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How do people actually fall into the "Tankie" mindset? (anarchist.nexus)

submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by stinky@anarchist.nexus to c/anarchism@lemmy.dbzer0.com

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After seeing a megathread praising Mao Zedong, an actual mass killer, and a post about a guy saying "99% of westerners are 100000000000% sure they know what happened in 'Tiny Man Square' [...] the reasons for this are complex and involve propaganda [...]," I am genuinely curious what leads people to this belief system. Even if propaganda is involved when it comes to Tiananmen Square, it doesn't change the atrocities that were/are committed everywhere else in China.

I am all for letting people believe what they want but I am lost on why one would deliberately praise any authoritarian system this hard.

Can someone please help me understand why this is such a large and prominent community? How have these ideals garnered such a following outside of China?

EDIT: Thank you to everyone who has responded! This thread has been very insightful :)

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[–] Jabril@hexbear.net 51 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

When you grow up in nations that have villified communists, you default to believing all the lies and falsehoods you are told about communists.

Then one day you see people who have actually looked into those lies and found out they are made up stories by the ruling class to keep workers from overthrowing them and you think those people are "falling into the Tankie mindset," and that you are the one free from being the victim of propaganda.

It is incredibly ironic, especially when people who are "against authoritarianism" start censoring and blocking users from educating people about these topics