• exploitedamerican@lemm.ee
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    2 months ago

    I see tankie used far more as a pejorative Term for leftists (socialists, communists and or anarchists) than actually being used with any nuance to criticize authoritarian apologia One can draw parallels between capitalism’s failures and the successes of authoritarian socialist/ communist regimes without praising authoritarianism. One can also condemn authoritarianism while also acknowledging that one form of authoritarianism will be or is worse than another.

    • DarkThoughts@fedia.io
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      2 months ago

      I almost never seen any moderates being called a Tankie. Only when they end up making apologies for said examples, or more recently for various terrorist groups like hamas. Granted, I’m just left leaning and stay out of economic philosophies but I’ve clashed a lot in political topics with the definitely Tankie heavy user base on here.

      • exploitedamerican@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        Moderates? you mean centrists? Leftists shouldn’t be moderate. A moderate leftist is a neo liberal and a neo liberal is a right leaning centrist pretending to be a leftist.

        Also hamas inst a terrorist group its a liberstion resistance group. Israel was literally born of terrorism and nothing resembling radical islamic terrorism existed till the 1960’s before then from 1899 till 1948 we had the irgun hagannah palmach and lehi waging a campaign of terror responsible for dozens of violent attacks and murfering between 6 and 8 thousand Palestinian jews, Christians and muslims as well as british military personnel and other international citizens caught in the crossfire. Zionists are the true terrorists in this conflict. If you dont agree youre not on the left you’re a right leaning centrist making excuses for a settler colonial state guilty of war crimes.

      • Zagorath@aussie.zone
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        2 months ago

        Not a fan of bringing up Hamas. They’re not especially relevant, because tankies and real leftists alike both stand united against Israel’s ongoing genocide and long-standing apartheid state. Hamas might use terroristic methods, but their cause is every bit as just as Irish republicans, black South Africans, and 18th century American colonists. Heck, probably more just than that last group, because the worst oppression they faced was a bit more taxes. (And I still think that their cause was just enough to be worth breaking free of the US through violent means.)

        Every one of those groups used tactics that would be called terrorism today. And history looks back on them kindly. The smart thing to do is to be on the right side of history today, not wait until it is history. And the bare minimum you can do here is acknowledge that while it might be better if fewer innocent people were killed as a result of their actions, Hamas are, on the whole, the good guys in this scenario. And that, at worst, every action Hamas takes is one caused by Israel’s actions towards the Palestinian people.

        • DarkThoughts@fedia.io
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          2 months ago

          I’m sorry but I’ll never look kindly towards Islamists & Jihadists who murder, torture and rape innocent people. There’s absolutely no justification for this, never, and I’ll die on that hill. You can’t call out Israel’s genocide while praising the other side, which wants to do literally the same thing - they just lack the means to do so. Their overlords in Iran show you how their state would look like if they were in power. Hell, Sinwar murdered his own people too, yet he’s the fucking hero?
          Calling Hamas the good guys is just tone deaf and straight up deluded, but once more, thanks for proving my point.

    • SanctimoniousApe@lemmings.world
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      2 months ago

      My sleep meds are kicking in, so I’m not going to be able to give this a proper response. However, I just want to put this thought on record in response to your question.

      The community itself should have the power to override the mods - at least to some certain extent, IMHO. Each community should have a meta channel of sorts wherein issues related to the community itself are addressed, such as disputes like these. I disagree that some single person or small group should fully “own” the community, and those who’ve invested time in being part of it should have no ownership or control over it whatsoever.

      This thought probably isn’t the best articulated, but that’s why I’m going to bed now. Gnite, and I hope you all have a good discussion for me to read up on tomorrow. Thanks.

      • exploitedamerican@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        I don’t disagree. I think what you’re proposing is indeed a more truly decentralized model.

        But ultimately the real world is where we need progress and as long as the internet (and language as a whole) exists there will be actors attempting to manipulate the narrative to their benefit by any means possible.

        I do think democracy can be subject to manipulation regardless of ones ideals of altruism. Sometimes people are not adequately educated and then their input into a democratic system only serves to harm the collective. It may be time for new models of governance within society and communities wherever they may exist.

    • frezik@midwest.social
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      2 months ago

      I’m a socialist, and I’ve never been called a tankie. It’s pretty simple if you don’t simp for Russia or China.

    • gravityowl@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      I see tankie used far more as a pejorative Term for leftists (socialists, communists and or anarchists) than actually being used with any nuance to criticize authoritarian apologia

      Your view is incorrect. It can be both. There are people who will absolutely use tankie as a generic insult for “person on the political left”. But it’s also a specific term within leftist movements to criticize specific issues with other leftists (I.e., defending authoritarianism, an either-with-us-or-against-us mentality, unconditional love for the USSR/China, etc)

      One can draw parallels between capitalism’s failures and the successes of authoritarian socialist/ communist regimes without praising authoritarianism

      This is very true. But, by the latter definition I gave, a tankie would actually not do that. We’re having a conversation that has been had thousands of times before by leftist people about the more radical wings within their communities

      One can also condemn authoritarianism while also acknowledging that one form of authoritarianism will be or is worse than another

      By definition, one who has that level of nuance, would not be called a tankie. Now, obviously a user can just use the term tankie as a generic insult for “you leftist”, but that’s when nuance comes into play. Sadly, we’re are talking about instances that are very much incapable of such level of nuance.

      Those are my thoughts as someone who was literally a member of my country’s communist party and left that same party precisely because of the issues I mentioned within the second definition. And based on my experiences, instances like Lemmygrad are absolutely that type of tankie.

      • exploitedamerican@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        It isn’t necessarily my personal view, its what I’ve experienced empirically throughout certain forum based internet spaces

        • Zagorath@aussie.zone
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          2 months ago

          I’ll tell you, my “empirical view” is that I’ve almost (if not absolutely) never seen it used against someone who wasn’t simping for China—or worse, modern-day crony-capitalist Russia. As though anyone defending Russian imperialism against the perception of American imperialism has any legs to stand on from a leftist’s perspective.

        • gravityowl@lemm.ee
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          2 months ago

          It isn’t necessarily my personal view, its what I’ve experienced empirically throughout certain forum based internet spaces

          Unless you ran experiments/collected data (in which case, I woul genuinely love to see that) to gather such info, your “empirical” data is just observation-based. In which case, it can be skewed.

          I’ve noticed your account is relatively new. So of course if one were to hang out with centrists and/or on Reddit, the average experience would be unbalanced as the typical use of the term tankie would be viewed as “generic insult to a person on the political left”.

          But on Lemmy I’ve noticed far more people using the term tankie accurately to describe a specific fringe of the leftist movement. The type of fringe that, for example, still defends the USSR no matter what and is incapable of criticizing authoritarianisms.

          Having said all of this…welcome to Lemmy! Lol hope you like it here :)