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

submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months 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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[–] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works -1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

That's exactly the complaint against tankies. Tankies are specifically authoritarian "communists", who defend the violent enforcement of "communism" by authoritarian states. Tankies explicitly want to control others who do not share their beliefs, that's the material distinction between a tankie specifically and a Communist in general.

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 3 points 3 months ago

"Tankie" is just a pejorative for those who recognize and uphold the legitimacy of existing socialist states. If you ask any self-described leftist if they support socialists stopping fascists, murderers, slavers, landlords, etc through violent means, 99% will support it. Marxists do not wish to "contril others who do not share their beliefs," but instead recognize that the state violence committed against genuine fascists, slavers, sabateurs, imperialists, and so forth in real life was and is necessary. Anarchists also wielded force against fascists in Spain, but "Tankie" is reserved as a special pejorative for those who also uphold the socialist state projects.