this post was submitted on 30 May 2025
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The Democratic People's Republic of Tankiejerk

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[–] PugJesus@lemmy.world 13 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

This was a line actually parroted by some 'loyal Communists' during the Stalinist era who were, themselves, thrown into GULAG. That they must've done something to deserve it, or, otherwise, that their case was a mistake (such mistakes happen, comrade, no big deal!), but everyone else in GULAG deserved it for being reactionary dogs who went against The Party.

Monarchists in every society are hard to stamp out, it would seem - they just regard different finery and titles to be worth kneeling before. "If only the Tsar knew, if only the Great Leader knew!"

[–] LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net 9 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Wild. I don’t know bad empanada’s views on many things but if this is a serious statement he’s fucking deranged. It’s just hard for me to fathom that someone could actually say this unironically.

[–] PugJesus@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago

I only know him vaguely by reputation as a tankie talking head and Holodomor denier, and it looks like his Twitter account got deleted (and Wayback doesn't have the tweet, though search engines still show it). Unfortunately, nothing that has been historically said by Stalinists, however deranged or outdated, surprises me out of tankie mouths.

[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 8 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

The context of the statements gets shown better in The Death of Stalin.

When you can get purged at any time by the state, you say things like this because prison time can quickly turn into a death sentence if you say the wrong thing

[–] PugJesus@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago

"Long live Stalin!" [bang]

At some point, you have to realize that bootlickers really just love the boot that much.

Plenty of GULAG memoirs recount that most people were not licking the boot like that - the people who were already processed and in the camps but still talking like that were true believers - or true sycophants, if there's a difference in this case.