I keep hearing the term in political discourse, and rather than googling it, I’m asking the people who know better than Google.

  • SpookyBogMonster@lemmy.ml
    681·
    12 days ago

    The word Tankie originates from 1950s British Communist circles. Specifically, it was used by British Communists to derisively describe their comrades who supported the 1956 invasion of Hungary by the Soviet Union.

    Images of the Soviet invasion featured a lot of tanks, hence, “Tankie”.

    After that died down, the term didn’t come back into use really, until the 2010s, when leftists on the internet started using it in a tongue-in-cheek sort of way. It was fun to bring back a stupid sounding, incredibly niche, British slang word.

    At some point the word breached containment and started to be used by liberals, in a very cavilier sort of way. I’ve seen people use Tankie to describe anyone from Marxist-Leninists, to Marxists generally, to Leftists generally, weird right-wingers who converted to Russian Orthodoxy, pro-Palestine activists, mods of Lemmy instances someone doesn’t like.

    Shit, I’ve seen literal Anarchist get called Tankies.

    Basically, it’s a meaningless nothing word now, that’s a bit like your boomer grandpa who still thinks it’s the Red Scare, calling Joe Biden a Commie Pinko.

    So don’t worry about it too much.

    • SippyCup@lemmy.ml
      111·
      11 days ago

      Nixon was a tankie according to them. He’s responsible for the EPA and OSHA.

      Left of Reagan.

    • Drewfro66@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
      7·
      11 days ago

      You say this ironically, but there are several relatively recent U.S. presidents or people in their administration who have said things that would get them branded tankies today.

      I’m thinking specifically of a speech Jimmy Carter gave where he said it’s no wonder North Korea ended up the way it had, considering we bombed every building over two stories into the ground.

      Kissinger is also obviously evil but only because of his realpolitik - by modern ideological standards where any anti-Western power is treated as worse than Hitler by even social Democrats, his dispassionate readings would get him labeled a Marxist.

  • redhilsha@lemmy.ml
    344·
    12 days ago

    When a South Asian calls the British monarchy fascist or Churchill a genocider in my experience.

  • limer@lemmy.ml
    314·
    12 days ago

    A lot of these comments reminds me of people posting on conservative chats asking what a socialist is. About the same amount of mouth foaming.

    I would like to remind people about vaccinations against rabies

    • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
      5031·
      12 days ago

      No communist calls the ROK an “occupier,” it’s the US Empire that is occupying Korea, with the ROK’s government set up directly by them. This whole comment is really bad, to be honest. In practice, “tankie” is essentially a pejorative for “communist.” I recommend the Prolewiki article on “Tankies,” as well as Nia Frome’s essay “Tankies.”

        • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
          4221·
          12 days ago

          No, the government of the southern half of Korea, the Republic of Korea, is not an “occupier.” The democratically elected state was the People’s Republic of Korea (PRK), which spanned the entire peninsula before the US Empire came in, declared it illegal, and split the country in two, against the will of Koreans, and installed the dictator Rhee Syngman in place. The PRK was a quasi-socialist state that predated both the DPRK and ROK’s governments.

          Again, “tankie” in practice is just a pejorative for communists, akin to “pinko” or “commie.” The fact that you’re getting very basic communist stances on Korea completely wrong here betrays any sense of legitimacy you have on the subject.

  • Korkki@lemmy.ml
    318·
    12 days ago

    A slur mainly on the internet against those leftist (usually Marxists-leninist) who oppose western interventions, sanctions, coups and wars against countries and governments labeled as “authoritarian”.

    originally used by UK communists party trotskyist wing in support of Hungarian -56 crushed uprising against those who opposed it, calling them tankies. Vaguely same as “stalinist”, but it pretty much has lost that meaning in modern use.

    • Dessalines@lemmy.ml
      313·
      12 days ago

      It’s essentially just the modern day “commie”, used to carry out mccarthyite witch-hunting against anyone perceived to be “anti-white”.

    • Victor@lemmy.world
      161·
      12 days ago

      It really is adult name calling, and it further polarizes the political spectrum by naming every single fucking mindset and ideology combination you can think of. It’s just not constructive at all.

      We need to talk about ideas and issues and how we can understand and compromise for one another.