“Tankie” is a term referring to authoritarian communists, due to the tendency of authoritarian communist states to use tanks in crushing protesters - such as the Soviet Union crushing Hungarian workers in 1956, or China rolling tanks into Tienanmen Square against student protesters in 1989. “Tankie” is also used for apologists for these regimes.
Tankie is sometimes misused as “Someone to my left I don’t like”.
the Soviet Union crushing Hungarian workers in 1956
That’s where the term comes from. Before that, it was common among the western left to support the Soviet Union and don’t allow criticism. When they crushed the Hungarian workers, most western leftist redrew their support, except for tankies. That’s where they got their name.
That may be, I haven’t been to Reddit in a while. On here, there’s some misuse, but a lot of people who it actually does apply to, mostly from .ml anymore; formerly Grad and Hexbear when they were federated. Fuckin’ playing apologist for Uyghur genocide, North Korean Juche, saying Hungarian workers were ‘fascists’ who had to be crushed. Weird stuff. Hate seeing them around.
“Tankie” is a term referring to authoritarian communists, due to the tendency of authoritarian communist states to use tanks in crushing protesters - such as the Soviet Union crushing Hungarian workers in 1956, or China rolling tanks into Tienanmen Square against student protesters in 1989. “Tankie” is also used for apologists for these regimes.
Tankie is sometimes misused as “Someone to my left I don’t like”.
That’s where the term comes from. Before that, it was common among the western left to support the Soviet Union and don’t allow criticism. When they crushed the Hungarian workers, most western leftist redrew their support, except for tankies. That’s where they got their name.
I’d say “often misused” these days. It’s become a common Reddit term to describe anyone left of Obama 🙄
That may be, I haven’t been to Reddit in a while. On here, there’s some misuse, but a lot of people who it actually does apply to, mostly from .ml anymore; formerly Grad and Hexbear when they were federated. Fuckin’ playing apologist for Uyghur genocide, North Korean Juche, saying Hungarian workers were ‘fascists’ who had to be crushed. Weird stuff. Hate seeing them around.