this post was submitted on 22 Feb 2026
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TankieJerk

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Dunking on Tankies from a leftist, anti-capitalist perspective.

Rules:

  1. No bigotry of any kind.
  2. No tankies or right-wingers. Liberals are allowed so long as they are aware of this
  3. No genocide or atrocity denial

We allow posts about tankie behavior, shitposts, and rational, leftist discussion. Please redirect any Fediverse tankie-posts to !MeanwhileOnGrad@sh.itjust.works to avoid bringing drama to Piefed.social

Curious about non-tankie leftism? If you've got a little patience for 19th century academic style, let a little Marx and Kropotkin be your primer!

Marx's Communist Manifesto, short and accessible! Highly recommended if you haven't read it

Kropotkin's Conquest Of Bread

Selected works of Marx

For a wider variety of leftist memes, see:

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[–] Koarnine@pawb.social 25 points 2 days ago (6 children)

Honestly this is the worst part of Lemmy...

Freaks complaining about imaginary tankies, it's insane.

[–] Jax@sh.itjust.works 23 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

imaginary tankies

They aren't imaginary, I'm not sure what world you live in but there are definitely a ton on Lemmy.

[–] the_armchair_potato@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I'm new here. What's a tankie?

[–] zerofk@lemmy.zip 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

As I understand it: left leaning (usually extreme left) users who idolise the Chinese government. Tankie is a reference to the Tienanmen Square protests and massacre, and specifically to the “tank man”. I’m not sure how that got associated with pro-CPR users though, as the protests were very much against that government.

Edit: check out the replies to my reply for a different and likely more correct explanation.

[–] Jax@sh.itjust.works 11 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

No, tankie is a reference to Soviets using tanks to quell uprisings in Hungary (1956) and Czechoslovakia (1968).

Tankies are not leftists, they're authoritarian simps that hate the United States and love China/Russia. If you think Russia is leftist you're insane, doubly so for China.

Edit: I also find it funny that the person I'm responding to has had this explanation given to them already.

Edit 2: Ok that may have been an honest mistake, I'm sorry I'm just like a raw nerve when it comes to this topic.

[–] zerofk@lemmy.zip 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Maybe that person, whoever they are, has amnesia. Or dementia.

[–] Jax@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 days ago

Or were just engaging in the thread not paying attention, I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation.

[–] oatscoop@midwest.social 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

It was actually the Hungarian student rebellion. Young Hungarians wanted to vote out their Soviet puppet leaders and elect new leadership. It's important to point out the leaders they wanted were still communists. The Soviets sent in tanks to crush the movement.

British communists were disgusted by some of their fellow communists that were cheering on this violent oppression and started calling them tankies.

[–] AWistfulNihilist@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Tankies are on the side of the tank in the tank-man story.

[–] zerofk@lemmy.zip 4 points 2 days ago

Ah okay that way it makes sense.

[–] DirtSona@feddit.org 1 points 2 days ago (2 children)

And what instance? Because that the nice thing about the lemmyverse. You can choose to talk to other instances, but you can also not.

[–] Jax@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I'm at a point of no tolerance for tankies, and I have a strong sense of needing to set the record straight.

Fuck tankies.

[–] DirtSona@feddit.org 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I would personally not fuck anyone I don't like, but do what you want.

[–] Jax@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago

A person can be fucked with many things, a great deal of them unpleasant.

[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 7 points 2 days ago

I don't go to any .ml comms, but .ml bootlickers still come to Piefed and .world comms.

[–] starman2112@sh.itjust.works 14 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Lemmy was literally made by someone who took the moniker of a genocidal warlord btw

[–] cabillaud@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Could you please elaborate a little?

[–] starman2112@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Dessalines is the one who made Lemmy. Jean-Jacques Dessalines was a genocidal maniac. Modern tankies like him because some of the targets of his genocide were slave owners.

Edit: manuallybreathing@lemmy.ml sent me a DM calling me a fascist for liking Rush lmfao

[–] cabillaud@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I live not far away from a metro station called "Robespierre", and I don't think you could call him a nice guy. Context matters.

[–] starman2112@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Context matters, but I'll go ahead and be a moral absolutist here and say that there is no context that justifies cutting children's heads off. Never heard of Robespierre, but if he was as bad as Dessalines, then I'd say he probably shouldn't have a metro station named after him

[–] i_ben_fine@midwest.social 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The targets of his genocide were slave owners?

[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 3 points 1 day ago

The targets of his genocide were white French, regardless of economic class.

[–] starman2112@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago

Some of them, yeah

[–] cecinestpasunbot@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 day ago

The person you’re replying to is equivocating between the violence of slavery and the violence of a slave revolt, ie the Haitian revolution.

Dessalines was a former slave who became a leader of the revolution. He order the massacres of French colonists out of fear that they, with support from the French government, would overturn the revolution and reimpose slavery. His brutality was a reflection of the incomparably hellish conditions and violence that Haitian slaves endured.

That said, the questionable morality or necessity of his actions are not the reasons why he’s held up today. People don’t see him up as a figure to emulate. Instead, he’s a symbol and reminder to the perpetrators of imperial violence of the consequences that they will inevitably face.

