• BrainInABox@lemmy.ml
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    5 hours ago

    Not really, no. To a capitalist, all forms of leftism is ‘authoritarian,’ because they consider private property natural and oppose leftists ‘stealing’ in.

    ‘Authoritarianism’ just isn’t a particularly useful term because nobody who uses is is ever actually categorically opposed to forcefully compelling people to do or not do things. They will always have a build in exception for what ever they consider to be ‘legitimate authority’, and what they consider justified authority will just depend on what political philosophy they ascribe to. So really calling the word just means “someone with a different political theory to me with regards to legitimate authority.”

    • WolfLink@sh.itjust.works
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      4 hours ago

      Just because some people might not use the term correctly doesn’t mean it isn’t a useful term

      I left lemmy.ml because there were too many people defending or denying historical acts of political violence. That’s what we mean when we say tankies are authoritarian.

      • BrainInABox@lemmy.ml
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        3 hours ago

        If you’d actually read my post, you’d know my point wasn’t about it being used “incorrectly”.

        people defending or denying historical acts of political violence. That’s what we mean when we say tankies are authoritarian.

        Defeating the Nazis was an act of political violence, freeing slaves was an act of political violence, over throwing the feudal system was an act of political believe, driving out colonial empires is an act of political violence, enforcing property rights is an act of political violence, ceasing the means of production is an act of political violence.

        See? This is exactly, exactly what I was talking about.

        • WolfLink@sh.itjust.works
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          25 minutes ago

          I mean we both know I’m talking about specific acts of political violence, but you are right in that I should have clarified.

          To be clear what makes it authoritarian is when it’s the state/government/leadership that is using acts of violence against citizens with political ideas that would threaten their power.

          And tankies get the name specifically from either defending or denying that specifically the Soviet Union used violence to suppress attempts to leave their union. When I was on .ml I also frequently saw defense or denial of China using violence that way such as the infamous Tiananmen Square Massacre.

          People from lemmy.ml love to shout that people who want them defederated are “anti-capitalist” and hexbear has decided accusing people of being anti-trans is their move, but those are simply strawmen, and really poorly constructed ones at that.