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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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[–] poopsmith@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You said...

Tankies aren’t communists, they’re authoritarians with a red paint job.

Per the definition:

Tankie is a pejorative label generally applied to authoritarian communists

So you have the ability to look up definitions, just not to read them, apparently.

[–] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 week ago

I know what it says, but "authoritarian communist" is an oxymoron, like "carnivorous vegan". They may call themselves communists, they may be members of a party that calls itself "communist", but authoritarianism cannot coexist with a stateless, classless, moneyless society.

Sloppy editing does not change that fact, and there is extensive literature and commentary providing clarification.