[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 10 points 2 days ago

I thought the worst part of Lemmy was genocide denialists, and people like you who try to pretend they aren't a problem.

[–] markovs_gun@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago (3 children)

I have seen some absolutely idiotic "socialist" takes on Lemmy (usually just dumb ass takes based on false premises like "food is free in nature, why isn't it free now?") but yeah the amount of complaining about "tankies" is like 10x the amount of actual "tankie" content I see. Really just blocking lemmy.ml takes care of 99% of the issue if you really hate seeing it.

[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

but yeah the amount of complaining about “tankies” is like 10x the amount of actual “tankie” content I see

Any time .ml users get wind of a thread they can bootlick in, they tend to swarm it. Hell, here's one from a user in this very comment section just a few days ago, on a major comm:

And I mean, fuck, man, .ml's memes comm, which is still one of the larger comms on the Fediverse, hardly goes a day without boot-throating tankie shite.

[–] GrammarPolice@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago (2 children)

The argument "food is free in nature and should therefore be free" isn't a good argument. There is however one to be made for "with the level of technological advancement we've achieved at present, food shouldn't be as inaccessible as it currently is"

[–] Juice@midwest.social 5 points 2 days ago (2 children)
[–] GrammarPolice@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago

Fascinating study. I'll keep this in my repertoire of anti-capitalist arguments

[–] Alaknar@sopuli.xyz 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yeah, but look, it would make shareholders sad! We can't do that, can we?

[–] Juice@midwest.social 3 points 2 days ago

It would be impossible under capitalism, good thing there is another way

[–] markovs_gun@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

Right, but I have seen massive arguments on Lemmy over this topic. The argument you made is actually well thought out and makes sense, while the one I mentioned is stupid and doesn't withstand even the smallest amount of basic thought.

[–] reksas@sopuli.xyz 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

my only worry about is that if they are the main developers, what if they start abusing that position?

[–] Jax@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

My main question is: what makes you think they aren't already doing that?

[–] reksas@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I havent seen any evidence or mentions of it

[–] Jax@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago

I have seen post after post on Meanwhile on Grad about Dessalines abusing his power, you probably aren't aware of it because by the time you see it all you end up seeing are users like Cowbee monologuing to the void.

[–] mysweat@ani.social 1 points 1 day ago (2 children)
[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 1 points 15 hours ago

.world and pie preemptively defed from .ml.

[–] reksas@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

ffs, why cant there be anything nice in this world.. everything has to have some downside or looming problem. How can i even recommend lemmy to people if there is a problem of " yea, its main developers are crazy tankies, but maybe its going to be okay?"

Though by now i hope there are enough interested developers in lemmy in general that hopefully it can be branched if things get too bad.

[–] Jax@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Just recommend piefed to them.

[–] reksas@sopuli.xyz 1 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

well, except piefed also has some quite bad issues: https://sopuli.xyz/post/40286456 this post discusses them

[–] Jax@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

I'm more inclined to believe in the piefed devs fixing their hardcoded shit over Dessalines suddenly... not being Dessalines.

[–] Maeve@kbin.earth 1 points 15 hours ago

Right, the one that requires opt in for .ml

[–] blinfabian@feddit.nl 5 points 2 days ago

have you even used lemmy?

[–] iceberg314@midwest.social 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] markovs_gun@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Because it's a pejorative term it gets applied to all sorts of different people but the basic idea is a leftist who believes the USSR and other communist nations did nothing wrong and that the worst human rights abuses of those regimes were either justified or completely made up. I believe the term "tankie" comes from the idea that they believe the guys in the tanks at Tiananmen Square were in the right. The term is usually levied against certain leftists by other leftists more than by people on the right, because people on the right just think that's how all leftists are.

[–] Alaknar@sopuli.xyz 6 points 2 days ago

I believe the term “tankie” comes from the idea that they believe the guys in the tanks at Tiananmen Square were in the right.

From the Wiki:

The term "tankie" was originally used by dissident Marxist–Leninists to describe members of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) who followed the party line of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). Specifically, it was used to distinguish party members who spoke out in defence of the Soviet use of tanks to suppress the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and the 1968 Prague Spring

[–] dandelion@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tankie

The term "tankie" was originally used by dissident Marxist–Leninists to describe members of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) who followed the party line of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). Specifically, it was used to distinguish party members who spoke out in defence of the Soviet use of tanks to suppress the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and the 1968 Prague Spring, or who more broadly adhered to pro-Soviet positions.[6][7] The term has extended to describe people who endorse, defend, or deny the actions of communist leaders such as Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, and Mao Zedong. In recent times, the term has been used across the political spectrum and in a geopolitical context to accuse individuals of having a bias in favour of anti-Western states, authoritarian states, or states with a socialist legacy; Belarus, Cuba, China,[8][9] Iran,[10] Nicaragua, Ba'athist Syria, North Korea, Russia, and Venezuela serve as prevalent examples.

The tanks they supported were not Tiananmen Square, but actually 30 years earlier when the USSR crushed the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.