Random observation but I find it kind of interesting how the talking points anti-tankies tend to bring up are things that, even if the worst allegations are accepted, are relatively minor compared to some other events you could bring up. I've heard so much about Tienanmen Square under Deng, but much less about the Cultural Revolution under Mao. And the Hungarian Revolution and the Prague Spring happened under Khrushchev and Brezhnev respectively, when there's much worse stuff you could bring up about Stalin.

I can't help but think that this conflicts with the supposed definition of tankie of just knee-jerk defending anything someone does if they wave a red flag. If that were actually true, wouldn't you focus on the most extreme examples by the most extreme leaders? The fact that there's so much focus on people like Khrushchev and Deng, who were both more moderate than their predecessors, seems more like the point of the word is specifically to attack people who might have a more favorable view of those more moderate figures, while being critical of their predecessors' actions.

Which is to say, tankie isn't actually meant to be directed towards someone who knee-jerk defends anyone with a red flag, but rather, it's meant to be directed towards someone who defends anything at all about anyone at all with a red flag, by accusing them of being the former. In other words, it's a word that demands the exact kind of knee-jerk response it's supposedly criticizing, just in the other direction.

In fact, it's particularly interesting that these accusations of ideological rigidity and blind loyalty are in reference to Khrushchev, who did nothing but criticize Stalin, and Deng who controversially said that Mao was "70% good, 30% bad." I don't think it's even possible for someone to defend everything done by both Stalin and Khrushchev

Oh, so calling people Tankie is just red scare propaganda then. Thanks for the heads up.

Tbf the hungarian coup was actually connected to an mi6 operation. And the people involved started killing Jewish people and communists, so...

Classic Hexbear take that is not remotely based in reality.

I love how you guys have decided that your definitions are the only correct ones.

You're strawmaning hard here, because I never said it's a definition or that it's the only one. It's just my understanding of the term. What part of it is wrong in your opinion? I want to consider it

It's your primary weapon here, for obvious reasons.

Because it's obvious that when you're challenged on your understanding of words you have nothing to say?

Communism is political science, words have meanings and we tend to use the correct ones, yes.

Based on your answer, I've discovered what tankie means: Tankie = Marxist.

Successful Marxist movement results in a dictatorship of the proletariat. Dictator = tankie.

Hence tankie is a term used to describe any Marxist.

Thanks for contributing to this scientific breakthrough!

I have only seen it used in reference to people who support dictatorial regimes with socialist aesthetics, mostly MLs.

yet to see an anarchist be called a tankie

https://hexbear.net/post/214901

https://hexbear.net/post/374789

https://hexbear.net/post/126901

There's more in the_dunk_tank if you're willing to dig

https://hexbear.net/c/the_dunk_tank

Pro Tip: Sort by Top All. Anarchists getting called tankie tends to get a lot of upbears because we have anarchist comrades on our instance. We're a left unity instance

https://hexbear.net/search?q=tankie&type=All&listingType=All&communityId=31&page=1&sort=TopAll

And I assume by "dictatorial regimes" you mean any actually existing socialist country, right?

Literally every one of our anarchist users have been called tankies, lmao