Nah, I spent some time over there getting to the root of what they believe. There's multiple shades of what they do believe, none of them were the unironic "Stalin did nothing wrong" types.

Let me tell you what clued me into the fact there was something fishy - the devs of Lemmy, the decentralized, impossible to control or monetize social network software, support highly centralized, authoritarian regimes that were always run through a form of state owned capitalism? That's a pretty big ideological mismatch.

The term is being used as an umbrella to dismiss all communists. Over at lemmygrad, the majority is primarily Marxist-Leninist... But it's even more fair to say they're just anti capitalism and have been sold on the idea that that's the only other option on the table

The problem is by labeling someone a tankie, you prevent them from engaging in the conversation they sorely need to develop a better understanding of political and economic systems. And they do need it... Their ideology ends at "the workers unite and take back control", and movements that end up in control with no game plan are how you end up with terrible ideas, like the Soviet model

IMO, there's a big gap between Marxist-Leninist and being a shill for authoritarian regimes... You say they're hiding their denial of genocide because they've smartened up. I say who cares what's in their hearts, if they're not denying genocides then don't give them the same label as those who are