Do these people exist or are they just strawmen? I've not really ever encountered so-called "tankies".
Every left leaning person I've actually met are against authoritarianism.
this post was submitted on 30 Mar 2025
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I'm sure you'll see some here. Supporting Russia and China has been becoming more fashionable on .ml.
It was fashionable there before 2023, then when the whole influx came in many outsiders joined and diluted it, now it's returning
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I have only seen them online. I figure they are trolls or bots.
But I do think that China has a better human rights record than the US and Israel.
They are still evil in how they treat Uyghurs, Tibetans and democracy activists. They definitely use torture on dissidents.
But it's not that difficult to be better than slavery, genocide, war and colonialism. And the US and Israel also use torture.
So maybe I am the tankie that OP refers to.
They are still evil in how they treat Uyghurs, Tibetans and democracy activists. They definitely use torture on dissidents.
Nah, you're not a tankie if you're saying that earnestly.
Tankies defend the CCP/Russia no matter what, it's always they've done nothing wrong and if they did, it wasn't that bad, and if it was that bad, it was just "western propaganda" so it isn't true.
I've seen (and documented) them saying that "they're just reeducation camps, they're not that bad and it's done anyways so ยฏโ \โ _โ (โ ใโ )โ _โ /โ ยฏ" and allowing Russian propaganda that their invasion "was just a diplomatic maneuver"
You're just bringing an argument "I think X is bad, but not worse than Y because Z"
There's a transparency gap as well, it's harder to find details on some of those things than others.
Ah, yes. The Uyghur genocide: famously free of genocide.
not that difficult to be better than slavery, genocide, war and colonialism
Apparently it is, because other than constant wars China does all of those things.
5000 years of history and apparently no wars, slaves or colonies. Amazing, if true.
The comment said point blank that China does slavery and colonialism. For wars, they refer to recent history and that's largely accurate in recent history (at least directly, indirectly they supply and offset Russian military presence), they haven't used direct military force to get what they want yet. Largely because people would just give them pretty much whatever they wanted for economic considerations. Biggest potential place for things to boil over directly would be if they finally went into Taiwan.
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I'~~m a~~ was aproud american and I won't sit around and defend slavery colonialism etc. I don't think your a tanky. It's not an unpopular opinion to detest our histroy of slavery...yet. A tanky is usually outwardly violent and inwardly hypocritical. Their ideologies conflict with their words, and written/lived history. They are called tankies because they cheer the tanks rolling over protestors of communism. Just like the MAGA movement. It's just a horseshoe away. There is no moral boundaries when it comes to pushing ideology. Tankies are the nazis of the far left, they are genocide lovers. They just want to genocide away opposing ideologies.
I had to block the entire ML instance from seeing too much of their crazy. I didn't for a long time thinking, "Eh, let's hear them out." But I had heard enough.
They very much exist, a few famous folks around from lemmygrad and hexbear
There's shitloads of them. I've seen them online in communism forums and I've even had the misfortune of meeting tankies irl on several occasions. It's like listening to that North Korean newswoman.
They do exist... They're over at Lemmygrad.ml, I ventured over when I had the same question
Their ideology is a mess, they don't have a roadmap beyond "workers of the world unite, then we'll figure everything out". And some of them think China and Russia are communist, or at least socialist... Which first off, they're not, but more importantly they're authoritarian regimes, which gets glossed over
It's a fraction of the left, and a fraction of them are so focused on America bad they ignore what China does, and a fraction of them outright deny China or Russia have ever done anything wrong... I've encountered them online, but it's very rare - especially if you don't go looking for them
I have this guy tagged as "divides the left at any cost", for what that's worth. :)
Not a difficult job tbh, no one hates the left more than the left.
"Damn leftists, they ruined the left"
I've mostly seen them online on places like hexbear.net, but I know at least one in real life.
Just check out the comment by queermunist right here in the comment section.
only online
Lemmy is full of tankies. It's pretty much their personal echo chamber at this point.
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There aren't any. This is a dem centrist tactic
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All genocide is indefensible. Fuck authoritarians, be it Israel, Russia, China, the US, etc. Each have committed genocides to extend their authoritarianism.
The ends justify the memes
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