A great way to tell if they mean "anti-imperialist" as "against the conquering and subjugating of other groups" or instead just "in favor of anyone that declares themselves to be against the United States and Western Europe."
Russia was communist once and China pretends to still be that means I'm a bad leftist if I don't send death threats to people who support Ukraine and Taiwan.
Actual thought process some people have listed above
The funny thing about that is that Russia was never communist. Though many don't understand the difference between communism and Communism. The irony being that Communism was basically cosplay of communism. But never actually communism.
Add Palestine in the US context to the list. Go into someone's post history and without a fail there is the same shit of russia did nothing wrong, nort korea normal country.
It is just another genocide as a political fodder topic. Fucking disgusting.
Not all Authoritarians are Fascists.
That said, I would agree that whomever supports Putin, supports Fascism - there is nothing at all Leftwing in present day Russia, quite the contrary.
China is more complicated.
China is more complicated
That's because they found a way to voor communist thought to the most capitalist industry in the world.
Well, they managed to pull about a billion people out of poverty over the last 4 decades or so, which means that mainly they were following leftwing ideals.
(I come from a country which had actual Fascism until the 70s and what the Fascists did was the exact opposite of that: the vast majority of people were dirt poor and kept dirt poor whilst a tiny elite tightly interwined with the Fascist Government gorged themselves on the wealth of the country).
However, it's been some time since China did that lifting of the masses out of poverty, and they've been shifting to Capitalism whilst keeping the Authorianism from their implementation of leftwing policies (they called it Communism, but they never really reached such utopical state, so I'm wary of calling that Communism).
Are they even left of center nowadays? I don't know enough in detail how modern China operates to pass judgement on that - outside of China we mostly hear of what's done in domains that reflect the part of their ideology that falls on the Libertarian-Authoritarian axis, not the stuff that falls on the Left-Right one.
I don't think they've yet moved all the way to Fascism, though, even if they've kept the Authoritarianism going.
China isn’t more complicated
Fascism used State Capitalism. Political parties are corporations anyway
If someone questions their religion (like that mma guy who fought the larpers) then they lose their social credit…which leads to loss of income and property
"Biden is currently dropping bombs and Trump isn't, therefore anyone desiring a Kamala victory is a fascist" --Linkerbaan unironically
Don't forget those who support the genocidal ethnostate known as israel.
I predict this will anger people but while I think fascists and auth-left communities share significant commonalities it’s at least a little misleading to call them fascists.
I'm of two minds on the matter. On one hand, one can very seriously argue that fascism and authoritarian 'left' groups are distinct in their proclaimed thought processes. Fascists very much hearken to the idea of an eternal conflict and a single national leader, while authoritarian leftists, in theory, are seeking an actual end goal of a stable society without a strongman.
On the other hand, in practice, there's very little difference not only in policy, but also little difference in justification by actual pracititioners. Tankies go all-in for the same cultural chauvinist and hegemonic arguments that fascists do, they just call it 'anti-imperialism' instead of 'national vitality' or whatever the newspeak neonazi euphemism of the day is. Tankies proclaim that they aren't in it for eternal conflict, and then break out the death-cult-of-heroism eternal ultra-martyrdom common to fascists and religious fanatics anyway. Tankies talk a big game about making a united front, but then immediately shut down all opposition, no matter how minor the disagreement, as 'reactionary' and call for them to be shipped off to re-education camps.
Insofar as there is a difference, it's like paint of chartruese and bile-green. Side by side you might be able to differentiate them, but seeing either one spilled onto a perfectly good table, you probably aren't going to care all that much about the distinction; they're both pretty vile, and both in nearly the exact same way. In that vein, I prefer to emphasize that tankies and fascists are really not that differently, fundamentally and practically, than to emphasize the minutiae of theory that differentiates them.
Zizek said it quite eloquently: "[China] adopts the basic idea of fascism, which is conservative modernisation: 'we need capitalist dynamics, but we need to control it, and to control it we turn to our own national tradition'. [...] This is the problem with Chinese communism: there is a direct link with the fascist tradition."
Had this discussion with a friend today, because the Confederation of German Trade Unions (the umbrella-organization of all German Unions), which he works for, and lots of other workers-rights and left-wing organization, along with the Alliance for Peace are having an anti-war-day on September 1st in my region with concerts and demonstrations and stuff.
And some groups (but not all) from that alliance are having a public demonstration for a ceasefire in Gaza (which is good) and in Ukraine (which is bad) where they will criticize the German military help for Ukraine and demand peace with Russia by making Ukraine cede territory to Putin.
The "all war are bad and everyone must immediately stop" crowd has brain rot. They don't understand that some people have no choice but go to war, because they are being invaded.
Add Palestinians to that.
I mean, yes, but generally you don't find support of Palestinian genocide in leftist groups.
who let these commenters on the internet? jesus christ i can barely read have the shit that's being posted here.
At least be grammatically correct when fascist posting.
i can barely read have the shit that's being posted
At least be grammatically correct
LMAO.
we do a little bit of trolling
Political Memes
Welcome to politcal memes!
These are our rules:
Be civil
Jokes are okay, but don’t intentionally harass or disturb any member of our community. Sexism, racism and bigotry are not allowed. Good faith argumentation only. No posts discouraging people to vote or shaming people for voting.
No misinformation
Don’t post any intentional misinformation. When asked by mods, provide sources for any claims you make.
Posts should be memes
Random pictures do not qualify as memes. Relevance to politics is required.
No bots, spam or self-promotion
Follow instance rules, ask for your bot to be allowed on this community.