people
  • Moms for Liberty doesn't want liberty (and is filled with numerous people who aren't even moms)
  • a majority membership of the National Black Republican Organization is white

So yes, I must acknowledge that a group of pro-authoritarians can call themselves leftists without being leftists.

... it still feels weird though. Because if you view it from their perspective, they are leftists. And we are capitalists' enablers.

Wait! I think I see it. Their embrace of violent regimes and violent tactics destroys working class unity and alienates non-violent, compassionate anti-capitalists. They actively choose Stalin over Trotsky and Trotsky over Kerensky, and (like they did with Marguerit Duras) drive anyone out of the movement who won't support that choice.

They are anti-solidarity. And you cannot be a leftist and be anti-solidarity.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

They are anti-solidarity. And you cannot be a leftist and be anti-solidarity.

Im a radical leftist. Specifically an anarchist.

I was arguing with tankies the other day, because I defined Tankie as an authoritarian Communists. In an effort to differentiate between communists I would work with as an anarchist.

Many people (mostly hailing from hexbear )really didn't like it. Cue endless whataboutism and people calling me a lib. Btw according to some hexbear folx. Its not imperialism when the USSR invaded Afghanistan, but it is when the US did it later. Lol.

I too want to exclude tankies from leftism. For many reasons. But the truth is that communism even authoritarian communism is leftist.

We dont need to "no true scotmen" leftism. There are problematic elements that we need to recognize and deal with in a way that is not simply saying "we are not them." Its much healthier and factually correct simply to say that state communism Trends towards a police state aka towards authoritarianism. And I dont support that.

Just my 2 cents.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's not "fringe left" or "fringe right" (not that that means anything consistent in the first place), it's just anyone dumb enough to incorporate "Russia are unequivocally good and the US going against them are unequivocally bad" into their thinking.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

not that that means anything consistent in the first place

Yeaaaaaaah... I wasn't sure what to use as the title. By the time I had captioned the meme, I realized it didn't exclusively describe tankies. It also describes Tucker Carlson's whole audience.

In hindsight, I probably could have said, "Tankies and far right." There did not need to be symmetry in my statement.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Tankies really are the worst. At least right wing ideology has propaganda that fits their mission.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago

When you break down tanky ideology, they are just fascists who use leftist populism to garner support. They are just right wingers with extra steps.

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